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We Celebrate Tweed amps with the Koch Little Gristle

The history of guitar amplification is punctuated by certain eras or models, like the Black-face era or the Plexi Era. However, there is no era as iconic as the tweed amp era of the late 50’s and early 60’s. These amps were (and are) highly prized for their well-earned reputation of world class tone and simplistic controls. They were and are being used in virtually every genre of music and have helped create the signature tones and styles of many guitar players….in fact, you can barely listen to music these days without hearing the influence of tweed amps somewhere in the mix….or at least a tweed amp model.

The history of guitar amplification now has a new chapter!

Koch Guitar Amplifiers in conjunction with Greg Koch (no relation) would like to introduce the Little Gristle! This twill covered single 12 combo has brought the late 50’s into 2023, for both the vintage purist, and the modern guitarist. The Class A, single ended amp has only 4 controls (Gristle/preamp control, the Tone control, and More/power amp control, plus the Extra switch to add some dirt), and can be switched from 4 to 12 watts. The Koch designed Power Soak and speaker simulator allows the actual speaker to be disconnected and the amp driven straight into a recording console. Finally, a classic reverb tank completes the package. Plug into the Little Gristle with your favorite guitar…or any guitar! Dial in something clean or more edgy and you will be taken by the purity and honesty of this amplifier. Like it’s relatives from the tweed era, the Little Gristle reacts to your playing style in a very organic and musical fashion….lighten up on your pick and the amp cleans up….dig in and the amp will bite back…not in a modern overdrive way, but a very vintagy tube driven way that fits with any style of music. So, the question is…what style of amp is the new Koch Little Gristle? Is it a blues amp, a rock amp, a jazz amp or a country amp?

The answer is yes!

KOCH Little Gristle Black Tweed LTD

Greg Koch about his new Little Gristle;

I’ve always liked simple, little, low wattage amps that you can crank up to get the power tubes cooking up a tasty stew while not being deafening. They are great for recording and for smaller gigs. I’ve often joked that my favorite amp would have one knob that says “more”. The Little Gristle amp brings together my favorite aspects of these smaller amps while solving some of the things that used bug me. The 12” speaker and slightly larger cab for a 12 (or 4) watt amp solves the “box-y” tone a lot of little amps get when cranked without farting out on the low end and not ratting out on the high end. It has a “Gristle” Gain, “More” Master, Tone, Reverb control and a “Extra” boost switch which allow you to either run it dimed and dirty or nice and clean while still having a glorious reverb and the ability to foot switch a boost to drive the amp over the edge.
For being only 12 watts, this amp is loud enough for gigging and sounds awesome with a guitar plugged straight in and just using the controls on the guitar to change your sounds. Once again…the Kochians have knocked it out of the park…

Nice tune with the Koch Ventura and Classictone II to start 2023.

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