Are Two Amps Better Than One? [TPS Wheel Of Challenge For Challenges!]

Four awesome & unusual amp pairings

Welcome to the show. We often get asked which guitar amps pair well together, given that we usually use two. Now it would be easy to pick some old faves and get busy with the noise… but today we wanted to mess about with some stuff that we don’t normally use.
You’ll get the drift as we get going. So are two amps better than one?
Let’s find out…

Today's amps

Electro-Harmonix MIG-50
A modern reissue of the classic Sovtek MIG-50. People say they’re like a Tweed Bassman. We wouldn’t completely disagree. It uses two 5881 power valves.

Hello Sailor Shipwreck
A one-off build inspired by the famous Trainwreck amps, using four EL84s in the power section. Joe built it as a bit of fun and kindly gifted it to us. We’re loving how harmonically rich it is, especially under overdrive! Thank you Joe.

Hagerman Half Watt
We were introduced to Jim Hagerman via our good friend Gordon Rankin. Jim makes really lovely tube things. The Half Watt actually reaches the giddy heights of 1.5 watts when it’s flat out – a complete valve guitar amp that also has a useful headphone out. You might think it’s a toy… we can see this in any studio.

Victory V4 The Copper Guitar Amp
Slight potential for confusion here as Victory also makes a V4 The Copper tube preamp only… but this guitar amp version adds a class D power section to make it a complete guitar amp. There are four little tubes up front, plus on-board Two-Notes cab sim technology if you want to do the direct thing.

Laney Supergroup Mk I 50-watt
This 1969 beauty belongs to our good friend Paul Stacey. He’s a massive fan of these old Laneys, which he tends to use in combination with a Marshall Plexi. He brought it here for us to listen to… and has yet to take it back. Two EL34s, totally old school. Crank it and be rocked.

Philmosound
We met Phil Harris at a TPS Band show in Leicester. Phil has done a bunch of projector amp conversions – this one is currently on loan to us – and he’s keen to point out this is less ‘conversion’ and more ‘complete rebuild!’. It uses a pair of 6V6GTs in the power section with a 5Z4GT rectifier, alongside some rare/out of production valves… some of which were used in the Colossus computer at Bletchley Park! Thank you Phil, it is a wonderful thing to play!

Two-Rock Joey Landreth Signature
A true colossus of a guitar amp, Joey’s signature tone-machine uses a quartet of 6L6 power tubes for 100 watts, with both tube-driven harmonic AND bias tremolo on board. Oh, and a stunning spring reverb. This is Joey’s actual amp that he uses when touring in the UK and Europe. We are extremely lucky that it lives at TPS. Big love mate!

Wallace AC 5075 XT/FV MkIII
This was gifted to us by John Box before he died in 2021. Ted Wallace was a British electronics engineer whose amp building dates back as the late 1930s! By the mid-60s his amps were in a bunch of serious studios, used by a glittering array of artists.
After doing some reading, we think this one is probably from the 1970s. The ‘XT’ amps were later in Ted’s career, especially the ones with built in fuzz like this. Sadly, as you can hear in the video, the amp needs some serious TLC.
Erm, also nothing to do with the Wallace amp brand in the US.

Speaker Cabinets
Marshall 1960AX with 4 Celestion G12M Greenback speakers
Marshall 2061X with 2 Celestion G12H Anniversary speakers

Interesting bits and go to sections…
0:00 What Noel Gallagher taught us
1:13 The Wheel Of Challenge For Challenges!
2:40 A Humble Pedalboard
3:00 EH MIG-50 & Shipwreck
5:05 MIG & Shipwreck together
8:35 More WOCFC
9:00 Hagerman Half Watt & Victory V4 The Copper
13:35 Hagerman & Victory together
19:45 Yet more WOCFC
20:00 Drop A Name Game
21:24 Laney Super Group & Philmosound
25:04 Laney & Philmosound together
29:20 Really? WOCFC again?
30:00 Landreth Two-Rock & Wallace
32:38 Problems problems
39:00 Two-Rock & Wallace together


Pedals & Stuff used in this show
If you use these links to buy stuff - any stuff – we receive a (hilariously) small cut.
- UK & Europe: Andertons Music - https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
- USA: Sweetwater - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/5g6ALN
- Australia: Pedal Empire - http://bit.ly/2mWmJQf

• Boss BP-1w Booster
• Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man 1100-TT
• Surfy Industries Surfy Bear Metal Reverb
• TheGigRig AB Baby


Today’s guitars
• Fender Custom Shop ’63 Telecaster - Dan’s video here: https://youtu.be/rnQ4OIJFTgY
• 1965 Gibson ES-345 TDSV - Mick’s video here: https://youtu.be/tdYvdn7vDDE
• Fender Custom Shop ’62 Stratocaster - Mick’s video here: https://youtu.be/WOMHUQeHGRQ
• Gibson Custom True Historic ’57 Les Paul Goldtop Murphy Aged - no specific video but it’s on the channel a lot

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Please visit our preferred retailers!
UK & Europe: Andertons Music https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
Australia: Pedal Empire http://bit.ly/2mWmJQf