Germino Amplification Classic 45
Greg Germino is another lifelong guitarist
who was bitten by the tube-amp bug
after catching the Allman Brothers Band
back in 1972. He was so inspired by that
show that he switched over from acoustic
to electric guitar and began taking electronics
classes in high school. In 1979, he
requested schematics from both Ampeg
and Unicord (Marshall’s US distributor at
the time) and began his hands-on education
with tube amps. He spent the ‘80s at
an electronics job, and by the early ‘90s
he was moonlighting doing tube amp
repair for a few music stores. He continued
to play live with both 50W and 100W
Marshalls during that time and moved to
Durham, NC to work at Bull City Sound—
working on tube amps from the big-name
amp companies.
This led to Greg’s being commissioned by
Mojo Musical, where he built their Tone
Machine amplifier. The following year,
2002, he began work on the prototype of
his Lead 55 amp, which debuted in May
of 2002. The Classic 45 model is based on
the earlier R/S-style output transformer,
rather than the Drake 1202-103 used in
the ‘65–’66 era, and the circuit is exactly
what you would find in an earlier original.
The R/S OT is supplied by none other than
Chris Merren, who is highly regarded in
the world of Marshalls, and known to make
some of the most accurate transformer replicas
out there.
The Classic 45 was the only amp in the
roundup that used 6L6 power tubes. Greg’s
decision to use them was a combination of
staying true to the earliest tubes Marshall
used on the original JTM45 amps and his belief that the current crop of 6L6s sound
and perform better than newer KT66s. NOS
and vintage 6L6s are also less expensive
and more plentiful than NOS KT66s. Our
immediate response to the Classic 45 was
that it was a lively and aggressive amp, with
tons of power that made the pick explode
off the strings. In ways it reminded us of
our favorite ‘67 Super Bass in its volume
and attack, but it still retained the sound
of a 45. It may very well have been the
loudest amp of the bunch, and that volume
translated to a feeling of excitement that
made the amp extremely fun to play. It
was present without being shrill and had
a super-tight bottom end, no matter what
guitar we played through it. While the
Classic 45 had tons of natural gain on tap,
it also cleaned up nicely when rolling back
the volume on the guitar, revealing a bright
and sparkly chime. This amp is a real beast,
and it could hold its own against 100W
amps without flinching.
germinoamps.com
