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Diabolical inside 2 by theecricket, on Flickr

SPACERITUAL wrote:Also....i agree that that is a little pricey for a 17 watt amp. Saying you pay extra for "tone" sounds like tgp bullshit. I mean i guess you can carefully select components and match them and blah blah blah but when it comes down to it its still a really uncomplicated thing to build....its not like tone is this really rare substance that you have to pay eskimoes to dig out of beluga whale shit at the bottom of the ocean. Everyone talks about dumbles and i admit i have no idea what the fuck a dumble is but my uncle is a pro session guy and he has a trainwreck that im sure he paid as much as a car for that really doesnt sound any different than any more special than your basic $2000 tube head. Most of the "tone" assholes on tgp are apeshit over doesnt come from a dumble (whatever the fuck that is) or a klon or a SPECIALLY RELIKD LES PAUL COPY THAT I PAID 12,000 FOR. it comes from your hands... so i dont really get why people are willing to shell out this much money for shit thats only really applicable in the studio or in their bedroom......as for me...my playing sounds like shit anyway...and its usually caked under layers of fuzz and white noise and oscillations so when i finally get a job and get the money im going for VOLUME and STURDINESS. Ill probably end up with a matamp gt120 because thats what ive wanted since i was like 13 and saw an article on matamp in HIGH TIMES. Id like a meatsmoke but man he just jacked his prices up like crazy...which i mean hey there great amps and im sure are well worth what you pay for them but im not really sure how ben thinks hes going to compete with orange and matamp at prices that are the same or in some cases more.....

Sorry for bumping this old thread, I just felt I had to say something. Before I begin, thanks for the pedal, mate! It arrived on Tuesday in perfect condition and sounds great.

Verellen HAD to increase their prices. People will buy without trying an Orange or a Matamp over a Verellen not because they're better amps but because they're a more trusted name, and that's not fair. It's the reason why smaller amp builders like Ben and his team fail to receive due credit, or feel they don't quite sell enough gear to not worry about the struggling climate.

I've not been able to play Verellen because they don't have any distributors my end of the pond. Even if they had one in mainland Europe, I want a Verellen so much I'd actually fly from Ireland to that place to try them out. Idealy they'd have one in the UK and I could visit my family and some old friends in the process, but small and even larger shops probably won't trust that the amp will sell enough to warrant stocking something of that niche and price, and something from America.

Still, it boils down to the fact that Ben seems to make some absolutely astonishing gear and I wish more people knew about them. But he may well always be associated as a Seattle amp builder making bass amps for dirgy underground bands of doom, even though he also makes the Spaldo for the low wattage Vox nuts, the Coop for gigging guys who need a trusty Fender-style amp, and the high gain guys who want something for teh br00tz like the Skyhammer.

I need to talk to Ben, actually, about the idea of making something akin to the Diabolical Amplification 17 because there just aren't any lower wattage stoner rock/doom amps out there. It's a joke, really. You've got the new Dark Terror coming out, but that thing will, like the Tiny Terror, have crappy clean tones. I am also interested in the LFO-17 Diabolical Amplification make. It sounds really cool. Their website is a bit of a mess but I'm sure I could just give them a call and go from them there.

Also, more wattage doesn't mean more money... or shouldn't, at least. Each watt produced doesn't cost more for the amp builder and doesn't mean better tone - well, sometimes it does depending on what you consider good tone.

People don't charge £2000 for a 5 watt amp because the transformers are smaller, the head shells are smaller, and there are less parts required. All of those things, particularly the first two, are what makes an amp expensive, not the amount of watts it produces. Look at Matamp, for example. Their GT120 is cheaper than their 1224 MKII because it has fewer parts and is built on a PCB, yet the 1224 is half the wattage and gets down to 3 watts if you want it to.

There is also the fact that it wouldn't make sense to charge a lot for a small amp because fewer people would buy them. A larger amp can actually produce money while a small one often can't, unless you're using it in the studio, and that is why a lot of people buy amplifiers - to use on stage.

To me, tone is tone. If it works for you then it's worth paying for. If it doesn't then it's not worth paying for. Save your money and buy a Sunn Solarus or an Ampeg V4. We never see them here in Europe but if they're readily available in America and sound great, awesome! I know I frickin' want one.