Please tell me about your blistertone

I've seen videos of them before.I don't have one but the way my brain interpreted their existence, it seemed to me like they were a step in the evolutionary chain which led to the Archon. I don't know that for sure and I am speculating 100%. But the reason I say that is because they seemed to exist for a very short time, few ever heard of them and then all of a sudden the Archon comes out to huge fanfare. To me they seem to be virtually the same thing. But I would liek to know the official answer myself. Maybe the next time I see Doug Sewell I'll ask him. ;)
 
Had one, great amp. They were very limited, never knew anyone else who had one. Mine was paisley and I ran it through a paisley PRS 2x12. Loud amp, definitely Marshall flavored but had its own thing going on. Very immediate as opposed to a spongy feel. They were billed as somewhat of a high gain amp but never really got saturated, great for old school metal or hard rock though.

I had the reverb model, either reverb or effects loop.

There is a great demo of one on YouTube that Brent from The Guitar Store did, a combo and you can tell he has it up loud and sounds ripping.


Mine shown here, amp is now long gone sadly.

 
I've seen videos of them before.I don't have one but the way my brain interpreted their existence, it seemed to me like they were a step in the evolutionary chain which led to the Archon. I don't know that for sure and I am speculating 100%. But the reason I say that is because they seemed to exist for a very short time, few ever heard of them and then all of a sudden the Archon comes out to huge fanfare. To me they seem to be virtually the same thing. But I would liek to know the official answer myself. Maybe the next time I see Doug Sewell I'll ask him. ;)

They were somewhat ahead of their time.....PRS amps were not mainstream at all at the time and they were a hard sell at the price point for an unknown. I think of it it as an Archon with less gain and no channels switching. Wonder if the Archon has an extra preamp tube or two, much more saturated sound from the Archon.....
 
There is one particular "one delta ten tango" on Reverb listing a blistertone as an HXDA which drives me nuts. I didn't confront the individual but I was tempted.




Translation: 1D10T
 
I don't have one, but did play the one Brent is demoing.
I got the MDT instead.
I liked the Blistertone quite a bit, but it wanted to be played fairly high on the gain side, which isn't really where I go much. Nice sharp edge with a fierce growl.
 
I don't have one, but did play the one Brent is demoing.
I got the MDT instead.
I liked the Blistertone quite a bit, but it wanted to be played fairly high on the gain side, which isn't really where I go much. Nice sharp edge with a fierce growl.

That sounds like what I'm hearing, my only concern is that it may be sort of a one trick pony, but since I haven't played one, its hard to say. Maybe the custom 50 is a more versatile version of this amp?
 
That sounds like what I'm hearing, my only concern is that it may be sort of a one trick pony, but since I haven't played one, its hard to say. Maybe the custom 50 is a more versatile version of this amp?

I thought the Blistertone was a single channel amp based on Doug Sewell's earlier designs, but with more gain. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

It wasn't a 2 channel amp like the custom 50, if I'm remembering correctly.

Docbennett had one with a "kitchen sink" mod.
 
I thought the Blistertone was a single channel amp based on Doug Sewell's earlier designs, but with more gain. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

It wasn't a 2 channel amp like the custom 50, if I'm remembering correctly.

Docbennett had one with a "kitchen sink" mod.

I meant in the sense that the custom 50 is the current 6L6 offering with a higher gain channel. The cusrom 50 also has a "clean" channel, something that the blistertone as a high gain single channel amp may not excel at, at least anecdotally.
 
I meant in the sense that the custom 50 is the current 6L6 offering with a higher gain channel. The cusrom 50 also has a "clean" channel, something that the blistertone as a high gain single channel amp may not excel at, at least anecdotally.

No doubt I was being more literal.

What you suggest might be generally so, but I'd guess that the design of the amp would dictate a tone different enough that it wouldn't be an apples-to-apples comparison. And by that I mean that even the gain tones would probably be different.

I've heard a Blistertone and a C50, and they seemed to have a different vibe. But I didn't hear them head to head.
 
That sounds like what I'm hearing, my only concern is that it may be sort of a one trick pony, but since I haven't played one, its hard to say. Maybe the custom 50 is a more versatile version of this amp?
I don't think I spent enough time with it to judge it fairly, but based on plugging in a couple of times I would tend to agree that it may be mostly about the gain, which it does very well, but I don't always want that.

I'm not sure I would characterize the custom 50 as a version of this amp, but it does cover some of the gain space and offers other things as well.
 
I had both the Blistertone and a Custom 20 combo which i was told is a Custom 50 essentially with different tubes to reduce output. The Blistertone was a much more agressive gain than the Custom, but the Custom had channel switching with great cleans, boost and an effects loop along with the reverb. a much more versatile amp.
 
I had both the Blistertone and a Custom 20 combo which i was told is a Custom 50 essentially with different tubes to reduce output. The Blistertone was a much more agressive gain than the Custom, but the Custom had channel switching with great cleans, boost and an effects loop along with the reverb. a much more versatile amp.

Yup, this is what I was hearing, a different kind of gain.
 
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