milkman sound

Bilt and Milkman collaborate on a tweed Deluxe-style amp that adds tone options and enticing styling.

Responsive with an impressively wide range of tones. Bass knob is a welcome addition. Super sleek. Successfully sags at high volumes.

Only available to Bilt owners. Expensive. Cabinet finish might not hold up to heavy gigging.

$2,999 base price (available as add-on to Bilt order, or to current Bilt owners)

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There’s a good chance your first electric guitar came in a packaged set with an amp, case, cable, some picks, a tuner, and maybe even an instruction book. Mine did—and I still remember the excitement I felt while opening it on that fateful Christmas morning. The Bilt Starter Pack is a chic, high-end, customized guitar/amp combo package designed to re-capture that thrill for players with fancier tastes. And while the Starter Pack isn’t exactly designed for budget-conscious newbies, unless you already own a Bilt guitar, it’s the only way to get your hands on the new Bilt Amp.

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A 10-watt amp that’s “class A” in every regard.

The term class A is often misapplied by naïve guitarists and sneaky amp manufacturers. Maybe it’s because the letter A signifies premium quality. Doesn’t class A/B sound sort of second best, as if the device could barely manage an A-/B+ in amplifier school?

For example, Vox amps are not class A, though they can deliver sounds with class A characteristics: explosive treble energy, the early onset of harmonically rich distortion, and a tendency toward loose, spattery tones. True class-A amps (also known as single-ended amps) usually have just one output tube. That’s a design often used in vintage practice amps—notably the Fender Champ (which probably makes Clapton’s tweed Champ tones on “Layla” rock’s best-known class-A colors).
With its dual single-ended design, Pint provides a fresh take on familiar Fender flavors.

But there’s a rare exception to the “class A = one tube” rule: A few vintage amps, including Gibson’s GA-8, deploy two output tubes in parallel, essentially treating the pair as a single tube for increased output. And that’s exactly what’s going on inside the 10-watt Pint, the latest creation from San Francisco’s Milkman Sound.

Fantasy Fender
Milkman has a reputation for exquisite Fender-derived amps, handcrafted with audiophile parts and painstaking attention to detail. Pint is a spinoff from the 5-watt Half Pint, a sort of über-Champ powered by a single 6V6 tube. Pint is similar, except—you guessed it—it employs two 6V6s in parallel for double the output.

That’s a configuration Fender never used, which makes Pint a sort of Fullerton fantasy—something Leo might have conceived if he’d pursued dual single-ended circuits. And sure enough, Pint provides a compelling take on the Champ sound, but with greater power and several killer upgrades.

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Both amplifiers come in response to customer requests to add a bit more size and power to two of Milkman's most popular models.

San Francisco, CA (July 5, 2016) -- Milkman Sound amplifier company is excited to announce two new 10-watt amplifier models, both based around a custom-designed Mercury Magnetics transformer set which allows for a pair of 6V6 power tubes to operate in parallel, without a phase inverter, for true class A amplification. Both amplifiers come in response to customer requests to add a bit more size and power to two of our most popular models.

First there is the One Watt Plus, a 12" Combo with 10 watts rms of Class A power. This amplifier is a larger and more powerful version of the One Watt model. Housed in a larger cabinet, and with a larger range of power, the One Watt Plus offers an unbelievable amount of tonal options in a very simple device. Onboard power scaling drops the output from 10 watts down to a single watt. There is enough gain onboard to drive the parallel 6V6 output beyond its stunning clean tone into saturation and harmonically rich class A overdrive peaking at 18 watts.

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