oh, and I use two Mullard 12AT7 valves. Nice.

wow, that's great info Wyatt - I had noticed a change in tone when tweaking the other volume, but I didn't realise it was that sensitive. I'll try your suggested settings!

A couple of things I've done to mitigate low head room is to install a speaker with more headroom (a celestion gold in my case - 50w) for less cone breakup and use a 5V4 (if my memory serves me correctly) rectifier tube. Not sure what the technical reason is for this (something to do with voltage drop...?) but to my ears the deluxe is less compressed when above 2 on the volume and less distorted.

Otherwise mine is stock and when cracked the tone has a really great balance between clean and breakup - play gently and you have chimey cleans, dig in and you've got plenty of grit but not really super-saturated or anything... I'm liking it.

Come on Nik, pull your finger out.

All the time you're not selling this, we're not buying it

Seriously, I'd like to know what this thing is going to look like. And GAS isn't a proper reason for a divorce anyway. Any news?

There's been a few posts about the kinds of sounds produced by the Expression.

I have to say I like the concept of no pedals: just touch, guitar, amp and speaker. My problem with this amp is after checking clips on youtube and so on is that it has too much gain for my tastes. I use crunch sounds, raunchy sounds and jangly clean sounds with the guitar vol backed off... but I just don't do full on turbo-charged nuclear fision sounds that often, as great as they are.  To my ears, TWs and their clones are really high gain.

People have mentioned using lower gain preamp tubes. But I was wondering how much they actually lower the amp's gain... are we talking Stones sounds or still in EVH territory? Any thoughts from forum members would be useful. Cheers!

Nice! How does it sound with those blues?

+1 ... I agree. this topic has has been here before... it's a winner.

Isn't that what the Pro is? Or the Bandmaster? I think the main difference between the three amps is speaker configuration but I don't know for sure...

Can anyone else enlighten us?

Anyone know if you can swap the GZ34 for different rectifier tubes on the Lightening? maybe a 5V4, like on the C-30?

Thanks Poi - much appreciated!

Don't worry about that Hiwatt - in some ways I'm glad to see the back of it. It sounded nice but it was the heaviest 1x12 combo I have ever picked up in my life - possibly as heavy as a 2x12 Marshall Jubilee I once owned. Just thinking about it makes me tired.

Bring on the Ceriatone! 

Thanks poi. I'm just desparate to get an amp (almost any amp) as I've been 'ampless' since I sold my Hiwatt Custom a couple of months ago (for financial reasons)!

One last question. Is it loud enough to dial in clean sounds on the Lightening at band volume levels?

Thanks poipounder - I'm probably going to get a Lightening with an fx-loop added by Nik (or myself if I buy the kit) for my delay and reverb. I tend to think they usually sound better after the gain stages on most amps.

Anyway, 15-watts is the ideal size for me as I mainly just jam with a drummer, bass and a couple of other guitarists... If it sounds anything like the DC-30 soundclips on this forum then I'm in for a treat. Thanks for your help.

... tho I appreciate that they both sound pretty different! Both *umble- and *atchless-style amps sound great to me!

Thanks poipounder. That's a great looking amp. I'm stuck between the Lightening and the Overtone - the Lightening is the ideal size and volume (and price) for me, but I can't help thinking the OT is the one I really want!!!

poipounder, or any other lighting owners - do you have any sound clips you can share???

I'm on the verge of getting one of these things, but I need to know I'm on the right track!!!

Many thanks!

I got a message from him on Saturday or Sunday, I can't remember which, about a Lightening and the new buffered FX loop that's been discussed on this very forum.