Product: Tatoo Amplification Tribal 45 Head
Price Paid: US $875
Submitted
08/08/2003
at
07:19am
by
M.LANDAU (but not the one you're thinking of)
Features
:
10
This amp was hand made by Tatoo in 2002. All of their amplifiers are hand made one-by-one by the owner Tommy. He was great. He kept me informed via e-mail and, I believe, jpegs, of the construction progress all along.
The amplifier is in essence a hand-made all point-to-point wired JTM-45 type.
It has the standard complement of inputs and controls.
2 High Treble Inputs
2 Normal Inputs
1 High Treble Volume, 1 Normal Volume
Treble, Middle,Bass,and Pressence Controls.
The imputs can be jumpred for the use of both volume controls
There are outputs to accommodate 4. 8. and 16 oum speakers
I usually use non-Master Volume amps., so for me, the features are fine. They are the same as those on my old (60s) Marshalls.
Sound Quality
:
10
The amp sounds great. I am one of the middle-aged guys who played in bands in the 60s and 70s and could necer get around to selling his old equipment. I, therefore, have a bunch of old heads lying around, including a a few late 60s Marshall model 1987 50 watters, and the real deal ...a '65 JTM-45.
As a curious sentimentalist, I also purchased one of the "new" JTM-64 Offset Re-issues (head only).
I use KT-66 outout tubes in my Tatoo.
Tatoo's Tribal 45s can compete head-to-head with my Marshall 45s. (50 watt ones have a little more "oomph," but so do all of them compared to the JTM-45 amps.
In fact. the Tatoo is very close to my old JTM-45, with the exception that my old one seems to have slightly more gain. It sings like a bird, and has sustain like crazy.
The amp sounds great.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
I am superstitious, in that I never play anywhere without a backup amp. I am an adherent to Murphy's Law, and we all must remember that Murphy was an optimist!
That being said, I have owned the amp for about 7 or 8 months, and have never had a problem of any kind with it,
Customer Support
:
10
The customer support is out of this world.
I have never dealt with such a responsive company.
My e-mails are always answered immediately, and Tommy is a pleasure to work with.
Overall Rating
:
10
With Tatoo, you can get an all hand made hand-wired classic Marshall for less than the price of a mass produced circuit board reissue.
The amp sounds great, the company is a pleasure to work with.
This is one of the better amplifier deals out there.
