Bilt’s first amplifier is a modern love letter to the 5E3 tweed Deluxe circuit created in collaboration with Milkman’s Tim Marcus. One interesting twist is that each Bilt Amp is made using the same tonewood and finish as the Bilt guitar it’s paired with—at least if you’re a new Bilt customer opting for the Starter Pack package. But whether you buy the Bilt Amp as part of a matched pair or to go with the Bilt you already have, it’s a great sounding take on the tweed Deluxe circuit.
The Bilt Amp Review by premierguitar
All clips recorded using Shure SM57 into an SSL 2+ interface.
- Recorded using a Bilt Relevator with Lollar JM pickups, neck position. Amp tone at noon, bass at 5, then cycling through bass knob settings (4, 3, 2, 1).
- Recorded with Creston T-Style with Lollar Gold Foils, middle position. Amp tone at noon, bass at 5, bright off, down, then up.
- Recorded with Creston T-Style with Lollar Gold Foils, neck position. Tone off, then noon, then cranked. Bass knob at 5.
- Recorded with Creston JM with Lollar JM pickups, middle position. Amp tone cranked, then lowered to noon. Bass at 5, full volume.
- Recorded with Creston JM with Lollar JM pickups, neck position. Volume at 4, then 6. Bass at 5, tone at 6.
Made To Match
The Bilt Amp cabinet design is sleek, with rounded corners and a large C-shaped cutout with white piping that recalls many vintage Valco-made Gretsch amps. Sitting next to a matching guitar—which for our demo Starter Pack was an alder, shoreline gold Relevator with a bedazzled birds-eye maple fretboard—the pair make a major statement.
The Bilt Amp is a top-quality piece of work. Our Amp’s alder cabinet was crafted at the Bilt factory in Iowa and loaded with a 12" alnico Celestion gold speaker. The electronics are handwired by Milkman in San Francisco using Jupiter capacitors, Mercury Magnetics transformers, and JJ tubes. Twelve to 15 watts of cathode-biased, class AB tone are generated via a 5Y3 rectifier tube, two 6V6 power tubes, and two 12AX7 preamp tubes. The controls include high- and low-impedance inputs, a 3-way bright switch, a power switch with a standby setting, and three oversized RCA-style knobs for volume, tone knob, and bass contour.
Click for Bass
As a hopeless tweed Deluxe enthusiast excited at the prospect of any good 5E3-style amp, I’ll admit I gave a side-eye to the Bilt’s bass knob. The single tone control of an original 5E3 is, after all, an essential part of its sound and operation. But the Bilt’s bass knob, which clicks into its five pre-set positions proved to be an asset—not least because the Bilt Amp tends to be stronger in the low end than a typical tweed Deluxe-style amp, which could have something to do with its larger enclosure (24" x 9 1/2" x 18 1/4").
Even without additional gain, the Bilt easily achieves the hallowed sagging compression that makes tweeds so legendary.
When I fired up the Bilt with relatively neutral settings to start—low volume, tone at noon, bright switch on middle/off setting—I immediately recognized the relatively fast, mid-focused response of a tweed Deluxe at lower volume. At that setting, the clean tone is warm and clear with well-rounded highs. It’s such a natural tone that particularly low volumes almost feel acoustic. It’s a cozy, organic experience. At moderate volumes, the Bilt’s Deluxe-ness still shines. There is noticeably more treble to my ears, but the mids are just as robust.
More Tone, More Volume
The Bilt’s tone knob offers plenty of range. It works dynamically with the volume control, and at low and moderate volumes, adding treble also adds bite that can push the amp to overdrive. At high volume settings, that treble is an essential part of the signature, wide-open, overdriven tweed sound. And while I could fulfill all my treble needs with the tone knob alone, there is a 3-way bright switch if you need to go that extra mile.
Cranking a tweed-style amp is a raggedly glorious feeling and the Bilt delivers on that promise. There’s a bit more body in the Bilt’s voice than a tweed Deluxe. That’s a good thing, though— especially when pedals are involved. Paired with overdrive and reverb, the Bilt turned into a saturated rock ’n’ roll monster. But even without additional gain, the Bilt easily achieves the hallowed sagging compression that makes tweeds so legendary.
Although the wattage rating is the same as a Deluxe, the Bilt feels like a louder amp, which could have something to do with the cabinet’s bigger-than-tweed-Deluxe size, alder construction, or the 50-watt speaker. Uninitiated players might be concerned about the low wattage, but the Bilt will give most players all the volume they need to soar above a band—any louder might actually be too loud.
The Verdict
There’s some danger in making an amp look this good. I’m not precious with gear, so I’d be concerned about scratching the finish on the Amp at gigs—even though it comes with a sturdy padded nylon case. And with an amp that sounds this good, I’d want to play it anywhere. I’d also want to be able to buy it—whether or not I was in the market for a Bilt guitar. So, yes, there are some obstacles to practical ownership of the Bilt Amp. Hopefully, Bilt will consider a more flexible purchase plan in the future.
Purchasing limitations aside, the Bilt Amp is a finely crafted boutique amp. It sounds amazing and does an excellent job at manifesting the essence of a tweed Deluxe—an impressive feat in itself— while adding more tone-shaping flexibility. Do matching amp and guitar tonewoods sound better together? Sure, playing the matching Relevator felt cool. But every guitar I played out of the Bilt sounded equally fantastic. That said, I won’t mind watching tone-nerds hash out that discussion in forum threads.
Photo 2
I've written my share about the insanely adventurous Kawai-made electrics from the '60s, but even Kawai had scaled it way back by the end of the decade—except for this 4-pickup monster. It's in my favorite guitar color, greenburst, and is a true throwback—a psychedelic leftover that refused to move on. Its design is similar to that of the Italy-made Eko Kadett I wrote about a few months back [“A '60s Solidbody That Would Make Sergio Leone Smile," December 2020], but the Kimberly Deluxe was a little more out there in almost every way.
I'm sure part of the appeal of the Kimberly Deluxe rested in the imaginations of us radio and electronics geeks who salivated over gadgets and widgets with a space-age flair. The guitar's pickups (Photo 2) are a variation of gold-foils that all read in the mid 4k range. But typical of Kawai wiring, it's all in series, meaning that the output increases as you switch on the pickups. For instance, with only the bridge pickup turned on, the output is 4.57k. Add the second pickup and it goes to 9.17k. But bring in the third pickup and it flies to 13.77k! And with the neck pickup engaged, the output is a whopping 18.43k, which is a lot of output for a 1960s Japanese guitar. The KD is a super-aggressive affair, and there was a time I actually owned and used five of them. They sound so interesting with fuzz and gain. Plus, switching on a Deluxes's pickups turns into a master class on how to boost your tone on the fly and scale back your pedalboard at the same time.
Photo 3
Also referred to as a “Bison" model, these instruments went by “Deluxe 4 Pick-up Solid Body Electric Guitar" in the Lafayette catalogs, with a corresponding model number of 24599WX. By the way, the guitar was priced at just $44.95 brand new. An optional case would set you back an extra $8.95. To further the deal, Lafayette also offered complete “guitar outfits" that paired the Kimberly Deluxe with an amp, cable, strap, strings, picks, pitch pipe, and an instruction book with a record—all for $148.75! Yep, those were the days.
Lafayette branded the majority of their guitars Kimberly, but the same model and variations of this guitar were sold elsewhere with different colors and pickup configurations. I've seen them branded as Sekova and Clear Sound as well, but in the end, all the coolest stuff was found in the Lafayette catalogs. Unfortunately, the Kimberly Deluxe ended its run by the mid-1970s, and Lafayette went bankrupt a few years later. Though I was only old enough to catch the tail end of all the Kimberly coolness, let's all give it up today for the last of the original space-age guitars!
Hear this late-'60s/early '70s Kawai Kimberly Deluxe—and some references to Link Wray and surf music—in this demo by Mike Dugan.
The new SG-style Les Paul Standards had thin, 1 5/6" contoured-edge bodies made with lightweight mahogany. The double-cutaway design allowed easy access to all 22 frets. The new, similarly contoured version of the Les Paul Custom had the same-style ebony fretboard, gold hardware, and split-diamond-inlay headstock, but was given a striking new color: “gleaming white," rather than ebony black.
Les Paul chose not to renew his original contract with Gibson in 1962. By 1963, Gibson dropped the Les Paul designation entirely, and the model became known as the SG.
Like the Les Paul Custom models that came before, this SG Custom has three humbuckers and is a “fretless wonder," to borrow Gibson's terminology at the time.
The 1965 SG Custom pictured this month has the features typical of 1963 through 1965 SG Customs. These are outlined in the 1964 Gibson catalog: “Ultra-thin, hand-contoured, double-cutaway body, gold-plated metal parts. New extra-slim, fast, low-action neck—with exclusive low frets—joins body at 22nd fret. One-piece mahogany neck, adjustable truss rod. Ebony fingerboard, deluxe pearl inlays. Adjustable Tune-o-matic bridge. Three powerful humbucking pickups with unique wiring arrangement. Two sets of tone and volume controls. Three-position toggle switch. New deluxe Gibson vibrato."
This model sports Gibson's then-new deluxe vibrato arm, tucked behind a Tune-o-matic bridge. Note the contoured upper bout, which was part of Gibson's effort to compete with Fender's thin-bodied guitars.
The last year for the classic small pickguard that this instrument sports was 1965. By the next year, a large pickguard surrounded the pickups on all sides. A great example of that later look is the 1967 SG Custom played by Jimi Hendrix on The Dick Cavett Show in September 1969. The original list price for a '65 SG Custom was $480. The current value is $10,000.
Contributing to this model's elegant look are a split-diamond-inlay headstock, ebony fretboard, and gold hardware.
The amp behind this month's guitar is a 1964 Gibson GA-19RVT Falcon. It has two 6V6 power tubes pushing 15 watts through a 12" Jensen C12R speaker. The Falcon's original price was $214.50. The current value is $500.
Sources for this article include Gibson Electrics: The Classic Years by A.R. Duchossoir, The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy: 1915–1963 by Robb Lawrence, Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era: 1948–1966 by Gil Hembree, and Gibson Amplifiers-1933–2008: 75 Years of the Gold Tone by Wallace Marx Jr.
