Speedster Class A 40 Head

If you're looking for some kind of toggle switch want-to-be-all kind of amp this ain't it. However it does have several unique features which are effective, unique, and of great use. The range of sounds from this amp can cover just about anything though I might lean elsewhere for super clean. Certainly excels anywhere in the rock vein. The voicing switch is very useful. I don't think labeling it humbucker/single mode was the right choice. Basically it gives you the option of a big fat mid boost that makes it roar. Half power switch allows use of 2 or 4 el84s and gives you some different sounds as well. True master bypass. Active EQ which is very different than your typical and much more effective than usual. If you don't use your ears and just set it like always it won't sound good. Great looking amp to boot.

This is really hard to describe. I use a variety of LP, Tele, and Strat type guitars with it for anything from pop to blues/rock. Though the amp in general lands in the Marshall/Vox camp it has a harmonic character that is completely unique. No matter what mode you use it in the notes always ring out distinctively and just bloom into richness. Everything from gritty chime to endless sustain can be found just by adjusting your guitar volume. I rarely go past 12:00 on the amp volume as it has plenty of gain on tap. Speaker cab is nice and stock speakers do a nice job of covering broad ground. Some might prefer swapping them with the usual suspects for certain sounds.

After playing for 20+ yrs and owning many of the "best" amps out there all I can say is you have to hear it to get it. There's nothing out there quite like it.

I don't think the military could build a more robust piece of equipment.

These can be hard to find. Don't pass up if you come across one.

Ultra responsive amp that lets me do everything from the Beatles to just shy of Guns n Roses, when plugged straight into the amp. It can easily go way beyond with the help of an OD pedal. I have covered Metallica tunes with it along with my Fulltone Fulldrive. It is also really LOUD!!! Loud enough to play live without it mic'd, even with a monster drummer!

Four knobs (Preamp, Bass, Treble, Volume). The treble and bass are interactive, and are super responsive.

High and Low inputs, and a switch that lets you choose between voicings (Vox/Marshall). Half power switch.

Four JJ Electronic EL84's and 2 JJ 12AX7's. 40 stupidly loud watts.

Only feature I wish it had would be the ability to footswitch the two voicings, but otherwise it's perfect.

Comes with matching 2x12 16ohm cab with Eminence Stonhenge speakers.

I play this amp with a variety of Les Pauls with either Burstbucker's, or Duncan Alnico 2's. My signal path is made up of a Crybaby Classic, Korg pitchblack tuner, Lovepedal Purple Plexi 800, and a Fulltone Fulldrive. I had to start playing around with different cables when I got this, due to the clarity of this amp's input. My George L's sounded too bright and I switched back to my old Mogami's, which are a bit darker sounding. I also have switched over to using a Bogner 4x12 cab with Vintage 30's and Greenbacks, as the matching 2x12 didn't really do it for me.

This amp is really surprising with how much ground covers. I play in a fairly hard rock band along the lines of Motley Crue meets Aerosmith. This amp nails that style of guitar tone with very little effort, but has a very unique sound to it. I mostly play through the humbucker mode, high input, with the volume at about 2:00 (LOUD!!!) and the preamp at about 11:00. That is my base "rock" sound, and it sounds huge and cuts through everything without the piercing highs that would make my eardrums bleed. The preamp starts getting really compressed once you go past noon on the dial.

To really take this amp to the next level, I use a Fulldrive. This pedal sounds perfect with this amp, as it has a switch with a midrange bump to it, and a ton more gain and sustain. For me, it just slightly fills in the lower end to my liking, but does not change the overall character of the amp. The Lovepedal is a bit too much for this amp, but works great for smoother leads.

I don't use the single coil mode much, because I like to set everything once and go. I have spent some time in this mode, and it sounds amazing for cleans to a compressed Vox-like overdrive.

My only gripe with the amp is that it does have a fair amount hiss, even with the gain and volume really low. It is not an issue when playing live, but has been a bit of a pain to deal with when recording.

I was not a huge fan of the speakers in the matching cabinet. I gave them about a two month run with them being broken in, but they just didn't do it for me. They just seemed a bit to hard sounding when compared to my Vintage 30/Greenback mix. The cabinet is really well built, and I will be switching the speakers out to Greenbacks.

As for the distortion being brutal, this is not a Bogner Uberschall or a Diezel. It is a classy sounding, vintage voiced amp with tons of character. I can get as heavy a sound as I need from this amp with the simple use of an overdrive pedal. I'm a huge fan of the 80's "guitar gods", and I have no problem getting those type of tones.

I've never seen an amp built as nicely as this one. I have been playing shows about 3-4 nights a week with no backup since I got it. So far, so good. I don't anticipate any issues with an amp of this quality.

I bought it brand new on Ebay directly from the designer. He gave his personal warranty for 5 years, and he return emails. That is good enough for me.

I have been playing for over 20 years, and about 8 of them have been full time out on the road. I've played through all of the latest and greatest of amps at NAMM shows, through friends, and at recording studios, and this is up there with the best.

I was a die hard Bogner Shiva player for many years, and I have since replaced it with this head. It has an entirely different character to it, but still has that tight, British character to it that I love.

The only amp I can think of that would be slightly in the range of this amp, would be the Divided by 13 RSA 31. I was set on buying the D13 before coming across the Speedster, but the price was too good to pass up. They are both incredible amplifiers, and I will still probably get one to go along with the Speedster.

I highly recommend this amp if you could find one. There were only about 50 made.

I USE 2 A 40,S SPEEDSTERS HUGE PEDAL BOARD OUT TO BOTH AMPS IN STEREO, ALL GRETSCH WHITE FALCONS AND TENNESSEANS WITH TV JONES PICK UPS.I WROTE THE PREVIUOS REVIEW AND GOT TO TALK WITH ERIC COLLINS THE MAKER BOUGHT ANOTHER SO I GUESS THAT ANSWERS THAT READ ON

LIKE TANKS BEST IN THE WORLD I HAVE HAD EVERYTHING MARSHALL, BOOGIE, FENDER, LINE 6 ETC I PLAY THE CLUBS 150-2OO SHOWS A YEAR NEVER HAS ANY OF MY AMPS GO DOWN

THOUGHT I WAS SCREWED WHEN THEY WENT OUT THEN THROUGH E BAY I BOUGHT AND SPOKE TO ERIC COLLINS THE GUYS GOT HIS PERSONAL BACK UP OF 5 YEARS ON THEM I,M SOLD

BEEN PLAYIN A 100 YEARS FROM ROCKABILLY, HARD ROCK, METAL TO COUNTRY WE ARE THE BONESHAKERS FLORIDAS HOTTEST ROCK N ROLL ACT ON EARTH WE DO IT ALL AND THE SPEEDSTERS KICK ASS, MAN I CAN USE ANYTHING I WANT AND THESE HAVE THAT GROWL AND EDGE! HE ONLY MADE 50 OF THESE SO YOU CAN'T GET ONE ANYHOW UNLESS SOME IDIOT WAS TO SELL HIS BUT ONCE IN A WHILE THERES A IDIOT OUT THERE SELLING A SPEEDSTER GOOD LUCK

I HAVE A SPEESTR A 40 AND A SPEEDSTER 25 DELUXE RUN THEM IN TRUE STEREO, MY SOUND IS LIKE NO OTHER MY NAME IS JOHNNY COF THE BONESHAKERS WWW.THEBONESHAKERS.NET GIVE A LISTEN AND YOU WILL KNOW

HAVE A HUGE PEDAL BOARD AND MOST OF MY GAINS ARE FULLTONE FULLDRIVE AND GT 500 AMPS SOUNDS KILLER

I BEAT THE **** OUT OF THEM ON GIGS 150-200 A YEAR FIRST A 40 WENT DOWN THE FIRST 6 MONTHES THEY GAVE ME A NEW ONE ON THE SPOT

HELL THERE OUT OF BUSINESS AND SO IS THE MUSIC STORE I BOUGHT IT AT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS I,M SCREWED BUT I STILL LOVE THEM

KILLER TONE AND COLLECTABLE OVRALL GREAT AMP AND WOULD BUY AGAIN BU I THNK 2 FENDER VIBRO KINGS WOULD BE MY NEXT COICE

I just got back from a three week tour of hungary with my band the GREG LEON INVASION, We played on a metal fest tour at large sports arena's with some very heavy rock bands.We couldnt bring all my normal equipment, just guitars,pedals. I was lent two half stacks of the speedster class A 40 wow what an amp !!!!!. I had three days to reherse with them,I liked them right away.I play melodic hard rock and these amps really surprised me,incredible gain,sustain,tone,feel,I could here everything in my playing ,I dont know what you would call it, maby clean distortion, not a lot of noisey shit interfearing with my sound

I play vintage les pauls and old strats in a bluesy hard rock style almost metal.the amps are very quiet even the gain was way up [impressive]. My style is hendrix,blackmore,winter,trower,vanhalen,moore,gallagher,I was in dokken so some shread too! the amps did it all.the amps are one channel so when I wanted clean I just backed my guitar volume down it worked perfect for me.I never turned the pre amp past twelve noon when I needed more gain I hit my speedster turbo pedal,[I've been hip to these for awhile].

I beat the shit out of these mothers and they took it all, the amps are hand soldered, point to point.built like a tank. I own an amp repair shop in hollywood california so I had to take a look inside I think it's probabaly the best built amp in america right now. thay worked great night after night.

I dont know I didn't need any help with the amps

I've been playing for 30 years, I also own 4 5150 amps [moded] 3 1971 marshall 100 watt amps 20 misc. fender heads and some other amps I also have 12 412 marshall bottoms 6 stacks [I wish I could get away with using all of them!!!!]. I loved how easy it was to get a great tone with the speedster class A 40 . It would be nice if they had an effects loop, There was nothing I didnt like about this amp, I got complements every night on my tone!

2005 Sppedster The amp is pretty versatile; very simplistic in a pleasing way, there are some fun options, but it basically has a sweet spot that sounds good for any guitar at the same basic settings. The master volume is very useful and helps with nuance, more on this later. The single coil-humbucker switch is not so useful. Something like an effects loop would be nice. A fan for the tubes might be nice as they idle really hot. Make a combo version with ceramic or alnico 12 options!

Les Paul, G&L ASAT, Stratocaster...chord pounding, blues to chimes...pop alt. music. I decided to buy this amp after hearing it for less than a minute. I have owned many class A el84 amps ( AC 30s, etc..) this has a superior tone. Demo'd out of several cabinets. It is a quiet amp...the baseline tonal character of the amp is sparkling with that compressed, squeezy single string sound...It overdrives much harder than an AC30, etc...It's all about the iron, massive transformers put some real heft into the tone, pretty awesome. The eq controls are subtle and don't let you go too far into wackiness. Fantastic harmonics from the amp...As it was shipped, the power tubes are great. The amp definitely lacks the headroom necessary to work with; it gets grainy and a bit nasty with the preamp past 12:00. When pushed too far the amp goes into the useless mud of squarewave city like all good class A's do...There is hope, address your preamp tubes and it can be reigned in...When this is done, the tonal versatility of the amp is greatly broadened and it flat out rocks. It does beautiful clean with plenty of sustain power, but is now able to take baby steps to rock town. Play "Won't Get Fooled Again" with a Les Paul through the amp with the gain just beginning to really bite and plenty of master volume...AMAZING, it kills any amp that I have ever owned. It is infinitely recordable...Of note, the 20watt setting never sounds as good, with any guitar, setting or style. The humbucker setting never sounded as good, cutting lows and highs, but... there are some instances where it would help cut for recording sessions, so it isn't without merit. It is loud and very musical, you want to write songs playing out of this amp; it will get very jaded players fired up. Answering the question: the distortion is not brutal or modern hi-gain, but it is so British, like the Who or the Jam, just excellent and springy. I will give this a 9 because the tube adjustment is an easy fix ( I won't say what I did because this was my aesthetic decision and people should use their own ears).

As I saidm the amp idles at quite a few watts per tube, pretty freakin' hot, even for a class A. I would like a center mounted cooling/exhaust fan. It is reassuring to have a solid state rectifier, as I was always blowing the tube rectifier in my Vox. Construction is solid, good switches, etc...the guts ( a very nice printed circuit board and really top notch wiring/parts) are very solid. There is no skimping on anything; it should be very durable by comparison.

I have pared down to just a few amps with this being the primary; it is a very inspiring piece of equipment. I would replace it if lost. The look is much less polished and distinctive than the 25 watt, not sure why..they could have even gone with the same motif. It looks fine, with a nice color, but certainly does not rise to the occaision as a piece of design art; it's the amp that matters, though. I would have bought the cab if it used something other than Emminence...Celestion V30, G12H might be nice ( the cab isn't too cool looking, either, but it is damn hard to outsource something unique; better to get it to market...it's that good). I love the simplicity and fairly instant tone. I would like a midrange control rather than fixed switching..other cool things would be a nicer handle, a spare fuse clip, color choices...not much to ask for. You guys should try a higher gain el34 amp with channel switching to compete with the Star stuff.

This is a brand new hand built model built in Oct 2004 in Gig Harbor WA. I play mostly rock and jazz and found this amp perfect for all styles. If you are a fan of British tone you will not be disappointed. It is a single channel 40 watt tube class A design (switchable to 20 watts) has 4 EL84 power tubes in a full size head, there are high and low inputs, Pre, treble, bass, & master. These are basic controls but extremely flexible in shaping the sound from crystaline highs to aggressive crunch and raunch. The match 2x12 cabinet has a baffled back, the drivers are mounted diagonally providing a mini half stack appearance with the head. I jammed on this amp for the last two days in my home studio and fell in love with the indredible tone. It gets plenty loud and will cut through all mixes, don't worry if your drummer is loud the Class "A" 40 will rise to the top. I am a new convert to boutique tube amps and Speedster is in a league of it's own, it would be hard to find better tone at this price and build quality.

I used my Gibson Les Paul Special w/P90's and ES335 copy w/humbuckers finding no flaw in this amp to extract every note. It was very easy to make adjustments to select the perfect voice for each guitar. I could dial in the greatest tone and loved played all styles of music since the amp was so transparent and versitile. The overdrive had the Marshallesque vibe I miss on other US made amps. While this amp cannot produce the "rectifier" od, this is not a weakness as you can easily add a pedal to replicate.

Speedster builds these amps like "tanks" ready for battle. The fit and finish is what one would expect at this price and in fact may be overbuilt for most folks. I would be more than comfortable using it for any gig without a backup. I would expect little or no service requirements with exception of new tubes periodically, this is built that well.

The Speedster folks are amazing, its not everyday you can meet the founder and designer of your amp. They were extremely helpful and provided me with the history of the company and amp. This amp and cabinet has a 10year warranty, tubes have 90's what more do you need or want. As they become more popular and I have no doubt they will which increase their dealer distribution so if you need service you will have someone local. I live in Washington about 40 miles from the factory and 20 miles from a dealer.

I have been playing for over 30 years with nearly 10 in Chicago rock band. We recorded 2 cds and toured the midwest. I would make every effort to get another Speedster 40 if anything happened to this one. I have owned and used Marshall heads, combos, Mesa combos, Peavey 5150 and Classic series, I love tube amps and this Speedster is my favorite to date and may be my last amp. It is not inexpensive but with the price of all gear going up especially products made in the USA you could spend less on some other brand but get so much less value. For folks with a big investment in guitars you owe it to yourseIf to really hear it, why skimp on the amp. If you are looking for your tone then put Speedster on you audition short list.