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True point-to-point wiring and great Brit-invasion tone.

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• Review

Based in North Carolina, Steve Carr has steadily been going from strength to strength, and as his reputation grows, so does his user list. You don't get players such as Nils Lofgren, Richie Sambora or Joe Perry on board unless you're doing something special, and Carr Amps is certainly doing that.

Steve's latest model is the Artemus, named after the Wild Wild West character Artemus Gordon. Unveiled earlier this year, it's the first Carr amp to use EL84 output valves, with some typical Carr twists.

"To be honest I struggled with this amp at first," says Carr. "Our Japanese importer asked us to do something Vox-inspired, however I found when prototyping the classic Vox circuits that the sound was a bit obscure for my taste. The thickness was very nice, but I crave articulation.

"The Artemus is a true point-to-point amplifier - there are no circuit boards of any kind... everything is wired from one component to the next."

"So after a lot of trial and error I went for fixed bias EL84s instead of the usual cathode bias with no negative feedback, and a very simple preamp, which has more in common with the AC15 EF86 front-end than anything else.

"I used EF86s at first, which sounded very good, but in a combo the microphonics proved insurmountable. So I developed a cascode circuit using the 12AX7, which I voiced and set the gain characteristics to be about the same as the EF86. I feel now it's superior!"

Outwardly, the Artemus lives up to the very high standard we've come to expect from the Carr cabinet shop. The asymmetric design is a Carr trademark that's used on some of its amps; it takes a little getting used to but has an undeniably cool retro-European look to it.

The asymmetric theme is also echoed on the rear panel, which has a sloping bottom edge below the valve inspection cut-out. This particular cabinet is covered in a tooled leather-effect antique brown fabric, which looks absolutely stunning.

The cabinet's perfectly radiused corners are covered in an almost seamless flow of vinyl that's so perfectly applied it looks as though it's been sprayed on. The Artemus's electrics are contained in a precision-folded aluminium chassis with neatly welded corners.

Like all Carr designs, the Artemus is a true point-to-point amplifier - there are no circuit boards inside of any kind, instead everything is wired from one component lead to the next, or joined to one of several tag strips.

While the assembly method may be rooted in the thirties, some of the components Carr uses inside its amps are cutting edge, such as Solen polypropylene fast capacitors for filtering instead of the usual electrolytic types, which tend to dry out and eventually need replacing.

The Artemus is a fairly straightforward single-channel design with some typical Carr twists: the rotary controls consist of volume, bass and treble, then there are three small but interesting toggle switches.

The first two are called edge and mid: edge emphasises high frequencies, while mid can either be scooped out for a more Fender-influenced tone, or left flat for the early Vox vibe, which is the Artemus's party piece. In the flat position, there's substantially more gain, making it easier to overdrive.

The third small toggle switches off two of the Valve Art EL84 output valves, changing the Artemus from 30 to 15 watts.

The mains switch has two 'on' positions, which reverse the incoming mains polarity if needed. This can reduce background mains hum in certain situations.

Overall, the Artemus is typical of the exceptional build standards we're used to seeing from Carr and should easily handle anything that a player might want to use it for, from occasional bedroom use to endless touring.