Nashville Amp Expo

[jeff12]

Breakfast done, a few more pictures.

[jeff12]

Saturday night Jack Pearson main stage at the Expo.
Sorry for poor video quality from my phone.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... FdXk_-beXQ

[Structo]

Man there are a lot of amp makers anymore.

So many choices!

[gktamps]

Thanks, Jeff.
How many builders are displaying their wares?
Any standouts?

[CHIP]

Man there are a lot of amp makers anymore.

So many choices!

I can't imagine trying to make a buck in such a seemingly saturated market.

[jeff12]

Man there are a lot of amp makers anymore.

So many choices!

I can't imagine trying to make a buck in such a seemingly saturated market.

Make a buck? I think it's more a labor of love for the small guys.

[CHIP]

Man there are a lot of amp makers anymore.

So many choices!

I can't imagine trying to make a buck in such a seemingly saturated market.

Make a buck? I think it's more a labor of love for the small guys.

Good for them.

[Reeltarded]

Standouts are easy. Jeff's rude Express, Aleksander's very well mannered Zagray! and the Redplate freaking life changing Astrodust duo.

Aleksander's amp would be the only choice for anyone with pretty much any archtop or looking for a distinctive tone (pretty much ANY) in a session. It's so easy to find what works. Polytone is dead. Long live Zagray!

Jeff's Express is a good reason to fist fight. Thumper! Love that one.

The Redplate loves me. It's anything you ever liked about a Fender without the tweedy 3rd harmonic killing you. It's WAY more interesting than a Dumble. Totally not kidding. Shames one... clean and nearly no volume sustains forever and starts to bloom harmonics. It's scary good.

What'$ @ mArshall? Ohm eye. Out of love. Wow.

[cbass]

Dang ,looks like fun.Ii'm there next year

[gktamps]

Oh, Man, Miles, those reviews - I'm even more bummed not to be there.
Maybe the L.A. Show in October...

[redshark]

Nashville amp expo is a blast. I was there the first one they did in 2009 and had the pleasure of getting to know Glen Kuykendal and playing Orphan Annie. I will definitely plan to go next year. It would be cool to have a TAG room with our trainwreck and Dumble clones.

[Bob S]

Jeff flew the TAG banner this year & his Express is special.
The Redplate AstroDust Duo is something else.
It does a lot of different tones.
Not just well - it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Clean - overdrive 1 - overdrive 2.
Tube buffered loop & verb.
KT88's Hmmm.
Metro had some nice Marshalls.
Fuchs has some good gear too.
More exhibitors than customers this year. Not sure what's up with that.
We had a blast though.
It did get Loud.

[jeff12]

Well it's all over except the trip home. "Great time"
Today while a guy was showing us one of his amps in our room, door shut of course. Who stops in to the Expo and ends up at the room next to us? Brad Whitford of Aerosmith.
$%!@ why do I follow the rules, "close the door before you roar". Missed the whole thing. Well worth the trip, so many great people. Lots of great equipment. Got to finally talk to the Redplate guys today, great stuff they are doing, nice folks also.

Thanks Miles and Bob for the kind words about my Express.
Hope to build more great amps with the great help from TAG members,
you guys ROCK.

[sepulchre]

Thanks for the great coverage, guys! I hope to get there . . . some year.

[martin manning]

I'm with others on the Red Plate Astrodust 88- great sound! Jeff's (Token) Express was indeed very cool, and A/B'ing it with his Rocket was very interesting. Nice woodwork on the cabs, too.

Fuchs was showing new models with Class-D solid-state output sections but (unlike others), a linear power supply. BIG sound in a slimmed-down package, including a great-sounding bass amp that is in the last stages of beta testing. I took home one of his Creme de la Trem pedals, a SS version of Fender's brown-era harmonic vibrato. Great Leslie-like character that goes down to ca. 1Hz! Andy said he is quite proud of this one, and he has every right to be.

VVT had cool stuff too. I spent my time there listening to and marveling at a 50W D-inspired head that was squeezed-down into a box small enough to fit comfortably on top of its 1x12 Thiele cab.

There is still no question that Metro George is the go-to guy for an authentic vintage Marshal. He had a great set-up with a switcher to go between an original '68 and his replica, and he has got it nailed. This was one of the first rooms we hit on Friday night, and it could have been like getting a sunburn on the first day of your vacation... It DID get loud!

The attendance did seem a bit light, but there were a lot of things competing for people's time around town. If you are ready to buy, going to shows is often a way to get a good price on something you want. I got a nice little break on the Fuchs trem pedal as well as strings from the D'Addario guy.

All agreed that the best part was meeting up and putting a face and real-world personality to net buddies. My view is that the amp biz is much like others where a few big players are dominant but sacrifice quality to hit a price point, and the high cost of domestic labor is a big hindrance for small manufacturers. Miles and I hit Carter's Vintage guitars on the way out... lot's of cool stuff in there. Checking out places like that is another reason to get off your butt and attend something like this show.