I had an interesting chat today with Bruce Egnater of Egnater Amplification in Oak Park, MI. I have an old Silvertone Twin Twelve that's been sitting around since I tried to learn how to play bass in high school and I took it to Bruce (his shop is about a mile from my house) to have it checked out and tuned up now that I know (courtesy of the harp amp faq) that it's a good mid sized harp amp. Egnater amps are highly regarded by guitarists - particularly those who are looking for the hot Marshall sound. Some think they're the best there are, and having seen his shop I can vouch for the construction quality (fibreglass pc boards, high quality components, hand soldering, toroidal output transformers). I can't say for sure, and I know that he's pretty busy selling just about everything they build, but if there's enough interest he might be willing to come up with something interesting for harp players.
BTW, I was talking to him about the elusive search for tone and he agreed that the player was more important than the gear (and this comes from someone who makes their living building and selling killer guitar amps). He also said that the Silvertone might be too much amp to get that overdriven sound since it has enough power and headroom to not clip at normal gain levels. This doesn't bother me because I'm not after that Little Walter sound - with a single 10" Celestion I can get the volume I want with just a little bit of 'honk' to make it sound right to my ears. Of course, I'm just fooling around in my basement - I haven't a clue how it would sound in the real world, alone or mic'ed into the PA. Can a white goy sing the Jews?
