With this move, the Divided by Thirteen brand is now placed under the stewardship of Two-Rock’s owners Eli Lester and Mac Skinner.
Bringing together a pair of iconic amp companies, Two-Rock Amplifiers has announced the acquisition of Divided by Thirteen Amplifiers. Founded in Los Angeles by Fred Taccone, Divided by Thirteen has been building an array of high-end amplifiers for discerning guitarists since the late 1990s.
Now, Taccone is passing the baton to new owners. Two-Rock Amplifiers is the perfect company to build upon the Divided by Thirteen legacy. With its own 24-year history, Northern California’s Two-Rock has earned a worldwide reputation for top-tier build quality and tone.
Heralding the new ownership by Two-Rock, Divided By Thirteen is immediately embarking on production runs of six core models: Divided By Thirteen’s FTR 37, AMW 39, BTR 23, JRT 9/15, CCC 9/15 and CJ 11 amps will all be available following the NAMM show in January.
In announcing the acquisition, Two-Rock owners Lester and Skinner noted “We are excited to embrace Divided by Thirteen and help it reach new heights. It is an iconic brand and Fred has always been one of our favorite builders. The exciting thing for us is it is completely different from Two-Rock and they don’t compete with each other, both brands complement each other nicely. We did not seek out or plan on owning two brands as we are so proud and busy with what we already do at Two-Rock, but this opportunity started sounding too inspiring for us not to explore.”
“We became good friends with Fred Taccone and when he stated talking about retiring and selling the company it started to make sense on many fronts. We like the current size of Two-Rock and our current position in the marketplace. I feel we have a specific and unique sound that customers wanting a Two-Rock have come to expect. Divided by Thirteen gives us the opportunity to expand on what we currently do, a desire for modern performance married to classic styling. We can add British and American style circuits with EL34s, EL84s, KT66 & KT88 that Fred has spent decades perfecting.”
Fred Taccone welcomed the new chapter in Divided by Thirteen’s evolution: “I want to thank everyone for all of their support of Divided by Thirteen over the last 23 years. I have gotten to the point in my life that I would like to retire and enjoy my free time. I have spoken to several companies over the years about purchasing the brand but none of them were the right fit. When I met Eli and Mac from Two-Rock it was a clear choice that they were the right guys that could build the amps to the quality that I would want to see. They have turned into family and frankly, I think they will build the amps to higher standards than they ever have been built to before. I have the utmost faith and trust in Two-Rock and look forward to seeing the future live on with Divided by Thirteen.”
Two-Rock’s Eli Lester added: “Mac and I are excited and honored to be caretakers and custodians of Divided by Thirteen and look forward to bringing it to the forefront of the marketplace. We will be building everything in our existing Two-Rock shop in Northern California with our hardworking and passionate team. We have spent the last six months gearing up for this acquisition and have allocated personnel in a way that it should not slow down current Two-Rock production and allow us to build Divided by Thirteen simultaneously. We will still hand build every amp one at a time with the highest build quality and components to hold both brands to the same standards that you have come to expect from us.”
For more information, please visit dividedby13.com.
On this year-end, in-person edition of Dipped In Tone, our two hosts look back on the year’s most inspiring pedals, guitars, and amps, plus the biggest gear disappointment.
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It’s the most wonderful time of year: the “year in gear” season is finally upon us, and we’re celebrating with this special in-person episode of Dipped In Tone. Zach and Rhett gang up at Zach’s place to run down the best of the best of musical excellence and oddities in 2023.
The guys start in with their favorite stompboxes. Rhett tips his hat to Old Blood Noise Endeavors’ Beam Splitter, Hologram’s Chroma Console, and Universal Audio’s 1176 pedal, which he runs as a hard-clipped overdrive. Some might say it sounds shitty, but as Zach notes, “Shitty is pretty in the mix!” Zach’s “boring” picks include the Nobels ODR-1, his collection of new Tube Screamer variants, and the Poly Beebo. Along the way, they talk about the magic of going back to old gear they’d written off in their younger days, and dig into the root causes of Zach’s discomfort with more experimental playing approaches.
Rhett sings praises for the new Orange OR30 and remembers its early 2000s predecessor, the AD30, and he and Zach agree on the superior, “8K” quality of Two-Rock’s current offerings over nearly every other amp on the market. Out of this year’s axes, Rhett favors both Fender’s Vintera II ’60s Bass VI and the Mexican-made Jason Isbell Custom Telecaster, plus the Collings 470 JL—Julian Lage’s signature. Zach spotlights his PRS SE Silver Sky, and a gorgeous Gibson Custom Shop 1959 ES-335 Reissue.
Be sure to stick around for the end,when the duo call out the year’s biggest disappointment in gear, which Zach describes as “baby’s first modeler.”
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.
