[King Loudness]

Hey guys,

Last month I did some demos for Sanford Magnetics (www.sanfordmagnetics.com) who make killer pickups, pedals, and amps in Moncton, NB. This morning I got the video links to a couple of them from Nathan, and I figured you'd enjoy checking out some spur -of-the-moment playing on his newest amp design, the Aeronaut. I was so floored by this amp that I ordered #1 of the production line right after shooting was finished (picking that up Saturday). Sold my JCM800 to fund it, and I think it's going to cover the British thing in my amp fleet very well.

It's a killer Class A/B 30 watt head that uses EL34s and has a variable slope resistor. Very much in the classic Marshall vein. I was happy with how these clips turned out with the different guitars. There is an SG Classic, the R7, my Charvel San Dimas, and a Gibson V. No compression or reverb was added to the track. The cab is a 1x12 with a Sanford SM12 proprietary speaker in it. Enjoy...

INDIVIDUAL GUITAR CLIPS:

Flying V:

SG Classic, doing some fingerstyle:

'57 RI Goldtop w/Model 22 humbuckers:

W.

 

[Chitmo]

Nathan beat you too it

Our newest amp- The Aeronaut.

 

[King Loudness]

For some reason I thought he posted the other clip. No matter, I've got both in my OP; it's a chance for the amps forum to see them as I don't think the dealer emporium gets the same traffic.

W.

 

[Adcandour]

You should totally live closer, dude.

 

[King Loudness]

You should totally live closer, dude.

If you're ever in Halifax, swing by and check the amp out, man. Or whatever gear I happen to have at the moment, hah.

W.

 

[Adcandour]

...with a Danocaster to boot? Screw Disney.

 

[Chitmo]

...with a Danocaster to boot? Screw Disney.

You should buy one........and sell it to me when you change your mind again

 

[zdogma]

I wish I were closer, I'd love to try that thing out as well. Looks like it would be right up my alley, love the simple control set...price isn't too bad either compared to a lot of the boutique marshall stuff out there.

Is it pretty quiet? My old 70's plexi was noisy as heck on the bright channel.

Is it bright enough with a neck hum? I have an R7 and i like to use the neck a lot, the demo was mostly bridge

 

[King Loudness]

I wish I were closer, I'd love to try that thing out as well. Looks like it would be right up my alley, love the simple control set...price isn't too bad either compared to a lot of the boutique marshall stuff out there.

Is it pretty quiet? My old 70's plexi was noisy as heck on the bright channel.

Is it bright enough with a neck hum? I have an R7 and i like to use the neck a lot, the demo was mostly bridge

Scott,

Yeah, it's pretty quiet. He builds his amps to pretty high spec and the components are top notch. I found it definitely had enough brightness for what I was doing. When I get mine I'll do a more thorough review. Definitely check one out if you get the chance! I can't wait to try it out with my PRSi -- although I love my Danocaster Esquire, the DGT you sold me three years ago is still the best guitar I have and my #1.

W.

 

[Adcandour]

You should buy one........and sell it to me when you change your mind again

I'm older and wiser. You vulture.

 

[greco]

I'm older and wiser. You vulture.

I always thought of you as being very wise. A bit impulsive...but wise!!

@King Loudness ...Do you play professionally? I really enjoy your playing!!

The Aeronaut amp sounds great!!
Congrats to Sanford Magnetics.

 

[Sanford Magnetics]

I wish I were closer, I'd love to try that thing out as well. Looks like it would be right up my alley, love the simple control set...price isn't too bad either compared to a lot of the boutique marshall stuff out there.

Is it pretty quiet? My old 70's plexi was noisy as heck on the bright channel.

Is it bright enough with a neck hum? I have an R7 and i like to use the neck a lot, the demo was mostly bridge

Figured I'd try to answer.

I find it plenty bright for a neck humbucker....especially with the HR switched to boost.

The day we did the clips, we just asked will to play whatever he felt like and tweak the amp to taste....you can see he has the tone control rolled back and the camber set low in some clips.....basically extra thick mode.

Our speaker is definitely shifted to the left of the mix. We tried to get close to the 70's 65 watt blackback 55 hertz speakers....but with a massive magnet and minimal cone break up. I've dimed amps, fuzz pedals and a neck pup into it and I can't make that speaker collapse. Zero speaker hash with that one.

Speaker break up on legit OG celestions is great, but if you get it wrong, it sounds plain bad. So rather than try to get a certain breakup, we said forget it...lets do the opposite. The SM12-H has a back in black meets David Gilmour kind of vibe in my opinion....we had prototypes that were Fane/Creamback flavoured, but the 55hrts thing sealed the deal. One of the coolest speakers I've ever tried.

Obviously, we're working with Eminance on this....but it's not like any of the speakers in their line up.

As for the noise of the amp...that's a bit of a funny story. Turns out my shop has some of the noisiest, dirtiest power you can find. We share a 3 phase service with an alternator shop that has some pretty interesting equipment.

When we were working on the LR-Pro, we kept on getting odd noise. So, we doubled down on lead dress, shielding, tube dampeners, rubber insulators on the 6SL7 tube socket...steel chassis with a steel bottom plate to sheild it even more, it shielded it better than the aluminum we were using on the protos. First time we took it out of the shop, it was so dead quiet, we were pretty shocked.

As for the price. We try to make things fairly priced for working musicians. We're in the maritimes, I can't charge 4K for these things.

A lot of the cost savings comes from the fact that we build our chassis in Moncton, cabs and tolexing here too, rather than using an off the shelf part. It cost a truckload to develope, but in the long run, it keeps the cost of the parts reasonable. It lets us have our own thing, our own form factor and we can control the quality. Our chassis are practically indestructible and as small as you can get and still build a proper full size amplifier...no wasted space. The amp is 15 ½ inches wide and still weighs 30lbs.

As much as there's a heavy Marshall influence, I don't think of this as straight up Marshall tone. The idea for the power section came from a near dead odd ball Marshall.....it nailed the evh brown sound, which 20 years ago, I didn't care about. The tube recto knocks the voltage down even further, cathode bias and the PT specs make it really nice under the fingers. The power section is designed for that collapsing, working hard, kind of vibe. Kind of the opposite of the LR-Pro...we wanted tranny saturation and power section sag.

In the six months this was in the proto jig, if I explained it's evolution it would make sense. We didn't start with the idea to make a British el34 amp, but that's where we ended up. I suppose that's the fun artsy part....and the part that leads to hours of arguments, debates and tweaking.....I'm surprised we didn't kill each other somewhere during the development of this amp. The results were totally worth it and the tricks we learned will trickle down into the other stuff we're working on for the future.

Wow...that got long winded.

 

[Sanford Magnetics]

Oh...one more thing.

The parts of our amps....just in case people were wondering

We use carbon film resistors, low noise, low drift.
We use German made Fisher and Tausch filer caps.
The trannies are made in North America, we have our own part number with Heyboar, which I find pretty awesome.
The Aeronaut ships with Mullard 34's, the LR uses a new production Tung Sol 6SL7.
We use the good Belton tube sockets.
We drill and stake our own turret boards which are flame retardant epoxy glass....the thick stuff.


The signal caps on the LR-Pro and the Aeronaut are mustard style dijons. This cap sounds great with these amps, not so much in a fender. When we were developing the LR-pro we a/b'd every cap we could get our hands on. Orange drop 715's, PIO's, m150's, cheapies, cork sniffers....even some one off PIO and FIO hifi stuff that we almost went with as our own branded cap....in the end, the Dijons worked really well in these amps.


Even the pots were a/b'd. funny enough...the carbon track of the pots made an audible difference....which we didn't expect at all.

So, yeah, I like to think we make a quality piece, without cutting any corners, with each part scrutinized for sound quality. We're building amps that we love, using parts the we like. They're not kits or clones, even our grill cloth is only used by us....it's a loose weave acoustic fabric that comes from a textile factory in Maine.

 

[King Loudness]

I always thought of you as being very wise. A bit impulsive...but wise!!

@King Loudness ...Do you play professionally? I really enjoy your playing!!

The Aeronaut amp sounds great!!
Congrats to Sanford Magnetics.

I do, mostly as a session guy/guitarist for hire. I'm slowly working on getting more content online. I did record a solo album when I was in high school which you can stream/buy here:

Will Hansen, by Will Hansen

Cheers.
Will.

 

[soldierscry]

Oh...one more thing.

The parts of our amps....just in case people were wondering

We use carbon film resistors, low noise, low drift.
We use German made Fisher and Tausch filer caps.
The trannies are made in North America, we have our own part number with Heyboar, which I find pretty awesome.
The Aeronaut ships with Mullard 34's, the LR uses a new production Tung Sol 6SL7.
We use the good Belton tube sockets.
We drill and stake our own turret boards which are flame retardant epoxy glass....the thick stuff.


The signal caps on the LR-Pro and the Aeronaut are mustard style dijons. This cap sounds great with these amps, not so much in a fender. When we were developing the LR-pro we a/b'd every cap we could get our hands on. Orange drop 715's, PIO's, m150's, cheapies, cork sniffers....even some one off PIO and FIO hifi stuff that we almost went with as our own branded cap....in the end, the Dijons worked really well in these amps.


Even the pots were a/b'd. funny enough...the carbon track of the pots made an audible difference....which we didn't expect at all.

So, yeah, I like to think we make a quality piece, without cutting any corners, with each part scrutinized for sound quality. We're building amps that we love, using parts the we like. They're not kits or clones, even our grill cloth is only used by us....it's a loose weave acoustic fabric that comes from a textile factory in Maine.

Any plans on doing a bass amp?

 

[Sanford Magnetics]

We get asked about that all the time.

It's on the list.

I started life as a bass player, I've had an idea for a bass amp since high school that I'd love to do.

 

[soldierscry]

We get asked about that all the time.

It's on the list.

I started life as a bass player, I've had an idea for a bass amp since high school that I'd love to do.

I have always wanted a more powerful version of my first bass amp a Traynor 6V6 Bassmate (I still use it today to record). I'd love to see an updated version using a KT66 power section.

 

[weaksauce]

Congrats and Happy New Amp Day! I've listened to all the clips on Sanford Magnetics YouTube channel and it all sounds great! I'm super interested in both of the amps, especially the LR Pro. I'm gonna have to sell some stuff first, but the LR Pro is on the shortlist!

 

[sulphur]

Congrats on the amp, great demos!

Great thread, the GAS is strong for these amps!

 

[Adcandour]

I went to the bank two days ago and transferred money from chequing account to one loan and closed it (same bank). Yesterday, I took out a draft to pay off a TD loan.

My balance was much more than I had expected, so I'm immediately thinking NEW AMP - and I'm not even going to try it!!!

Yeah, right. That first transfer wasn't immediate. Man, that's frustrating. I took it out on my dog and burnt her with a cigarette - right on the inside of her ear.