Marshall PB-1 Power Brake

Pretty much Idiot proof.Just make sure you use quality speaker cable,and make sure you have the impedance setting set correctly.

Slight loss of high's but I would put this down to the speakers rather than the power brake.I'm using it with a 1967 JTM 100 superbass and 1968 4 x 12.

Built like a tank.Will never brake.If you use it at max you will burn through tubes.

Marshall are always great at customer service. Marshall uk that is.

Have been using it 3 years now,and find it a must have i you are using a super lead or super bass.

Look guys..if you use speaker cable you will not fry your head..In my Marshall owners manual it says to use ONLY speaker cable....If you are *****ing about blowing your head up you possibly used a guitar cable to hook up with.
I have a JCM 2000 and with monster cable SPEAKER cable going to my power brake...I have killer tone at less than ear bleeding volumes...I run Groove Tube EL34 Mullard copies and it doesn't get much better than this kids...heed the rulebook and the power brake is godly...easiest piece of gear I own to operate...

Marshall JCM 2000 head; 1960 cab. Ibanez guitars with Duncan pick/ups...with an overdrive pedal my leads scream and sustain lasts for days..

like a welfare check...always there...don't need a back up..its passive and says Marshall on the faceplate...nuff said?

dunno my Marshall gear has never failed me...Do you change the oil in your car?...Do the same with your tube related gear;take it to a tech for upkeep; and it will last forever...

1 knob. Plug it in and turn the knob to however loud you want it. Couldn't possibly be easier, unless it was majik!!

Sound Quality really comes from the amp. So no rating. Will give you full balls to the wall overdriven tube TONe with a good tube amp at low volume.

It a marshall.

Really good product...But horribly overpriced!! Payin for the name MARSHALL. Its just an audio tapered POT. Buy one from radio shack yourself for $2, and wire it into a project box. You'll have $10 in the whole thing. Email me for schematic if needed.

Very easy. Just plug and play. You can't get easier than one big knob.
You just have to not be an idiot when connecting the thing and used speaker cable and have the proper ohm selection.

Sounds as good as your amp does. If you don't like the sound of your amp in the power break...then you don't like the sound of your amp. I'm reading on this forum about people complaining that the PB-100 makes their amps sound different (loss of high end, compression). That's your amp, not the PB. Power tubes sound different when you juice them. That's why you bought the power break.

Built like a tank. Not a problem in ten years.

Don't know. Never had to deal with Marshall.

Can't go wrong. It's actually a more stable than a speaker cabinet load, because a speaker cabinet's impedance changes over time. Not only in the long run, but just from a few minutes of playing. Voice coil, paper and magnets start moving and change impedance. The power break's fan simulates that really well.

I've been using it as a dummy load for ten years now on the same amp heads without an issue. I don't bring out a cabinet to gigs because my band uses ear-buds, so I couldn't hear a cab, anyway. I dime the amp and just control the volume that goes into my buds via mixer.

People get freaked out when they use attenuators and something happens (shorted tube, blown fuse etc....) and they think that the power break is the issue. What they don't realize is that they blew a fuse because a tube shorted. The reason a tube shorted was because they had a bad tube (or batch) and it didn't show it's true colors until the amp was cranked and the tube was under high plate voltages.

Unless you buy your tubes from a place the matches and tests tubes for faults, your are actually very likely to get a bad tube. Even then it can still happen. Especially the way UPS treats stuff when they ship.
A tube and other components may work fine at a bedroom volume, but will fail at higher outputs when pushed. In other words, the tube (or component) always had a problem, it just didn't show until you pushed it. The power break, or any attenuator which allows your to run your amp at high output levels for great lengths of time (which is something you wouldn't be able to do without an attenuator), will weed out any weak components in your system. Get yourself some good tubes and reliable components and you'll be fine

It could not be much easier to use. You would have to be a moron to mess this up.

I use this with my '73 MKII Super Lead 100W PTP and I have found it to be more transparent than the Hot Plate which definitely colors the sound but is also a great unit. As someone else said, when your tone changes more and more with more attenuation it is NOT the Power Brake, it is the fact that the speakers are not being driven hard anymore and you are not moving any air. The 4 factors most affecting tone are preamp tube overdrive, output tube overdrive, speaker overdrive, and volume of air being displaced. When you lower the volume you lose 2 of the 4 factors, period.

No problems yet.

I have not had to use it.

These units DO NOT FRY AMPS. People who do not know what they are doing fry amps. If you run your amp at full blast with or without an attenuator you will end up frying output tubes or the output transformer sooner or later. It is just a matter of time. You do not need to run the amp at 10 all the time to get the awesome Marshall sound. If you run the amp at 10 and attenuate it down to a whisper you will not have great tone and you will fry your amp. These are best used to set the amp for great tone (6-7 is fine) and use the Power Brake to take the edge off of the sound level while still driving the speakers enough to get the best tone.

This is a follow up to my review of 1/16/2004.

I've never compared the Powerbrake to any other attenuator...until now. I'd always been happy with the PB and used it for 15 years. Never a problem, built like a tank.

However, I purchased a Weber Mass 100. The difference is stunning. Here's what I found:

The Powerbrake:

1. Compresses WAY too much.
You might not notice it with a hi-gain amp, but if you try it with something known for dynamics, such as vintage stuff, you will notice a difference.

2. It sucks out the mids
I could not believe the difference. I always figured it was the speaker and how the human ear hears things differently at different volumes. But no, it sucks out the mids.

3. It make the low end flabby.

I thought it was my amp, but no, it's the powerbrake.

Mine's going up on ebay. The Weber is SO much better.

How much easier is it than one attenuation knob and one ohm switch for ease of use (well, I suppose there is the MXR Phase 90 pedal with one knob)? But don't let the sparce number of controls deceive you. The Marshall Power Brake does take some time getting used to. Or should I say you will need some time to get reacquainted with your all-tube amp. But once you do, you'll be asking yourself "Why didn't I buy this thing years ago?" Quite frankly, it is probably the best "pedal" I ever bought for my rig.

But be careful which type of cables you use to connect the Power Brake to your amp and to your cab(s). The owner's manual is very clear that one must use speaker cables with the Power Brake. Not speaking from experience, but from others in the industry, many a fool have fried a transformer by either using guitar cables or by using the incorrect ohm selection. READ THE ONE PAGE MANUAL BEFORE USING IT SO THAT YOU HOOK IT UP CORRECTLY! Other than that, it's a piece of cake. Oh, and by the way, the guys that write reviews saying the PB sucks. Yeah, I think those are the guys that use guitar cables.

SETUP: Gibson Les Paul Standard (Mid 90s Custom Shop) with Seymour Duncans (JB-4 in the bridge; Pearly Gates in the neck) into an Ibanez TS-7 Tube Screamer (for clean boost only, on songs that need the extra oomph) into an early 80s Marshall JCM 800 2203 (using Svetlana 6550 power tubes) into a mid 70s straight Marshall basketweave 4x12 and a slant Carvin Legacy 4x12 (loaded with Vintage 30 Celestions). I also use another Les Paul Standard Custom Shop and an ESP baritone, but the mid 90s Paul is my main axe.

The Power Brake is only as noisy as your amp and the chain of effects/cables going into it.

After you start using a Power Brake, you will finally understand what real tone is all about, unless you are one of those fortunate ones who can crank your amp to 10 all the time and get away with it (didn't think you were). From the Brown Sound to Page to even stretching into some of the sickest metal tones, you can do it with the Power Brake. But you have to take the time to tweak your tone with the controls on your amp. Nuff said.

I have pretty much trashed all the effects I was using and am starting from scratch, as each one seems to zap a little tone from my sound. I can tell you I'll be only using true bypass circuitry in all future pedals. But still, there is nothing better than just plugging straight into a Marshall cranked to the bjesus, and being able to attenuate that sound to a tolerable level (yeah, Marshalls are freakin' loud!)

So far, haven't had any reliability issues. Works as intended.

Haven't had to use customer support.

My style is all over the board, from old Van Halen to Page to KISS to Hendrix to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Korn to Chevelle to RATM... Been playing for 20 years. If lost, stolen, etc., absolutely, I'd buy another one. I'd consider the THD Hot Plate. Have heard good things about it. But one feature on the PB that the HP cannot do is it allows you to switch the ohms so you can run either one or two 16 ohm cabs and change it up as you need. With the HP you're stuck with buying another HP with a different ohm rating if you switch up your number of cabs. However, the HP has other features the PB doesn't. Go do your research if your serious about the other ones.

Is the PB a good match for my style? Yup. The Power Brake is the holy grail to tone if you want that vintage Marshall sound, whether it's the Brown Sound or AC/DC or Hendrix. For nu-metal, you probably want to use a rectified tube amp like a Boogie or 5150 without using the Power Brake. Why no PB? I tried the Power Brake on my 5150 and it didn't seem to make much of a difference in tone. Slightly, but no where near the difference that it had on my Marshall. The overdriven power tube tones and harmonics the PB allows you to obtain at a tolerable dB level definetely inspire playing, no doubt about it.

In sum, if you own an all tube Marshall (or other all tube amp, I'm partial to Marshall) and don't own a Power Brake (or some other attenuator), you either (a) live in the middle of freakin' nowhere and can crank your Marshall all you want, (b) are playing large arenas and can crank your amps and don't need a PB, or (c) don't know what an attenuator is.

A 2-year old can figure this thing out!

Use it with Gibson Les Pauls with EMG-81(bridge) and 85(neck)pickups, Spinal Tap Edition Marshall Super Lead Plexi clones(they go to 11) and a vintage '69 Marshall straight front cab loaded with original Celestion Greenbacks. Doesn't affect the sound, but the amps sound GREAT when cranked up to...11 on this thing!

This thing is VERY reliable. Would I use it at a gig without a backup? Well, I NEVER go to a gig unless I have a backup head and I do carry a backup Spinal Tap Super Lead Plexi clone. However, on one of the heads I did have a problem with blowing fuses and tubes, but this turned out to be caused by the fact that the company who made the output transformer reversed the color code on the 4 and 16 ohm taps so when I though I was on the 16 ohm tap, I was actually on the 4 ohm tap. This problem has been fixed and I notified the tranny manufacturer about this. This just goes to show how important it is to make sure that your impedance selectors are set correctly when using the brake. A couple of guidelines to remember when using these:

1) Set your impedance selectors accordingly.
1 16 ohm cab - Selectors on amp and PB on 16 ohms
2 16 ohm cabs - Selectors on amp and PB on 8 ohms
1 8 ohm cab - Selectors on amp and PB on 8 ohms
DO NOT RUN 2 8 OHM CABS or 1 4 OHM CAB ON THE POWER BRAKE!!! THE LOWEST LOAD IT CAN RUN IS 8 OHMS!!!

2) USE SPEAKER CABLE!!! GUITAR CABLE CANNOT HANDLE THE POWER AND WILL FRY THE CABLE AND MOST LIKELY YOUR AMP AS WELL!!!

Do these 2 things and the power brake will be your best friend!

Never needed them!

I play top 40 classic/modern rock, and I totally dig this thing! It's like I can get album quality sounds on stage and also I cut through the mix like a knife! I used to use stompboxes but I was all muddy sounding and had a hard time cuttin' through. With this thing I not only cut through, but am not too loud and my tone now blends in with the bass and gives us a more solid sound!

Simple. If you're running a 16 ohm cab, set the impedance selector on both your amp and the Power Brake to 16 ohms, connect a SPEAKER cable(not a guitar cable guys, there is a difference)between the amp and the PB, then between the PB and the speaker cabinet.Crank the amp up and use the selector switch on the front to select the level of attenuation.

OK, I built myself a 1959 Super Lead Plexi Clone recently(looks and sounds EXACTLY like a Plexi too) and took it to one of my parts suppliers shops to show him the quality of work that I did. We put it on the bench and hooked it to his Power Brake, then hooked his natural finish Les Paul up to it. I had Winged C(formerly Svetlana)power tubes in this thing. We cranked on it and it was sounding great, until one of the power tubes shorted and blew the HT fuse. We then retubed with a quad of Winged Cs, cranked it, and it did it again 5 minutes later. Just when I was thinking that I had a tube socket arcing, we retubed again, this time with JJ EL34s, and we cranked on it for a good half hour and no shorting tubes. Now I don't know if the Winged Cs simply can't handle the cranking or if this was just a bad batch of them, but I noticed a huge difference in tone between the two tubes. I liked the JJs better since they have a fatter midrange tone. But all in all, this thing does not contribute to the sound, however it doesn't even color it so whatever you hear from this thing is how your amp sounds.

Very dependable! Haven't bought one yet but will be very soon. Now you guys who are frying trannys and tubes, STOP USING GUITAR CABLE!!! Guitar cable is shielded and has capacitance that makes it appear as a dead short at certain frequencies. Plus the hot lead of a guitar cable is not meant to handle power, just line level signals. Be sure and use the biggest speaker cable you can get your hands on. Also, be sure and properly set your impedance selectors as well. Tube amps are very picky about this. Another word of wisdom is is that anytime you run your amp hard you're gonna wear your tubes quicker and yes it is very hard on the amp. But that's the only way to get that cranked amp tone at low volumes.

When I get one I will be building another Plexi clone for my clean amp. This thing is a must have, seeing as how I play in a cover band and with this I can get the album quality rock guitar sound on stage live!

No problem in this area. It's pretty much " Plug it in, set the impeadence selector accordingly, and go with it"

It gets its power from the amps output signal.

This is a subjective area.

I thought that the PB compressed the tone of my SLP 100 a bit to much and after about 12 hours of tweaking both the amp and the PB, I just couldn't find " the sweet spot" and I returned it the next day to the store from which I purchased it.

Two years later...

I buy a Hot Plate and sonicly, life is much better.

Didn't own it long enough to make a judgment call here.

But, from most of the oppinions I have read and heard from other players, the PB is not well suited to handeling the full brunt of a fully cranked 100 watt Marshall. They seem to give up the gost, and rightly so since a 100 watt "plexi" ,at full tilt, can pump out well over 100 watts.

I've been playing for 20+ years and go for the sound of Cream, Led Zepplin, Gary Moore...etc

I think the PB deserves a fair run. It's not everyones cup of tea...but then neither is the Hot Plate. Best advice...Experimentation. Just be careful using the PB with 100 watt Marshalls at full bleed.

There's not much to it. Just plug in and play. However, you have to make sure you keep track of the speaker cab impedance switch on the back. Such things are crucial when working with tube amps. I wish it had a voiced line out like some others.

People who complain about how the sound changes when lowering the volume aren't very bright. The change isn't due to the power brake, it's due to the speakers. ALL speakers sound different at different volumes, especially guitar speakers. At very low volumes, YES, you are going to loose some high frequencies. IT'S NOT THE POWER BRAKE!

Been pounding on it for 10 years, never a problem.

I play all types of music. If it were stolen, I might consider another attenuator because I'd like a line out. I use the unit with a vintage Marshall 100 watt superlead (1971 year) and a 1984 Carvin X-100 tube amp. Never a problem with either amp. I've never fried anything. And I've done hundereds (approaching 1000) gigs with it.

As for those people who say it's an amp killer, they're probably using guitar cables where they should be using speaker cables. If you use guitar cables, YES you will fry components at full volume. These people deserve what they got. Also, selecting/matching the proper speaker ohms is VERY important, on both the back of the amp and the power brake. A lot of people don't know there is a difference in the cables. (they look the same)

These fried folks don't understand that you can get away using guitar cables instead of speaker cables at low volumes. But when you crank the amp up things will burn. And these people are saying it's the power brake when it's NOT!!!!

As for my 100 watt Marshall w 4x12 greenbacks. It is virtually unusable unless I have the power brake. It is louder than thunder. There is no small or medium sized club where you can use it. There are many large clubs I can't even use it. It's just TOO LOUD! If it were not for the Power Brake, I'd probably sell it. Vintage or not.

Easy to hook up.

I was using it with my JCM 900 100-watt head, which was 1 year old, running through a 1960A cab. Guitars include an LP Classic, and SG Standard. It worked well with my boxes (Digitech Whammy, MX90 Phasor).

Worked well for 6 months.

I'm no pro, I play to amuse myself in my living room, mostly blues and southern rock. I bought this in order to be able to get some tube effect without killer volume. The amp is 1 1/2 years old...I just fried the main power fuse and apparently I've blown at least one tube...the amp is now on its way to an amp tech for analysis. Did the PowerBrake cause this? I donno. However, I won't chance it again, after the new tubes go in. I can't afford owning an AMP KILLER!

Very easy to use, one volme knob, that acts as a speaker load aswell when its in the off (silent) position. Easy to plug in.

Ok, I'm not here to have a go at anybody, but all these people who are shredding their transformers - please read this.

Firstly use 6amp speaker cable with decent quality jacks. If you use a guitar signal lead, likethe one that you plug into your guitar and amp then,

1) The lead will fry
2) You can damage your amp

(The same goes when you dont use a PB-100 and just connect a speaker cab.

Also, make sure you mathc up the impedances of the head and the cabs. If you use 1 Marshall 1960A, then its 16 ohms so selct 16 on the head and the PB-100 and plug into the 16 ohm jack socket. If you use the 1912 cab (1x12") then its 8 ohms so swith to eight ohms.

If in doubt ask at a shop or email Marshall. I havn't ever had a problem with it and i think its sounds great, don't crank up to 10 on the head, jut use your ears. The neighbours like it too.

Built like a tank, i use it for my gigs, if i t broke during a gig, id just not use it and turn down. And then buy a new one as funds don't allow me to have 2 of everything. This was second hand of ebay and it still works!

V quick, emailed them for a manual, and i got one through the post the next day and a email relpy.

Really is good, if used well (as alot of things are), if in doubt ask. (people are too impatient!) I like this peice of kit! Its really worth it to not annoy niehgbours and sound guys love it aswell.

Simple. Connect it and turn the dial.

Depends on your total setup.

This thing fries amps ... period.

In one month I fried the output transformer on both of Marhsall heads: my 59 SLP and my JCM 900.

My amp guy was absolutely horrified that I was using this thing.

Trust me ... this thing kills output transformers and they take a lifetime to get from Marshall. Thankfully I've got two heads, one is finally working.

DON'T USE IT ... DON'T BUY IT ... Unless of course you like to look at your amp rather than play through it.

It has one volume knob and an ohms selection switch. Pretty simple. I like that you have a choice of 8 or 16 ohms which comes in handy depending on whether I'm using a 4X12 or a 1X12 for smaller situations.

I use it with a Marshall JMP Mk. 2 50 watt head and either a Marshall 1X12 or 1960A cab. I used to have a JCM 800 100 watt head that I used the Power Brake on and the transformer fried on it. So my rule of thumb with this thing is 50 watts or less. I like to use the amp balls out but it's just too dang loud so with this I can roll it back a little volume wise but still get the tube fullness I like. At very low volume settings - with the amp still full - it doesn't sound very good. The fullness is there but you lose alot of presence because I suppose the speakers aren't being pushed. I'm going with a previous reviewer and not rating this category because it has no sound.

I've had it for 7 years and not had a problem.

I play pop rock. I've always had an attenuator hooked up to my amps. I used to use the Scholz Power Soak but fried some tubes with it so now I just use that with my solid state practice amp. I'd probably buy it again if I ever needed one because of the switchable ohms feature. I don't think the THD Hotplate has that though I've heard they're better sounding. I mostly chose this one because I only use Marshall and my Power Soak wasn't loving them. I figured might as well stick with Marshall products to be safe. I wish I didn't have to use it because its just one more thing to set up so I bought a Marshall 3203 Artist which has plenty of distortion on it's own. Just to try it I hooked up the Power Brake and lo & behold cranking the master on the amp added such fullness I couldn't resist so now I guess I'll use it with that, too.

Absolute piece of cake. It has one 'in' and two 'out's in case you have 2 cabs or maybe a combo and extension. One knob which controls the amount of attenuation - in other words, volume. All this does is allow you to wind your amp up under load and keep the volume down.

I have a Fender Custom Vibrasonic which is a 100W valve monster, based on the Twin with a few tweaks here and there and a 15" speaker. Which is seriously loud. It really roars when you wind it up, but it is unbearable in a confined space! This box gives you a taste of the sound; obviously it's not quite the same as you lose the sheer power and also the speaker is not working so hard, but its very good. I remember why I bought the amp now - it sounds fantastic cranked up. It is not noisy, strangely I do not seem to get the noise which usually goes with high volume. Because the Powerbrake is not itself making the sound, I'm giving 'no opinion' to the actual question - it all depends on your amp!

Looks totally bomb-proof. It's heavy, solidly made. It takes no power supply. Although it has a cooling fan, it must take its power from the amp output itself. I haven't made the fan cut in, yet, and neither has the unit got warm when I've used it. I saw another review which expressed doubts about its reliability. There are a few possible areas for danger - you should not use it below an 8 ohm load, also you didn't ought to use ordinary patch leads for this. I did read somewhere once that you must use proper speaker leads between an amp and speakers, something to do with capacitance on screened leads causing a danger to the amp. Marshall did not supply any leads and I am going to have to make some up, either with proper speaker cable, or mains lead. Possibly, an earlier design fault may have been sorted out in newer models - I really don't know.

Never dealt with them

This is simple piece of kit. A dealer in Birmingham is knowcking them out at #99 - this one is a white limited edition end of line model. I suppose it would be nice if it had either a speaker emulator or a DI output. That way it would cover another base. For me, it is an ideal way of making a vintage or vintage-style (like mine) non master volume amp that bit more versatile. I use it with both a Fender Strat (Texas Specials)and a modern Rickenbacker 360/12. Sounds are rock, country and blues. However, it is a simple idea but if your amp sounds crap, this will make it sound crap more quietly. I can't see any point in using it with a solid-state amp, either.

This is a speaker attenuator by Marshall. Very easy to use. The unit has a rotary knob in the front panel that adjusts the level of attenuation in 3 dB steps. There are 11 steps on the knob, with the 12th step being a dummy load for the amp. In the back panel you have a input jack and two speaker outputs, as well as a speaker impedance selector (8 or 16 ohm). The unit has an induction device attached a fan, which, when driven hard, serves to cool the unit. It's very cool to see it working. Also, the unit must have some sort of preset equalization curve, because the more the attenuation, the more high frequencies are rolled off. I guess I don't have enough experience with Marshall amps set "on ten" to know if this is what happens in real life or not.

I use the unit with several Marshall amps. The first one I'd like to talk about is my Marshall 1987X plexi reissue head. When I max out the high treble channel (top left input), a couple of things happen. First, the low end just becomes mush, which forces me to turn the mid and bass controls to zero. Then, there is a buzzy, non-musical fizzle tone in the bass frequencies when I hit bar chords that include the low E string. This buzziness decreses slightly when I change cabinets from Celestions to EV's. Go figure. I have to tell you, when I tried this set up at the store, I almost didn't buy the unit. Frankly, It sucked, and I thought, there goes Marshall, putting out another piece of crap. But then I tried it with a JCM 900 4500 amp and the tone improved remarkably. I then realised that by actually BACKING off the master volume and decreasing the attenuation on the PB-1, the tone actually improved, with almost no loss of sustain or overdrive. So much for that myth of setting everything on ten on your Marshall! Although I still think that Marshall amps need a certain amount of volume to sound good. At low volumes, without a boost overdrive pedal, most Marshalls sound like dog crap, unlike Boogies, that sound much better at neighbor-friendly volumes. At the same time, although they sustain well, Boogies don't have that Marshall-Crunch tone that you hear on so many records, and that is SO HARD to get on your own Marshall! Why can't all Marshalls sound like the plexi Eddie Van Halen used on his first record? Or Clapton's old Cream-era stacks? That's why Marshalls sometime can be frustating to deal with! I then went back to try the plexi head with this lower setting, and the tone improved; the low frequency buzzing was still there though, and I kept the mid and bass knobs on zero. I'm still trying to figure this one out. My advise to anybody trying this unit is to set the Master volume in your amp and the attenuation knob in the PB-1 halfway up, and work from there. The less attenuation, the more bite your sound will have; the more attenuation, your sound will be more compressed and mushed. And remember, you don't need to set your master volume at ten to get the best sound.

I haven't had it long enough to make a judgement.

Never had to deal with them. When I retube my Marshalls I use Boogie tubes, and they sound great.

It is a good device overall. You just have to tweak it a little with your amp. The unit does give a little more compression that help out when playing lead guitar. It won't improve the sound of your amp, though, so make sure you have a good one before using this unit. If you have piece of crap, the unit will make sound like a LOUDER piece of crap. Happy Tweaking! By the way, if anybody high-up in the Marshall factory reads this: Here is some constructive criticism from a long time customer.... Why don't you guys just put out an amp that will get you the elusive Van Halen/ Gary Moore tone that EVERYBODY is looking for ? In my opinion, you guys haven't done it since the late 70's/early 80's. The 900 series, as well as it sounds, does not have that tone. The JMP series was great. The 800 series is where you guys started straying form the formula! If you have to price it at 2500$, thats all right. If it is done right, believe me, people will buy them!! The guys at Bogner are doing just this, successfully, and their amps have that elusive crunch tone that everybody looks for in YOUR newer amps but it's not there. Just quit resting on your laurels and give discerning players what they want! You guys have the technology and know how to do it!