Every once in a while, a product breaks away
from the norm and dares to be different than
the rest of the pack. In the current golden
age of gear, there are many, many great
amps available—more than I’ll ever play in a
lifetime—so it takes something extra special
to stand out. In the case of the Dynamic
2040 HG DynaLead, I feel they’ve discovered
a way to bring something unique to the table
while still making it dead simple to operate
and get great tones. Like any good design,
you wonder why it hasn’t been done this way
before. To be honest, I’d never even heard
of the Dynamic brand until the amp arrived
for review, but I’m sure that will change very
soon. Again, I haven’t played every amp in
the world, but the 2040 HG opened my eyes
to a new design concept that works for me.
Let’s take a look.
The Details
 | Download Example 1 Dynalead set to clean, Fender-like tone. |
| Download Example 2 Vox AC30-style tone |
| Download Example 3 Classic Rock rhythm tone with Vox-like midrange |
| All clips recorded with a 1974 Les Paul Custom, mic’d with an SM57 into a Chandler LTD-1 mic preamp directly into Pro Tools with no FX. | |
The front panel looks similar to most amps at first glance, but I did a double take when I got closer. There’s a lot to take in here, so stay with me. From left to right, you have a standard input and, above it, a three-way bright switch, followed by a Gain A knob and two more switches—Grind and Channel A/B/DL. Channel A (the clean channel) consists of a five-way Voicing knob and a Thin/Fat knob. Channel B (lead) hosts Gain B, Thin/Fat, and Volume knobs. Next we have the DL (DynaLink) control—which functions effectively as a third channel—and a global Reverb knob. Standard Standby and Power toggles round out the front panel. The Clean channel’s Thin/Fat is a full-bandwidth tone control and is highly effective at tailoring just the right amount of body for various pickup and guitar types. The Voicing control is where the 2040 HG stands out: Positions one, two, and three offer varying degrees of mid-frequency dips, while position four engages just the tone control, and position five completely eliminates the tone stack. The DynaLink control, which is engaged with the Channel A/B/DL switch, combines the A and B channels in series to offer endless gain and voicing options. Very cool!
DynaLicous!
With all these options, switches, and nonstandard controls, you might think that it could be tricky to dial in good tones on the 2040 HG. Not so. In fact, I found it surprisingly intuitive and was immediately able to pull up a very wide variety of great sounds. For those who are gun shy, the amp includes a sample settings sheet that covers some serious tonal territory. Because the sample sheet was so helpful, I’ll use the three sample settings included and go over how they fared with various guitars.
Setting 1, “Blackface/Plexi/Bluesbreaker,” goes for a Blackface-like clean on Channel A, plexi-style grit for B, and Bluesbreaker-inspired tone on DL. With my Gibson Custom Shop 1958 Les Paul reissue, Channel A sounded shimmery and clean, with just a hint of breakup. While I wouldn’t exactly call it Fendery, it was an inspired tone that was easy to play, with just enough headroom to bark a bit when you lean into it. Channel B stepped into Bad Company and AC/DC territory and held its own very well. There wasn’t a ton of gain, but as I got more aggressive it gave it up happily and let my notes sing and scream. The DL function added harmonic complexity and more chime, though it sounded slightly darker to my ears—like a Bluesbreaker. What’s really nice about the A/B/DL design is that it logically moves the tone from clean to crunch to lead while maintaining a single sonic footprint. You can hear the DNA in the progression.
Setting 2 is labeled “Hot/Clean Crunch/ Dumbleford.” Using my Epiphone Sheraton with Tom Holmes PAFs, Channel A was much hotter than I expected, despite the label. It had more chime and sparkle than setting 1’s Channel-B plexi setting, and it lit up like a bonfire when I pushed the dynamics of the guitar. The more aggressive I got, the bigger the sound got,—and backing off the volume cleaned up the sound to a tone Tom Petty would use in a heartbeat. The Clean Crunch tone was a little darker and not too gainy, but again it felt comfortable and familiar. One of the most exciting sounds in the batch was the Dumbleford, which was beautifully saturated and nearly out of control with the Epiphone (in a good way). Notes instantly bloomed into harmonic feedback that I could control and alter with just a slight movement of the guitar. I loved this tone, and if it’s anything close to what people like about Dumbles, it all makes sense to me. Throughout the tone experiment, I toggled the bright switch to various settings and found that it swung very wide and could easily accommodate a variety of pickups. With the Epiphone, I preferred it in the middle position, but with a Strat it sounded best either in the middle or in the darkest position. The Les Paul seemed to like the brightest setting, which made sense because its humbucker has a relatively low output. Another bonus was flipping through the PowerStep switch. Although it technically reduced the volume, it didn’t seem as apparent as you might think. It actually changed the feel and tone more (at least in the half-power setting). You could tell in the lowest setting that it didn’t have quite the headroom and that it wouldn’t project as far as the half- and full-power settings, but it did let me push the amp a bit farther without going ridiculously loud. That switch alone added another three tones to the amp.
Using a Hamer Korina Special with two Lollar P90s, I found that the “Clean and Fat” portion of Setting 3, “Clean and Fat/Old JCM/Fat, Old JCM,” was exactly that. I hate the term 3-D, but that’s just what this tone was: Clear, big, rich, and expressive. Usually clean tones aren’t my preference for soloing, but there was something about this sound that was so evocative that I couldn’t put down the guitar. It was almost liquid in feel, and notes just slipped right out of my hands and through the amp. Beautiful. The “Old JCM” setting was a low-gain, Marshall-like tone that did a good job of that in-between sound that a nonmaster Marshall gets at about 9 o’clock on the volume. This would be a perfect platform for an overdrive pedal because of the amount of gain and the mid-favored voicing. But of course that’s unnecessary, because the DL was set for “Fat, Old JCM”—another winner. It had enough gain to really crank up the leads but wasn’t so over-the-top that it felt squashed or overly compressed. I never felt that the low end was too flubby, but it didn’t have that uncomfortable stiffness that other amps I’ve played exhibit when set up this way.
How about that reverb? It held its own nicely and complemented clean sounds with its full, robust quality. It tended toward the wet side, so I found myself setting it conservatively but that’s more of a preference than a problem. The lack of an effects loop seemed a little strange until I noticed that Dynamic offers it—as well as other speakers, output tube choices, wattages, and footswitches— as options. Even so, the 2040 HG takes pedals well, and the Thin/Fat control enabled me to pull away any woofiness or unwanted thickness without losing the essence of the original tone.
The Final Mojo
The 2040 HG DynaLead delivers, plain and simple—everything from great American- and British-sounding cleans to classic rock tones and modern, boutique luxury sounds. I can’t think of another amp that can cover such a wide range. And I’ve only scratched the surface of the 2040 HG’s capabilities. I threw just about every guitar possible at it, and was always pleased with the results. Being able to switch between three different sounds that all feel congruous was a real treat. If you can’t dial in an inspiring sound with this many options, it may be time to look for a new career or hobby.
Buy if...
you’re looking for one amp to deliver many amps’ worth of killer tones.
Skip if...
you like tradition and aren’t one to try new things.
Rating...
MSRP $2370 - Dynamic Music Technologies - dynamicamps.com |
“All the kids in all L.A. / Come to hear Dick Dale play,” or so goes the title track from Dick Dale’s Wrecking Crew-heavy 1963 album, King of the Surf Guitar. Immodest though it might seem to proclaim such a status, he was indeed at the top of the heap.
For many, Dale’s legend precedes him. His sound, first heard in a So Cal beach ballroom, created the surf guitar vocabulary and transformed the guitar universe, starting with the 1962 release of his take on the traditional song “Misrlou.” Ever the showman, he worked closely with Leo Fender developing the right gear for the gig as he played his ripping instrumentals to larger and larger audiences. He also inspired a Hendrix lyric and had a late-career renaissance thanks to Quentin Tarantino.
In this episode of 100 Guitarists, we’re talking all things surf rock, from reverb to tremolo picking and much more. And while “Misrlou” is undisputedly his most influential work, maybe Dale’s best records didn’t come until a few decades later.
This episode is sponsored byTraveler Guitar.
This late-’90s Masterbilt was made to mimic the feeling and look of vintage luxury.
Some guitars just feel expensive. Not in an “I shouldn't be touching this, lest I scratch it” way so much as simply exuding luxury. Maybe it’s the flawless ebony fretboard, making gliding up and down the neck feel like ice skating. Or perhaps it’s the slim, ’60s-style neck shape which felt instantly comfortable in my small hands. It may have something to do with the sumptuously low 2/32" action at the 12th fret, requiring hardly any effort to play.
Makes sense, considering this guitar’s origin story. Mac Yasuda was born in Nishinomiya, Japan. At 15, he discovered the music of Hank Snow and fell in love with country music and the guitar itself. He stole a classical guitar from his cousin (“He never played it,” said Yasuda) and started a band with his friends. Yasuda traveled to the States in the ’70s and after picking up his first vintage guitar from a pawn shop, he was hooked. He began scoping out gear for his friends, which eventually grew into a shop called Mac’s Guitar Gallery in Kobe, Japan. By the ’90s, he estimated he had owned between 4,000 and 5,000 instruments, and his collection was valued at $3 million. He has authored several books about vintage guitars and is widely considered one of the world's preeminent authorities on the subject.
Yasuda is also an accomplished musician. While in Nashville in the ’80s—perhaps for one of the half-dozen times he’s performed on theGrand Ole Opry—he met Greg Rich, an instrument designer who was then head of Gibson’s banjo division. Yasuda enlisted Greg Rich and another guitar maker named Mark Taylor to produce a line of high-quality, vintage-style instruments under the name Masterbilt. “Vintage guitars are fine, but they're limited,” said Yasuda at the time. His Masterbilt guitars would give us mere mortals the chance to get a taste of the luxurious feel of a fine vintage instrument. Masterbilt debuted at NAMM in 1997, and it’s still unknown how many guitars were actually produced. The trademark of the Masterbilt name was cancelled in 2005 and has since been used by other brands, like Epiphone.
“Some folks think anything from the ’80s or before is vintage, but perhaps the fact that time has continued to march on should be factored in.”
Fanny's House of Music believes this guitar to be an early prototype, one of six ever made. Three were sunburst and three were natural. Playing it feels like playing any fine vintage 335; funny when you consider that at 27 years old, some would consider this Masterbilt vintage itself. The notion of what is considered truly “vintage” is hotly debated on Reddit every few months. Some folks think anything from the ’80s or before is vintage, but perhaps the fact that time has continued to march on should be factored in. Some guitars from the ’80s are now 45 years old! We consider guitars from the ’90s to be vintage at this point, so this 1998 Masterbilt prototype fits right in.
This Masterbilt is now 27 years old. In your books, does that make it a “vintage” guitar?
Photo by Madison Thorn
It’s a good example of how history and passion can intersect to create something special. This guitar tells a story of dedication to quality and an appreciation for the feel of a well-made instrument. Whether or not a 27-year-old guitar qualifies as “vintage” may be up for debate, but the magic in this guitar definitely isn’t. If you’re ever in Nashville, stop by Fanny’s and take it for a spin. You might find yourself feeling a bit like I felt after my unexpected ride in a Jaguar: getting a glimpse into the world of understated elegance, where refinement isn't about flash but about experiencing something crafted to near perfection.
SOURCES: namm.com, Los Angeles Times, Blue Book of Guitar Values, Vintage Guitar, Guitar-List.
British metal icon and Bring Me The Horizon guitarist Lee Malia has partnered with Jackson to create his signature LM-87, a shred-ready axe built for heavy riffing and alternative modern metal. As a founding member and lead guitarist of the Grammy-nominated band, Malia is renowned for his aggressive playing style and intricate solos. This high-performance guitar matches his demanding musicality.
With its offset Surfcaster™ body shape and vintage appeal, the LM-87 melds classic design with modern appointments. The thin open pore finish on the bound Okoume body and neck exudes organic style, while the unique 3-ply pickguard and chrome hardware add striking accents. The fast D-profile 3- piece okoume neck allows smooth riffing across the bound amaranth fingerboard.
Custom Jackson signature pickups, including a bridge humbucker with push-pull coil-split, equip the LM-87 with versatile tone-shaping options to fulfill Malia's sonic vision. The TOM-style bridge with anchored tailpiece and fine tuners provides rock-solid stability for low tunings and heavy picking.
Designed in close collaboration with the legendary guitarist, the Jackson Lee Malia LM-87 is built for shredding. Its blend of vintage vibe and high-performance features make this signature model a must-have for players who value commanding metal tone and smooth playability.
The Tune-o-matic bridge with an anchored tailpiece and fine tuners offers enhanced tuning stability and precise, incremental adjustments. This setup ensures consistent pitch control, improved sustain, and easier fine-tuning without affecting overall string tension.
The guitar’s three-piece set-neck guitar with graphite reinforcement offers exceptional strength, stability, and resistance to warping. The multi-piece construction enhances sustain and tonal clarity, while the graphite reinforcement adds extra durability and prevents neck shifting due to humidity or temperature changes. This design ensures a solid, reliable performance with improved resonance and longevity.
Features Include:
- Okoume body
- Three-piece okoume set neck construction with graphite reinforcement
- 12"-16" compound radius amaranth fingerboard
- 3-ply pickguard
- Chrome hardware
- Custom wound Jackson LM-87 pickups
- Volume with push-pull coil-split and tone control
- TOM-style bridge with anchored tailpiece and fine tuners
- Gig bag included
The Jackson LM-87 carries a street price of $899.99.
For more information, please visit jacksonguitars.com.
Unleashing the Pro Series Signature Lee Malia LM-87 | Jackson Guitars - YouTube
Jackson Pro Series Signature Lee Malia LM-87 Electric Guitar - Open Pore Black
