2006 – Thunderverb
The Thunderverb could be used as a bass amp or lead amp or both combined.
Ade Emsley – Technical Director
The thinking behind the Thunderverb was to create an amp for guitarists who wanted to use a lot of preamp distortion – they didn’t want to work the power amp very hard. There is a breed of seriously heavy guitarists who use a 1×15 and a 4×12 – and maybe a 7-string guitar. They need power and preamp distortion and lots of end response. The Thunderverb is the amp we made for them.
Unlike the Rockerverb, with its two stage Clean Channel and a four stage Dirty Channel, the Thunderverb had two three-stage channels so you could get clean sound or overdrive out of each of them. This was the first amp that had the Shape control on Channel B – one way you get all mid-range and no bass and treble – and the other way you get the exact opposite. We launched the Thunderverb in the summer of 2006. This amp could be used as a bass amp or lead amp or both combined – the bass is clean right down to 30Hz. Another useful feature is that, should a valve go down, this amplifier automatically switched to the 100 watt mode and would see the guitarist through the rest of the gig. The Thunderverb also had a 100 watt setting which switches off two pairs of tubes and gives a great sound when the amp is cranked. We use that same preamp on a 50 watt amp powered by two EL34s – the Thunderverb 50 was launched in 2007.