Featured image Copyright Owen de Visser Photography 2017.
There’s a feeling I get when I first try out a finished amp. It starts from the first moment I look at it, touch the cabinet, hold the handle, lift it up, feel the balance, and put it down on top of a cab. I hook up the power & the speaker, and switch it on. Everything feels positive: the way the jacks locate in the sockets, the way it feels when it switches on, the gentle hum while the heaters warm up.
It’s almost silent from the speakers before the guitar jack goes in – sometimes disturbingly so, and I wonder if it’s working…
And then there’s that first sound – the click of the jack, the hum from the pickups as the volume is cranked…
Then the pick hits the strings. A primal reaction between my hands, the pick, the guitar, the strings, the valves, the transformers, the speakers, instantly, as one – straight through my ears and my skin, into my brain. It’s like a drug that can pull a smile to any face, and make the hairs on your arms and on the back of your neck stand on end.
Work days are made for this.