Hamstead Amps

garfy

Hi, I'm looking for any feedback on the Hamstead Artist 20RT. Look a quality piece of kit and the demos sound great. Any issues at all etc. 

Cheers

timmysoft

You won't find issues with peters amps, he's a meticulous fault finder and extremely knowledgeable chap! I've played their line of amps and they're all very good, very quiet and take pedals like no other amp I've ever heard. 

Bellycaster

I was ready to buy one of these a few months back, but alas the stocks had vanished from their dealers and me being me, I couldn't wait for a new amp and went and bought the Badger 30 that was massively reduced for Black Friday.

If I had the money again now I'd buy one of these in a heartbeat if I could get hold of one. They are wonderful sounding and have surprising headroom for a 20 watter, but still loud as hell. My Badger 30 has less headroom than one of these, but it's horses for courses, I love the Badger overdriven tone.

I doubt you would regret buying one of these.

Stuckfast

Peter's stuff is absolutely top notch -- can't remember which one it was I tried, but it was the quietest valve amp I've ever heard.

ruoma

What type of sound is the Artist? Vox? How are the cleans and how are the gains? Scooped? Crushed glass?
@garfy Marc, you just got a lazy j!!! GAS flows quickly with you does it?

garfy

The Lazy isnt going anywhere @ruoma, I want a second amp to run in stereo , not sure my Hi-Tone really works with the J20.
Thanks for the quick replies guys. 
 I enquired sometime ago and was warmly welcomed to go & try one at their workshop by James Hamstead. I think they were at the point of releasing the MK2, work & life just got in the way and I never got round to arranging it. Time to email them again. I think there's a 6-8 week wait on an order, which is fine by me

rico

They use it on That Pedal Show almost every episode. 

Kebabkid

I must confess, the demos of these sound good and I've liked the sounds on TPS.
It also looks like they have a "useful for some" switchable voltage selector (230v or 115V)

Just from how they're described and the nice, punchy cleans, they do remind me of Divideds but more so of Morgan Amps. GG and Andertons stock the various models for the latter and seeing as they appear to be similar money and are more readily available, they may be worth a try if you haven't done so already. However, it is nice to support a UK builder with a quality product and good reviews

ChuckManual

I spoke to Ben Poole about his Hamstead amp after a gig once and he has nothing but absolute glowing praise for it.

He made it sound not too shoddy too... 

ruoma

garfy said:

The Lazy isnt going anywhere @ruoma, I want a second amp to run in stereo , not sure my Hi-Tone really works with the J20.
Thanks for the quick replies guys. 
 I enquired sometime ago and was warmly welcomed to go & try one at their workshop by James Hamstead. I think they were at the point of releasing the MK2, work & life just got in the way and I never got round to arranging it. Time to email them again. I think there's a 6-8 week wait on an order, which is fine by me

I'm on exactly the same dual amp quest!

Lebarque

ruoma said:

garfy said:

The Lazy isnt going anywhere @ruoma, I want a second amp to run in stereo , not sure my Hi-Tone really works with the J20.
Thanks for the quick replies guys. 
 I enquired sometime ago and was warmly welcomed to go & try one at their workshop by James Hamstead. I think they were at the point of releasing the MK2, work & life just got in the way and I never got round to arranging it. Time to email them again. I think there's a 6-8 week wait on an order, which is fine by me

I'm on exactly the same dual amp quest!

What, bloomin' expensive ones?! ;0)

ruoma

YES!!!

garfy

 They are a couple of quid, but like most other boutique builders the expertise and attention to detail comes at a cost. 

dindude

I heard one (Gigrig Dan's) at TPS Live - it was a great room so you get a good feel for it. Sounded great, seemed pretty flat-response and quite hi-if like, rather than vintage.

hotpickups

garfy said:

The Lazy isnt going anywhere @ruoma, I want a second amp to run in stereo , not sure my Hi-Tone really works with the J20.
Thanks for the quick replies guys. 
 I enquired sometime ago and was warmly welcomed to go & try one at their workshop by James Hamstead. I think they were at the point of releasing the MK2, work & life just got in the way and I never got round to arranging it. Time to email them again. I think there's a 6-8 week wait on an order, which is fine by me

I'm going the exact same route as you @garfy Having an amp built for me (not a Hampstead though) which I should be picking up soon to compliment my J20

ruoma

hotpickups said: 

I'm going the exact same route as you @garfy Having an amp built for me (not a Hampstead though) which I should be picking up soon to compliment my J20

You went for a gartone right?

On topic, quote from a recent email with hamstead which I don't think he'd mind me posting as it's free publicity :

"The Artist is an original design, so it wasn’t designed to be anything else out there. However it is also very versatile, allowing you to achieve the best in the Fender and Vox type tones that you are looking for. It’ll be as responsive and “3D” as you’re looking for.

With our amp it will only be a matter of tweaking the controls to find what you like, and we’re very confident that you’ll find it.

I suppose that’s the philosophy behind our amps - we create amps that allow you to find the great tone that you want, rather than an amp that tells you what to sound like."

Sounds promising although I've heard other amp builders say the same thing. 

hotpickups

@ruoma Nope

garfy

hotpickups said:

garfy said:

The Lazy isnt going anywhere @ruoma, I want a second amp to run in stereo , not sure my Hi-Tone really works with the J20.
Thanks for the quick replies guys. 
 I enquired sometime ago and was warmly welcomed to go & try one at their workshop by James Hamstead. I think they were at the point of releasing the MK2, work & life just got in the way and I never got round to arranging it. Time to email them again. I think there's a 6-8 week wait on an order, which is fine by me

I'm going the exact same route as you @garfy Having an amp built for me (not a Hampstead though) which I should be picking up soon to compliment my J20

Oooooooo is it a secret or can you give a clue please @hotpickups  

hotpickups

garfy said:

hotpickups said:

garfy said:

The Lazy isnt going anywhere @ruoma, I want a second amp to run in stereo , not sure my Hi-Tone really works with the J20.
Thanks for the quick replies guys. 
 I enquired sometime ago and was warmly welcomed to go & try one at their workshop by James Hamstead. I think they were at the point of releasing the MK2, work & life just got in the way and I never got round to arranging it. Time to email them again. I think there's a 6-8 week wait on an order, which is fine by me

I'm going the exact same route as you @garfy Having an amp built for me (not a Hampstead though) which I should be picking up soon to compliment my J20

Oooooooo is it a secret or can you give a clue please @hotpickups  

LOL not a secret no @garfy ;. I might've mentioned it on here before. It's a Dualist (standard) from RD amplification. I'm sure I'll be posting on here about it soon after I pick it up

garfy

Thanks for that, I'll check them out  mind you the j40 that's just gone on is tempting 

hotpickups

garfy said:

Thanks for that, I'll check them out  mind you the j40 that's just gone on is tempting 

Way too loud for mere mortals Unless you're a clean player which I'm not