There''s a new amp company that is positioning itself to take the blues scene by storm. In fact, Category 5 amps were originally made specifically for blues players. You''ve already heard them if you''ve seen Joe Bonamassa or Jimmy Thackery lately; the amps have also held up the back line at a number of blues festivals and award shows.
So, why haven''t you seen ads or reviews for these tone monsters named after tropical storms? Well, that’s part of their master plan.
Category 5 has spent the last two and a half years carefully crafting both an expansive line of boutique amps and their own identity. They''ve also helped natural disaster charities Feed the Children and Voice of the Wetlands by donating ten percent of the proceeds from their amps.
After gaining notoriety in the blues sector, with established veteran bluesmen and up-and-comers alike behind their products, Cat-5 is poised to expand into a larger market. In this exclusive interview, we sat down with Cat-5''s Director of Artist Relations, Don Ritter, and Director of Product Development, Steven Scott, to talk about their ever-expanding 14-amp line, their unconventional approach to the business and how Cat-5 isn’t just for bluesmen anymore.
How did you get into this business?
SS: I started doing this around 2001 as kind of a hobby. I’d actually built a few before that because my vintage amps were breaking down when I was gigging. I started off cloning my own amps so that I could have reliable amps, and then people started playing them and asking about them, and it just kind of caught on. I was doing a couple per month, here and there, and I kept that going until 2004, when I met Don.
 The Category 5 Tsunami |
So this is where the storm-related names came about?
SS: Yeah, it just kind of stuck that we would keep going with the storm-type stuff and try to keep the awareness out there. We had targeted some charities that were more helpful than not during those tragedies, Feed the Children and Voice of the Wetlands, so we continue to try to draw attention to that and donate money to the charities, and give them some public credit for what they’re doing.
Where do you see your amps fitting in this vast musical landscape?
DR: Essentially, we are providing the touring artist – or pretty much anyone – with a reliable amp that gives them a lot of the vintage-type tones that they want, without having to take their vintage amps on the road. Or for musicians with vintage amps that are a bit unreliable in a touring situation, this is an alternative where they can get the sounds that they’re after, and still have some modern features, especially in terms of controlling the tone in different volume situations.
So these are mainly targeted at touring musicians?
DR: Well, we would like anyone who loves guitars to want one, but they’re built so that they’re rugged and can deliver the tone in a variety of venues. We started in the blues world deliberately. We knew there are a variety of club sizes that blues artists play in. They can play for 50 people to 5000 people, and everything in between, all in the same week, 200 nights a year. That was a pretty challenging environment to build an amp for, so we kind of used the blues world as a test bed. If we could build an amp that could withstand the punishment there, then it should be fine everywhere else. But we also made the decision to target blues because it’s a genre of music that when you ask a bunch of people what they play at home, they’re always saying, ‘I play some blues, a little bit of classic rock.’
You’re pretty steeped in the blues world, but you do have one rock amp, right?
DR: Yes, the 1900 is pretty much a pure rock amp, but there’s also one side of two other amps, the Allen model and Isabelle model, that have a higher gain, kind of hot-rodded Plexi sound to them.
We should probably clarify; just about all of your amps have two distinct channels, almost two separate amps in one.
SS: Our philosophy on the two channels is that a lot of amps have a clean channel and a dirty channel, and one sounds good and the other doesn’t. We want to provide two distinctly different tones that are both good, useable tones, then add some versatility to it. For example, some of our amps have a separate effects loop on each channel, so you can run two effect chains depending upon what you’re doing. Our channel switching is done with an A/B box on the floor, so we don’t have to add any noise or complexity inside the amp and circuit boards. So with the two channels we’re trying to get, almost like what you said, two amps in one box, but we’ve paid attention to both channels so they both sound the best that they possibly can.
DR: All of the amps have this, except the 1900. And that one has a gain control with several different characters. It can play nice and clean, and if you crank up the gain, it becomes a completely different animal. So it’s not exactly a two-preamp-type amp, but it can cover a lot of ground from that aspect.
So are you looking to move into the rock scene a bit more?
DR: We will eventually, but more importantly, I think our next area of focus will be country musicians.
Do you have an amp specifically geared toward that?
DR: Actually, our hybrid amps, the Allen and the Isabelle, which have a very clean, Fender-type tone on one channel, which is kind of the mainstay of country players, and the other side is this kind of Marshall-esque, Plexi-type tone, with an adjustable gain that lets you take it to more of a hot-rodded JCM-800 kind of tone and beyond. We’ve found what really works well for today’s country music is switching back and forth between the channels on those amps. Instead of stomping on a stomp box to get distortion into the front end of a Fender amp, they’re just switching over to the other channel of this amp and it’s giving them everything they want for this newer-type country lead tone. And then they’re right back where they want to be for some of the more traditional tones. So we just had that amp demoed by a few country players who gave us extremely good feedback, and we’re looking forward to that one being the lead amp into the country side.
 Joe Bonamassa playing through a Category 5 at the 2007 Telluride Blues and Brews Festival |
DR: I’ve had some contacts in Telluride – I own a house up there – so I approached some people that I knew and got the product vetted by the [Telluride Blues & Brews Festival] promoters and sound guys to make sure it was something they wanted to have up there. At first they just said, ‘bring an amp, we’ll make sure somebody plays it, maybe we’ll put one in the artists’ green room.’ So I talked to the production guy and sent him some specs, and he was interested and told us to bring a few up. We showed up at our first festival with nine amps and no idea whether anyone was going to play them or not. But 15 of the 17 national acts used our amps at that festival.
Also, Joe Whitmer, Producer of the International Blues Competition and Blues Music Awards, definitely helped us get in front of the greatest blues fans and artists in the world.
Do you have any festivals coming up?
DR: Yeah, we’re backlining Blues from the Top in Winter Park, Colorado, coming up at the end of June with Johnny Winter, Joe Bonamassa and Jimmy Thackery – it’s going to be a real nice blues festival.
Are these festivals how you got hooked up with all of your endorsing artists?
DR: That’s how we got started, although we started a separate conversation with Tab Benoit because of the Voice of the Wetlands and his involvement in hurricane relief. When you look at our list of folks, they’re all interested in giving back in some respect. Jimmy Thackery and Joe Bonamassa are big in the Blues in the Schools program, so we’ve picked up that charity along with the hurricane relief.
We have to give a special thanks to John Richardson, he was our first artist and was very instrumental in the development of our first three models. A lot of our other contacts came through John Catt from the Grand County Blues society, who is also the founder of the Blue Star Connection, which gives musical instruments to terminally ill children, and is one of our new charities this year.
 |
So is that one of the models?
DR: That is now a Tab Benoit Signature. We just finished the development on that and got it to where he is absolutely pleased with it, and so we’re now offering that in a signature model.
You have a Joe Bonamassa model as well, right?
DR: Right, we have Joe Bonamassa signature model that’s based on a 1968 Super Lead, so it will cover a lot of rock ground and a lot of classic rock.
How much input does the artist have with these signature models?
DR: With the Joe Bonamassa one, he had tried the 1900, but it wasn’t enough wattage and it didn’t fit into the realm of tone that he was after. So I asked what he was looking for and he said, ‘Well, if you could do this… build a 1968 early transition model Marshall Super Lead with a Double-style mid boost, an effects loop like in the Marshall Jubilee, tighten up the bottom, make the top nice and creamy, and add really pronounced mids… that might work.’
It was like, ‘Here’s my dream, see ya later!’ So we went off and built the amp, and he came down to the Dallas Guitar Show where we had it ready. He plugged into it and played it for a few minutes, and he put the guitar down and ran over to get one of the effects pedals that he had somewhere else and he played it a few more times, and he just looked at us and said, “I can’t believe it. It was exactly what I described.”
 |
Wow, no tweaking from him or anything?
DR: Nope, no tweaks. That was it. He went to Europe a few months later and wanted another one, but we couldn’t get it done on time. We said we’d have another ready for him when he got back, and he was a bit reluctant because he really liked that one. But he took it, and we found some NOS silver Jubilee cloth and built a second one. After he came back and got the second one, I got a call from him saying, “It’s one thing when you can build a fantastic amp. It’s a completely different thing when you can build two exactly the same.” So that was a really great compliment from Joe.
And that became his signature model?
DR: Yes, that’s his signature model.
Neither the Joe Bonamassa nor the Tab Benoit is on the website, right?
DR: No, we’re actually right in the middle of a website update and so we’ve got a bunch of models that aren’t on the website yet that we’ll have up hopefully in the next few weeks. Still, [the Bonamassa amps] are starting to gain some popularity – I’ve taken orders for four of them this week. We just get a lot of people who see Joe play and see something that they haven’t seen before or haven’t heard before.
 |
DR: We just sent Jimmy Thackery his two new amps. He played demos for six months, and said, ‘I need a little bit of extra power in one of the amps, no change to the tone, and for the other amp I need a significant bump in power and a little different tone on one channel.’ So we just built those for him.
So those are going to be his signatures?
DR: One amp is going to be his signature, the other amp is a stock Andrew, but we increased the wattage to 50 watts. His signature model is called Typhoon Joe, named after his father actually.
Seems like you guys are great at filling specific requests for these guys – what was Jimmy looking for?
DR: Well, the conversation I just had with him, he’s been in three different venues over the last three days with the amps. One was a kind of 400-seat, medium club, more of a listening type environment, and he had them up about halfway. The next night was a big rock club with 1200-1500 capacity and he had them up about 3/4 of the way. And the next night was in an 80-seat auditorium next to a church. He’s good friends with a Catholic priest, so he played a little venue for them, and had the amps on about 2 or 3. He was able to have consistent tone over those three gigs, plus he’s got the stage volume for the outdoor festivals where he’ll crank the power scaling all the way up. That’s really what we’re after; that’s really what’s different.
Is that kind of versatility found in all of your amps?
DR: Yeah, we like for both channels to have a very good clean and a very good distorted tone, which is also something different. It really does give you a lot of versatility, and that combined with our variable voltage (similar to power scaling or power dampening), allows those different tones to be used at different volume levels. So you can crank the amp up and get the good power tube distortion sound from it, but you can dial back with power scaling or power dampening, depending upon what bias you’re using, and get that same level of tone at a reduced volume level.
Plus, we can get a singing sustain in the amp without a lot of distortion or compression, which when combined with the variable voltage, allows a usable tone throughout the volume range versus just one sweet spot at one volume level. Those features are really what give versatility to the amps.
So how do you make all of these concepts a reality?
SS: We start with a concept. We don’t start with a specific amp – like, I’m going to build a JTM-45-type thing. We start from the ground up, designing circuits primarily from scratch. We do borrow a little bit here and a little bit there, but it’s more about crafting the sound, picking components and making design decisions that will accomplish what we’re trying to do. We’ve got some amps that we felt like really needed to breathe and be rich with harmonics and overtones, so we tried to accomplish that first before we even decided what its voice was going to be. And then once we accomplished that, we took the principles from that earlier excursion and turned it into a package that was pleasing to the artist, which is kind of interesting to me. Tab’s amp sounds a lot like a Super, but internally it’s not really anything like a Super.
What we’ve learned is that people are not really all that interested in innovation when it comes to guitar amps. You’ve got the Fender camp and you’ve got the Marshall camp, and they want the dials to do the same thing, they want the tone to be predictable, just better. And a lot of times they can’t even articulate what better is. You know, I’ve had people tell me that they want it to sound “more purple.”
It’s been a really interesting learning experience; when I built amps for myself, I was just kind of going for a sound and when I was done I was happy. You put the same thing in front of someone else, and they say, ‘I want my treble knob on six.’ Even though they can put it on four and get the same sound, they want the knob on six!
Is everything handmade in house?
DR: The cabinet work is subbed out, and in the future we will probably sub out a few small components, but the rest is handmade.
 Chassis prototype for the Cat-5 Allen Hybrid |
DR: Well, one thing that helps is that we can build about nine or ten different amp models on the same chassis. We have four different platforms, or tone types, we can build on, and a tone circuit that can go from 20 watts to 50 watts to 90 or 100 watts, all within the same chassis. It really leads itself to being able to componentize the process and make it more efficient. The chassis then fits into a 1x12 or 2x12 or 2x10 or 4x10 or a head cabinet, so everything is very simplified, and we can get a lot of productivity out of what we’re doing.
Every amp ships with kind of a goodie bag… what’s in that?
DR: We usually send a t-shirt, a nice vinyl cover for the amp and some extra tubes. If you have a tube amp, the most unreliable part of a tube amp is the tube. That is something that we can’t screen out completely. We test everything, and we do a good job of doing the QA to make sure the amp ships out and everything is in good shape, but with guys that are rattling these things around in their truck 200 times a year, you have the occasional tube damage problem. We ship out an extra set of tubes so that these guys aren’t trying to figure out where the local Guitar Center is – there are a lot of places that don’t have a local Guitar Center. We don’t want them without at least the first line of defense.
A lot of the amps that we build 50 watts and below use cathode bias, which allows you to change tubes without changing the bias, so you don’t have to be an amp tech to field service the amp. Especially in models like Andrew and the Typhoon Joe amps, you can even try a whole box full of different types of tubes – KT66, 5881 or a 6L6 in the same amp and you get a whole variety of tone.
And they can do it themselves?
DR: Right. You can do it yourself, kind of have a little tone tasting party, all handled without a tech, and without messing with the voltages. Sometimes we’ll send a set of 6L6s, instead of an extra set of 5881s, so they’ve got two choices. It’s really a high-value package, and they’re not cheap, but they’re also not priced as high as some other of the boutique-type amps. I think they’re actually within reach of touring musicians. By no means do they not feel some pain when purchasing one, but there’s a big difference between $3000 and $6000. And I haven’t met anyone who’s told me there’s any difference in quality or tone for what we’re providing.
What’s next on your radar?
DR: One thing that we’ve got halfway done, from a design standpoint, but just haven’t had a chance to finish is a bass amp. We’re looking at that in a much different way than it’s been looked at before, but with a similar philosophy to our guitar amps. We want two, maybe three, unique preamp tones that are vintage-style tones -- the tones that really developed with low-wattage amps and lost their favor because of that. We want to incorporate a high power section so that we can bring kind of that same vintage amp tone on the bass side up to a 100 watt level for small clubs and a 200 watt level for larger venues. So that’s one thing in the works.
Which vintage sounds are you looking for? Here''s a list of Category 5''s current amps:
| Watts | Tubes | Sounds | |
| Fender-y | |||
| Ivan | 20 | 2 6V6s | Brownface Deluxe/Blackface Deluxe |
| Andrew | 50 | 2 5881s or 6L6s | Brownface Super/Blackface Super |
| Camelle | 90 | 2 6550s | Brownface Twin/Blackface Twin |
| Marshall-y | |||
| Tsunami | 18 | 2 EL84s | Marshall/Plexi |
| Tempest | 50 | 2 EL34s | JTM 45/Plexi |
| Wreckish | |||
| 1900 | 35+ | 2 EL34s | Rock |
| Hybrid | |||
| Allen | 50 | 2 6L6s | Blackface Deluxe/Hot-rodded Plexi |
| Isabelle | 90 | 2 6550s | Blackface Super/Hot-rodded Plexi |
| Unique | |||
| Katrina | 50 | 2 EL34s | Raw Tweed/Fender-Vox Cross |
| Signature | |||
| Tab Benoit | 45 | Blackface Super-style 4x10 combo | |
| Tab Benoit | 90 | Twin-style 2x12 combo | |
| Joe Bonamassa JB 68 | 100 | Plexi-style head | |
| Joe Bonamassa JB 68 | 50 | Plexi-style head | |
| Typhoon Joe | 50 | JTM/Plexi-style 1x12 combo |
For more information:
Category 5 Amplification
Category 5''s Photo Gallery (lots of gut shots)
When not performing at various festivals across North America in 2024, front man Jakob Nowell immersed himself in the Sublime catalog and found a deep sense of connection to his late father. The band is tapping into the 90s nostalgia, writing and recording the new songs with powerhouse producing duo Travis Barker and John Feldmann, in addition to working with producer Jon Joseph (BØRNS). The first single will be released this Summer via their newly established label Sublime Recordings.
"I grew up on Sublime. ‘40oz. to Freedom’ changed the way I listened to music. I’m so honored to be working with the guys in Sublime. Creating music for this album has been so fun and exciting. Bradley comes through his son Jakob while writing in the studio and performing. Chills every day in the studio when he sings and play guitar. This is going to be really special." – Travis Barker
“Sublime has always been a huge influence on me and to be able work with the band has been inspirational and game changing…It has been a highlight of my life to work on such a seminal record with such talented people. I’m so grateful for this opportunity and to continue the legacy and keep it authentic to what they have historically done.” – John Feldmann
After Jakob Nowell’s debut as Sublime’s new front man at Coachella 2024, he and his uncles Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson continued the momentum of this latest chapter of the band, performing at over 20 festivals and shows across North America by the end of last year. Additional highlights from 2024 include Sublime’s late-night television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, a 4-song set on the Howard Stern Show and the band’s first top 10 hit on alternative radio since 1997 with their single “Feel Like That,” featuring the vocals of both Bradley Nowell and his son Jakob together.
2025 is shaping up to be an even busier year for the band, with a handful of headlining shows, high-profile festival appearances to support the release of the new album.
For more information, please visit sublimelbc.com.
Sublime 2025 Tour Dates
- April 5 – LIV Golf Miami – Miami, FL
- April 18 – Red Rocks Amphitheater – Morrison, CO
- May 3 – Beachlife Festival – Redondo Beach, CA
- May 16 – Welcome To Rockville – Daytona Beach, FL
- May 23 – BottleRock Napa Valley – Napa, CA
- May 25 – Boston Calling – Boston, MA
- June 14 – Vans Warped Tour – Washington, DC
- July 12 – 89.7 The River’s 30th Anniversary Show – Omaha, NE
- July 20 – Minnesota Yacht Club Festival – Saint Paul, MN
- September 14 – Sea.Hear.Now – Asbury Park, NJ
- September 19 – Shaky Knees Festival – Atlanta, GA
Price unveiled her new band and her new signature model at a recent performance at the Gibson Garage in Nashville.
The 6-string was inspired by the J-45 she bought at Nashville’s Carter Vintage Guitars after she was signed to Third Man Records, where she made her 2016 ice-breaker album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. But her affection for Gibson acoustics predates that, going back to when she found a 1956 LG-3 in her grandmother’s home. The guitar had been abandoned there by her songwriter great uncle, Bobby Fischer.
“I played it for years before I found my J-45,” Price recounts. “At Carter Vintage, I tried a lot of guitars, but when I picked up that J-45, I loved that it was a smaller guitar but really cut through, and I was just really drawn to the sound of it. And so I went home with that guitar and I’ve been playing it ever since.”
“Having a signature model was something I had dreamed about.”
Of course, Price was also aware of the model’s history, but her demands for a guitar were rooted in the present—the requirements of the studio and road. The 1965 J-45 she acquired at Carter Vintage, which is also a cherry ’burst, was especially appealing “compared to a Martin D-21 or some of the other things that I was picking up. I have pretty small hands, and it just was so playable all up the neck. It was something that I could easily play barre chords on. I could immediately get everything that I needed out of it.”
If you’ve seen Price on TV, including stops at Saturday Night Live, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, you’ve seen her ’65. And you’ve also seen, over the years, that part of the soundhole’s top has been scraped away by her aggressive strumming. It’s experienced worse wear from an airline, though. After one unfortunate flight, Price found her guitar practically in splinters inside a badly crushed case. “It was like somebody would have had to drive over this case with a truck,” she relates. Luckily, Dave Johnson from Nashville’s Scale Model Guitars was able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
After that, an alternative guitar for the road seemed like a requirement. “Having a signature model was something I had dreamed about,” Price says. Friends in her songwriting circle, including Lukas Nelson and Nathaniel Rateliff, already had them. Four years ago, a tweet asking which women they thought should have signature models appeared, and one of her fans wrote “Margo Price.” Smartly, Price tagged Gibson and retweeted. Codey Allen in Gibson entertainment relations spotted the tweet and agreed.
The double pickguard was chosen for Price’s J-45 because of its symmetry, as a nod to the Hummingbird, and due to her heavy strumming hand.
Photo courtesy of Gibson
“The neck is not quite as small as my J-45, but it is just a bit smaller than many J-45s fives, and very playable no matter what size hands you have.”
“And so we began our journey of building this guitar,” Price says. “I debated whether it should be the LG-3, which I still have hanging on my wall, or the J-45. I went to Montana and visited their [acoustic] factory and sat down with Robi Johns [director of sales and marketing at Gibson acoustic], and we ultimately decided that the J-45 was my guitar. Then we started talking about the specs. We did pull from the LG-3 in that the body of this signature guitar is a bit smaller. It still has a really loud, clear sound that rings through. The neck is not quite as small as my 1965 J-45, but it is just a bit smaller than many J-45s, and very playable no matter what size hands that you have.”
The pickup that Price selected is a L.R. Baggs VTC Element with a preamp, and she took a prototype of the guitar on the road opening for the Tedeschi Trucks Band. “I am used to playing with a really loud band, with drums and sometimes a couple electric guitars, and I wanted to make sure that this guitar just cut through,” she says. “It was really important to me that it be loud, and it cut beautifully. It’s got a mahogany body and scalloped bracing, which makes it very sturdy. This guitar is a workhorse, just like me.”
The Margo Price J-45’s most arresting characteristic, in addition to its warm sunburst finish, is its double-sided pickguard with an etching of a quartet of red-tailed hawks in flight. It’s practical for her strumming style, but it’s also got a deeper significance.
“We talked about all sorts of things that we could put on the pickguard, and I’ve always been a big fan of the Hummingbird, so what we did is a bit of a nod to that,” Price continues. “I’ve always been drawn to red-tailed hawks. They are supposed to be divine messengers, and they have such strength. They symbolize vision and protection. I would always count them along the highway as I’d be driving home to see my family in Illinois.”
Birds of a feather: “I’ve always been drawn to red-tailed hawks,” says Price. “They are supposed to be divine messengers, and they have such strength. They symbolize vision and protection.”
Photo courtesy of Gibson
With its comfortable neck, slightly thinner body, and serious projection, Price notes, “I wanted my guitar to be something that young girls can pick up and feel comfortable in their hands and inspire songs, but I didn’t want it to be so small that it felt like a toy, and that it didn’t have the volume. This guitar has all of those things.” To get her heavy sound, Price uses D’Addario Phosphor Bronze (.012–.053) strings.
Price says she and her signature J-45, which is street priced at $3,999, have been in the studio a lot lately, “and I have a whole bunch of things I’m excited about.” In mid March, she debuted her new band—which includes Logan Ledger and Sean Thompson on guitars, bassist Alec Newman, Libby Weitnauer on fiddle, and Chris Gelb on drums—in a coming out party for the Margo Price Signature Gibson J-45 at the Gibson Garage in Nashville. “I’ve been with my previous band, the Price Tags, for more than 10 years, and it’s definitely emotional when a band reaches the end of its life cycle,” she says. “But it’s also really exciting, because now, having a fiddle in the band and incredible harmony singers … it’s a completely different vibe. I’ve got a whole bunch of festivals coming up this year. We’re playing Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and I’m so excited for everyone to hear this new iteration of what we’re doing.”
With its heritage cherry sunburst finish and other appointments, the Margo Price Signature Gibson J-45 balances classic and modern guitar design.
Photo courtesy of Gibson
There’s a good chance that if you’re a guitar fan, you’ve seen Nathaniel Murphy’s gear demos—either on his Instagram account, where he goes by @zeppelinbarnatra, or on the Chicago Music Exchange page. His solo arrangements of classic tunes display his next-level technique and knack for clever arranging, and he makes our jaws drop every time he posts. When we learned that the Irish guitarist is a huge fan of U2’s The Edge, we knew he had to be our expert for this episode.
Together with Nathaniel, we’re decoding our favorite eras of the Edge’s tones—from his early Memory Man days through his expanding delay rack rig, into his 1990s Achtung Baby sounds, and all the way through to his Sphere rig. How does he get those amazing delay tones? And what are those cool picks he uses?
