Blues Pearl Shred Head Head

I was one of Blues Pearls endorsees several years ago and I have owned three of their amps. Check out the reviews of mine on the Blues Master and the Brittone 50. As everone who loves vintage amps knows, tone machines are never loaded with features. Bells and whistles are tone-suckers and thats why Blues Pearls sound amazing, they give you a tone that is pure pickups to tubes to speakers. Period. Don't want something that simple? Buy a Mesa and hear a compressed and harmonically stripped, boxy sounding, waste of $1500.

I own the Shred Head in the head version and use it with either a Marshall 4-12 or 2-12. This amp is the one amp I own that I will never sell. I use Strats, Les Pauls, and a PRS McCarty and all of them sound great through this amp. Let me explain what the tone is.
Its got two 6L6's and three 12ax7's so it has a somewhat American sound with articulate notes, bell-like chime, and sounds incredible with single coils. However, because of Blues Pearls Bass Resonance circuit, it has tons of low end definition which Fenders never have. It has two gains and a master volume which allows this amp to have a very Marshall-like tone when you crank the gains and/or use humbuckers. Imagine the perfect cross between Fender tone and Marshall tone. Every amp company claims this but so far, the Shred Head is the only amp I've ever tried that is 50/50 between the two. It has only one channel and no reverb, but I honestly believe that if more people heard this amp, it would be a classic and would be Blues Pearl's best seller. It's 50 watts are very loud. The tranny and components are beefy and wired very neatly in its point to point, hand wired configuration. I think the amp was supposed to have EL-34's but mine has 6L6's and thats why I think it sounds open and chimey as well as deep and focused. Stevie would have dumped his Dumble if he had ever heard this. It has enough gain to dump the Tubescreamer as well.

Robert Hudson who is Blues Pearl is a master builder and has a bad back to prove it. He labors over each and every amp they make. His handwiring job is so perfect, it looks like a machine did it. I toured with this amp and never had a problem. Because it is point to point - any good tech could repair it. I don't recommend sending your amp to Mr. Hudson, he's sooo busy that you may not see your amp for another 5 months! I had this experience with him once on another amp. This one is bulletproof and built like a tank.

You can find them at bluespearl.com. I don't know why everyone says they have a hard time finding them. Good luck getting Robert on the phone though. He's very busy keeping his company going so expect to reach a voice mail box thats full. Buy the amps and forget about customer service. Go to someone local is my best advice. Don't worry though because he builds amps to last two lifetimes and most people who own them don't sell them. Seen any on EBay lately. Didn't think so.

I own the Shred Head, Bluesmaster Head, and Brittone 50. The Shred Head is my favorite of the three. Mine is the Head Version (I don't like 2-10 combos, they sound smaller). I opted for 6L6's. Mine has Navy blue daimond pattern tolex, Royal blue anodized chassis front, white chicken head knobs, and white grill cloth. Looks better than a Matchless. Sounds like Kenny Wayne Vaughan with Strats. Angus Gibbons with a Paul.