As a user of amps, I don't really care how it is made until the way it is made relates to how it is going to sound. Otherwise I don't give a flip.

But in the case of the Blueverb the way it was made, the chain of electric events makes for a sooth sound that you can really dial the tightness of sound.

An amp can sound loose, in so far as the distortion is "flappy" and the resultant type of distortion is "dissonant."

Dissonant distortion would not be tight and euphonic, which euphonic is another description of tight, would have an even or more "consonant" vibration. We're talking about waveforms and the amplitudes of timbre.

The control over this aspect is where the Blueverb shines and this being at the heart of the design makes the Blueverb the best amp on the market for some of us.

In 2004 DM "Smitty" Smith decided to make improvements on that old 60's Blackface Fender Amplifier.

Understanding that this was the amp that defined the sound for a whole generation, Smilly decided the single volume stage amplifier provided a "flabby" sound in distortion mode and generally, the tone of the Blackface had some things to be desired.

Smitty says, "There are two types of distortion; euphonic and dissonant." In my estimation, author speaking, the euphonic distortion is the tighter and more musical kind of distortion with a more even set of overtones and dissonant distortion might carry a flabby and more odd set of overtones.

"I discovered that the secret to getting great tone is to control the gain at every stage and let each tube contribute, just a little bit of euphonic distortion," Smitty relates in the Blueverb brochure.

He continues, "Cascading this concept over five tube stages results in an amp with smoother overdrive, greater dynamics and an extremely clear tone."

Smitty also claims to have the fastest power supply in the amplifier business and this results in the most pitch-defined distortion, euphonic and musical distortion. This creates what he calls tactile response. I equate this with the "dig in" quality. The more you dig the pick into the string the more bark and bite you'll receive, legendary with a Marshall tube amp with Celestion speakers, know for the looser cone construction.

Starting with the volume control and in conjunction with the drive and the pre and post master the Blueverb has one of the most sophisticated clean to distorted continuum in the business. This is the heart of the versatility of the amp.

Basically the volume and tone stack works pretty much like a Fender 1950's 4-10 Bassman. The Bassman happens to be a milestone in guitar amps. Had one myself.

In conjunction with this is the Deep switch that extends the lower bass a little more and was designed to be used with clean settings.

The volume and tone section also determines the amount of distortion or clarity in the second gain section, the Drive knob.

The Pre and Post Master, the Pre works like a traditional master control, which controls the drive tube for the output stage. The Post control is of the phase cancellation type. It feeds each side of the phase inverter.

The tone stack is buffered after the input stage and this also improves overdrive quality in gain stages.

Another aid to the outstanding distortion is that this is a multi-class Pentode-Triode. The amp runs at 100% power in Pentode and this is the default. In Triode the power is cut to 2/3 and this is especially good since the amp is loud and running in this mode will please club owners and aid in getting the kind of distortion that comes from the power amp being overdriven.

This amp is totally superior to any other amp on the market in the way of volume controls. There are five points of clean/distortion control. The rest is tone, which includes a Soul knob that controls the negative feedback in the output stage. This can also control the early breakup of the amp. In the lower settings the effect is the old tight midrange 60's sound in higher settings it is warmer and better for early breakup.

The reverb not only has a amount or reverb knob but also a Dwell knob which is a reverb recovery stage for better detail and clarity. Also there is a speed and intensity for a classic 60's vibrato.

These are substantially built amps. The weight of a 2-12 amp is somewhere around 60 pounds. The cabinets are made from 13 ply Baltic birch, which is a sonic choice as well as for stability. Smitty claims this is the toughest amps on the market.

This is got to be about the best amp now on the market if you want a traditional sounding amp. It is so much more than an amp frozen in time because duplicate it will do better than the original because you can carefully sculpt the sound of this amp. So the Blackface has been updated into a progressive platform.

Owners of Carr, Naylor and a half dozen other brands of boutique amp should really not be satisfied with their amps, Two Rock, Dr. Z, should really consider that they need to upgrade.

To simply upgrade is a function we may know by getting this year's car model we and may not expect any significant changes except it is shiny and new. In the case of the Blueverb an upgrade is into the realm of a totally new concept in amplifier technology.

The Blueverb allows you to faithfully reproduce that classic Fender sound but there are other amps that come close to doing with the Blueverb does but in the overall control of the distortion through five stages of gain and tweak there is the possibility of dialing into a sound all of your own.

Copyright 2006, new millennium Guitar Publishing Co., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED