Our design team has started work on several new guitar effects pedals, and they are sounding rightous! Here is a preliminary pedal lineup:

40-18: A 40dB boost pedal with 18V rail-to-rail output. JFET/BJT based
M18: A distortion/overdrive pedal designed to break up like a Marshall 18W tube amp, featuring a classic tube amp 3-band tone stack
uBeta: The famous Sunn Beta preamp packaged in a pedal
Mid-Bump: A 30dB mid-boost with adjustable frequency, level, and width/Q. JFET/BJT based

All of our pedals feature high quality film capacitors, low-noise metal film resistors, rugged jacks and pots, and aluminum knobs. We have designed these pedals to have very low noise and to be clear, cutting, and in harmony with your guitar and rig.

Here is a sneak peak at the prototype boost pedal board ready to go:

Sound samples of the prototypes coming soon.

We took our 4th prototype of the White Stallion to Portland Tonefest 2011 this weekend and got some great feedback from other amp builders and some VERY formidable players. The most common comment was, “THAT’S LOUD!” Take a listen:

We also had a chance to meet and geek out with Conrad Sundholm, the founder of Sunn Amps! You can hear him in the background of the video asking how big our filter capacitors are; the caps are deceptively large because they are oil-filled motor run caps, which significantly outperform the standard electrolytics.

There were also many other cool amps there including 6+ modded Marshalls (one that George Lynch had taken on tour), some custom high gain amps, and some low gain combos.

Many thanks to Dan from Geraldi’s Pizza and Pasta for setting up the event and to John Bridges and Mark Sexton for demoing the amp!

Ryan from Christian Mistress got a chance to play through our final prototype of the White Stallion lead head at the Comet in Seattle last Thursday. I was in attendance and, as usual, was totally stoked on their performance. The band has really had time to meld in this lineup now, and as a result, everything comes off really tight and coordinated. The performance was well received by the greater part of Olympia, who was also in attendance…

The White Stallion was specifically designed to be clear and distinguishable while keeping the classic 80s high-gain tone. This makes your tone cut through even in venues with terrible sound. My friend who frequents The Comet was blown away at the show, because most guitarists end up sounding muddy in that space.

Christian Mistress is definitely a must-see if they come to your town, but beware of the hairnados. You can watch the rest of the show on our youtube channel.

Christian Mistress, the unholy raging metal quintet from Olympia, is currently on a month long US tour, shoving their 64 bar trade-off solos, wailing vocals, and haunting hooks down the throats of onlookers. And they took one for the road. A White Stallion, that is.

Ryan will be playing our prototype 100W EL34, British model, White Stallion head throughout the Christian Mistress US tour. If you are anywhere near the following places at these dates, get your sorry selves to these venues and get some metal up your ass! And if you want to try out a White Stallion head and are in the Seattle/Olympia area, drop us a line!

9/27/2010 Tube – Portland, OR w/ DJ Nate C
9/28/2010 Redroom – Boise, ID
9/29/2010 Club Vegas – Salt Lake City, UT w/ Dwellers, Bees
9/30/2010 3 Kings Tavern – Denver, CO
10/1/2010 Bourbon Theater – Lincoln, NE
10/2/2010 Turf Club – Minneapolis, MN
10/3/2010 The Borg Ward – Milwaukee, WI
10/4/2010 The Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
10/6/2010 Southgate House – Newport, KY
10/7/2010 Mac’s Bar – Lansing, MI
10/8/2010 The Shop – Toronto, ON
10/9/2010 Playhouse – Montreal, QC
10/10/2010 Geno’s – Portland, ME
10/11/2010 O’Brien’s – Boston, MA w/ Kintaan
10/12/2010 Machines With Magnets – Providence, RI w/ The Body, Kintaan
10/13/2010 Acheron – Brooklyn, NY
10/14/2010 Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA w/ Serpent Throne
10/15/2010 Golden West – Baltimore, MD
10/16/2010 The Triple – Richmond, VA
10/17/2010 The Milestone – Charlotte, NC
10/18/2010 Caledonia Lounge – Athens, GA
10/19/2010 529 – Atlanta, GA
10/20/2010 Hi-Tone Cafe – Memphis, TN
10/21/2010 Nightmare – Dallas, TX w/ Deadsea
10/22/2010 Red 7 – Austin, TX
10/23/2010 ? – San Antonio, TX
10/24/2010 ? – El Paso, TX
10/25/2010 Solar Culture – Tucson, AZ
10/26/2010 Spaceland – Los Angeles, CA
10/27/2010 Blue Lagoon – Santa Cruz, CA
10/28/2010 ? – Oakland, CA
10/29/2010 The Hemlock – San Francisco, CA
10/30/2010 Alibi – Arcata, CA
10/31/2010 Oak St Speakeasy – Eugene, OR

The Christian Mistress debut LP Agony and Opium is out now and is available at 20 Buck Spin. Get a dose of heavy metal thunder and pick yourself up a copy.

So… if anyone was on the fence about whether the GNO-100 White Stallion head was just a metal amp or not, let your mind be made up by Ben Johnson from Ocean of Algebra.

Ben’s had the proto out on trial for a week and has been blasting his neighbors with radical tube tone for a week wrapping up with the show on Tuesday. It’s been great having Ben try the prototype because he’s an awesome guitarist, teaches guitar (so he really knows his stuff), and plays in Ocean of Algebra, a totally jammin’ band with a unique style that’s not like any of our other testers.

Find Ocean of Algebra on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/oceanofalgebra?ref=ts

And while your at it, you could join our fan page too (no pressure): http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Gnome-Amps/121448653408?ref=ts

The amp that you see/hear in this video will be available for purchase here on the Gnome site on September 1st, 2010. If you are interested in demoing a proto or have any questions, shoot us an email with our contact form or give us a call.

Oh ya, and I took this video with my iPhone, so the sound quality is not totally up to par. So, sorry…

On an interesting tangent from our usual R&D work, I had the chance to pump some life back into an old 1960s tube radio, Gnome-style.

The whole thing started out when the owner of the radio said something like, ‘can you turn this old radio into a super awesome guitar amp and maybe hook up the controls on the front and make the tuning eye do stuff?’ I said yes, and here’s what happened:

Here is a shot of the amp prior to rework:

She’s certainly a pretty thing with the wood box and gold accents.

After finishing my sneeze-fest, I snapped a shot of the inside…

Interesting technical details:

The output stage is in the left portion, with the output transformer mounted on the inside of the chassis. There are radio tubes on either side of the elevated tag strip, which provides some electrostatic shielding between stages. The yellow electrolytic cap in the bottom center is flanked by the external antennae connector…. which had matchsticks shoved into it.

In addition to the fire hazard provided by the matches, the power transformer looked like it could fry a burger faster than a George Foreman.

The transformer got so hot at some point that its black coating bubbled and cracked. You can see lines on the surface where wires had melted in with the coating. Yikes..

After spending a bit of time looking at the output stage wiring and transformer, I discovered that it was a very interesting configuration; EL84 Single-Ended, Ultra-Linear, Cathode Biased. With this stock configuration, the output of the radio would have been around 5W.

Here is the output xfrmr:

You can see the standard primary connections on top (for A+ and anode of EL84), and a third connection on the bottom for the primary ultra-linear tap.

After pulling the transformers I decided to completely gut it and rework it with the following specs:

• Preamp: (1x) 12AX7 using both stages
• EQ: High shunt connected to front panel ‘tone’ control
• Gain: Connected as a shunt to reduce gain of second preamp stage
• Output Stage: (1x) EL84, single-ended, cathode biased, screen connected to B+
• Tuning Eye: (1x) EM81, connected to output of first preamp stage through a blocking cap + diode

My goal for this amp was to create a very direct signal path with no series EQ or Gain controls. This would allow for maximum gain with minimum tubes. Also, I decided to reuse the OT because it was matched appropriately to the stock speakers, which I would also be keeping.

Here is a photo progression from cleaned up chassis to finished product:

I was able to add the IEC mains connector, fuse, and input jack on the back panel and line them up with existing cutouts on the rear panel. Enough talk, give her a listen:

In an effort to road test the hell out of the most recent GNO100 ‘White Stallion’ prototype, we have been taking it to all the shows our band, Funerot, is playing. The results have been loud, proud, and in your face! The thing I really love about this design is that even at super high volumes and high gain, this amp cuts through the haze to deliver shred solos UP YOUR ASS.

We video taped one of our recent shows. Take a listen.

We are also very stoked that our new album, ‘And Then You Fucking Die Man’, is out on Inimical Records as of last week:

Check out a sound sample here , and buy it here. The album was recorded with me playing a very early incarnation of the GNO-100, proto #0, Ben playing a Sovtek Mig100H, and Max playing a Sunn Beta Lead. A toxic trio indeed.

When Max dragged us out to an old hazelnut grove, at the edge of a cemetery, on a freezing winter day, I was a bit skeptical. But HOLY HELL did it pay off!

Local photographer Rachael Lang and husband Rodrigo came out and took some very sexy pictures of our prototype White Stallion, 100W lead guitar amp, and matching 4×12 straight cab. Check them out:

We are very stoked about how these turned out! Rachael has some very cool stuff up on her site, so check it out.

This rig will continue making its way through the Olympia area music scene, so look out for it! Some bands that have played it recently are Christian Mistress, Gun Outfit, Funerot, Milk Music, and Dry Ink. We are getting some great feedback on the design and some good road testing. This rig is getting around…

We’re working on our first production White Stallion amps. To the chagrin of neighbors across the Pacific Northwest, they will be rearing their heads in the next couple of months! Equipped with brand new, redesigned steel chassis, artwork, boxes, boards, and transformers, they will be ready to STAMPEDE YOUR ASS TO PULP!

The first Gnome speaker cabinet prototype is starting to come together after many months in planning. It will be nice to finally have a pedestal worthy of the Gnome GNO-100 head and we are looking forward to the great tones we are expecting to get out of that combination.

Photo Progression of the Cab Build Process:

Speakers, grill cloth and other components coming soon!

This is just a reminder that Funerot will be playing a show this Saturday (tomorrow) at the Squid & Ink (1128 S. Albro St., Seattle) with Raw Nerves and Arctic Flowers. Funerot will be playing on a couple of new Gnome prototypes, including the finished Prototype 3, so don’t miss this opportunity to see a rad show and hear some Gnome amps live. The show starts at 8pm and costs $5. Beers and vegan food will be available for purchase, courtesy of Squid & Ink.