Vintone Circuits Simplex Head

Doug built this one for me in January 2004. It has all of his latest features that make this little amp quite versatile. I have played the amp for 4-6 weeks now, so I feel I can give it a good review. I was looking for a low power, great sounding, compact amp for small-scale venues and recording - the Simplex is it! I can grab a guitar in one hand, the Simplex in the other, and a gig bag over the shoulder and I'm ready to go. Great!

The Simplex is a straightforward tone machine. It is a single-channel unit without reverb or tremolo. (Doug does build amps with tremolo.)
It has Volume, Tone, Drive and Feedback controls on the front panel. A mini-toggle switch is found there also to activate a boost circuit. (Cool feature - more on that later) Two inputs (high & low), a neat three-way on/off/standby switch and pilot light round out the front panel.

Around back you will find the usual fuse holder and a nice IEC receptacle/removable cord arrangement with a long cord. Nice! The back panel has two speaker jacks and an impedance selector switch that allow you to use (1) 4 ohm, (1) 8 ohm or (2) 8 ohm speakers in parallel. There is a line out that I have not used as yet because I still like to mike the amp to send it through the PA. That allows me to also enjoy the characteristics of the cabinet, speaker, etc. An RCA jack for a footswitch (not included) to activate the boost circuit completes the rear panel. A lot of cool features packed into a very compact unit.

Doug designed the Simplex to allow ?tube tasting.? You can swap output tubes, preamp tubes, rectifier tubes ? all give different results and sounds. Way Cool!!! Right now I like the amp with an EL34 output tube with the stock preamp and rectifier from Doug. It was shipped with a 6V6 output tube.

I have used the Simplex with different speaker and cabinet arrangements. It is surprisingly loud and powerful for only 8 watts. I feel it sounds/works better with a higher rated (stronger) speaker. It is amazing how much "stuff" this little amp can throw at a speaker. I tried it with 8, 10 & 12-in. speakers in cabinets made of pine, plywood and walnut. The 8-in. was just not enough speaker for this amp IMHO. It really comes to life through the larger ones, though. My two favorites right now are: pine cabinet with a Weber Blue Pup and a walnut cabinet with a Jensen C10Q. Both sound awesome with the Simplex. I also tried a little ?tube tasting? and like the current compliment of Sovtek 12AX7LPS, DuMont Rectifier and Svetlana EL34. This set up yields a full-bodied sound with no spikes in any of the frequency ranges. The harmonic content with this configuration is RICH.

The Simplex is sufficiently versatile to cover most musical styles - Blues, jazz, country, etc. I use a Holy Grail reverb pedal and can even cover some surf tunes with ease. My signal chain is: Barber Direct Drive->Morley Wah->Holy Grail->amp input. Pretty simple, but provides a wide palate of colors and tones.

With Strats, I like the cleaner settings better and did not especially care for how they came across when cranking the volume and drive controls into their upper ranges. Clean, however, they sound great! Great bell-like Strat tones like they should be. And QUIET! This is the quietest amp I have ever owned and played - especially with single-coils. Great job there Doug!

With a Les Paul Standard fitted with '57 Classics, this little amp can transform into a monster. This amp has allowed me to get a tremendous range of tones and sounds from my Paul like no other amp has ever done. I find myself playing the Paul 85% of the time now because of that capability. You can get smooth jazz tones to country clean to flat-out screaming rock leads. With the volume and drive knobs dimed, and the boost switch engaged, you get a very aggressive, LOUD screaming rock tone that easily morphs into controllable feedback. I back off the drive a good bit to smooth out the aggressiveness and step on the Direct Drive and get a fantastic singing, sustaining, morph into feedback tone a la Santana. NICE! You can really grab a note and hold it a l-o-n-g time. COOL! I also use the boost function as a ?solo? switch. Whether you are running clean or distorted sounds, it works great when you need to step on the gas to overcome a loud drummer or just to stand out for a solo. Really cool feature!

Doug builds his amps to last a lifetime! Only the highest quality components are used throughout and the workmanship is top notch. Many items are "over built" to provide stronger power supply, better filtering (=less noise), ability to switch tubes, stronger output transformer (=more headroom before distortion), etc. This amp will outlast me! No problems to date.

Doug is wonderful to work with. He answered all kinds of not-so-intelligent questions to help me get what I was looking for in an amp. He definitely cares about his products and his customers and backs that up with a lifetime warranty. He even sent progress pictures as he was building my Simplex! How cool is that?

I've been playing off-and-on for 30 years and have been looking for a compact, versatile, toneful amp for a long time. The Simplex is it! It is simple and straightforward in design and function. It yields very musical tones with ease and works well for different styles of music and types of guitars. It is my ONLY amp now ? sold off two Carrs, several Boogies, and a Dr. Z. What more can I say?

This is an all-tube custom made amplifier head skillfully crafted by Doug Stalters of Vintone Circuits. This is essentially a beefed-up more modern version of the old Fender Champ amp made into an amplifier head. It is as simplistic as it could get, hence the name "Simplex." The amp has high and low inputs, a master volume on/off pot and a control for gain. I got the optional slap-back panel which makes it a breeze to change tubes along with the optional upgraded beefed up power transformer. It sounds phenomenal paired up with my custom Vintone 2x12 cab.

I play single coils (I have an American tele and a strat) and humbuckers (Gibson LP Classic and PRS CE-22) through this amp and she stands up to both very well. I can get a very nice clean sound all the way to a very dirty heavily overdriven Fender Twin type of sound. This amp is not gonna play Metallica and Slayer, but that's not what I use it for. I love it for rock and blues, but as a metal amp it just wouldn't cut it. That's because that's not what it is designed for. Major thumbs up for the sounds and tone.

I have had a Vintone 2x12 cab for quite some time and it is built like a rock. My Simplex head is no different. I have had it since the beginning of summer and have had absolutely zero problems with it at all.As long as I keep quality fresh tubes in it, I see no problems. Plus Doug has a lifetime warranty to the original owner.

I still talk to Doug pretty regularly. He is about as good as it comes to customer support. He will custom tailor anything that you can dream of, and do it to your exact specifications. If I could, I would give Doug an 11 in this category.

Well I hate to give all 10's for a product, but due to the absolutely custom nature of this amp I feel that it is necessary. I currently run:
Crybaby-->Menatone Red Snapper-->Analogman TS-808 Mod Tubescreamer-->Fulltone '69--->Analogman Clone Chorus-->Boss Dig Reverb/Delay--->Pharaoh Amps Class A boost

to my Simplex and for rock and blues this is the best setup I have found. The only thing that I still kick myself for is that fact that I didn't have Doug add a standby switch to the amp. Oh well, maybe one day I'll have him add it as I'm sure he'd be glad to do it. But if you want a great tube tone from a lower wattage amp where you can drive the preamp and power amp tubes for sick amounts of saturation, this is the perfect amp in my opinion.

This is a single-ended Class "A" all tube amplifier painstakingly handmade by Florida amp builder Doug Stalters the owner of Vintone Circuits.This amp was built in January of 2002 and was the first head version of Doug's Simplex(Modified version of the famous 5F1 Fender Tweed Champ amplifer circuit)which he also builds in the small combo cabinet with a Weber 8" speaker.

Doug has beefed up the Output transformer significantly and with some other proprietary tweeks transformed the very spartan 5F1 circuit into an incredible sounding soulful single-ended amplifier that has tone and output that sounds much more like higher powered all-tube
boutique amps in the 12-18 watt output instead of the 6-12 watt output
of the Simplex.Because of the modifications that Doug has incorporated
into the circuit of his Simplex you can utilize a vast array of pre-amp tubes(any of the 12A's as well as the 5751's)and the output tubes
(6L6,6V6,6K6,EL34,KT66,KT77,KT88)as well as others that Doug can recommend.This gives the consumer tonal versatility that the other Vintage Boutique versions of the Fender Tweed Champ can't even think about delivering!

Their are several upgrades that Doug offers on the Simplex that are all listed at his equally impressive website along with all of his other unique amplifiers and extension cabinets!

This amp has one pre-amp tube,one output tube and a rectifier tube that is controlled by one magical volume control!Words don't do justice to what a 6-12 watt all tube handmade amp with the finest components available sounds like through one of Doug's awesome handmade solid wood extension cabinets!

I haven't gigged out with this amp yet but with miking it I know I could easily gig with this little 13lb. amplifier!Doug has included
a negative feedback control that allows you to add negative feedback or take all of the negative feedback out of the circuit path!

Doug builds all of his amplifiers in solid wood cabinets!My Simplex was finished in American Red Oak with a stunning Honey Maple gel-coat
finish.We are talking heirloom quality in the fit and finish that Doug
builds into his cabinets!Go to his website at www.vintone.com and see
my Simplex Head along with the matching oversized V-Front 2X10 cabinet
that Doug built for me.You be the judge on his awesome wood and cabinetry skills!

I am playing a PRS/EG-3 that has a Lindy Fralin P-90 in the bridge along with Lindy Fralin Zero-Hum single Coils in the middle and neck pickup positions!I also have a Melancon P-90 Artist which also has
Seymour Duncan stacked P-90's in the bridge and neck that I am playing
through the Simplex! Both guitars sound great through the simplex.
The higher output of the P-90's do drive the Simplex into overdrive
quicker than the single-coils which is to be expected most any lower
powered all-tube amplifier!What is amazing is the note to note string
definition that the Simplex retains even when you max out the volume
control and throw this little tone monster into some pretty gritty
overdrive/distortion!Equally amazing to me was how big and fat the clean tones of the Simplex are when you keep the volume control in
the 9:00-2:00 o'clock range!This little head packs a wallop that must be heard to appreciate when plugged into a 2X10 or 2X12 extension cabinet!I am playing mine through one of Doug's oversized V-Front
2X10 cabinets which I will be doing a seperate review of it in the
extension cabinet/section.This amp is the bomb for anyone that plays
Blues.The tone palette of this amp hits dead center for that big fat
clean tone as well as that gritty to smooth overdrive that blues players love.

Oh Yeah!This amp is incredibly quite(Almost no hiss or hum)!Again just another reinforcement of Doug's unbelievable attention to detail
in refining the circuit to give you as close to perfection as you can
get in a truly world-class guitar amplifier!

This circuit is so simple in its design that any decent amp tech could
replace or repair the Simplex with no hassle or problems!Doug has cut no corners on the build quality of this amp and the Buyer will be rewarded with an amp that should be with normal care a very trouble-free amp for many years!

My Simplex has performed flawlessly from the start for the last 3 months.

I will sum up Doug's customer support by saying that I have bought amplifier's in the past seven years from Mesa Boogie,Dr.Z,Carr Amplifiers and Victoria!I had pretty good to real good customer support from these amp builders!

Doug Stalter's takes customer support and service to a higher level that I didn't experience with any of the above.Doug is the only amp builder in the amp-building business that truly builds everything from
the ground up to the finished amp head,combo or extension cabinet completely himself! He is truly a dedicated one-man operation!His amps are warranted for a lifetime to the original owner!

Doug Stalters takes the catch phrase "Attention To Detail" and gives it a whole new meaning!Buy one of his amps or cabinets and you will
see firsthand what "Attention To Detail" really is!

Been playing off and on for 20 years!Currently I own my Simplex Head
and Oversized V-front 2X10 cabinet from Vintone Circuits along with my
PRS/EG-3 and Melancon P-90 Artist.I run a Pharoah Amp Clean-Boost pedal through the Simplex that just sounds incredible!

The simplicity of the Simplex(One volume control)along with the incredible tonal versatility of being able to run all of the different
preamp and output tubes make this amp an absolute joy to own and play!
I had a Victoria Tweed Champ combo that is a fine sounding amp but
definitely falls short of the overall tone and versatility of Doug Stalter's Simplex.I love this amp and really wouldn't want to change
anything but possibly add a treble control which Doug without hesitation said he would add to my Simplex or anybody else's!

For Bang For The Buck this amp is hard to beat for its pure tone
factor and versatility!The icing on the cake is how beautiful these
handmade amps are!I guarantee you that you can't walk into the room
with a Vintone Amp/Cabinet in it without doing a double take.