Top Hat Club Deluxe - Mass Produced Equivilent?

Hello,

I've heard good things about the amplifier brand "Top Hat" and I know Dierks Bentley's lead guitarist and Kenny Chesney's lead guitarist both use and endorse them. The only model I consistantly see available used is the "Club Deluxe", and I've never played one, but I read all over the place that it has "that classic British tone" or something like that. Normally when I hear the phrase "British tone" when pertaining to guitar amps it has something to do with Marshall amps. But this amp looks more like an AC30 than a Marshall. Vox, Marshall, and Top Hat are all from England. So I just wanted to know if the Club Deluxe had a mass produced equivilent that I can use as a benchmark for tone; a souped up AC30 or a weird-looking Marshall.

Also, I've tested out the Vox AC30 Custom Classic at my local guitar store and I love its tone, and it's versitile enough for me. But would the Top Hat Club Deluxe be better?

I've owned both the Top hat Club Deluxe and club Royale and the Vox AC30 CC,
The Top Hats have excellent tone and with them you will get PTP wiring.
But the Vox has outstanding tone and is a bit more versatile than the Top Hat.
Plus you can pick them up used for a good price. I just saw one sell on TGP in excellent conditon for $675.

By the way I did sell the Top Hat's I owned but still have the Vox. It just sounds great!

But this amp looks more like an AC30 than a Marshall. Vox, Marshall, and Top Hat are all from England.

Top Hat is made in NC.

There are very few mass produced alternatives to anything boutique.

There are very few mass produced alternatives to anything boutique.

I do find this curious since many boutique amps are essentially copies of what were once "mass produced" amps. Although one could, I suppose, argue that back in the 50's there were no mass produced amps and that the production methods were all essentially all "boutique", anyway.

I don't find it as weird as $4,000 "custom shop" copies of what were guitars made by hourly workers in a factory, but there's a certain irony to it.


I suppose that when you're dealing with "mass production" you're also going to have "mass marketing".

I suppose in a perfect world, you could have a mass produced 5E3 based on a quality PCB selling for $400 if there was a large enough market for it.

I'm curious though, I've long read that one of the reasons the PCB Fender re-issues don't sound "the same" as the originals is due to changes in the circuit that had to be made to accomodate PCB construction. Or, is that mainly due to cost cutting on the part of Fender?

I don't find it as weird as $4,000 "custom shop" copies of what were guitars made by hourly workers in a factory, but there's a certain irony to it.


I suppose that when you're dealing with "mass production" you're also going to have "mass marketing".

I suppose in a perfect world, you could have a mass produced 5E3 based on a quality PCB selling for $400 if there was a large enough market for it.

It's all about attention to detail. There's only so careful you can be when something comes whippin' by you on an assembly line. Been there, done that!

Then there's the nickel and dime aspect of it. The OEM cost for parts is literally nickels and dimes. So they use a part that costs a nickel when they can buy a much better part for a dime. Hey, that five cent part is worth a dollar after the distributor and the retailer take their markup.

I modded an SF Champ the other day. I had high hopes for it because I built a bootleg BF Champ a while ago. The clone sounded incredible. I guess that makes perfect sense because I selected some "good" parts for it. Oh, I could have gone nuts and used NOS Allen-Bradleys, tossed in a couple Vitamin Qs, stuff like that. I used good parts not great parts. In my totally biased opinion the clone killed the modded stock amp. "Pretty much" the same parts. Obviously an old SF is still point to point with tag board. I could tell you part for part where the tone comes from because I've tried a lot of different combinations. It's mostly about attention to detail which includes using the "right" parts where they're necessary. BTW the "right" parts don't have to be expensive. A hack can build a crummy amp out of expensive parts.

Well, that's the beauty of a good design: it can be greater than the sum of it's parts

I've got a Tweed Champ clone that has some parts in it that are, if I remember correctly, recycled. I also have a modified SX "Tele" that I have less than $200 into. They both basically follow patterns that were laid out years ago

They both sound good enough to me that I spend zero time thinking about if they sound exactly like the originals. With the two of them, a cord and electricity (and the odd sip of Wild Turkey) I can bring myself hours of soul enriching pleasure and entertainment. Telecaster and Champ are verbs, not nouns.

THese zombie threads really aggravate the crap outta me, just sayin'. BUT, Tophat are great amps.

I was really surprised to see this thread pop back up.

Rule #2: Doubletap.