One day in the future, cars will drive themselves, iPhones will be installed in our brains, and solid state guitar amps will supposedly sound “better” than those with tubes. When that happens, I’ll stock up on MRE’s and potable water, cover my house’s windows with razor wire, and spend the rest of my days barricaded in my man cave, warmed by the glow of a tube amp, while trying to A) prevent my six-foot beard from igniting, and B) finally learn how to play “Eruption.” Since my man cave is more of a man closet, I’ll only have room for one amp, and the Percolator, a tiny 2-watt tube head or combo from Zeppelin Design Labs, might be just the ticket.
“Cute” would be one word to describe this little package. With the speaker cabinet (outfitted with an 8-inch 25 watt Jensen), the total weight is 13 pounds. As for the tones? It’s easy to blast some Cream-era Clapton licks right out of the box, as well as some crunchy leads. It has a higher gain than a Fender Champ. Two watts almost makes it too much fun—you’re not going to annoy your neighbors, and if you have an office with a door, watch out—you’re co-workers probably won’t care, especially if you’re the one who signs the checks.
I sat down with Zeppelin Designs Labs co-founder Brach Siemens to find out more.
First things first—what kind of tube powers the Percolator?
We use the 6AF11 Compactron tube, which was developed by GE in the early 1960’s to compete with the rising popularity of transistors. The idea behind Compactrons was to pack as many active sections into one bottle as possible. One Compactron could take the place of several tubes, which made them the tube equivalent of an integrated circuit.
What was the Compactron used for back in the day?
It was originally designed for various parts of a color television circuit. But tubes eventually did become obsolete in televisions, which left large stockpiles of unused Compactrons in warehouses. We acquired a large batch of these tubes which allows us to re-purpose a piece of tube history and create a unique sounding little amp.
What sound were you looking for?
I wasn’t consciously going for a specific sound. Originally, it was more of a challenge to see if I could even make a decent sounding amp using this tube. On paper it looked good, but the math and graphs don’t really tell you the subtleties of the tone; you just have to build it and use your ears. After the first prototype was done, I started shaping the tone to be a little on the darker side. I did this because for a guitarist playing by themselves, which is how I envisioned this amp mostly being used, I tend to prefer the lows emphasized a bit, creating a fatter sound.
Was it designed for single coils or humbuckers?
Actually, my test guitar in the lab has humbuckers in it, so a lot of the tonal subtleties of our products get designed around that. After I get them sounding the way I want with humbuckers, I bring in a Tele and/or Strat to make sure it also works well for single coils. The Percolator went through this same process.
Obviously 2-watts is great for the bedroom. But do you see other uses for the Percolator?
Some musicians are using it live for solo shows and sets with a lower stage volume. It also works really well in small project studios were isolation is hard to get with louder amps.
You also sell this as a kit. What kind of skill level do you need?
The most important skill you need is to be able to read and follow directions. You also need to be able to solder electronic components to a circuit board, use some basic hand tools, and be able to use a multimeter to measure voltage, resistance, and continuity. If you want to build any of the wood cabinets for the head, combo, or speaker cabinet you need some basic woodworking skills. It’s not as hard as it might seem. I think kids as young as 13 could do a fine job, though they may need some supervision or assistance. All the instruction manuals are available for download from our website so anyone potentially interested in our products can look though them to see if it’s a project they would like. All the products are also available “ready to play” for those not interested in building a kit. As far as we know, that makes us unique amongst kit manufacturers.
The Percolator is tiny, and the prices are tiny-ish, but hey, you’re getting an American-made boutique build; factor that it and it’s a relative bargain.
The Percolator head is $225 unassembled and $359 assembled.
The speaker cabinet (including the Jensen) is $89 unassembled, $149 assembled.
The Combo is $339 unassembled, $499 assembled.
For more information, head to Zeppelin Design Labs.
Check out the sounds here:
So what do you think? How would you use the Percolator?