Sommatone Roaring 40

[beasleybodyshop]

long story short: the Drive By Truckers have been on heavy rotation on my ipod for the last few weeks. Great tone: good ol' lo-fi sounding southern rock. I was looking into the amps they use and found out they are mostly playing SF super reverbs and a Sommatone 40. After a search on Sommatone's website they describe the sommatone 20 and 40 as:

"single channel "Class A" amplifiers which are inspired by the tone and features of vintage amps. The combination of a well filtered power supply and original circuitry allow these amps to move some serious air, yet remain articulate no matter how hard they're driven – no mushy response here"

...right. Ok. So when I hear Class A at the 20-40 watt range, Im thinking Vox AC type amps....so in the opinion of the group here would you say that these Sommatones are essentially hot-rodded AC-30s? Anyone have any experience with these? Just curious.

[Phil_S]

Without trying to start a "class" war, I've seen a number of places where people say the 5E3 is class A. Dunno, don't really care about class. Just suggesting another direction that "classic amp" comment might go.

[Zippy]

AC30s don't operate in Class A either.

Many people believe that an amp is Class A if it is cathode biased.

[beasleybodyshop]

Right. Not trying to start any flames here. I'm just curious to know if these amps are basically Vox topologies.

[Zippy]

Right. Not trying to start any flames here. I'm just curious to know if these amps are basically Vox topologies.

It was interesting to look 'round a Google search on this.

4- EL84 running a claimed 40 watts come from running very high voltages (SS rectifier as well). 2-knob reverb and 3-knob tone stack. Boost reported to work well with volume controlled from guitar.

http://www.sommatone.com/roaring-20-40.html

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archiv ... 91580.html

[beasleybodyshop]

Right. Not trying to start any flames here. I'm just curious to know if these amps are basically Vox topologies.

It was interesting to look 'round a Google search on this.

4- EL84 running a claimed 40 watts come from running very high voltages (SS rectifier as well). 2-knob reverb and 3-knob tone stack. Boost reported to work well with volume controlled from guitar.

http://www.sommatone.com/roaring-20-40.html

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archiv ... 91580.html

I think this answered my question, lol.