The Ultra-Limited MP-1

We love love LOVE feedback (the kind from our clients, of course) and while it’s been a while in the works - here’s some great feedback from Chris Archer:

“Hello Purdy Amps!..just played a 15w Purdy last night in Edmonton and holy fricken crap!…gorgeous tone!!!!!….played a Warmoth/Fender Tele and it was absolute heaven! My next amp WILL be a PURDY!…..blew my mind!

 …seriously, i never had so many compliments on my playing…and it was the AMP i’m sure!!!…LOL…it really was a joy to play and made me play better, it was exciting to hear my Tele sound like she should. Now that’s it, I’m buying one and selling the rest of my crap!…LOL….this is the sound I’ve been looking for…have tried a pile but last night was amazing, and it’s all the Amp.”

Pretty incredible stuff - thanks again Chris!

If you’d like to hear the difference for yourself, why not swing by Acoustic Music, say hello to the fellas and plug in to one of the models that they have in their well appointed store!

Have a look at this fantastic article on the birth of fuzz….THEN, head to Acoustic Music Shop and check out the Purdy Tube Amps Hand built, Hand biased “FUZZ”….with that classic Germanium sound, and silicon reliability, it offers the greatest 60’s fuzz tone available on the market for a ridiculously low price!

http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/03/50-years-of-making-fuzz-the-sound-that-defines-rock-n-roll/71959/

Manraygun play the Artery in Edmonton, Alberta, November 19th, 2010.
In this video are a Purdy Tube Amps “Pro-Verb”, a Purdy Tube Amps 
“Big Brit Custom”, (Played by Dennis Lenarduzzi) and a Purdy Tube Amps “TD-55 Tweed 2x10” (Played by Everett LaRoi)

One good turn deserves another - the Purdy Tube Amps “BLACK” bright booster pedal. 

Available today at Acoustic Music Shop (www.acousticmusicshop.com)

Gaye Delorme playing some great slide guitar through a Purdy Tube Amps TD-55 “Tweed” at the 2010 Edmonton Fall Guitar Show.

The Purdy Tube Amps Tweed Tramp - distilled to it’s simplest form, this take on the most recorded amplifier in the history of the electric guitar is guaranteed to satisfy the tone jones!

The new Purdy Tube Amps “Blonde Tramp”

Based on the most recorded amplifier in the history of recorded guitar music, the Purdy Tube Amps "Blonde Tramp" translates the focus of Pure Signal Path Technology into a sweet sounding single 8” Jensen. 

Blending proprietary circuit upgrades and improvements with proprietary, custom designed components, “The Blonde Tramp” offers all the sweetness you could possibly dream of in a Class A amplifier – with no audible hum.  

Whether you’re a studio musician, or a basement twanger, if you want incredible tone in a small package at a great price – this is the amp for you. 

ONLY available at Acoustic Music (9934 82nd Avenue, Edmonton), and in LIMITED SUPPLY. Swing down to Acoustic Music and test one out today, we’re sure this Little Tramp will satisfy your tone jones.

About Purdy Tube Amps (and a little bit of tube history)

After almost 35 years of owning, playing, repairing and restoring original vintage amplifiers from the 50’s and 60’s that still define classic tone, we felt we had enough hands-on experience to build a high quality line of new amplifiers.  With the Pure Signal Path (PSP) approach, we truly believed we could re-create accurate representations of classic tone from the 50’s and 60’s, with improved clarity and definition, and design this incredible tone into high-quality hand-crafted amps that would last an entire generation…….or two.

As we worked with designing a pure signal path through each amp from input to output, we removed all the excess baggage, or “junk in the trunk” that loaded down or introduced extra components, mixing, or splitting in the path of the guitar’s signal.  There were no new, startling vacuum tube discoveries from this work – only solid confirmation of time-tested and proven circuitry already designed, tested and perfected in the 30’s and 40’s by electronics engineers – originally for the audio (hi-fi) industry in those heady days of vacuum tube technology.  Guitar amps were few and far between in those days.

All of the major tube manufacturers had these engineers on staff, trained in nothing but tube technology of the day, and their only purpose was to design great new tube circuits so their employers could sell even more tubes!

Most of the classic tube amp circuits from the 50’s were designed by engineers working for large tube companies like RCA, Western Electric, and others, and licensed for actual production to companies like Fender.  That’s why that tube chart in that nice old Fender tweed amp has “Licensed under US Patents of AT&T and Western Electric….” etc., on the bottom.

Looking back, many tube “experts” often describe the Tweed amps as more “hi-fi” than the designs that were to follow in the 60’s.  Arguably the most famous guitar amp of all time, the Fender 5F6-A Tweed Bassman was designed by engineers at Western Electric, and licensed to Fender for production. 

What we’re leading up to is that there are time-proven and tested ways to build tube preamps, phase inverters, and power amps.  Some great tube hounds of the past described the ideal tube guitar amp as “a high-voltage power supply modulated by a guitar signal”.   Our tube amp designs are about as close to that ideal as possible.

We use those time-proven “building blocks” – and nothing else – to build our own amplifiers.  It’s all the “costume jewelry” that you hang off these building blocks, or stuff in, between or around, that chews away and degrades your best possible tone.

Using the old load line values, and actual vintage-era voltage levels and specs (like maximum plate voltage and dissipation ratings from the tube companies), there are no “black boxes”, or weird components or values used in our amps – just solid, proven circuitry, using circuit design values that were established and proven to be best-of-breed over 50 years ago.  Circuit time constants, levels of filtering, and the speaker / magnet types used are also critical components of “vintage” tone.   We paid attention.

Once we had our circuits designed and target voltages identified, we needed transformers.  Looking at what was available for vintage replacements, none of them “fit” our specs.  When you start removing “load” and components like tubes and resistors from a classic circuit, you’re changing the current load and all the voltages a vintage replacement was designed to deliver.  And they are usually too high in the first place, so………

We had to learn a LOT about transformers……loading, plate lamination and thicknesses, core grades and losses, interleaving, impedance matching, etc., etc., and to learn how transformers were actually wound in the 50’s and 60’s……paper bobbin vs. nylon….and on and on.  Transformer manufacturers don’t really want to talk to you unless you know pretty much EXACTLY what you want, and are willing to purchase a good number of whatever you are asking them to build.  So we dug in…….

Our power transformers are built to our own specs by a transformer manufacturer in Chicago.  These power transformers are built with a very high grade of grain-oriented steel, and run roughly 25% cooler and a lot quieter than any comparable transformer built with industry-standard “transformer grade” steels.

Our output transformers are custom wound to our specs by another manufacturer in Michigan, using a vintage-spec grade of core steel.  Paper tube, paper-layered interleaved windings – just like the great output transformers of the 50’s and 60’s –it takes longer to do each one this way, but vintage construction and classic tone are worth it!

 So, of course, with a simplified design, and new iron, we had to design a new chassis, using all stainless steel hardware.…………

 We use all one-watt carbon film resistors instead of the usual half-watt.  Why?  Higher voltage rating and a larger cross-section gives us a quieter-running amp with less carbon noise and practically ZERO potential for resistor failure. Tight-tolerance 1% premium Ohmite 5-watt resistors are used in bias circuits and the main drop in our power supply rail.  Three-watt metal oxide power resistors are used in the balance of power rail positions.

Switchcraft jacks, Carling switches, premium Belton tube sockets and shields, Sprague Atom and F&T electrolytics, tight tolerance coupling caps, etc.

Our circuit boards are thick, G-10 glass epoxy boards using a military-style layout and solid brass (then plated) turrets.  We build these, too – one at a time.  This board is so strong, you can literally install the turrets, turn it over, and STAND ON IT without any damage.

Every resistor and capacitor is checked individually before it gets mounted to the board.  If the value is not within less than 2% of the marked value, the component does NOT get used.  This sort of fanatical quality control is worth every minute it takes.  The next amp (of this model) built will sound the same as this one – and the same as the last one built.  This is only one of the many extra things we do to ensure consistent quality.  Most of these types of things that we do won’t ever be seen by anyone else, but are important to us.  These are our own little “trademarks” that are an important part of building a great amplifier.

If you have had a look inside the chassis of one of our amplifiers, you will certainly appreciate the quality of the premium components, the circuit design and layout, and the high level of workmanship in each and every amp we build.  These amps are built one at a time, by one person, from start to finish.

Each amp is “burned in”, played and tested for 24 hours.  All operating and bias voltages are checked and recorded before final assembly.

Our ultimate goal is to provide three things at a level superior to any other amp manufacturer, large or small – TONE, QUALITY, and SERVICE.

OWN the TONE!

Peter and Matt Purdy

Purdy Tube Amps

  2010

The all new, all TUBE Purdy “Pro-Verb” reverb unit is here! 

Check us out on Facebook for more details! (Search Purdy Tube Amps)