GEARBOX
Carr
Hammerhead
Tone
Shark
,a ByMidraelllueller
I After Years
of dual rectifier
lE madness,
boutique Class
A
k am pli fie rs ha ve ma de a
E comebackasmoreandmore
_I- guitaristsareoptingforamps
AWAru that
will allow
theirnattual
ffiffi tone to come through. Carr's
Hammerhead fits the bill.
CLASSACONSTRUCTION
Steve
Carr claims
that helooked to '50s
and
'60sValco
amps and early
Marshalls for his
tonal inspiration. Suffce it to say,
he not
onlyfoturd itbutwent the exEa
mile to adopt
quality control from that time aswell. The
Hammerhead
uses
carbon comp '50s-era
resistors, polypropylene filter caps, and a
solid pine cabinetwith dovetailed corners.
Additionally, each amp is point-to-point
hand-wired on terminal
s t r i p s w i t h n o c i r c u i t
boards-another throwback
to that era.
The Hammerhead isavail-
able in 1x12,
2xIO, and 2xI2
confi gurations. Our review
model was a 25W combo
powered by a matched pair
ofEL-34powertubes,withtwo
12M7scom-
prising the preamp section and a 12"
Custom Kinpin 60 speaker.
GE TAG RIP
The controlsonthe Hammerheadare
abit
cryptic, but after spendingsome time both
withthe manual and
the amp,
you catch
on
fairly quicHy.Volume and Master controls
are
pretty self-e4planatory.Volume
settings
below 11o'clockwillyieldvarious shadesof
clean tones, whereas anything above that
willbringonthe overdrive.
Asforthe Master
control, Carr recommends a setting of at
emphasis d la late-'60s British tube amps.
The Impact control is interactive with the
Volume control, having inaximum effect
whenVolume is setto 3 o'clock and below
BABY YOU AAI{ DRIVE THIS GARR
Much like my '55 Fender ChamP, the
Hammerhead overachieves
when cranked
up. In fact, the only downside is that the
amp,
like my Champ, doesrt'tsor:nd all that
special at low, "the wife is watching'Queer
Eye
for the Straight Guy' reruns in the next
room" practice volumes. But then, the
Hammerhead is designed to be driven-
hard-in small clubs overdrums, bass,and
vocals, not to mention chatty audiences.
Usinganearly-'T0sIesPaulCustom,
Ieffort-
lessly channeled Angus Young and ear$
Marshall
crunch (see
musicexample).
Using
a Fender Strat, blacKace blues licks were
crisp,showing shark-like teeth.
A serendip-
itous surprise:
regardless
of humbucking or
single-coilpickups, therewasno amp hum!
All told, the Hammerhead is a "player's
amp." And because
it's everything a hand-
wired amp should
beand
then some-€reat
dynamic response,
organic tone, attractive
look-all at a
fantastic price, wete proud to
give
the Carr Hammerhead the "l Award."
GoNTACT
Can Amplifiers,
919-545-0747,
caffamps.com
least 10 o'clock to drive the
output tubes, and after
spending
sometime with the
Hammerhead, we agree.
ln
fact,
much like the Marshalls
Carrlooked
to for tonal inspi-
ration, the best tones were achieved with
the Master wide open-a bark so intimi-
dating, Dobermans will howl in jealousy.
Now about those Grip and Impact con-
tols. The 4-position Grip switchvaries the
preamp gain, increasing it from positions
1-3.
In position4, the responseof
the power
tubes changes
for a sharper sound.
The 4-position Impact switch is broken
down in the following manner: 1) flat
response;
2)hightreble emphasisilablack-
face amps; 3) high treble and upper mids
emphasis d la metal-face early-'70s
British
tube amps;
4)high treble and
ful midrange
62 GUIIAR ONE ( guitaronemag.com
( FEBRUARY
2004
