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Signature Amplifier
by
Vintage Vacuum Tube Amps, Inc.
2580B Old Washington Rd.
Waldorf, MD 20601
Phone 301.396.4100 Fax 301.396.4100
When we began discussions with Rick about a signature amp, we were somewhat intimidated. How do you
build an amp for a guitar virtuoso and Rock ‘n Roll legend like Rick Derringer? He has played almost every
production and boutique amp under the sun. His musical style can shift from rock to blues to jazz to
contemporary Christian in a heartbeat. It seemed like a daunting task but we like a challenge. Rick already
owned a couple of our 6V6 based amps and seemed to like them a great deal. So, from a marketing
standpoint I tried to steer him toward our Earthquake 2.2 model. It’s small enough to fit under the seat on an
airplane, weighs in at 12 pounds, has great tone, and is exceptionally loud for 22 watts. I figured that we
could repackage that amp in a nice cabinet, add a footswitch for the preamp boost, put a Derringer logo on
the front, and we’re done. I’m seeing visions of magazine ads boasting about the great tone, with leaders
lines like, “Put a Derringer in your pocket!” and other corny stuff. But Rick said, “No, I want at least 50 watts
for live shows. The Earthquake 4.5 has possibilities but…” So, now I’m thinking where do we go from here?
We knew that Rick would not put his name on a repackaged vintage amp clone; any talented amp builder can
do that. And, we wanted to build Rick an amp that would be worthy of his signature. So, I told Rick about
another amp design that my business partner Tony and I had been working on for four years. It’s a high gain
design that we dubbed the Earthquake 9.1 Overdrive. But Rick said, “I don’t like high gain amps; they always
have this buzzy thing going on in the background.” When we heard that we just smiled. That was THE same
issue that we had with channel-switching-high-gain amps and was the reason that we started VVT Amps. At
this point I could write a book about Tony’s obsession with this amp but I’ll try not to digress too much. Once
we had the basic circuit design, Tony tweaked the amp with every imaginable circuit permutation and
component searching for THE TONE. I have to say that Tony has golden ears, is a fabulous guitarist, and his
stubbornness paid off. The bees buzzing in the background are gone; the overdrive tone is thick and rich with
lots of harmonic content, superb output tube compression, and the clean channel is oh so sweet. Then, I
asked Rick, “What if we could build an overdrive amp using four 6V6s without the buzz and a clean channel
that you could live on?” He said he would be interested in hearing that. So I built the prototype and Tony
tweaked it to perfection. We said a prayer, sent it to Rick for testing, and waited on his response. It was only
a week or so, but it seemed like a year, when Rick called and said, “This is it. I’m in the studio and this amp
rocks royally. But I want an access port for the overdrive tone stack. I want ivory tolex, a copper colored front
with hardwood accents, and I don’t use an effects loop.” The result is the Rick Derringer HyperDrive. It has
the best hand wound transformers by Mercury Magnetics and other components were selected for durability
and most of all TONE. This amp has the versatility of an SUV and will cover any genre of music. It’s
exceptionally sweet with almost any guitar: tele/strat single coils, P90s, or humbuckers. Toss your pedal
board but you may want to keep your tuner and wah. Am I bragging? You bet I am! I think we make the
best amps on the planet and the Rick Derringer HyperDrive is exceptional in the hands of a good guitarist.
Jim Hill
Chief Braggart and Go-fer
VVT Amps, Inc.
