Brian Gerhard is Top Hat Amplification. He is the heart and soul of the operation and has been designing and building many of the best sounding amplifiers available for several years. His amps are hand built, one at a time, utilizing only the highest military grade components and the most precise wiring techniques you will see inside an amp. Brian has taken some classic British and American designs and has removed the weak points and added to the strong points. His art has been to improve upon classic designs and add flexibility and options while never compromising, but rather, improving on the original trademark qualities and sounds of the original source of inspiration.
His King Royale is perhaps the most gorgeous AC30 to ever grace a stage and it's little brother the Club Royal is a lower powered version that pays tribute to the AC15 but with features that allow it to cover much more ground than it's forefather. His Emplexador is a collection of some of the greatest landmark Marshalls all under one roof. You have a JTM 45, to a 1968 Plexi on the vintage side and hot rodded plexi to a screaming hot 1968 JMP small box on the modern side. His Ambassador series covers the ground of our favorite black panel amps of the 1960s with incredible clarity and articulation that holds together as you push the amp into a beautiful smooth natural distortion. All this is enhanced by one of the lushest, most responsive reverb circuits ever designed.
Whether a variation on a classic American or British design or a hybrid of the two, you can be sure that you are getting tone and build quality that is second to none. One look inside the chassis of any of his amps and one chord strummed through any of his amps will confirm that to be true. Brian is motivated by his love for classic good old bad boy rock n' roll. His amp designs will allow you to go from beautiful soft and clean whispers to the raukus roaring of an untamed beast, and many layers in between.
Brian has designed his amps to be tremendously responsive to the guitars volume and tone settings as well as the players pick attack, vibrato and bending techniques. One can have incredible control over these amps, with the ability to make notes swell and blossom into beautiful harmonic distortion. On the flip side, you can also dial in sounds where you are fighting to maintain control of an untamed beast, with your guitar, some spit and a prayer. A great man with a big heart and soul, and great products oozing with the vibe and soul that he has poured into them.
TopHat Vanderbilt 33
The Vanderbilt 33 is a bigger, thicker, chewier version of what the Supreme 16 is. Not better but different. This is the dream amp for those who love the rhythm sounds of Richards and Townshend and all in between, and who crave lead tones that are super fat and chewy where you can hang onto and squeeze every bit of juice out of each note. No need for reverb or any effect for that matter.
DestroyAllGuitars is extremely excited to announce the unveiling of Brian Gerhard and TopHat Amplification's newest addition to their incredible line of amplifiers. The amp is called the Supreme Sixteen.
The King Royale K-35 Guitar Amplifier has two channels featuring high and low inputs. The first channel, with simple volume and tone controls, is derived from a classic Vox AC-30. The second channel comes from the classic Vox AC-30 "Top Boost" and features: volume, treble, mid, bass, master volume control.
The Ambassador Series features one-channel with one high and one low input. This single channel features the cherished 60's reverb circuit, with a special EQ design (separates the mid from the treble and bass and allows a vast increase in mid range content), a master volume and both dwell and mix controls, for the reverb section.
The Emplexador MKII TH-E50 & TC-E50 feature a traditional hi/lo input with selectable voicing between "Classic" and "Overdrive". The first mode, labeled "Classic", is based on a 1968 "Plexi" with a few twists thrown in for added versatility! The second voicing, labeled "Overdrive", is designed to attain the best overdrive sound available with tons of gain and sustain while still offering some ability to have the amp clean up when your guitar is turned down.
The Club Series, TopHat's best selling Class-A guitar amplifiers provide an affordable alternative for today's small club players. The Club Royale MKII, Club Royale MKII Supreme, and the Super Club Deluxe are all single channel, 1x12 and 2x12, Class-A combos that offer the same incredible, rich tone as their big brothers in a more compact 20-watt version.
The Portly Cadet is the first release in the TopHat Studio Series line of single-ended 5 watt amps. This model provides lots of capability in a very portable package. The tube arrangement consists of a 12AX7 for the pre-amp, 6V6 for the output and a 5Y3 rectifier tube.
TopHat's SD Series Speaker Cabinets are the best sounding speaker cabinets available today. These cabinets are handcrafted units, with the boxes and baffles made of 11 ply Baltic Birch. These units can be loaded with the speakers of your choice (Celestion are Standard).
Top Hat
