Carr Hammerhead

Maker: Carr Amplification

Bought From: Guitars Etc.

Comments: Well, I got rid of all my amps except the Victoria. Some of the proceeds went into this -- quite an interesting little amp.

Possibly because of an aging baby-boomer customer base who no longer wants to deal with 100 lb amps anymore, small Class A, lower-powered amps are the rage with boutique makers.

That's what this one is. 25 Class A watts from a pair of cathode-biased EL-34s. It also has a very interesting control arrangement with no tone stack. Rather it has (besides volume and master) a 4-position Impact knob that switches between blackface and marshall type voicings, and a 4-position Grip knob that controls gain from the pre-amp.

And this amp is compact -- 21" wide by 18" tall by 10" deep and that weighs 38 lbs.