TopHat Club Royale 2x12 Combo

2001 Tophat "Club Royale". 20watt class "a" combo with two 12inch Celestion g12h 30watt speakers (with Tophat stickers over the Celestion logos). Mine came with all EI brand tubes except for the first 12ax7 which is a Sovtek. The box/cab is awesome! Baltic birch with a mahoganny baffle board! A simple single channel amp...very cool. I would say that it is very versatile because it really lets you hand control the tone/amount of gain. I have found that the more features/options an amp has the worse the it can sound. A short singal path is best for pure tone.

I play a '63 closet classic Tele, a Gibson SG junior and a Jerry Jones. I have been playing Tophat "King Royale" amps for about 5 years. The Club Royale may be my favorite though. It's great because it sounds very vintage and Voxy and you can turn up and not drown out the rest of the band. My drummer plays a 24inch kick, uses BIG cymbals and hits like Bonahm and the volume of this amp is not an issue at all. It even has clean headroom. It is just the perfect size. I really like the sound of little amps that are about to blow up. You get that killer compression and really hear the amp juicing up but it is not TOO dinky sounding thanks to the 2x12 speakers. It's just right. Great tones from clean to dirty depending on how hard you push the amp.

Never had a problem with any Tophat in the 5 years I have been using them.

Brian and his wife Joan are both extremly kind. They have the best service I have ever experienced...period.

A great amp. They should get a perfect 10 from every person who posted here. Did anyone notice that the guy who gave this amp such a bad review also said he loves his Fender Hotrod Deville? Consider the source!

Amp was made in late 2000. Has one Greenback and one Vintage 30 speaker. Has the solid state rectifier with soft/normal switch. Came with three Edicron 12AX7's in the preamp and two Sovtek EL84's in the poweramp which I replaced with NOS Telefunken 12AX7's and Mullard EL84's. The tube swap actually made very little difference in sound and performance - save your money and just use the stock tubes. Top panel has high/lo inputs, bright/normal/fat mini-toggle, vol/treb/mid/bass/cut/master controls, and standby/on and on/off switches. Simple, straightforward, old school design. The amp is not particularly versatile, but what it does, it does well.

It's a Class A amp and not surprisingly, it delivers a roundish, warmish, somewhat compressed, Voxy kind of sound. It doesn't produce a real hard front edge to your notes in the way that a Class A/B amp can, but the "bloom" after the initial attack is really great - it's what this amp was designed to do. And when pushed into distortion, the amp produces very pleasing, smooth-sounding tones. I use this amp primarily in a small club setting for playing blues-based music. The other instruments in the band include a 2nd guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, keyboards, and voice. The amp is ideal for this format because I play it at near full volume, which is where this amp really develops its best voice. At only 20 watts, I can't overpower the other musicians, but no one has any problems hearing me either. I own a variety of guitars, but in the small club blues setting, I have found that the amp works great with a Lone Star Strat (single coils at the neck and middle positions, humbucker at the bridge). If I use any pedals at all, its gonna be a wah, nothing else. I use the "lo" input, mini-toggle set at "normal" voicing, preamp volume at around 3 oclock (7 oclock = min, 5 oclock = max), treb/mid/bass/cut at 1-2/3/9/7 oclock, and master at 5 oclock, rectifier switch on the "normal" position. With this guitar/amp configuration, I can get get absolutely wonderful clean or distorted sounds, all controllable from the guitar. Great lead tones from the neck single coil (slight amount of distortion if I pick hard) and from the bridge humbucker (instant singing distortion), and great sparkly clean rhythm tones using the neck+middle pickup setting especially, or from any other pickup with the volume rolled back slightly on the guitar. And for those scorchin' licks to really cut through the mix, I dial in a little extra gain and high end using the wah pedal. I love it! Absolutley delightful guitar/amp combination for this application! Very positive feedback from the band members and audience, too.

I've owned the amp for almost a year now, and I have had ZERO problems. The amp is made with top-quality components (hand wired, point-to-point construction) and is very solidly built. I have never had any rattles of any kind at any volume. I expect this thing will last my lifetime (except tubes), easily.

I've talked to the owner Brian Gerhard and his wife at TopHat a couple of times. Very friendly, helpful folks, they are.

I've been playing guitar in a performance setting for more than 30 years and have owned Fender, Marshall, Mesa-Boogie, and Roland amps. This is my first Class A amp, and it is an absolute joy! It's not hugely versatile, but it performs extremely well in what I use it for (edge of distortion blues-based music in small clubs with a multi-piece band). It's definitely kind of pricey, but the components, build quality, and sounds are top-notch. I'm extremely pleased with this amplifier.

I am posting this as an update to a previous post regarding this amp. As the owner of not one, but two Club Royales, (one was a 1X12), I felt compelled to repost, and unfortuanely to reverse my previous opinion on these amps. About 6 years ago, I got my first 1x12 Royale, with the greenback 25. I ended up selling this amp not long after, due to the fact that in a band context, it became very "splatty" and un-focussed, and generally dissapeared in the mix. Cut to present:, recently I aquired another Club Royale, only this being a 2x12 version. I thought that the 2x12 might actually cut a bit better, as Brian had switched to G12H30's, instead of the greenbacks, and added a switchable SS rectifier, which was reported to provide more headroom. After a very exhuastive search for an alternative to my heavy, valuable, and fairly un-reliable VOX Ac30, I arrived back at Top Hat.(don't know why) Upon receipt of the amp, I was once again pleased with the construction, and I admit, at first.....pleased with the tone as well. The G12H's seemed a tad dark sounding, but I thought that might be good thing. I played the amp only at home for a few weeks....hence my "glowing review". Well, I am here to say that once again....the Top Hat, despite the 2x12 configutarion fell flat on its face in a real-world live situation. Now, I DO NOT play in a ridiculously loud band. I am a rock player, and require that the amp at leaset come up over the kit a bit, and can hang with a reasonably fat sounding rhythm section. NO CAN DO!!!! Once again this amp when pushed in the band....gets very "fizzy", and rather stressed sounding, and gets completely dominated. These low powered Top Hats are just not what they are reported to be. Live....they are dogs!
Hit them with a good pedal, they rebel, and sound even worse. The EQ section is not very well suited to live playing, as the mids are in a very weird zone, and become very pinched when the amp is pushed. I knew the amp was a one-trick pony when I got it, and after many years of using one trick amps (Marshalls and VOX's), I was OK with that. I just feel like I need to warn folks about these amps. Bassically....if you need an amp that will realy cut in a nice way in a real-world rock band......get the higher powered Top Hats, or stay away altogether.
I won't tell you what I replaced this amp with, but I will tell you it has only 1x12, is the same wattage, was HALF the price, can be purchased all day long.....anywhere....and it WALKED ALL OVER the Top Hat in tone, volume, and was less noisy to boot! Sure, you can mike the Top Hat, but I feel thet this amp not only lacks useable volume, IT LACKS TONE. Lessons learned:
1.Do not post a review on equip. until used live
2.Do not buy an amp based mainly on other's reveiws or reputation
3.DO NOT waist my money on another over-rated boutique amp, espescially Top Hats!!!
Trust me folks.....PLAY the shit out of these amps before buying one. And try it in a real world, live situation before passing judgement. In a bedroom, or living room, they do a decent class A, VOX-type vibe, in a band......they die a horrible tone death. Maybe a decent recording amp, although you can have better for less $$. My new rating....2

BTW, this amp made a myriad of funny noises, all un-pleasant. Buzzes, hums, intermittent buzzes, very noisy amp.

I was looking for a High Line hand made class A amp - I looked into all the brands-checked them all out. And I can tell you-even reading all the Harmony-Central reviews wont take the place of playing the amp before you buy.This amp does not have alot of features-but I was only looking for one feature... "tone" - I bought this amp-lucky for me the place where I bought it allowed me to exchange it after 3 days-this amp sucks! i dont know whats up with all the reviews below saying what a great amp it is-I dont get it-I could not this amp to sound decent no matter what i did.

This amp is not cheap-at 1600.00 for a 20 watt amp I must ahve been crazy- but I was brainwashed into thinking it was the holy grail of guitar amps. I was wrong-sounds terrible through my Les Paul - which makes all amps sound GOOD!

The only thing I can think is that something was wrong with the amp- I'm not an electrician so I cant say-But the place where I bought the amp had two on display-I tried the first one and it was broken - as you turned the volume up-the sound went down, and sounded fuzzy-I dont know what was wrong with that one.So I tried the other one out and it worked okay - it didn't seem to sound that good but I thought it was because I was a big music store with alot of noise-and besides, every thing I have read about this amp tells me it is THE amp! So I bought it and took it home and spent the next 3 days trying to get some kind of tone from it.I still think maybe something was wrong with it.

Didn't have it long enough to check that part out

I finally started going to my Fender Hot Rod deluxe to compare with and the Fender sounded lots better. And I never really thought it sounded too great anyway until I compared it with the TOPHAT-then it hit me that the fender cost 400.00 and the Tophat cost 1400.00 and sounded worse-loaded it up and my car and away we went!!!!!!!!!

20 watt, class A, El84 equipped 2x12 combo, based on the AC30's top boost circuit. Point to point construction. Master voume, volume, treble, bass, cut, and middle controls. Very well constructed amp. Solid state rectifier, with soft/ hard setting. Includes 2 Celestion G12H's.

I primarily play a 52 Telecaster through this amp, and it sounds absolutely wonderful. My songs are big, fat, guitar laiden, hard rock/alternative stuff, ala Collective Soul, Lit, V. Horizon, Life House. I require an amp that provides an aggressive, glassy saturation, yet cleans up when I back off the Tele's volume. The Top Hat delivers, and more. I have been a long time user of VOX products, AC30's mainly, both old and new. They are great amps. However, they are cumbersome, and very loud. They also lack a certain EQ nitch, which I usually have to create via a stompbox. The Club Royale, is not only lighter, but has a much more "useable" volume range. Most of all, it's natural overdrive is simply to die for. It is so sweet, like an old Marshall, meets a cranked AC30. It has all that gassy sheen that I love, and gets downright angry when pushed. I run mine with the master flat out.....heaven. Back off the guitar, and it cleans up beautifully. I really could not ask for more in an amp. After 27 years of playing, 33 amplifiers, and countless trials, I have found an amp that gives me what I need, at the right volume, and w/o having to rely on a box to help it along. The rectifier setting switch is a very nice feature. I leave mine set to "soft", after all, I have become quite accustomed to that AC30-like "squish", but for a player requiring a bit more punch and headroom, the amp can be set to the "normal" setting. The speaker selection is perfect. I know Brian has varied his speaker selections over the years, and I was a bit skeptical about the G12H's. My conclusion: they are great sounding speakers. I have been a long time user of the V30, and have several high dollar ALNICO equipped amps, and can honestly say that the G12H 30's are perfect for this application. Sweet mids, tight bass, and not to shrill on the highs. Most of all, they breath, and do not "squash" and "pinch" the signal at all. I imagine they will get even sweeter with age.

Well, the amp is point to point, which I find to be a more reliable set-up. The cabinet work is first rate, no rattles, no hums. I think the amp will easily stand up th the rigors of live playing/touring.

As many here know, you can easily reach Brian by phone. He is very friendly, and eager to please. Great customer support. Limited lifetime warranty on the amp.

As I stated earlier, been playin a long time. I have owned too many amps (a passion of mine), and I am very particular about tone. The Top Hat is simply a sweet amp. It delivers complex, interactive, harmonically rich tones that invite you to play for hours at a time.
The amp does exactly what it states it will do, and does it better than most. The fine construction, beautiful cosmetics, and hand-wired circuit are a bonus. I own several other fine amps, and have demoed just about everything out there. I have often used Matchless products in the studio, as well as my VOX's, Vintage Fenders, Marshalls, and too many others to list. The Top Hat ranks with the best of them, and in many ways, out-performs most. This of course, is just my opininon, but this Royale simply lets me say what I want, how I want, and at the right volumes. The Club Royale 2x12 rocks!.......period.

This amp is a bit different from the 2x12 Club Royale I owned a couple years ago. More features here, including a solid state rectifier with a normal/soft switch, master volume PLUS cut control and then a fat/bright boost switch.

EL-84 power tubes plus 3 12ax7 pre-amp tubes. As mentioned above, solid state rectifier.

Two 12" special design 30 watt Celestion speakers that actually have Top Hat's name on the magnet labels. Great speakers.

Let's face it, this amp is pretty simple in its construction - no channel switching, not a lot of knobs to mess with. Simply put, it is what it is. However, since this is the fourth Top Hat I have owned, I obviously like this philosophy of amp building.

I use two Warmoth parts Tele clones through this amp. If you want to know about the guitars, please feel free to look up one of my other reviews. I also play a '57 LP Junior - the real thing.

The only effect I use is a Fulltone Fulldrive II, mainly for boost. The combination of Tele-->Fulldrive 2-->Club Royale 2 is awesome. If you want to hear what it sounds like, go to www.bigwitness.com and listen to the MP3 of "Feels Like Rain". All of the lead work on that song was done with that rig combination, and it sounds great. Thick as can be and very warm. That was actually my old Club Royale 2, which is now owned by the band's other guitarist.

Since I have only had my current Club 2 a few days, it is just being broken in. I agree with another recent review that these amps need to go through a breaking in stage. They sound much different (i.e., stiffer) in the store than they do after the break-in period. Once they are used a bit, they are wonderful sounding amps.

By using the Fulldrive II, I can actually get three very distict sounds from this amp. As a side note - those of you wanting to use Fulldrive II's with Top Hat amps - LEAVE THE COMPRESSION OFF!

In summary, these are great sounding amps with almost any guitar.

Like I said, I have owned four Top Hat amps - 2 Club Royale II's, a King Royale and an Emplexador 50w head with a matching closed-back 2x12 cabinet. I currently have the new Club 2 and the Emplexador.

At this point, I have never had problems on stage or in the studio with Brian's amps. They always sound great and they deliver the goods both at low and high volumes.

My current Club 2 is actually a replacement for another one I just bought. The initial one (not the original that I sold) had some cabinet rattle to it. I spoke with my favorite dealer about it (Electric City Music in Kaukauna, WI), as well as with Brian. While I will discuss customer service below, let's just say that the amps were immediately swapped. Brian sent me a new one from the factory immediately - no questions asked. I am certain, based on my history with TH amps, that the new one will be fine.

Two issues here - the store and the manufacturer. First, the store. I have bought all my Top Hat amps through Electric City Music in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. Jim Van Hoof - EC Music's owner has always dealt fairly with me, and has always been a gentleman. Jim has always gone that extra mile (literally, since he has met me to deliver amps) to make things right, and this was no exception. He drove down from Kaukauna to meet me with the Club 2 that had the rattle, and then immediately helped when problems showed up.

If you are looking at Top Hat gear - or many other high-end products for that matter - give these guys a shot at earning your business. My hunch is that you won't be sorry. They are price competitive, offer excellent product lines, and truly try to keep their customers happy. Visit their Web site at www.ecmusic.net. You won't be sorry. By the way, they typically have much more in stock than is reflected on their Web site, so give them a call!

The other side of the business is the manufacturer. All I can say is that Brian has always been accessible and a pleasure to speak with. He builds great gear and it is absolutely a labor of love for him. He has always been available to answer questions, and has always taken all the time required to anwer any questions satisfactorily. He's a great guy as well. Enough said.

For some reason, Top Hat amps do it for me. I have played through and/or demoed almost all the high-end stuff out there. I just keep going back to Top Hat amps.

I have been playing 25+ years and have a pretty good idea at this point what I want to sound like. Labels on amps and names on guitar headstocks no longer matter to me. Rather, it is tone that is important. And I am extremely satisfied with my current tone.

There are great amps. Each one I have owned has been excellent in its own right. If you are looking at boutique gear, give these a test drive. Brian makes amps with EL-34's, EL-84's, 6V6's and 6L6's, in a variety of combos and head/bottom configurations. He covers the waterfront. And they all sound great.

This is a 2000 model (old style cosmetics). Volume, Master, Bass, Mid, Treble, Cut, Soft/Normal rectifier switch. Circuit is based on the Vox AC30. Celestion Greenback and custom made Weber "Blue Dog" style speaker. 20 watts, but significantly louder than a Deluxe Reverb. Very Simple, yet controls are extremely effective in shaping the sound. I believe the cabinet is birch ply, with a mahogany baffle for warmth. Seamlessly applied tolex.

I use this amp with a '56 reissue Les Paul (p90s) and a Warmoth Tele clone. Some people who try out a new Club Royale in the stores are dissapointed, finding it buzzy and thin sounding when overdriven. But remember: THESE AMPS NEED TO BE BROKEN IN. After a few weeks, they sound sweet as hell. Using the tone controls, I can get anything from sparkly cleanish sounds (not much headroom, but I don't like a completely clean sound), sweet singing Voxy overdrive, raunchy old-Marshall-like crunch. Sounds great with any guitar, but I like it best with p90s. It's a tad bright with a Tele, but what do you expect. The master volume works amazingly well. You can get AC/DC, Zep, Aerosmith, ZZ Top type sounds without any pedals. Does NOT sound good with a Fulldrive or Tubescreamer, The midrange hump in these pedals just clogs the alread rich midrange of the amp. The best combinations for me are Les Paul & Crowther HotCake, Tele & Fulltone Soulbender, or either with a Rat pedal (filter turned up high) for heavier, JCM800 style distortion. When I bought this amp a year ago, I compared it to a VHT Pittbull 45, a couple of Matchless amps, a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia, and a Top Hat Club Deluxe (6V6 tubes instead of EL84).The VHT was a great amp, but a little too complex, too many switches and gizmos. Very tight snappy clean sound with a powerful low-end, Marshally overdrive. I thought the Top Hat sounded smoother, warmer, more vocal and organic when overdriven. The cleaner sounds were spongier, like an old Vox. The Top Hat "breathes" more, as they say. Also, the VHT was rediculously loud. The Matchless amps were nice, but harder and glassier sounding on the top end, and sloppy in the bass. The Dr. Z had a very plain clean sound, not too much singing harmonic complexity, and less compressed. The Z had a nice raunchy overdrive with a big tight low end, but again, I found it a bit thin and plain sounding (but I tried it with a Strat so I'm not sure - It would probably be great for slamming power chords with a Les Paul Junior). The Club Deluxe sounded similar (but it had the same speakers, I think now they sell it with a Jensen) but a bit more rounded and creamy with less treble chime and crispness when clean, smoother, mellower overdrive with less crunch & "toothy" upper mid bite. Softer low end. I think the Deluxe would be ideal for a straight blues player (or maybe some old Stones type sounds), but for someone who plays blues and various classic and modern rock styles, the Royale has more range and cuts through a band better.

Solidly built, high quality components, super neat point to point wiring.

I've spoken to Brian several times, he's always helpful and friendly, even though I bought the amp used.

I've really grown attached to this amp and it has become an important part of my sound. i also hear great things about the Dr. Z Maz Jr., but so far, this is the perfect amp for me. It is versatile, yet full of character and soul, and stupidly simple to use.

Not sure of the year but one of the earlier ones with a tube rectifier and no master volume. This amp doesn't have many doodads but the few that are there work extremely well. On the other side of the spectrum I used to own a Mesa Boogie Mark IV which had about every little gizmo they could cram in there. It seemed that all those configurations usually got me into trouble, especially when I got to a gig and all the dials had been moved. With the tophat it is very hard to find a disagreeable setting.

I use a G&L Asat classic and a Ernie Ball Axis Sport with ash body.
I play different styles from jazz to rock. The only style I wouldn't recommend this amp for is full on metal. Although with a good pedal it would work. I was specifically looking for an amp in the low wattage range so I could get that nice power tube distortion without having to blow the roof off the house. It's plenty loud to fill a small club and every large club I've played at has a PA.
I previously owned a Matchless Chieftan which was really nice but a little too harsh for my tele. I think the TopHat suits the tele very well. The high end is definately present but leans to the warm side so I don't get that tele ice pick effect.

I've never had a problem with it. It's a simple amp with quality parts.

I've never had to contact them. If something ever does go wrong with it I'm sure it won't be hard to find someone competent to fix it since it built around an old straight forward formula.

If I had to replace it I would. The only gripe I have is I love reverb and it is a hassle bringing around a reverb unit.

Single channel, 20 watt Class A, 2x12 combo amp. One Celestion Greenback and one Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. Control panel includes: on-off and standby-on toggle switches, high and low sensitivity inputs, volume, treble, middle, bass, cut (turning it up reduces high frequencies), master volume, and a three-way toggle switch for bright-normal-fat voicings. Back panel includes two speaker jacks, and a soft-normal toggle switch for the silicon diode rectifier. Preamp uses three 12AX7's and power amp uses two EL-84's. No reverb, tremolo, effects loop, or footswitches. Very simple layout!

I use this amp with a stock Fender Lone Star Strat (Texas Special single coils at the neck and middle positions and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker at the bridge) and a 1975 Les Paul Custom with Dimarzio PAF Pro humbuckers. I've been playing guitar for 30+ years, mostly rock/blues/pop with some jazz flavorings. I've owned many different amps, and I must say, without a doubt, the Club Royale is certainly one of the best sounding amps I've ever heard. The amp is extremely responsive and nuance-sensitive, bringing out the best (or worst!)in your playing technique. The amp's tone controls are voiced extremely well, enabling one to dial in a very useful range of tones. Overall I'd say the amp's tone leans toward the warmer side, but with pleasing high end articulation - it's hard to obtain a tone from this amp that's harsh on the ears. The volume/master volume controls provide very good control over the clean vs. overdriven tones. There is a limit to the gain, however: you cannot quite venture into the territory of high gain Marshalls, Boogies, or Soldanos with this amp. And of course, with only 20 watts, filling a larger venue, especially if a high volume clean sound is needed, will be difficult with this amp. But for most small to medium size rooms, and for recording, the Club Royale is an extremely useful and versatile tone machine. About the tone: I swear there is something almost magical about the clarity and smoothness of this amp. I've never before experienced anything like it. With the voicing toggle set to "bright" and playing in the "notch" positions on the Strat, the amp delivers a gorgeous clean sound with incredible high end sparkle - it almost sounds like a chorus effect has been selectively applied to the high frequecies. Great clean rhythm guitar tone! Alternatively, with the voicing toggle on the amp set to "fat" and boosting the midrange control, I've never before heard my Les Paul sound so good: an extremely pleasing overdriven sound that somehow remains articulate. Great for single note leads and slide guitar tones. I could go on with the superlatives, but I think you should be getting the picture.

I've only owned the amp for one month, so I can't comment meaningfully on the long term reliability. What I can say is that it is beautifully constructed (inside and out), and with the exception of the cheap looking plasticky corner protectors, the amp looks, feels, and sounds (no rattles at any volume) like it will withstand the test of time.

I called TopHat once to chat with Brian about his products. He was very helpful and friendly. It's a relatively small operation and my feeling is that they will stand behind their products.

This amp is a masterpiece of tone - I've been playing for 30+ years and never heard anything as sweet and responsive. You'll need to look elswhere for over-the-top distortion, but the Club Royale does the rock/pop/blues thing extremely well.

as far as features go this amp is about as simple as it gets. plug in and look out. although there is no channel switching, no reverb or effects loop the amp produces a wide range of tones from a fender twin to a vox 1964 ac30 to a pissed off marshall.

there are no bad tones here. the hardest thing i have to decide is if i want to use it for distortion or clean because it all sounds great. the last job i played i a/b'd it with a vox ac15 tbx and used it for a lead channel. i am looking into a prescription electronics germ pedal at the moment but my drivemaster works real good too.

I bought it from the other guitarist in the band and I know he never beat it or drove it hard, so far it works great. hopefully it will only eat el84's like the voxes do.

I havent had to deal with them but I hear Brian stands behind the product and takes great pride in it.

if you play clubs and need a versatile amp for recording I would highly recommend this amp. It's a 1964 vox ac30 and it does'nt smell bad and was half the price.