|
SPECIFICATIONS:
Available
in Black or Ivory
Two
separate channels, Clean and Overdrive. As well as a boost for each
channel, footswitchable.
Tone
and volume controls include, Volume, Master Volume, Treble, Middle,
Bass, Overdrive controls include a Drive control for gain control and
a Level control for Overdrive Level.
4
x 6V6 Output section 50 Watts
Power,
Output, and Choke Transformers by Mercury Magnetics.
High
grade aluminum chassis for a quiet design.
Foot
switchable as well as toggle switchable boost and Overdrive
Solid
Cherry wood Trim w/ available Tiger stripe Maple Upgrade
|
 |
So,
I told Rick about an amp design that my partner Tony and I had been
working on for over four years. It’s a high gain design that we
dubbed the Earthquake 9.1 Overdrive. But Rick said, “I don’t
like high gain amps; they always have this buzzy thing going on in the
background.” When we heard that we just smiled. That was The same
issue that we had with channel switching high gain amps and was the
reason that we started VVT Amps. At this point I could write a book
about Tony’s obsession with this amp but I’ll try not to
digress too much. Once we had the basic circuit design, Tony tweaked
the amp with every imaginable circuit permutation and component searching
for THE TONE.
I
have to say that Tony has golden ears, is a fabulous guitarist, and
his stubbornness paid off. The bees buzzing in the background are gone;
the overdrive tone is thick and rich with lots of harmonic content,
superb output tube compression, and the clean channel is oh so sweet.
Then, I asked Rick, What if we could build an overdrive amp using four
6V6s without the buzz and a clean channel that you could live on? He
said he would be interested in hearing that. So I built the prototype
and Tony tweaked it to perfection. We said a prayer, sent it to Rick
for testing, and waited on his response.
It
was only a week or so, but it seemed like a year, when Rick called and
said, “This is it. I’m in the studio and this amp rocks
royally.” But I want an access port for the adjustable overdrive
tone stack, ivory tolex, a copper colored front with hardwood accents,
and I don’t want an effects loop.” The result is the Rick
Derringer HyperDrive. It has the best hand wound transformers on the
planet by Mercury Magnetics and all other components were selected for
durability and most of all, TONE. This amp has the versatility of an
SUV and will cover any genre of music. It’s exceptionally sweet
with any guitar, tele/strat single coils, P90s, or humbuckers. Toss
your pedal board but you may want to keep your wah and delay or reverb.
Am I bragging? You bet I am! I think we make some of the best amps on
the planet and the Rick Derringer HyperDrive is exceptional in the hands
of a good guitarist.
|
When
we began discussions with Rick about a signature amp, we were to say
the least intimidated. How do you build an amp for a guitar virtuoso
and Rock ‘n Roll legend like Rick Derringer? He has played almost
every production and boutique amp under the sun. His musical style can
shift from heavy rock to blues to jazz, to contemporary Christian in
a heartbeat. It seemed like a daunting task but we did it for Lindy
Fralin why not Rick.
After
meeting Rick in the spring of 2005 at a guitar show in Nashville Rick
Purchased one of our 50 watt 6V6 Model Earthquakes. Soon after we sent
Rick our smaller 22 watt 6v model which he fell in love with immediately
and has used it on several studio sessions. So with Rick digging the
first 2 amps we threw at him we figured we had a pretty good handle
on the tones Rick was after, We presented the Idea of a signature series
to Rick and he was thrilled. Knowing that Rick would not put his name
on a repackaged vintage amp clone; any boutique amp builder can do that,
we wanted to build Rick a unique amp that would be worthy of his signature.
|
