we are getting ready for a BIG run of dwarvenaut 20 MKII amps as well as a fair number of falcon 50 amps, they should be coming up in june, its been crazy since getting back from australia. right now we are making up a few weirdo cabinets in the shop for our upcoming ampshow appearance, as well as getting some good matching units available for you guys with heads that are orphaned without a good match!

stay tuned!

what a great trip! exhausted but soooo ready to get back into making some awesome amps.. had some great emails from people that have been using hovercrafts live and for recording.. so nice to see people USING the amps and not HOARDING them!

there should be a batch of bigger wattage amps coming up shortly. so keep your ears and eyes open!

thanks for all the kind emails and messages. it mean a lot to hear how passionate you all are. really!

this took me ages and ages to finally “know”.. but i’ll save you a lot of time and frustration chasing sound..

back in the 80′s when i was after high gain guitar sound, the conventional wisdom was carrying over from the late 70′s that hotter wound pickups were the be all, end all to get that crunch we all were hungry for that we heard on all the good records..

naturally i did a lot of reading and the magazines and players all said to raise your pickups til the magnets start to affect the sustain of the string, that was the “magic spot” to stuff your pickup. basically jam it right up against the strings, almost, and thats how you got the magic distortion sound! well i have the extremely string worn bobbins to prove it.. i tried it.. yeah louder, muddier, woofier.. hm.. well 1/3 aint bad!

fast forward to me getting a set of lower gain pickups in a les paul that was “properly” set up a long while back.. i plugged the guitar in the amp, and struck a chord. MAGIC! wow.. overtones! chime! CRUNCH! high gain was no big deal, the pickups didnt feed back! i could hit the strings HARD with the pick and dig all kinds of cool sounds out of the guitar. strummed chords rang out true, for a long time, and with easily discernable notes. no clashing! NO MUD.

after scratching my head, and whipping out a meter, and ruler, i started trying to find out what was what? the pickups were “vintage” gain, around 7.5k.. and they were MILES away from my precious strings! yet the guitar sounded killer through an amp. no weakness!

hmmmm

sometime during the 80′s amp guys started stuffing the gain further down the signal chain: THE AMP.. hey! less noise! less feedback! less garbage and stuff that didnt belong, soundwise! keep going through the 90′s and insane gain levels in tube guitar amps now made it possible for a wimpy little singlecoil equipped guitar to tear your head off with thick metal sounding crunch!

a lot of guys are running older 70′s designed pickups that are very high gain (over 13K+ DC resistance) with the tribal knowledge that high/hot wind pickups make for great crunchy heavy tone. NO! unfortunately what some of you guys dont know is that the companies that make those pickups are STILL USING THE SAME MARKETING LANGUAGE that they were when they first made thes pickups way back in the stone age of aftermarket pickups!!! yeah, your dad or grandpas quest for black sabbath sound? they probably read the same ad sentences you are.

for the BEST clarity and crunch and definition under high gain/high volume amp setups, i typically reccomend running something more in the 8 to 7K range for humbuckers (FWIW dimarzio PAF classics are cheap to buy and definitely get the sound, thats what i run in my SG at the shop for testing).. higher gain pickups muddy things up, and lack clarity in exchange for gain..

if you cant swap pickups, lower the ones you have as far as they can go without losing too much bass response. i find that typically level with, or even below the stock pickup rings is where the sweet spot is on most humbucker guitars. go past where you think is “too low”.. keep going a little bit. now plug in and listen.

look at the level of the bobbin top and the pickup ring!

just hit the low and high strings with the guitar on your lap and lower the pickup till it starts to sound weak plugged into your amp. then raise it back up 1/2 turn. compare the treble and bass strings to make sure the bass strings arent too much louder than the treble.. thats the magic spot. let the amp do the rest of the work. trust me. the clarity improvement is HUGE.. it took me 15 years to figure that one out. i used to jam my pickups right aginst my strings thinking more sound = better.. not true for high gain stuff..

if you are on the fence. just count the number of turns for each screw you lower, write it down! you can always raise them back up where you started with no harm done..

good luck!

get hold of us if you are interested in:
Dwarvenaut 20 MK1 heads
Falcon 50 5881/6L6WGB 2 channel heads
we have a few left unclaimed
info AT hovercraftamps DOTCOM

andromeda KT88 powered monster now available.

high gain matamp / medium gain non master volum sunn model T 2 channel head with 90 watts of power on tap. oh, and RED SPARKLE TOLEX. groovy big round indicator knobs. 1/2 power switch, and switchable tone controls (TMB/Baxandall..) this amp has BIG deep boom..
one big secret: this amps gain channel? its one of those “fun” amps where master volume goes from not enough > almost enough > TOOO MUCH MY EARS HOLY DAMN all between 1-3. consider this as a top fuel dragster with the kiddie bumpers removed. you will come to love the control of large diameter knobs for keeping this scary monster under a bit of control. best you go gig with it. keeps the neighbors from throwing +1 magic axes at your head.

this amp, SN32 has a matched duet of JJ Kt88′s going on, and has dirge und drang for days.. she is $850 + $20 shipping and will come with a mercury magnetics power cable and solid cables GT speaker cable included.. and if you wear size XL, we might just include a special suprise for you.

dwarvenaut 20 MkII sn52 is now available. vintage orange OR series vinyde, white large round indicator knobs.

double depth controls bring max power section flexibility to this amp allows the amp go go from old school orange/sunn power voicing to a more modern metal panel marshall BARK.. this amp is $625 +$20 shipping and like its brother, brings the green power switch to your house along with more sound than you have shovels.

ok these goliaths are done and ready. SN2 through SN6 (check the pic for whats what)
all are done up as a mix of ampeg VT22 and matamp C7 thick low girthy growl distortion. there is very little clean headroom. consider these “distortion only” amps that go from mild crunch to aggressive low bark, to full fuzz fest. SUPER INSANE loud 5 watt amps that go down to 2 watts with a flick of a switch.

soundclips here:

http://hovercraftamps.com/soundclips/goliath/sn2/

these ones are a bit cosmetically challenged with minor tolexing issue (character), so they all are $425 shipped to USA addresses.
all are done up with vintage black ampeg style rough tolex
sn2: orange with white piping and matamp big round knobs
sn3: all black with sunn silver corners and medium round orange style knobs with milled silver accents
sn4: electric blue marshall tolex, large round matamp knobs
sn5: all black with sunn silver corners and black chickenhead knobs
sn6: matamp green with white piping, big round matamp knobs.

voicing is similar between them, though some have a tad more treble bite than others. i recommend G12T 12″ celestion or 70 watt large cone 12″ speakers for these. they might be a good fit for a 2x 10″ driver loaded sealed back unit to dig out the upper mids and low treble detail.

email me at info@hovercraftamps.com if you want one of these microscopic all tube destroyers..

falcon Sn8 100+ watt KT66 quartet head is also now available. this amp.. whooooooo..
double depth controls for modern chunk to vintage soft late 60′s power amp. BIG unstoppable bass response. voicing options for hiwatt (bump), sunn model T, marshall jcm800, laney supergroup and some orange OR voices (voice I-0-II) in there.
1/2 power switch, 2 channel (lo-mid / mid-high gains) with outputs for 4/8/16 ohms. its 120/230v capable input voltage. tube buffered effects loop.
this amp has a GORGEOUS sounding quartet of Valve Art KT66 power tubes in it.. it sings.. rich and thunderous.. scary loud when we first wound it up.. man.. this amp is $1100+ shipping..

back from the insanity that is NAMM.. our first run of ionostrofear fuzz pedals are getting made as we speak.. the new dwarvenaut 20 MkII amp was released at NAMM, and we have a special upcoming tube amp that will be announced VERY shortly..

attention kickstarter pedal winners.. you should have an email in your inbox requesting your mailing address.. PLEASE fill em in toot suite!