Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The phones are ringing...

It wasn't long after our ad in Guitar Player Magazine reached its subscibers, that the phones started ringing! We have been getting lots of calls from guitar players, trade magazines, audiophiles, and technicians, inquiring about the new battery powered tube guitar amplifier. Some are confused asking if the amp is an "all tube" design, so we thought it would be good to post a blog to clarify how the G1 amp works. We are saying "battery powered tube" as we use tubes that were used in battery powered radios back in the 40's and 50's. These tubes were also used extensively in the military for battery powered radio communication. The beauty of these tubes is they require very little power to turn on, thus we get extended battery life. The tubes run very cool. We engineered the amp so it can use a number of different battery powered tubes without any major modifications. These tubes did require a bit of engineering and voicing to get rid of unwanted microphonics and dial in the tone, but we think after you hear this amp, you will agree it sounds great, and more importantly... it sounds unique! The tube pre-amp gives the amp all of its tone, both clean and overdrive. After dialing in the tube tone we had to build a power source that would deliver lots of power while using a small amount of current. We decided on Class D amp chips to provide the power as they had lots of power, but very low idle current. They are also very efficient and do not require heat sinks, which also save power. Heat = wasted energy, thus a shorter battery life. The G1 battery powered tube guitar amp is using the best of old and new technology to deliver a leap forward in guitar amp design. This ultra-modern amplifier is the first of its kind, and it will surely open the door for many great products to follow. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The World's First Battery-Powered Tube
60 Watt Guitar Amp

Wow.. a few years ago we were sitting in a jacuzzi brainstorming about cool inventions and before we knew it we were figuring out if it would be possible to build a tube guitar amp that could run on battery power. We did not want it to be a low output, poor quality product. We wanted to build a high output, high quality battery powered tube amp that would run for well over 4 hours on a single charge. That was one good brainstorming session as we have not stopped working towards that goal since the day we decided it could be done. This is not to say we haven't hit our share of bumps in the road. We had to find the right tubes, the best batteries (lithium), design a killer pre-amp, and design a super efficient power amp. Creating the amp was the fun part. Tackling microphonics, noise, power consumption, and perfecting the tone was an exciting challenge. Sourcing all the supplies in the USA was a huge endeavor, but we knew we wanted to build this amp locally, so we did not give up even when it seemed like it may not be do-able. Well we did it. We built 2 prototype G1 BPT212 amplifiers, the first was in a black MDF cabinet with an all aluminum chassis and no labels. We shopped it around to potential investors and it sounded so good we were able to raise some cash to build a much better looking G1. The second was a beautiful blonde bamboo cabinet with a gold chassis. Still no labels, but we added a few more features and the bamboo looked and sounded gorgeous. With that we went looking for more money to build our 6 production systems and pay our way to the Namm Show. Well raising money proved to be more of a challenge than building the amplifier, but we were determined to launch the amp at the Namm Show, so we marched on.

Here we are about 1 month away from the Namm Show and we are scrambling to get everything ready for primetime. We have 6 demo systems to bring to the show. We are ordering 25 ea. long lead time parts so we are ready to build systems as the orders come in. We have a full page ad coming out in Guitar Player Magazine, and negotiated to get a booth (4198) on the main floor at the Namm Show. We spent many late nights building our website and would like to give a huge thank you to Chris at Glitch Design for his amazing work on the site. We spent time recording some location videos with Miles Schon and Tommy Rox through a cheap digital video camera, so people could see and hear the G1 in action. We also recorded a bunch of sound clips through different guitars and different amp settings, so people can hear how flexible the amp is. In case you were wondering who is shredding on the guitar tracks, it is Tal Morris currently with Credence Clearwater Revisited. Tal is amazing! We have been blessed to have friends and family invest in our idea and help us make it a reality. We want to thank everyone who has helped us build the world's first battery-powered tube guitar amplifier. We could not have done it with out your help.

If you are reading this blog then you have probably already visited our website. We would love to hear from you, as we continue to work towards our goal to "unplug the band". Everyone who purchases a G1 amplifier from us will become part of our family and will help us grow to deliver high output battery-powered instrument amplifiers for everyone in the band. Thank you for stopping by.