GDS Amplification Blog

October 7, 2008

Monday was a gruelling day.  I had two amplifiers to ship to Maken’ Music in Chicago, a GT20 combo and a GT20 head with a 112LT cabinet.  Teddy at Maken’ ordered these amps back when I first bought Guytron and now that they were ready to ship, I found myself with an option.  I could ship them via UPS or drive to Chicago with the amps in the back seat.  The kicker that made me pack ‘em up in the car and drive 4 hours there and four hours back was that Teddy had arranged for a clinic with Johnny A in the store Monday night.  I have been a huge fan of Johnny A since I purchased his first album (”Sometime Tuesday Morning”) on CDBaby back in ~2000 timeframe.  I have since purchased his sophomore album, “Get Inside” and I even picked up his instructional DVD which is excellent.  For years I had been bemoaning the fact that Johnny never came to the Detroit area and then when he did come to Auburn Hills in 2007, I had prior commitments that precluded my attendance.  The same thing happened when he again came to Auburn Hills last month.  The opportunity to see him in a clinic setting, up close was just too much to resist so I dragged my good friend Jeff Dec (another great guitarist and megagearhound) with me and made the trek to Chicago.

It was a really good trip.  Traffic going into Chicago was the lightest I have ever seen (I’m still not sure why) and of course leaving at nearly midnight, traffic was light on the way out as well.  Teddy and his sales guys loved the new Guytrons, and a couple customers who happened to be in the store also loved the GT20.  It was a good time to check out a huge array of high end guitars and amps.  (There was a Collings guitar that was like a mini-335 that was absolutely gorgeous!)  Johnny A and his band were great.

I do not know if Teddy has the GT20s sold already but if you are interested in a GT20, Teddy has two on the sales floor right now.  Call him at (312) 455-1970 or go to his website at http://www.makenmusic.com/

Check out this GT20 “1/4 full stack”…

Stay tuned…

-GDS

July 30, 2008

Earlier this month, we purchased the assets of Guytron.  Many of you know Guytron already because they are well known for their innovative, patented circuit and their forward thinking design that is reminiscent of many great vintage amplifiers while being a “clone” of none.  In these days of cloning to get the tones of the past it is unusual and rare to find a company that is successfully promoting a design which is as unconventional as a Guytron.  We are very excited to begin production of Guytron amplifiers in our shop and have spent considerable amounts of time and money to prepare to do so.  There are pallets of speakers, cabinets and transformers and boxes and boxes of electronic parts arriving daily to replenish the stores on the shelves. 

Guytron also came with designs for two excellent speakers, known as the Bigtone 35 and Bigtone 55.  I have these in stock now and they sound great.  The Bigtone speakers are available individually in both 8 and 16 ohms for your own cabinets and they will be standard in all Guytron and GDS Amplifiers.

Currently, we expect to begin shipping new Guytron GT100 FVs and GT20s (heads and combos!)  late in August or early September.  Very soon, we also expect to begin shipping GT40s in both heads and combos.  Many of the first batch of Guytrons are already spoken for so if you want one, contact me ( or your nearest dealer) soon.  Check out the website for more details.  www.guytron.com 

-GDS