This Bruno Royal Artist, with its matching accents on the pickguard, headstock, toggle, and pickup surrounds, is a much more savory monster than Dr. Frankenstein’s
A roadside stop in Massachusetts yielded a mysterious gem that hinted at a recombinant building operation.
This month, I’m proud to say that my wife and I are celebrating 20 years of marriage! Yes, she puts up with all my weirdness, but the gal is just the best, and I’m glad we found each other in this crazy world. Over the years, we’ve had a running joke about how, wherever we travel, I have to look up old music haunts or check out local classifieds for treasure.
I bought a guitar on our honeymoon, and our yearly trips to the shore were often spent trying to get a music-store owner to sell me an old hollowbody. (He thought it made a nice decoration.) On our 10-year anniversary, I bought a few guitars up in New England. But this year, we were staying in a beautiful but remote part of northern Pennsylvania, and I couldn’t find anything. There wasn’t even a music store in the whole county! Plenty of dollar stores, though, which are totally not that fun.
On our drive home we had the best chat about all sorts of topics, but eventually I started talking guitars. (Actually, the reason the subject came up was because she wants me to sell some of mine! Ha!) We were discussing remote spots, crazy music locations, and some totally strangecollectors who had music “stores,” but never sold anything because the prices were nuts.
Once, we were driving through Massachusetts. I don’t remember the name of the town, but I do remember that it had a famous fire station that was depicted in some Norman Rockwell paintings. [It was likely Stockbridge.] As we were driving out of town, we spotted a big “SALE” sign in front of a kinda-sorta country store. The place was an amalgam of buildings, makeshift tents, and semi trailers filled with all sorts of goods and sundries. I remember it was hot as hell, and being inside the trailers felt like being broiled. Yet, I persevered, and went on searching for weird stuff.
the guitar featured a totally warped-looking body that was slightly offset and a tad offbeat.“
My wife bought a few things, like a fat ballerina mirror which we still have, and some old glass bottles of various colors. I wasn’t finding anything, but I asked one of the locals there about guitars. He eyed me up and must’ve thought I was worthy because he took me to a spot near the back, in an old shed that was probably being held together with paint. Inside, there was a little treasure trove of kooky instruments in all sorts of disrepair. Still, I was smitten with a few pieces, including this column’s subject.
This Decca guitar is the kissin’ cousin of that old Bruno our columnist found in Western Massachisetts.
Labeled as a Bruno Royal Artist, the guitar featured a totally warped-looking body that was slightly offset and a tad offbeat. Finished in redburst with lots of brown pearloid, the Bruno had a lot of oddities that left me wondering. The neck and pickups were Kawai-made, circa 1966, but the body and tremolo originated elsewhere. I just assumed it was pieced together, but I still dug the thing, and it came home to live with us for a little while.
In the years that followed, I started to see more guitars just like this Bruno. I also saw some different brand names like Crown, Conqueror, and, pictured here alongside my Bruno, Decca. What was the mystery guitar factory behind the hybrids, piecing together Kawai parts with different bodies? I guess I may never know, but these are the happy little accidents we see in the bizarre world of guitars.
The guitar sounded very good, and the Kawai pickups in that hollowbody were smoky as hell. The body was finely crafted, and felt much more solid than typical fare from the era. The tremolo was also a solid feature, and the darn thing actually returned to tune.
This Bruno did eventually find a new home, and if I don’t sell more guitars, well … you know.
The high-end, Dumble-style amp supplier to the stars explores and expands upon ’60s Fender tone templates.
Two-Rock’s top-tier amplifiers attract a lot of players who can afford to play through any amp they want. Generally speaking, the company is known for Dumble-style amps. But their newest release, the Vintage Deluxe, takes a different tack—drawing inspiration from the black- and brown- panel Fenders of the 1960s. Cleverly, Two-Rock’s modern design creates a sort of hybrid of old-school Fender moves and contemporary Two-Rock touches, embracing some of the best from both worlds and creating a Fender-influenced amp with a broader palette of sounds.
Masterful Mutation
The Vintage Deluxe comes in a 1x12 combo or as a head that can be paired with Two-Rock’s open-backed 3x10 or single-15 cabinets (or any 4-, 8-, or 16-ohm cabinet of your choice). You can also choose between a 35-watt 2x6L6 version with a tube rectifier or a 40-watt version with four 6V6 tubes and a solid-state rectifier. Our review model is built around the former format and is housed in a sizable (20.5"x12"x10.5") head. Apart from the two 6L6 power tubes, many specs and features will be familiar to Fender fans. It’s built with a steel chassis and comes with footswitchable bias tremolo and a tube-driven spring reverb. Other features are more novel—most notably the two footswitchable tone stacks. The first of these, which is situated on the front panel, features treble, mid, and bass controls. The alternate tone stack is built around a single tone knob on the back panel. Further tone shaping is available via a presence knob and switches for texture, bright, and power modes. A passive effects loop offers an insert point between preamp and power sections for time-based effects.
Signature Sonics
There’s a rich fidelity to the Vintage Deluxe, and an equilibrium in the frequency response that allows the personalities of instruments to shine through. Lows are clear and tight, edgy mids are present but not shrill, and upper harmonics are proportional and exhibit a smooth rolloff. The ability to meticulously shape the output also means the midrange can sit center stage, while the supporting cast fills their layers. That’s not an option on most mid-scooped Fender amps. And while there is some mid scoop evident here, it’s nowhere near as pronounced as it would be on a vintage black-panel amp.
Though the Vintage Deluxe is rated at 35 watts, there’s an abundance of clean headroom and a lack of stiffness or pushback from the power section at high volume levels. There's a near-instant-responsiveness to transients. This open, almost compression-free sensitivity was common across all settings and volumes (the one exception being low-power mode, but more on that later).
Shimmery Sparkle and Crunchy Chords
The Vintage Deluxe gain voicing is straight out of the 1964 Fender playbook—spanning chimey cleans and rich, creamy grind. The amp retains detail and warmth throughout the sweep of the gain pot, and the hint of warm preamp compression that you do hear and feel adds a subdued bloom of sustain. In fact, at some settings the Vintage Deluxe feels like a Fender Deluxe’s preamp mated to a Twin Reverb’s power section. Front-end dynamic response is superb. And setting the amp at the edge of breakup, I could easily vary drive textures via picking dynamics or guitar volume adjustments. This amp is loud, really loud, so I was pleased to find that low volume levels did not compromise its richness of tone. And I didn’t need stage-level volume to feel the body and fullness of the amp.
Silk or Burlap?
The texture switch toggles between two distinctive preamp voicings. The jazzier down position is smooth and warm, characterized by scooped mids and a softer dynamic response. Flipping the switch up unleashes an aggressive tone with snappier transients, enhanced harmonics, and midrange bite—perfect for slicing through a mix. This option is a new Two-Rock feature, unique to the Vintage Deluxe, and expands its range beyond the confines of a typical single-channel configuration.
One … Two … Stacks of Tone
The front-panel treble, mid, and bass filter controls are highly interactive, creating myriad sound sculpting options. The taper of the pots is precise, making fine adjustments easy and satisfying. The range of the pots is also useful from one extreme to another. If you just set everything at noon, the amp sounds full and musical, and you could make merely minimal adjustments from those noon positions and still find a world of cool alternative tones.
The alternate tone stack and its single knob increases gain and adds an aggressive midrange bite that imparts a cranked-up tweed vibe. There’s also a little less low end, which has the effect of sharpening the upper frequencies. It’s not all tweed texture though. You can also find warm and woolly tones, and some with a Vox-y edge. And depending on the setting, the alternate tone stack can serve as a solo boost just as readily as a source of dramatic tone shifts.
Fortissimo vs. Pianissimo
The Vintage Deluxe offers a unique take on the traditional power mode switch. Instead of reducing output level, the power tube bias is adjusted, transforming the response of the 6L6s. High mode utilizes a fixed bias for a glassy uncompressed quality that transparently reproduces nuanced dynamics. Low mode switches to a cathode bias, reducing available headroom, and increasing compression and touch sensitivity. (Interestingly, the hi/low switch serves a very different function in the 6V6 version: cutting output power from 40 watts to 20 watts.)
Retro Effects
The Vintage Deluxe’s onboard effects are very satisfying. The 3-spring, tube-driven reverb tank has classic boingy resonance, but it’s warmer than most vintage Fender reverbs with fewer metallic overtones. It’s also more flexible. The front-panel reverb return adjusts the wet/dry mix, while a back-panel reverb send alters the intensity of the effect, which can range from an ethereal whisper to a saturated wash. The excellent power tube bias tremolo, meanwhile, evokes the woozy sway of a vintage Vibroverb.
The Verdict
The Vintage Deluxe captures the essence of 1960s Fender amps while seamlessly integrating features that extend the boundaries of that template. It’s a beautiful example of artisanal craftsmanship, handcrafted by players for players. Is it worth the nearly $5,849K you’ll pay for the matched head and cabinet? You’ll probably have to spend significant time at your dealer with your favorite guitar to be sure. But that investigation will be an experience that’s well worth the time. You’ll likely be inspired by the tones—even if the amp is beyond your means.
Two-Rock Vintage Deluxe Demo | First Look
Jordan Rudess plays a LAVA ME 3 at the Lava Music booth during NAMM 2023 in Anaheim.
Searching for a do-it-all songwriting tool, the keyboard wizard found a perfect companion in Lava Music’s state-of-the-art acoustic with onboard effects, looping, recording, and connectivity.
The creative chase is always a challenge, and especially for songwriters and composers, for whom the time it takes to set up a loop or a recorder can be an opportunity for ideas to fade. Jordan Rudess, the keyboardist for prog-metal heroes Dream Theater, has found an elegant solution in Lava Music’s LAVA ME 3 acoustic guitar, a carbon-fiber instrument that does a lot more than picking and strumming.
Rudess had been exploring acoustic guitar as a different compositional palette, and while he loved the instrument’s urgency and intimacy, he found himself wanting more sonic options and more ways to quickly and easily share the ideas he was conjuring. His friend, the Brazilian guitar virtuoso Mateus Asato, suggested that Rudess should try the LAVA ME 3, and Rudess was immediately hooked.
At the April 2023 NAMM show in Anaheim, California, Rudess explained how the LAVA ME 3 opened his eyes to the opportunities of combining advanced technology with classic acoustic guitar design—and, more important, opened a new door to exploring and developing his original ideas.
The LAVE ME 3 comes in six eye-catching finishes that complement its futuristic design.
“The LAVA ME 3 is incredible,” Rudess says. “It’s got app-based effects—chorus, reverb, flanger, and octavers—and then you start scrolling through its upper-bout touch screen and realize ‘Wow, I can message somebody with this, or I can choose these drum loops? I can upload my files to the cloud?’ It’s pretty crazy! The more time I spend with it, the more I’m going ‘this thing is awesome!’”
In addition to its futuristic appearance—with a carbon fiber body and neck, a rounded back, a sleek headstock, and an above-the-strings soundport—and app-controllable effects, the LAVA ME 3 can also create loops and record, and has a built-in tuner. That adds up to a highly self-contained and evolutionary playing experience.
“I love the idea of having all that built into the guitar,” Rudess explains. “I don’t necessarily want to have to plug my 6-string into all that stuff. I had been thinking, ‘Why can’t those electronics be in the guitar?’ And then I found out about LAVA guitars.”
The LAVA ME 3 is really an all-in-one axe for guitarists from beginner to world-class. Premier Guitar’s John Bohlinger recently provided a close-up on the instrument in a PG Plays demo video.
Lava ME 3 Demo | PG Plays
“It’s a carbon fiber guitar, but it’s way more than that” says Bohlinger. “It’s a learning tool, a practicing tool, a writing tool, and a recorder. It comes with multi effects, it comes with loops, a tuner, and a metronome. And it comes with a mobile app where you can connect with this whole LAVA community of guitar players.”
Powered by LAVA’s proprietary HILAVA system, LAVA ME 3 makes it easy to practice, jam, and solo anywhere. Guitarists can play in a range of styles and with a wide range of sounds without having to plug into an amp, via the instrument’s built-in speaker. And since it’s constructed with carbon fiber, the guitar is more stable and durable than a typical acoustic, no matter the weather or humidity, which is a major bonus for touring pros like Rudess.
“One of the really nice things about this,” he says, “is that, because of the way that it’s built, this thing stays in tune incredibly well. I can go days without having to tune this guitar. It’s really amazing.”
At $799 street, the LAVA ME 3 is also in the price range of most guitarists. For more information on LAVA ME 3, check out Lava Music’s website.