LOUIS ELECTRIC AMPS FORUM

[Raniel]

I'm not the best at describing tones but I thought I'd share my thoughts about this wonderful amp. I understand that this particular in my possession was made for and played by the endorsee Hubert Sumlin. According to Louis, this amp has a special wound output transformer. Don't know what that means but all I know is that the iron in this amp is pretty darn stout! The speaker just clears the transformer. The controls of the amp left to right are Ground Switch, Fuse, Power Switch, Standby Switch and then Presence, Middle, Bass, Treble, Master Vol and Vol controls. To the right of the controls are normal (1&2) and gain (1&2) inputs. The pine cabinet sports a custom made speaker from Louis' shop. The tube compliment consists of a duet of EL34's, 3 12AX7's and a 5U4GB rectifier. The only other control on the amp is what I understand to be a "sag" control. You can tighten/loosen the response of the speaker. The amp is covered in a rich looking reddish brown taurus tolex. It has a very classy/understated vintage look to it.

Plugging into the normal 1 input yields the warmest to the raunchiest tweed tones you could ask for (depending on how you set the controls). The tone controls are subtle and pretty interactive w/each other. I like to goose the MV and leave the volume control at noon for some nice clean/edge of distortion tones. I say clean/edge of distortion because depending on how you attack the strings of your guitar the amp can generate both. Hit the strings moderately and the amp sounds clean. Hit the strings hard and the amp will dirty up very nicely. I've not come across an amp that can do both by simply adjusting your string attack - simply amazing.

Plugging into the gain 1 input yield some righteous Marshall bark. The distortion out of this input has a lot of gain that comes from the power section of the amp. It's not buzzy or artificial sounding at all. Makes me think of Free "All Right Now". I like to push the MV control to 3 O'clock and then set the volume around noon.

You also have the option to bump up gain and volume in either the normal or gain inputs with the footswitch provided. It's a pretty neat feature that might eliminate the need for OD/boost for some. It's easier to use than to explain but let's just say it works really well. One last thing about the amp concerns the MV. I don't know what Louis did but the MV control on this amp is the best I've come across. You can get some kickin' high gain tones at talking levels if you want and it sounds very natural.

Before I sign off I'd like to give props to Louis and his customer service. I had Louis go through the amp and update the MV circuit to his current spec (my amp was made in 2003 after all). I traded another "boutique" amp for my HS12. I did my due dilligence by reading all the reviews and checking out the clips online. Quite honestly I was not sure I did the right thing by letting one of my favorite amps go for the HS12. In the end I think I got the better end of the deal.

[davebc]

Congradulations and welcome to the club.
I predict that 6 months from now you'll still be finding new killer tones.
There's magic in dem dials!