Because, this is local, I got the chance to stop by and look at their amps and cabs. I was greeted by Val when I walked in. He is a very friendly and knowledgeable guy! He gave me a tour of his shop and actually took the time to show me the chassis and components of his amps. I was very impressed with the build quality of his amps and how he took the time to actually diagram a basic schematic of how he did his gain circuits. I don't want to misquote him, but his parallel path gain structure is very interesting, which gives you three distinct tone possibilities.
I also got to see the mock up of his newest amp, that he is still building. It's called a Rocket 88 and is going to be a 100 watt amp with scalable output. A "Scale" knob will be used to control power going directly to the power tubes without affecting the preamp. It's different from an attenuator and allows nearly infinite tone shaping to volume.
His loaner amp and 15" cab was being used for a tone shoot out of a number of similar powered amps, and the writer enjoyed that cab so much that he held on to it to be used on all of the amps. It's being used for an upcoming piece in Vintage Guitar. Needless to say, I didn't get a chance to play through any of his amps or cabs, as yet.
It looks like his amps are built to order which is why he didn't have any extra's laying around. He also does amp repairs and is an authorized Mesa repair center. He had some Fenders, Mesas, an old Gibson, and even a Top Hat amp waiting for repair. He also did some work on a few amps for friends which included a '64 Bassman, a Roland JC, and a GK bass head. All came back quicky and sounding much better than they did when they went in.
For you guys who'd like adjustable bias on your Mesas, here's a mod that Val did on DR. He was kind enough to e-mail this photo. It allows you to run dissimilar power tubes and be biased to taste...
He also showed me a few other mods that he does to allow a player to personalize his/her tone. It was well worthwhile stopping in and checking this place out. I can't wait to hear his amp and am very interested in hearing his 1x15" cab. I'm also very interested to read the shootout review of his amp vs. others in Vintage Guitar!
