Tamerlane Amplifiers Queen Jane Head

This amp was made new for me and completed in the early part of 2006 and it is the first Queen Jane ever produced so I suppose you could call it the prototype. The Queen Jane is loosely based on the Vox AC-30 amplifier in that the Queen shares the vox's quartet of el-84 power tubes and a GZ-34 recifier tube as well as being biased very hot and very close to class-A (although vox amps are often called class-a amps they are actually hot, cathode-biased A/B amps). This amp has two channels: channel one has-input, volume, treble, bass, and middle tone controls and channel two has- input, volume, treble, and bass controls. I should also mention that there is a global cut control as well, which is similar to a presence control but works in reverse. Channel one is loosely based on a vox top boost circuit with two 12ax7's, one of which was swapped with a 12ay7 for a cleaner preamp. Channel two is a completely different preamp that is based around an octal preamp tube the 6sn7 (which may also be subsituted for a 6sl7 for more/less grind). Plugging into channel #1's input also routes your signal to channel two so you can blend the volumes of both channels to taste...just want to play through channel #1? Just turn down the volume of channel #2 all the way. Plugging into channel #2's input accesses channel #2 only. On the back of the amp there is a speaker phase switch, an impedance selector for your speaker cabs, two speaker input jacks and a half power switch that disables 2 of the el-84's for around 15 watts of power. The amp is covered in a blue-sparkle tolex with gold piping that looks absolutely fantastic. I have more than a few people comment on how beautiful the amp looks. Also it is equipped with massive mercury magnetics transformers and is wired completely point-to-point and Gar's work is very clean.

I use this amp with a PRS hollowbody with a spruce top and a reissue fender thinline telecaster with rio-grande pickups. I should also mention I use a massive amount of effects including pretty much all the moogerfooger pedals, a lovetone cheese source, an analogman sunlion, and a vox wah. This amp sound amazing!!! I have a matching blue-sparkle 1X12 cab loaded with a 50 watt Weber blue-dog speaker and the amp and cab combo just kill! The weber blue dog really brings out the high-end sparkle of this amp perfectly. Channel one is bright, clean, and shimmering with harmonics just like a great vox top boost. Cranking the volume on this channel brings in a crunchy grind that with a 12ax7 in both slots can get sort of old-school marshall sounding (it actually sounded pretty close to my friend's marshall jtm-45 combo, only with more shimmer and dynamic control). Channel two is completerly different sounding and complements channel one so well. It is warm, mellow, and crunchy. Channel two has significantly less volume than channel one but also stays cleaner for a bit longer. The way I use the amp is with both channels simultaneously running by just plugging into channel one's input (which accesses both channels). I keep channel one's volume around 9 or ten o-clock and channel two's volume around 11 or 12 o-clock. Then I just tweak the tone controls until I have something that sounds great, which is very easy to do. I like to keep channel one pretty trebly and then warm it up by using channel two. What's great about the amp for me is that I can set the tone controls so that they sound great with my tele and then I can switch to my PRS and simply use the cut control to get a little more high-end out of the amp...simple and very effective. This amp is quite loud and it would probably be even louder through a 2x12 cab, I have personally not needed to use one yet. For mellower jazz gigs you can switch it to half power mode, which is very useful and really does make the amp sound a lot quieter and well as give a bit more spongy response, in full power the amp is very articulate and punchy. Also, like most great el-84 equipped amps that I have played, the Queen Jane sounds bright at lower volumes on your guitar and as you crank your guitar up it becomes much more thick and bassy. This amp is incredibly dynamic and lush and what you put into it is what you get out of it...truely fantastic!

When I first got the amp it worked great on a couple of gigs and then it blew out on me...just stopped working, in the middle of a solo-arrrrgh!. I emailed Gar (the one man show of Tamerlane amps) and he suspected a bad power tube. He was right! I got a new set of groove tubes el-84's and the amp's been running great ever since. It's simply the nature of vox-style circuits to eat up power tubes so you really can't skimp on this part, get some real quality tubes and you should be good to go. If there ever was a problem with this amp Gar would easily fix it and it has a great warranty too.

Gar is the absolute best. This really and truely is a custom amp for a production-amp price. Gar and I over the course of about a billion emails came up with the Queeen Jane- I told him what I wanted and he executed it. Gar makes amps that are vintage-styled but with modern ideas...they aren't just duplicates of vintage designs but are something new and very unique while still retaining that vintage amp feel and tone as well as build quality. You won't even get the this level of customer support with most boutique manufacturers, let alone fender or marshall. One truely gets the impression that Gar really CARES. I don't mean to sound corny but it's true: he is an extremely gracious, passionate, and helpful person and a wonderful asset to the music world. I really can't say enough good things about Gar and Tamerlane Amplifiers.

An absolute slam-dunk!!! The Queen Jane is not only one of the finest amps I've had the pleasure of playing in my fifteen years of playing guitar, but it is also one of the finest values out there in guitarland. It could be customized by Gar to suit anyone's style-that's certainly what he did for me. Imagine calling up fender and asking them to customize your twin reverb with a different color tolex or a specific-style preamp...it just wouldn't happen! And if it did you'd be shelling out major bucks for it. I know it's hard for a lot of people out there who want something great but don't knwo exactly what it is. It can be very frustrating as a musician to want a certain thing, and be looking for it, but never find it. I can guarentee you if you check out what Tamerlane Amps has to offer and then email Gar with your specific needs you will be rewarded with one of the greatest amps you could ever imagine, and it's specifically tailored for your needs! What more could you aks for? Oh, maybe that the amp be under $2000? No problem!! Gar prices his amp for REAL working musicians. Surr matchless amps are great and I've played my fair share of them. I love old-school fenders too...but come on, do you really WANT to pay $3000 and up for an amp?! Non one does and you don't have to, Gar can build you the amp of your dreams and it'll cost lest than pretty much any vintage or boutique offering out there! And that's fo trealz!