Harry Joyce Custom 30

The Joyce amps are a modular design so you can purchase them as a head alone, a head plus cabinet, or a combo amp. I chose to go the Custom 30 1x12 combo package with Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. Since my Joyce amp is an early model (1997), the cosmetics are very Hiwattish, i.e. black textured vinyl with white piping. The ones made since 1999 have a very tough and durable Cordura nylon covering (choice of colors - woo hoo!) with the white piping.

The chassis is made from heavy, welded, heat-treated steel. The wiring inside is unbelievable! It is British military spec meaning it is point-to-point (no printed circuit boards here), super neat, and precisely laid out. Mil-spec assembly means it's bullet-proof and easy to repair. Any type of repair work, from biasing to filter cap replacement, is a snap in a Harry Joyce amp. The cabinet design is bullet-proof rugged as well.

The Custom 30 has two channels with normal and brilliant inputs, and controls consisting of Volume 1, Volume 2, Bass, Treble, Middle, Presence, Master Volume, Standby, Power. One comment about the controls... if you are not used to the idiosyncratic British layout, the control placement can be a bit confusing at first. Even the power and standby toggle switches are "backwards" with the up position being off and the down position being on.

The Custom 30 has switchable speaker impedance for 4, 8 and 16 ohms and there is an effects loop jack. The combo cabinet has a removable back so the amp can be played through and open-back or closed-back configuration. This greatly adds to the amp's versatility.

The amp doesn't have reverb so if you like 'verb (and I do) you'll need to use an outboard effects unit. Also, be aware that a consequence of the heavy-duty construction is a heavy amp.

The Custom 30's clean sound is tight and crisp. The tone is very pure and very articulate. I can hear every string ring out clearly on my Rickenbacker 12-string through the Custom 30. This amp has lots of headroom, but it will overdrive.

The overdrive sound is traditional British (tasty, yet "in-your-face") and sounds great with humbucker or single coil pickups. The overdrive is easy to modulate thanks to the preamp and master volume controls. Classic tone gushes forth from this amp from "Can't Explain" to slow blues. I have no need for a Marshall amp as long as I keep the Custom 30 in my arsenal.

This amp has really excellent touch control and it is quite loud for a 30-watt amp. For most practice and gigging situations, the Harry Joyce Custom 30 has more than enough volume.

I've had my Custom 30 for 2 years and haven't had a problem yet. With the heavy duty chassis and cabinet and military spec wiring, I doubt I'll have any problems anytime soon.

I purchased my Custom 30 from Vintage Amp Restoration, St. Louis, Missouri (phone 314-631-5030; e-mail vintageamp@aol.com). Gregg Hopkins of VAR introduced me to Harry Joyce amps at the Dallas Guitar Show and allowed me to audition the 30, 50 and 100-watt models. They all sounded great, and the 30 watt amp was plenty for me. Gregg even installed different power tubes at my request. There a many speaker cab options available for the amp (speaker brand/model, cabinet type, etc) and Gregg was only too happy to go through all of them with me to discuss the sonic differences of each. The best thing is that there was no hype, no bulls**t, and no pressure during our discussions.

The Harry Joyce Custom 30 is a fabulous amp that covers the Hiwatt and Marshall sound really well. It's very versatile, looks good and sounds great. I primarily use it for classic rock, but I'm still discovering that it can do so much more. As with all "boutique" amps the main drawback is the cost. However, the quality of construction and the quality of the sound make the price of admission worth it.

At first glance the Harry Joyce Custom 30 looks like a pretty simple and basic vintage amp from the late 60's early 70's. Yes, easy to operate and control mostly from the players hands. I believe this is a feature of an amp just as important or more so than lots of bells and whistles. This amp is built for TONE,more on that later. This is a 30 watt amp using el34's, effects loop,0dbm slave out, four inputs on the front panel, normal and brilliant channels, you can combine the channels for different tones or use them seperately. Each having there own volume controls. Bass,mid,trebble,presence and master round out the tone controls. All tube hand wired circuit, absolutely beautiful. Another great feature is the wattage, perfect for smaller to medium clubs, open the amp up, and use your guitar volume controls to clean it up or dirty it up, this is vital in getting your own sound. Of all the amps I have owned through the years this one is hands down the best at responding to me and my hands and that is a great feeling, after all that's what music is all about.

This is what this amp is all about. I have used this amp with all the classic guitars, PRS included, and the first thing to say is that it will make all your guitars sound better, the notes are fatter, clearer, and sweeter, chords are cleaner, you can hear all the notes in the chords, cool, no more mush chords! Strats sound more "Straty,Tele's have better twang, and Les Pauls and PRS's sound monster big and sweet. All kinds of music and styles sound wonderful.
This amp has huge headroom,Big lows and high "highs", warm mids, but you can cut the mids for a really great modern metal sound,with a good distortion pedal added on if you like. My favorite pedal to add to the amp is the Fulldrive 2, this covers all the extra gain I may need since this is a tone amp, not a high gain modern metal amp. The overall tone of the amp reminds me of a "plexi 50" Marshall or older HiWatt, but a lot more "musical" than the old HiWatts and better headroom than the "plexi" Marshall's, for me the perfect mix of those 2 amps, the "dream" set up for many "players"!! I almost forgot to mention how quiet the amp was, even at high gain levels and presence levels it is unreal, you really don't hear it untill you hit a chord, this is one of the most impressive things about this amp, one word unreal!! This amp also records great just pure TONE.

Early HiWatt amps are known for there military spec. wirimg and bullet proof construction, this amp is wired by the same man that wired the early great HiWatts. Reliabilty and quality in these models are common knowledge in the amp industry. Even the tubes are of superb quality, never had a problem and probally never will!!

I obtained the amp from Gregg Hopkins at Vintage amp restoration in St. Louis, the U.S. distributor for these amps. He let me demo the amp for several days and put it through the paces at MY leisure and time!! Very cool, that's the truth test on equipment, I didn't get over excited in a music store, only to realize two days later at home this thing wasn't as happening as I thought, I think this has happened to most of us at some point in the musical journey!! Gregg builds the head boxes and combo's for the Harry Joyce amps, he also does costom cover work if you want something personall, vey cool indeed! These amps are lifetime warranty, wow, I'll probally never need it!! Gregg has a huge list of famous players he has done work for and sold these amps too, but he's just as kind to the "regular guys" as anybody in the business.

Overall the Harry Joyce Custom 30 is a GREAT amp, it covers all musical styles and tastes, It's 30 watt output is perfect for many venues and recording, plenty loud but not too much and extremely sweet sounding with great headroom make it sound huge without ear killing volume and being a AB amp it never gets too compressed or "flubby" as with a lot of class a amps! This amp is I believe the perfect cross between a "plexi" 50 watt Marshall sweet and crunchy, and the great headroom of a old HiWAtt, what a great combination!! This is a amp all to it's self, and I would by it all over again if I had to!!