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Audio Kitchen Little Chopper £1175
A hand-wired, seven-watt head that's ideal for the recording professional
Mick Taylor, Wed 24 Sep 2008, 10:11 am BST
Audio Kitchen is a new UK amp brand, headed up by one Steve Crow, and birthed of pro-audio firm Mutronics, where Crow has worked since 1999.
Like all the best stories, getting into building amps was something of a happy accident, as he explains: "A good friend and I spent loads of time at the end of the nineties, trying different amps and rapidly realising what a difference there was between the top-flight amps, and more standard production amps. We couldn't justify the expenditure of the ones we really loved, but it sewed a seed.
"In 2000 I was chatting to a session player friend," continues Crow, "who had an AC30 that he loved, but was frustrated that it was impossible to record the overdriven sounds at home. I said I'd have a think. Then I bought 12 old valve radios for £12 from eBay and turned them into guitar amps.
"Before I knew it, the great-grandaddy of the Little Chopper was born. I just wanted to make an amp for myself and a couple of friends so we could pursue music with a new tool, but it didn't really work out like that.
"More people wanted them and then James [Dunbar, Mutronics technical director] asked if I wanted to make it a Mutronics-funded operation. When you're given the opportunity to turn your hobby into a full-time job, it's hard to say no!"
Little Chopper
Let's get the oohs and ahhs out of the way. Yes, it's cute – about the size of 12 cans of beer, and every bit as intoxicating, with fastidiously wrapped blue and grey leatherette vinyl and mesh grilles so you can catch a glimpse of the glowing glass within.
Crow should be praised on his graphics too – a sort of semi-haphazard hand-drawn typeface (a tenner says he's left-handed), which is then etched into the control panel to form the legends. Very tidy.
The first control is gain, which regulates the two preamp valves – an ECC81/12AT7 and a ECC83/ 12AX7 and the lone EL84 in the power section should be noted. Then there's bottom (bass), middle and top (treble). After that, it all gets a bit more involved, which explains why so many recording guitarists are falling for the Little Chopper.
First is 'stack': this is a two-position switch that, in the left position, enables the EQ pots to work normally, dialling in bass, middle and treble, even if to our ears, the top control's range is somewhat limited compared with what you'd expect from a 'normal' treble control.
That said, who actually uses their treble pot either off or at maximum anyway? Switching the stack pot right disables the normal function of bottom, middle and top pots, and in Crow's words, "Repurposes the top as a high-end roll-off". All the way anti-clockwise takes out a slab of presence-type high-end, with the range of the pot seemingly all happening in the first third of its travel.
The final control, power, might be a little perplexing if you haven't read the instructions. It's not a master volume, but a headroom control for the seven-watt, single-ended power section. So, fully anti-clockwise is maximum squash for the power amp, and fully clockwise the power section is wide open, leaving everything to the gain control.
"A rare, thoroughly professional amplifier, that any serious recording guitarist or studio deserves to hear."
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User comments (3)
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Met Steve at the Excel show and tried out the Little Chopper with both a Strat and a Les Paul style guitar. I was really impressed by the tones. Went along to his workshop at Mutronics and tried it again, this time with my standard pedals and my own guitar.
Then I had to come to terms with loving the sound but geeesh £1000 + price tag.
Well, after lots of soul searching I decided to go for it.
Initially it took me a while to get my head around the head (sorry about that puny pun) but then it hit me and I got what can only be described as locked-in to the tone.
It's a bit like surfing...it takes a while to get into it, but when you ride a wave everything comes together. Here the tones start to shine and you realise what it brings out.
On first listen, a lot of people more used to a Marshall Stack with everything turned up full might not appreciate this beautiful amp, but get the settings just right and it will bring out the most musical tones and as a result improves my sound and playing.
If I could make one change, it would be to have a channel switcher, to easily change from cleaner to dirtier tones. This isn't an issue for recording.
Oh...and one of the best things about this head...it's small and light, so much easier to take this to places than say my ultra heavy Fender Twin. -
Met Steve at the Excel show and tried out the Little Chopper with both a Strat and a Les Paul style guitar. I was really impressed by the tones. Went along to his workshop at Mutronics and tried it again, this time with my standard pedals and my own guitar.
Then I had to come to terms with loving the sound but geeesh £1000 + price tag.
Well, after lots of soul searching I decided to go for it.
Initially it took me a while to get my head around the head (sorry about that puny pun) but then it hit me and I got what can only be described as locked-in to the tone.
It's a bit like surfing...it takes a while to get into it, but when you ride a wave everything comes together. Here the tones start to shine and you realise what it brings out.
On first listen, a lot of people more used to a Marshall Stack with everything turned up full might not appreciate this beautiful amp, but get the settings just right and it will bring out the most musical tones and as a result improves my sound and playing.
If I could make one change, it would be to have a channel switcher, to easily change from cleaner to dirtier tones. This isn't an issue for recording.
Oh...and one of the best things about this head...it's small and light, so much easier to take this to places than say my ultra heavy Fender Twin. -
Don't be frightened off by the apparent low power rating of 7 watts. A properly designed valve amplifier delivers its rated powr continuously as long as you care to hold down a note or chord and over the whole compass from low E to high D with full harmonic content. This punchy sound pressure level from single-figure wattage valve amps will give you a big shock if you're used to the rrelative weakness of solid state kit. To give yo7u an example,an Audio Note Silver Signature Meishu hi-fi amplifier rated at less than 20W in conventional techspeak can give a suitably constructed woofer the power to deliver over 112dB from a recording of a 16-foot church organ pipe low A (13.75Hz) - don't try this at home, if the loudspeaker survives your ear drums may not. Now do you have some idea of why people will spend well in excess of £1000 on such an apparently puny powrhouse? Just one other thing - the circuitry involved may be a simple -strahght line' affair but by the time you've ffactored in the required ruggedness of the chasis and size of powr supply and reservoir caps you have one bug heavy mother. Mind you don't break your back.
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MusicRadar rating
Pros
Huge range of tones. Ace graphics. Compact design.
Cons
No low-gain input. Only has one eight-ohm speaker out.
Verdict
A huge range of tones and textures, but you really need to work it to find them. Rewards decent guitars and guitarists.
Review Policy
All MusicRadar's reviews are by independent product specialists, who are not aligned to any gear manufacturer or retailer. Our experts also write for renowned magazines such as Guitarist, Total Guitar, Computer Music, Future Music and Rhythm. All are part of Future PLC, the biggest publisher of music making magazines in the world.
User rating
Where to buy
Buy similar products from Wood Brass
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Specification
Little Chopper
- Price:
- £1175
- Country of Origin:
- UK
- Additional Features:
- 1 x 8-ohm speaker output. Optional 115-volt/60Hz switch
- Description:
- 1 x ECC81/12AT7, 1 x ECC83/12AX7 preamp, 1 x EL84 power amp, 1 x EZ81 rectifier valve. Gain, bass, middle, top, stack and power controls
- Device Type:
- All-valve, single-channel valve head with valve rectification
- Options:
- Audio Kichen 1x12 cabinet is £365 + speaker
- Power (W):
- 7
iodax
Wed 28 Jan 2009, 9:36 am GMT
User rating 5 of 5