Kendrick Black Gold 35 112 Combo

2005 1X10 Combo w/ reverb, pine cab tweed. Features Volume, Reverb, Treble and Bass controls. Tube rectified, one output tube single ended Class A,(you choose), one preamp 12ax7 and reverb tube. This Black Gold is point to point wired on garolite board. Wiring is cleanly done. Not a lot a features, just as it should. I do wish for a ext speaker jack, in fact thought it had one in discussion with Gerald but, not. Biasing a snap with points located on back for tube switching.
Said to be 5 watts with supplied GT KT66 tube (el34 or 5881 output), I have to say it is a loud five watts. Louder than typical "bedroom" amp. Can hear well enough when tilted back to play with drummer at practice. I have mic'ed for live use, and is great to monitor yourself and have the PA do the amplification.

Play with Stat, Tele, and LP style guitars. Going direct with quality cable and also put pedals in front of this amp. Using all high end stuff for reference. With vintage single coils sound/tone is a little weak till about 11:00 on the dial then its full bodied, hair on the notes around 12:30. I found this to pretty much be the case with a variety of tubes. Sound output varies directly with the tube so 6V6 are excellant for home, E34L or 6L6GC for playing with your band works well. Amp is very quiet and has recorded well. Overall tone is largely Tweed Fender, with a bit more spank ala Blackface. The tubes you select make a major impact on the tone, I can't understate this. Once you've got that dialed the amp plays as a comfortable extention of your fingers. Sustain is exeptional, overdrive is very nice Fender, although is does Humbuckers better than typical Fenders. Reverb is really great, natural rich addition to your tone.
I did replace the Black Frame speaker with a Tone Tubby Alnico 10. I personally do not like speaker breakup.

I have no doubt about the reliabilty of the circuit, but it's a tube amp and that means tubes. This hasn't been an issue for me but it needs to be considered. Of course if you reading these reviews your not going for solid state anyways.

Gerald is very friendly, but in all honestly I wonder if he's not maybe a little bit of a snake oil salesmen if you know what I mean. Just be certain to get the details clear if they matter to you.

I've owned a bit of gear with a pention for the good stuff. I'm now playing this over a Carr Slant 6 (usually attenuated with Dr. Z Air Brake), another fine amp but sounds compressed and unnatural comparred to the BG 5. I play with friends, fusion and roots and contemporary worship at church of about 300 ppl. I bought amp for home and recording but found it fairly loud and have been playing it live. Sound reinforcement is needed for the church but thats exactly what we want to do there. With so many great amps out there I don't know weather I'd buy it again, but there'd be a very chance I would. It is one of the tops. For comparison I have experience with Carr, vintage and current Fender, Boogie, Alessandro. I have played others like vintage Vox, Dr. Z, Matchless.

Easy to use, yet very versatile. One master tone, two input jacks for each channel -- clean and lead -- for different output levels. Three fantastic reverbs. What makes me give it a 10 rating is the fact that a user can mix the clean and lead channels together to produce sound anything in between the two with a notch more gain as both preamp tubes are burning!. Can take any power tubes and allows easy biasing with a voltmeter.

According to my 25 years of playing and experience, nothing compares to this amp. The amp brings out the true tone and sound of pickups and body & neck+fingerboard materials on different guitars. All my ten guitars sound different with the amp. I own a Mesa heartbreaker that I love very much, and the Mesa gets little playing time these days because of the Kendrick.

It is a 35W amp, but I had no problem combating against a Marshall DSL 100 in terms of volume.

Have owned it for about a month. No problem yet.

Too early to rate this.

Fantastic amp. As JV has sum it up, "if there is anything that sounds better than a Kendrick Black Gold 35, I want to hear it." If it breaks down or stolen, I will do everything to find a replacement. I am sure other Kendricks are as good, so there are plenty of supply in terms of that. However, in terms of quality/dollar, I don't see any that beats Black Gold 35.

Thansk and kudos to Mr. G. Weber.

Same as others have described below. One worthy note is, you can mix the clean and lead channels to create the sounds that all tone freaks are after, SRV being an example. Fantastic three reverbs. Easy to bias for different tubes.

I own 10 guitars and they all sound different with this amp. This is not the case with my other amps, for example with a Mesa Boogie heartbreake that I love very much. This Black & Gold 35 brings out the true tone and sound of guitar pickups and also the tone charateristics of the body and neck wood materials. What is also impressive is the fact that it sounds good at all volume levels. Very sensitive and responsive to your pick attack as well. As Jimmie Vaughang has put, "I'd like to hear if there is any amp sounding better than this one."

Had no problem yet but too early to rate.

Had no problem yet. Too early to rate.

I have played guitar since 1980. I have used and heard many amps and the Kendrick Black & Gold 35 is the best sounding amp so far (based on my personal experience with Fender 65 reverb reissue, Fender Bassman reissue, Fender 65 Deluxe, Mesa Boogie heartbreaker, Mesa Boogie Blue Angel, Johnson Marquis JM60 modelling amp, a variety of "not so impressive" Line 6 products, and so on.)

My Kendrick "35" was built in Dec.97,probably one of the first ones built.My style of music is not modern D-tuned metal,yet complex enough to include '50s,'60s and '70s styles from early rock,to hard rock.This amp is definitely versatile enough for myself,as well as my friend's style.Between the two of us,we have roughly 40 yrs.of experience playing guitars through amps of all origins.Having extensively played through this amp for roughly 3 months,the verdict is now in!This amp has two chanels,a low gain(clean) and a high gain(overdrive)and chanel switching is done only with A/B box.There's also a pedal for reverb on/off,as well as an ext.speaker(8 ohms),line out,and the best of all,a feature called quick bias which enables the user to dial in bias through a multi-meter without disassembly of chassis and cabinet.This, of course,means you no longer search for,wait for,pay for the amp tech to change your power tubes.The idea is more than just long awaited,don't you think?In addition,you are the judge in how your sound is processed,clean with alot of headroom,or with break-up sooner for amazing overdrive.Oh,and you can also run the amp with a lower voltage going through the transformer,which is done by switching the rectifier tube from a 5ar4 to a 5r4,and power tubes from 6l6 to 6v6.This must also be counted among featurs.The amp also has a 12"speaker that sounds like a vint.30 celestion,cabinet is built of century old pine(I'm not kidding!)making the most beautiful projection I've ever heard from a single 12".She's 35 watts of pure tube heaven with hand wound paper bobin transformers,(the real way of making quality parts),solid steel- weld chassis,and many stainless steel screws(not coated steel)in areas which in time would rust-out.Now the inards of this contemporary/classic work of art.GERALD WEBBER (owner of the company), had an idea to build a boutique amp at an affordable price, yet retain the quality and mystique in tone.This is done by a PTP power section with a high quality glass-fibre pre-amp board.The caps are all SPRAGUE-ATOM type,soldering is impecable with a very clean lay-out.Military spec rectifier,you get the idea.The man is sucessful in his origial quest!KILLER TONE is atchieved with affordability!Four inputs allow you to get an array of tones by plugging in a patch cord BASSMAN style.Volume knobs are interactive,slightly adjusting mids when in use.REVERB is of three knob type,easily the best design of all.I'm rating this BEAST at 9, because I've never seen 'nor heard a perfect 10.

The gutar I'm using is a G&L S-500 with CUSTOM SHOP '54 PUPS.The amp is a cross between a VOX AC-30 and a TWEED DELUXE FENDER.My style of play is a combination of many legendary players, such as,MARK KNOPFLER,STEVIE RAY and JIMMY LEE VAUGHN,HENDRIX of course,RY COODER,DUKE ROBILLARD,ROBBIE BLUNT of early ROBERT PLANT solo fame,and the REVEREND G BILLY GIBBONS.The amp is perfect for my style having the FENDER reverb and TWEED tone with VOXY tightness and glass.She's as noisy as any great vintage amp is and should be,seeing how quietness in function usually equals crappyness in TONE.Variety in TONES are many,through manipulation of reverb,volume,and tone controls,variations of this KILLER TONE really come through!The amp is extremely touch sensitive(MARSHALL '60's)and warm,with an open sound ,but not BLACKFACE type.Break-up is just right from CLEAN to DRIVE,remaining transparent and retaining definition throughout.I've never played an amp with this kind of TONE.The TONE in my head and in my dreams is now a reality after all these years of fruitless pursuits through avenues of so called tried and true company's offerings of what real TONE is.Remember that when a type of quality has been missing for decades,it thus becomes unknown in present terms allowing for today's so called experts to define what is of true origin.Corporations love to make money, at any cost,especially in areas of build.RULE 1:Original design musical equipment was not made with foreign parts or in foreign countries.When paying your hard earned money for these items,would'nt it be wise to investigate said company's goal?Is it stock value? or true quality of build regardless of volume sales of said product? KENDRICK IS A SMALL COMPANY DEDICATED TO AWAKING THIS PRESENT MASS OF MUSICAL SLEEP-WALKERS,RIDDING THEM OF FALSE UNDERSTANDINGS OF TONE AND SHOWING THEM THE TRUE PATH TO "THE ORIGINAL SOUND".ALSO OF NOTE ARE OTHER COMPANIES WITH THE SAME QUEST.VICTORIA,DR.Z, BEING VERY GOOD EXAMPLES.

I bought this amp used because previous owner needed the money.This baby was giged with extensivley right up until I bought it.I have been playing with it at 70% volume for the better part of 3 months,averaging 3 hours per night without a problem.She even has the original rectifier tube,which will be replaced when I get around to it.I haven't had her long enough to accurately rate in this category.

I recently sent him (GERALD) an e-mail cogradulating him of his pure quest to atain his goal.His response was to the point and hard-hitting just like his amp,without the polically correct jargon of todays many builders.He strikes me as a proud person who has an ego and can easily be taken wrongly by modern gray area thinkers.I have worked with my hands since I was 8 yrs.old and share many of his traits that have been obtained from frustrating modern build methods of others who make the very few of us honest people work twice as hard to prove quality has no substitutes, NO MATTER THE COST.

I've been playing for 15 yrs. mostly deaf due to lack of true tone.Approximately a year prior to obtaining this amp I had reduced my playing time to 1 night a week,not knowing why and believing I had lost interest in guitar naturaly because I was getting older (33).I had always found my equipment through interviews of my favorite players understanding TONE comes from within the individual,not from the equipment the person plays through,although it helps being so inspired by your own individual sound from the source that it comes out of.JIMMY VAUGHN says through an interview in GUITAR PLYER ARCHIVES,I believe in '98,that he can't believe the sound of this amp.There is also a review in the gear archives where the amp gets a perfect score,and it does deserve it!I have played through many re-issue amps believing company hype of how great the products were and they never lived up to expectations.If lost or stollen, I WOULD CERTAINLY BUY ANOTHER ONE AT FULL COST!!!!WORDS DO NOT DESCRIBE MY RENEWED PASSION FOR PLAYING.AS GERRALD SAYS "TONEFULLY YOURS"Happy hunting,because you won't find one easily.

1X12 speaker, 2 6L6 power tubes, canarywood cabinet

I play a Frankenstein strat and an Epi 335, mostly blues. The clean and overdriven sounds were excellent, initially it was the tone I was looking for.

This amp worked great on the showroom floor and the afternoon that I took it home and that was it. The very first gig I took it on, it developed a buzz on any F# or Bb that could only be described as an ultra-amplified bee in a coke can. No preamp tube would last 3 days before going microphonic and and the rectifier tube blew after about a month and a half.

I don't know if Kendrick was at fault or the dealer, but I couldn't get the thing sent back to be examined. NO one could tell me what was wrong with it.

I bought this amp because it sounded fantastic in the store, however the love affair stopped immediately after. It sounded great the first day of playing in my living room, but the first gig I took it on it developed the buzz I mentioned above. I tried to figure out the cause of the buzzing to no avail. The baffle board was so tight against the chassis that it had to be removed to take the chassis out. To make matters worse, every single mounting screw in the baffle board was stripped out and sloppily placed. The vibration to the chassis caused by this shook every preamp tube into microphonics after a couple of days. I wound up having to take the speaker out of the cabinet and put it in a extension cab to even be able to gig with this amp- which compromised the tone to a good degree. After the rectifier tube blew, I gave up and just took the amp back to the dealer and left it. I wouldn't buy another one if you forced me at gunpoint

Blues amp. Simple, volume & tone. 3 knob reverb. Has all the features I need.

I think the tone is great. I have over 20 amps, and this one is my main gigging amp. It always sounds good, takes about 2 seconds to dial it in for different rooms. I play blues with strats. Very clean tone, starts to break up nicely about 3/4 volume. With a tubescreamer this thing is awesome. I use it straight for rythym and kick in the tubescreamer for leads.

I always take a backup no matter what amp I use. I bought it new, rectifier tube went out about 3 months in. Speaker blew at 9 months.
Both problems covered by warranty.
No other problems so far. I must admit I`m a little nervous now....

With both warranty problems, Kendrick guys immediately fixed me up. Friendly, fast. Questions I`ve asked have been answered, emails returned. Warranty was 6 months on tubes, one year on amp/spkr.

Been playing 25 years. Own a bunch of amps and guitars. I`d buy another. I love the tone, period. Great shimmery clean strat, very responsive to subtle changes in playing, makes a crappy guitar sound good. Guitars that sounded very close to one another on other amps, now sound totally different. I don`t like the cheap plastic corners, I also added another metal strip in the handle, it just felt flimsy for the weight. I love the easy bias. I prefer the simplicity.

Two volumes, one tone, 3 knob reverb. easy bias feature

I really tried to like this thing for almost a year. I tried various speakers (this was a 1-12 combo) If I had to describe my overall feeling about the tone, it would be: DULL. No sparkle at all. I learned a very expensive leason on this one. I heard one at a noisy show. It was kind of like picking up a woman when you're drunk and the next morning realizing she's not nearly as pretty to your now sober eyes. The single tone knob on the Fender Pro Jr works for me but not on this amp. When you try to get more highs it also seems to change the mids in a way that did not please my ears. Not enough presence.

I had to return the amp to Kendrick to replace the bad input jacks. It came back unrepaired so I sent it in again. Gerald is a very nice fellow (I think) In addition to finnaly fixing the problem, they modded the reverb. That greatly improved the reverb but I just couldn't get the tone I was looking for. I had to eat the UPS charges (one way , twice)

The repairs(?) were done and the amp was returned very quickly

I've been playing 33 years and have owned many amps. A used Deluxe or Vibrolux reverb would be a much better and cheaper alternative. I honestly don't believe it is anyone's place to pass tone judgement or slam a particular manufacturer, these observations and opinions are my own. I will say this company does seem to be long on promise and short on delivery. It's my own fault really. I wanted something "different" and I got it. I sold it at a huge loss. It was like my experience with a Rickenbacker guitar. I most likely would not buy another Kendrick product. I've tried the "Greenframe" and "Blackframe" speakers and that should have been my first clue. I thought they both sounded strange. (My opinion) I fell for the propagnda in all the ads for the Black Gold and I learned that those Guitar Player Mag. "shootouts" can't be trusted. In closing I will say the amp had a lot going for it: Pine cabinet, 3 knob reverb and a very cool easy bias feature that I wisk all amps had. The company's owner is very friendly and will happily answer and return phone calls. Try one you might like but I hope you still like it the morning after.