One of my favorite things to do at NAMM is getting lost while wandering the lanes, with a purposefully random way of looking at all the new wares for the coming year. In doing so, I've had the privilege of seeing what amounts to a giant art expo, filled with tons of interesting, innovative, and downright cool pieces that blur the line between form and function. And while there are usually some jaw-dropping pieces tailored towards bassists, the majority of new products are geared for guitarists. Philosophy Amplification's Kit Rairigh and Elliot Polokoff—frustrated with the seemingly endless offerings of cheap and outsourced amplification for bassists—set out to create an amp that would not only compete on a boutique level in terms of tone, but also have a stunningly unique look, and a reasonable price tag. Their flagship bass amp was released soon thereafter, with a cultured look and killer tone to match.
The Look and Feel of Tone
Philosophy designed their amp with the intent of making a bold, visual statement for bassists. The outer shell is constructed from gorgeous hardwood and is finished with a subdued, dark stain that showcases the wood’s grain. Both the top and front of the housing sport hourglass-shaped vents, and the front-panel vent features a strip of bright LEDs that illuminate when the amp is powered on. Forgoing traditional control labeling in favor of vintage-Orange-inspired pictographs for the knobs, the company’s name is the only lettering that's prominently visible. The visual vibe of the amp just screams cosmopolitan, and it would look just as appropriate serving as the centerpiece of a Manhattan high-rise apartment as it does sitting atop your favorite 4x10. But as refined and clean as it looks, the amount of firepower hidden inside this handbuilt amp is not geared for the stuffy wine and cheese crowd.
The Philosophy’s class-AB poweramp is fueled by a quartet of JJ KT88 power tubes, dishing out a total of 200 watts. Before the amp has a chance to feed the speaker cab with its pummeling signal, the input signal is first processed by a trio of JJ 12AX7 preamp tubes, along with a set of controls for gain, bass, middle sweep, treble, and master volume. And while the amp has only one channel, Philosophy designed the circuit with highly overdriven capabilities on tap, making it ideal for generating some serious grind and saturation with considerable heft and power.
Features on the amp are as sparse as the visual look of the Philosophy. There is no effects loop or direct out on the back panel—only the amp’s power and standby switches, a pair of parallel speaker jacks, and an impedance selector for either 4, 8, or 16 Ω. While simplicity is vital to the look and feel of this amp, an effects loop would have gone a long way in providing some added versatility.
Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams
As the amp’s aesthetics would imply, Philosophy's sophisticated-looking creation has a modern tonality to match its avant-garde visual flair. While it definitely has the capability to cover more midrange-infused, vintage bass tones, its voicing keeps its overall tone clear, wide, and extremely tight in the lows—grabbing the ears with the same level of authority that its magnetic looks command.
For testing purposes, I plugged the amp into an Ampeg Isovent 2x10/2x15 cabinet, and slung a 2011 Fender American Jazz Bass over my shoulder. With the EQ and preamp gain controls set at noon for a starting point, the amp came alive with a very distinct and lively tone. In fact, the amount of frequency separation was so startling that it caused me to do a double take back at the cabinet. The lows, mids, and highs weren't only easily audible, they felt and sounded as if they were at slightly different locations within my line of hearing—giving off a great sense of smooth and springy low end, buttery mids, and funk-friendly high end.
Speaking of funk, this amp's true forte was all about kicking out some of the most refined and defined slap and pop tones this side of a well-worn Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Each pull from my fingers against the string revealed the details of my fingers sliding off and the string snapping back with authority, thanks to the amp's pristine, almost hi-fi voicing and overbuilt transformers for high levels of tonal detail and headroom. At this point, I wanted to thicken up the tone and pull back the immediateness of the attack—something that would sit better with my John Paul Jones proclivities than my Bootsy ones—but it was an uphill battle at first. I was able to warm up the tone slightly by moving the preamp’s gain control to higher registers, but it eventually reached overdriven territory and required that I drop the volume control on the bass to clean up the tone.
The amp’s super-useful mid shift control allowed me to get closer to the loose, vintage ’70s tones I was after, especially when used in conjunction with the bass and treble knobs. Because the Philosophy amp does not have a dedicated midrange-level control, it relies on the amount of bass and treble dialed in to determine how much mid-emphasis it generates in the tonal spectrum. If I wanted more midrange, I had to drop the bass and treble controls—usually below noon or 11 o’clock to really hear a huge difference—and use the mid shift control to set the point where the midrange was accentuated. This might sound intimidating to those who are used to riding an amp’s midrange control for setting their level of overall mix presence. But honestly, it couldn't have been much easier to get a full range of sounds out of the amp—from the fantastic slap and pop tones, to warmer and more mid-heavy low-end foundations, to flat-out aggressive and raging grind.
Ratings
Pros:
Superb detail and expansive tone. Top-notch build quality.
Cons:
Tone can be a little tight and restrictive at times.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build:
Value:
Street:
$2,099
Philosophy Amplifiers
philosophyamplifiers.com
And what a grind this amp has. Cranking the gain control to around 3 o’clock treated me to a bristling, almost fuzzed-out overdrive that was very sensitive to pick attack—perfect for the immediate, ripping tones in the vein of Lemmy Kilmister and the late Cliff Burton. Though getting the amp to loosen its seemingly iron grip on the lows was next to impossible, it was really hard to care after hearing and feeling just how well the amp handled fast, overdriven playing with the upmost precision and superbly detailed midrange. And my fears of having to live in either a clean and pristine or rude and raging mode were alleviated when I discovered how well the amp cleaned up via the bass’s volume control, even with the preamp gain maxed. The voicing was still very tight and aggressive, but retained the same excellent levels of detail in the frequencies as it had when it was originally set clean.
The Verdict
Philosophy's modern-looking marvel is an impressive bass amplifier. Actually, it's downright astounding when you consider that it’s their very first model. The build quality and design are nothing short of perfection, and the tones—even though they can be a little too ferocious and present at times—are consistently clear, defined, and full of punch and power. If this amp represents the level they’ve set for themselves right out of the gate, Philosophy has a very bright future ahead of them.
Onstage, Tommy Emmanuel executes a move that is not from the playbook of his hero, Chet Atkins.
“My biggest decision every day on tour is, ‘What do I want to start with? How do I want to come out of the gate?’” Emmanuel explains to me over a video call. “A good opener has to have everything. It has to be full of surprise, it has to have lots of good ideas, lots of light and shade, and then, hit it again,” he says, illustrating each phrase with his hands and ending with a punch.“You lift off straightaway with the first song, you get airborne, you start reaching, and then it’s time to level out and take people on a journey.”
In May 2023, Emmanuel played two shows at the Sydney Opera House, the best performances from which have been combined on his new release, Live at the Sydney Opera House. The venue’s Concert Hall, which has a capacity of 2,679, is a familiar room for Emmanuel, but I think at this point in his career he wouldn’t bring a setlist if he was playing Wembley Stadium. On the recording, Emmanuel’s mind-blowingly dexterous chops, distinctive attack and flair, and knack for culturally resonant compositions are on full display. His opening song for the shows? An original, “Countrywide,” with a segue into Chet Atkins’ “El Vaquero.”
“When I was going to high school in the ’60s, I heard ‘El Vaquero’ on Chet Atkins’ record, [1964’s My Favorite Guitars],” Emmanuel shares. “And when I wrote ‘Countrywide’ in around ’76 or ’77, I suddenly realized, ‘Ah! It’s a bit like “El Vaquero!”’ So I then worked out ‘El Vaquero’ as a solo piece, because it wasn’t recorded like that [by Atkins originally].
“The co-writer of ‘El Vaquero’ is Wayne Moss, who’s a famous Nashville session guy who played ‘da da da’ [sings the guitar riff from Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’]. And he played on a lot of Chet’s records as a rhythm guy. So once when I played ‘El Vaquero’ live, Wayne Moss came up to me and said, ‘You know, you did my part and Chet’s at the same time. That’s not fair!’” Emmanuel says, laughing.
Atkins is the reason Emmanuel got into performing. His mother had been teaching him rhythm guitar for a couple years when he heard Atkins on the radio and, at 6, was able to immediately mimic his fingerpicking technique. His father recognized Emmanuel’s prodigious talent and got him on the road that year, which kicked off his professional career. He says, “By the time I was 6, I was already sleep-deprived, working too hard, and being forced to be educated. Because all I was interested in was playing music.”
Emmanuel talks about Atkins as if the way he viewed him as a boy hasn’t changed. The title Atkins bestowed upon him, C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player), appears on Emmanuel’s album covers, in his record label (C.G.P. Sounds), and is inlaid at the 12th fret on his Maton Custom Shop TE Personal signature acoustic. (Atkins named only five guitarists C.G.P.s. The others are John Knowles, Steve Wariner, Jerry Reed, and Atkins himself.) For Emmanuel, even today most roads lead to Atkins.
When I ask Emmanuel about his approach to arranging for solo acoustic guitar, he says, “It was really hit home for me by my hero, Chet Atkins, when I read an interview with him a long time ago and he said, ‘Make your arrangement interesting.’ And I thought, ‘Wow!’ Because I was so keen to be true to the composer and play the song as everyone knows it. But then again, I’m recreating it like everyone else has, and I might as well get in line with the rest of them and jump off the cliff into nowhere. So it struck me: ‘How can I make my arrangements interesting?’ Well, make them full of surprises.”
When Emmanuel was invited to contribute to 2015’s Burt Bacharach: This Guitar’s in Love with You, featuring acoustic-guitar tributes to Bacharach’s classic compositions by various artists, Emmanuel expresses that nobody wanted to take “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” due to its “syrupy” nature. But for Emmanuel, this presented an entertaining challenge.
He explains, “I thought, ‘Okay, how can I reboot “Close to You?’ So even the most jaded listener will say, ‘Holy fuck—I didn’t expect that! Wow, I really like that; that is a good melody!’ So I found a good key to play the song in, which allowed me to get some open notes that sustain while I move the chords. Then what I did is, in every phrase, I made the chord unresolve, then resolve.
Tommy Emmanuel's Gear
“I’m writing music for the film that’s in my head,” Emmanuel says. “So, I don’t think, ‘I’m just the guitar,’ ever.”
Photo by Simone Cecchetti
Guitars
- Three Maton Custom Shop TE Personals, each with an AP5 PRO pickup system
Amps
- Udo Roesner Da Capo 75
Effects
- AER Pocket Tools preamp
Strings & Picks
- Martin TE Signature Phosphor Bronze (.012–.054)
- Martin SP strings
- Ernie Ball Paradigm strings
- D’Andrea Pro Plec 1.5 mm
- Dunlop medium thumbpicks
“And then to really put the nail in the coffin, at the end, ‘Close to you’ [sings melody]. I finished on a major 9 chord which had that note in it, but it wasn’t the key the song was in, which is a typical Stevie Wonder trick. All the tricks I know, the wonderful ideas that I’ve stolen, are from Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, James Taylor, Carole King, Neil Diamond. All of the people who wrote really incredibly great pop songs and R&B music—I stole every idea I could, and I tried to make my little two-and-a -half minutes as interesting and entertaining as possible. Because entertainment equals: Surprise me.”
I share with Emmanuel that the performances on Live at the Sydney Opera House, which include his popular “Beatles Medley,” reminded me of another possible arrangement trick. In Harpo Marx’s autobiography, Harpo Speaks, I preface, Marx writes of a lesson he learned as a performer—to “answer the audience’s questions.” (Emmanuel says he’s a big fan of the book and read it in the early ’70s.) That happened for me while listening to the medley, when, after sampling melodies from “She’s a Woman” and “Please Please Me,” Emmanuel suddenly lands on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
I say, “I’m waiting for something that hits more recognizably to me, and when ‘While My Guitar’ comes in, that’s like answering my question.”
“It’s also Paul and John, Paul and John, George,” Emmanuel replies. “You think, ‘That’s great, that’s great pop music,’ then, ‘Wow! Look at the depth of this.’”
Often Emmanuel’s flights on his acoustic guitar are seemingly superhuman—as well as supremely entertaining.
Photo by Ekaterina Gorbacheva
A trick I like to employ as a writer, I say to Emmanuel, is that when I’m describing something, I’ll provide the reader with just enough context so that they can complete the thought on their own.
“You can do that musically as well,” says Emmanuel. He explains how, in his arrangement of “What a Wonderful World,” he’ll play only the vocal melody. “When people are asking me at a workshop, ‘How come you don’t put chords behind that part?’ I say, ‘I’m drawing the melody and you’re putting in all the background in your head. I don’t need to tell you what the chords are. You already know what the chords are.’”
“Wayne Moss came up to me and said, ‘You know, you did my part and Chet’s at the same time. That’s not fair!’”
Another track featured on Live at the Sydney Opera House is a cover of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” (which Emmanuel then jumps into an adaptation of the Australian bush ballad, “Waltzing Matilda”). It’s been a while since I really spent time with There GoesRhymin’ Simon (on which “American Tune” was first released), and yet it sounded so familiar to me. A little digging revealed that its melody is based on the 17th-century Christian hymn, “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded,” which was arranged and repurposed by Bach in a few of the composer’s works. The cross-chronological and genre-lackadaisical intersections that come up in popular music sometimes is fascinating.
“I think the principle right there,” Emmanuel muses, “is people like Bach and Beethoven and Mozart found the right language to touch the heart of a human being through their ears and through their senses ... that really did something to them deep in their soul. They found a way with the right chords and the right notes, somehow. It could be as primitive as that.
Tommy Emmanuel has been on the road as a performing guitarist for 64 years. Eat your heart out, Bob Dylan.
Photo by Jan Anderson
“It’s like when you’re a young composer and someone tells you, ‘Have a listen to Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind,”’ he continues. “‘Listen to how those notes work with those chords.’ And every time you hear it, you go, ‘Why does it touch me like that? Why do I feel this way when I hear those chords—those notes against those chords?’ I say, it’s just human nature. Then you wanna go, ‘How can I do that!’” he concludes with a grin.
“You draw from such a variety of genres in your arrangements,” I posit. “Do you try to lean into the side of converting those songs to solo acoustic guitar, or the side of bridging the genre’s culture to that of your audience?”
“I stole every idea I could, and I tried to make my little two-and-a-half minutes as interesting and entertaining as possible. Because entertainment equals: Surprise me.”
“If I was a method actor,” Emmanuel explains, “what I’m doing is—I’m writing music for the film that’s in my head. So, I don’t think, ‘I’m just the guitar,’ ever. I always think it has to have that kind of orchestral, not grandeur, but … palette to it. Because of the influence of Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and Elton John, especially—the piano guys—I try to use piano ideas, like putting the third in the low bass a lot, because guitar players don’t necessarily do that. And I try to always do something that makes what I do different.
“I want to be different and recognizable,” he continues. “I remember when people talked about how some players—you just hear one note and you go, ‘Oh, that’s Chet Atkins.’ And it hit me like a train, the reason why a guy like Hank Marvin, the lead guitar player from the Shadows.... I can tell you: He had a tone that I hear in other players now. Everyone copied him—they just don’t know it—including Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, all those people. I got him up to play with me a few times when he moved to Australia, and even playing acoustic, he still had that sound. I don’t know how he did it, but it was him. He invented himself.”
YouTube It
Emmanuel performs his arrangement of “What a Wonderful World,” illustrating how omitting a harmonic backdrop can have a more powerful effect, especially when playing such a well-known melody.
