Mission Amps MA-A18 112 Combo

Brand new hand built tube amp. http://www.missionamps.com/
18W, 6V6 pair, two 12AX7 (ships with additional 12AY7 for reduced gain in either Inverter or Preamp position, if so inclined). Hi and Low inputs. Volume, Treble, Bass, and Master controls. Power and Standby switches. Ceramic 12" Weber modified speaker standard.
Illuminated "Boost" footswitch. Custom made Power and Output transformers. Tube rectification.
Well built, with very nice two-tone retro styling. The one I played through sported black chicken head knobs on a Fenderish-looking top-mount chassis. (Personally, I think it would look better and distinguish itself further by having different knobs. Maybe round vintage-white (kinda cream colored), or blood-red chicken heads...but that's a minor quibble, and anyone can always replace them. Perhaps he could even offer a variety, or take comments about which would look best?
I rated this 8 because it doesn't offer channel-switching, effects loops, etc. It is what it is. May be it could rate higher for those who know simplicity and fewer features actually equal better tone.

I got a chance to run this through it's paces for an hour or two, and I liked it. It is NOT for those kids twiddling in the music store who think good tone sounds like "bumblebees with buzzsaws". It's for those who like dynamics, responsiveness, and the natural feel and compression of real tube tone. I imagined, though, that it may work well with a distroyoto-matic tone-sucking box in front of it, if one is so inclined to destroy good tone in that manner. This thing sorta straddles the areas of Vox-y "chime" and Fender-ish vintage "round", depending on how it's set.
The boost switch seems unique in comaprison to many others I have played through. It adds and extra girth and grunge to the sound, but it doesn't boost the level dramatically, just a small bit that seems like it may be just enough to pop out in a lead guitar break in a full band setting. I can't honestly claim that I KNOW it will be enough because I was not in a live band setting, and really cannot know if it would be quite enough or not. It is something, though, that he would probably be willing to modify if the need arised.
The responsiveness is great on this amp. I played a Strat through it, and it cleaned up well by backing off the Strat's volume a bit, without losing a lot of perceived volume. In fact, with the boost switch on, I could back it down to pretty much non-boost tone and volme, and then simply dime the Strat volume for more overdrive and a bit of boost.
He is working on higher power models, and also, reverb models. I believe these would be good club and recording amps for blues or pop-rock. I pretty much didn't even really miss having a reverb on this, since it seemed to "bloom" pretty well, especially when we tweaked it into a "chimey" setting. I would imagine one with reverb may be a good country-pickin' amp.
We could NOT get it into Marshall or Boogie quash zone by itself, but it remains to be seen if it likes a TS9 or DS1 or Big-Muff or whatever your weapon of destruction might be.
Responsive, dynamic, and a lot of control for differing sounds with both amp and guitar controls.
I rated this 9 because it does cover quite a bit of territory, sounds great, but is only lacking in that it doesn't severely distort, which some people prefer. This amp, without front-end help, is not for them. It does have a nice range of clean to semi-overdrive though.

Bruce Collins hand-builds the amp portion for every one of these, and I can attest to his proficiency. These are not made in a Chinese factory by near-slave labor on an assembly line to be sold at many times the cost of production, and contributing to our out-of-control trade imbalance. (Sorry..a little frustration, there). They are built by Bruce's near-slave wages just because he takes pride in his products.
I am not going to rate this, as these are new and have very little real-world track record, but if I were to guess what it will be rated after a few years, it will most certainly be very high.

When you call or email Mission Amps with a question, concern or idea, you don't get routed to some clueless person in India who changed their "help-line" name to Chuck...you talk to Bruce.
I must make a disclaimer, as if anyone already couldn't tell. I know Bruce personally in a business context. That context is that I have taken amps to him for repair, and I have built a couple of Fender clone kits for a friend that he supplied.
Bruce is extremely helpful and generous with his knowledge. Some techs simply want you to leave the amp for them to perform their "mysterious and proprietary magic" on...and "Please don't ask me questions...it's better than before. Now, about that payment plan".
Bruce will document and provide answers to questions. He will not replace a part that does not need it, simply to sell and charge more. He may SUGGEST changing a part, and then explain why and what it will cost, and let you make the choice.
For this, I give this category a 10.

I've been playing 20+ years and own (or have owned) everything from a small Supro Bantam to the mighty Marshall JCM800, and assorted members of the Fender food group (Deluxe Reverb, BF Bandmaster, VibroChamp, Blues Jr.), etc. I also like to find oddball cheapos for a good price, like Univoxes and other older tube amps. (They all have their own character).
(I'd like to own one of these one day, but will have to wait at least until I pay off my price-gouged utility bills.)
As I am unsure of the actual price he will charge, I will give it an overall 9 rating. The numbers he was bantering about, though, (and I'm not at liberty to repeat), seemed like these will be a very reasonable deal for a hand-built all-tube amp. For the actual prices, Mission Amps will need to be contacted.