Sound Garage Tales

It’s official!  The latest amp project I’ve been working on–a single-ended 7-watt switchable EL84 and 6V6 tube–has a name now, thanks to Matt LaPlaca, a Gabriel Sound Garage Facebook fan: The STINGER! I chose that name because it describes its character the best. . . and it fits into the Gabriel Sound Garage beehive family just perfectly!

The Stinger

The idea came as an inspiration from one of my good friends and compatriots, Peter Crucian, who knows tone like the back of his hand.  Peter was dreaming of a low-powered amp with possibly two legendary tones–one British and one American–and with lots of character. Obviously the idea isn’t new (other amp builders have already done this), but I liked the challenge of creating something along these lines with an attitude and a. . . sting.

This amp attempts to satisfy the avid but almost broke guitar player who is still trying to pay off that college loan. . . or had to sell his/her precious gear to pay off the home mortgage and now wants a quality guitar amp that won’t break the bank (or cause too much marital strain!). Tonally speaking, I’m trying to get the best sound character separation for each power tube that’s switched on–EL84 or 6V6–and at a level where one can dominate even a loud drummer with a sublime guitar tone.

The Stinger will have a minimalist architecture because I’m a purist when it comes to adding features or controls in the tone path that will never be used and will not do any good in tone shaping (or even detract from the sound’s precious character).  It will be available as a “bare bones” amp, ready to plug and play, with a couple of feature upgrade options, which are listed below.

Features

On the front there’s a tone knob, labeled Thump, and volume knob, labeled Rock. These are the only two preamp controls, but they provide a surprising amount of tone-shaping control.

The Mode switch allows the user to select between the two power tubes, and the Master Volume knob controls the amount of signal sent to the power stage. Yank and Brit are the names of the two distinct continental tones created by the 6v6 and the EL84, respectively.

On the rear, the bare bones version of The Stinger has two speaker outputs and an impedance selector for 4, 8, or 16 ohms speaker loads.

Upgrades

If the Stinger is not “stingey” enough, consider these upgrades:

Power Control — Allows the user to tame the overall power output of the amp while it’s running hot, so you get full tube overdrive while still keeping your neighbors happy.

FX Loop — A simple passive effects loop placed right in front of the power stage. Those of you who know me know how I feel about effects loops in low-gain amps (see the workaround I mentioned a couple of posts earlier). But the Stinger is a single-channel amp, and that trick isn’t useful in this case, so here you go.

Footswitch — [Still debating whether this should be the Dual Gain Footswitch, as I have on the V18/V33, or some sort of gain booster. Any suggestions?]

Magic Eye — A tube VU-meter that pulsates as you play your guitar! This feature will add the cool factor to your Gabriel Stinger. I recommend it for instant popularity. Demo below:

The Stinger will come as a head and as a 1×12″ or 1×10″ combo. It’s still in its prototype stage, so pricing is not yet available, but I can assure you that it will have a very attractive price that will allow you to keep your marriage and your house. I will provide you with instructions on how to convince your honey that you absolutely need to have this new amp. I have many years of experience with this. . . .

Make sure you subscribe to Sound Garage Tale’s blog, and also to the Sound Garage YouTube Channel to be updated with The Gabriel Stinger‘s progress.

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