I believe that the amp is an extension of the electric guitar and treat it as part of the instrument.  This amp-as-instrument design philosophy lead me down a very different path than most boutique amp builders who either ape established designs from the past, change a few component values of a popular design and claim their work to be revolutionary and mystical or devise an engineering solution to a problem that doesn't exist for most guitar players.  More

I design my own circuitry so that I can maximize what you want an amp to do and minimize what you don't want it to do.  My understanding of what you really want from a tube guitar amp required that I develop my own approach to amplifier design.  It's more of a form-follows-function method with excessive emphasis on sonics. More

Through my own hard work at the bench, years of studying old vacuum tube electronics books and lots of time talking to guitar players I've come up with a set of sonic values that guide how I build each Bluetron amplifier.  They are:

Clarity (slew rate)-- the ability to be heard in the mix without being loud as well as translate all of the information that the guitar is presenting to the amp.

Clean sustain (one type of amplitude distortion)-- The characteristic of amplifying more as the signal decays (really the inverse).  This quality competes directly with clarity.  Building an amp with lots of both is no easy task.  My new Bluedrive has so much more of both than other amps out there, that I believe it qualifies as a leap forward in guitar amplifier design.

Touch sensitivity (tactile response)-- the ability of the amp to change its tone based upon the signal amplitude from the guitar.  There are a few distinct types of distortion working together here to create a smooth transition from clean to overdrive. Knowing which ones to maximize is the task for the amp builder.  I believe my designs have the largest and smoothest transition areas in the industry today. 

Coloration (harmonic distortion)-- the web pages of amp builders are rife with flowery terms that describe harmonic distortion is perceived.  I believe that most guitar players want some odd order and lots of even order harmonic distortion.  Understanding where and how these two different types of harmonic distortion are generated and balancing the two results in a broad and dimensional tone.

Balanced tone (frequency response)-- I voice my amps to sound good with Stratocasters which present the greatest challenge to amp builders.  I find that if an amp sounds nice with a Strat it's likely to sound nice with other guitars.

When combined, these primary sonic attributes create other attributes such as note bloom, etc...  By emphasizing these five attributes when I design Bluetron circuitry I am able to create an amplifier that does the most of what you want.  Most builders do not go into this much detail for obvious reasons.  I believe the more you understand about the sonic qualities of tube guitar amplifiers the more likely you are to choose a Bluetron amplifier.

-- Smitty