65amps EMPIRE FRONT PANEL
Tubes
:
The Empire tube compliment consists of 2 6V6s and
a 12AX7 preamp. Peter, Dan and crew have success-
fully pulled off the hat-trick of making 6V6s sound
exactly like vintage EL34s. Peter and Dan have been
pursuing this effect since the late ‘80s when they
used to mod small old American amps to sound like
big British amps. With over 20 years of pursuit, they
have found the exact formula! For decades guitar
players about having all those classic British sounds
at their fingertips at volumes that meet modern re-
quirements.
Channels
:
The Empire is as versatile as it is toneful. It’s set up
to offer you three of our favorite voice configura-
tions that you can choose from using a foot pedal or
the select switch. The first voice is derived from that
cleaner early ’60s Townsend-like tone; the second
is from the classic, fat and dirty ’68-’72 era; and the
third is a higher-gain, hot-rodded ’80s tone.
ON/Standby
- Best to turn the POWER switch on
first before the Standby and wait about 10 seconds
before turning Standby on. This will prolong tube
life. When turning the amp off, turn POWER switch
off first. This allows the power to drain out of the
amp circuit. You can turn off the Standby switch later
before turning the amp back on.
Tone controls
:
Bass, Mid and Treble tone controls for each channel
are passive cut-style. We recommend starting at “10”
and backing off. With brighter single-coil guitars, the
mid’s will focus really well with the TONE set back
around “5 to 8”. A presence control Boosts the upper
frequencies above the normal treble control range
for added high-end.
Master Voltage
Our master voltage emulates the tonal response of
a big amp only at low volumes. The “Master Volt-
age”™ knob reduces the B+ voltage and output in
the amp in a unique way that keeps the internal tube
relationships perfect while keeping the filament volt-
age up. After seeing all other power schemes’ short-
comings, we’ve come at this from a different angle
and we’re very pleased with the results. You can dial
this amp down to 3 watts output WITHOUT losing
tone, feel, vocabulary, authority, etc.
Bump Control
The Bump™ control is a much more effective alter-
native to traditional channel switching. The Bump™
allows the user gain-up and re-slope the amp’s tone
stack allowing much more midrange to flow through
the circuit; thereby gaining up the entire amp natu-
rally and not inducing false preamp gain that creates
fizz and buzz. The end result is the effect of having
two amps in one.
