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Sommatone Amplification: http://www.sommatone.com

At the last NY Amp Show, I first saw Sommatone amps, and I also had a chance to hear Jimmy Somma talk about what it takes to be a boutique amp builder as a part of a panel with some other builders.

So it was nice to see them again at the Nashville Amp Expo, and aside from playing through the amps myself this time, I also had a chance to hear Jimmy play some slide guitar. I’ve got a great clip of him playing through one of his amps, and it sounds even better than what you hear in the video.

I dig Sommatone amps, not just because they sound good but because they’ve got a very cool look. The amp that I played through was a 40 watt amp, with a half-power switch that would take it down to 20 watts. The most interesting thing about it was that it had two input gain knobs.

One was a normal gain and the other was labeled “Bright”. Both knobs would increase the volume, and the ratio between them could give you all kinds of tones. I’m not clear on what the difference in circuitry was, but the two gains definitely had different tones.