Let us tickle your cochlea!

All instruments create harmonics in addition to the fundamental frequency of the note being played. It is the harmonic content of a note that makes one instrument distinguishable from another. The design of the flared end of a brass instrument is not to create volume, but to correct for tube length distortions that would otherwise create muddy overtones that are significantly different from desired harmonics. Guitar is a dynamic instrument to say the least, with myriad playing techniques available for the artist to generate desired overtones and color. We try our best to create an amp that will leverage these concepts and breathe life into the instrument.

One of the advantages of a tube driven amplifier is the ability of tubes to sweeten your tone with harmonic content. Generally speaking, a “harmonic” is one of several integer multiples of the original note (fundamental frequency). Acoustics are a complicated science, and as a rule even-order harmonics are generally found to be more pleasing to the ear than odd-order harmonics. But it’s important to note that a mix of both even and odd are necessary to distinguish the timbre and tone of any instrument when played. An amplifier has many parameters interfacing together to create its own overtone structure, and this structure should complement the guitar’s overtone structure as well. In simple and general terms, we evaluate each amp for tonal harmonics by inserting guitar signal input (not a manufactured input like that from a signal generator) and tweak the circuits to highlight the first 6 harmonics (most harmonious) while striving to minimize disharmonious harmonics and overtones. This is one of many steps in the process of voicing the amp, which actually starts in the beginning with the R&D stage to finalize the amp design and component selection. But each amp is further dialed in after construction, both by ear and it is also checked by oscilloscope to lock down the best tone performance.