| Emery Sound Tube Amps A trio of low wattage tube amps. List: $599-$1,249 (ordered direct plus shipping)
by Brett Ratner
January 24, 2001
When you are subject to the sensory overload that is NAMM, it’s rare that something blows you away. It’s even rarer that you fall in love. Despite the odds, we absolutely fell in love with the Emery Sound amplifier we played.
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| The Spotlight |
Emery Sound is a small mom and pop operation out of El Cerrito, California. They offer three models of small, low wattage, hand-made amps: the “Spotlight” combo, the “Superbaby” head and the “Dominatrix” head.
Externally, the amps feature an unusual combination of plexiglass and mahogany (the mahogany is oil finished by hand). Inside, it’s all lovingly wired by Mr. Emery himself.
We played the Superbaby, which is eight watts, switchable to four watts (the Dominatrix is 15, switchable to nine). There’s only a volume and tone switch. And if you want to (and we wanted to), you can remove the tone control circuit from the signal path... so all you’re basically left with is a guitar, two tubes and an Emery-built cabinet loaded with an alnico magnet Jensen speaker.
The power delivery is class-A. So the trick is to crank up the amp and use your guitar’s volume control to effortlessly glide from shimmering clean to edgy crunch to singing lead. Switch down to four watts, and you can enjoy genuine Brian May (that guy in Queen) tone in your bedroom or home studio. We’re not kidding either, it’s that good.
Also of note, even at full volume, the amp was dead quiet. This, we believe, serves as testament to the quality of the amp.
For an extra $175 bucks, you can order your amp with the “Mad Scientist Kit.” This includes 10 tubes (displayed in a hand-carved mahogany rack) that you can swap out without rebiasing the amp. Some are for the preamp, some are for the power amp. Some of the tubes are new Russian, European and Chinese models while others are “new old stock” probably built by GE or Phillips.
As with many small boutique companies, these products are ordered direct and some lead time is necessary before your new baby (make that Superbaby) arrives at your doorstep. But if you like great tone, the wait will be worth it. For more information, visit www.emerysound.com. | 
