“After much mental back and forth, I’ve decided to let this stellar – and RARE- amp find a new home. I’ve had the good fortune to own Dumble, Ken Fischer, and Jim Kelley amps and I can honestly say this amp deserves to be in the same discussion as those.
Jason C Arthur (JCA) was a protégée of Ken Fischer (Trainwreck) in the 1990s. He built 12-14 of these amps back in the mid-’00s that are unlike anything else I’ve ever played. The MOST touch sensitive amps you can imagine. 9-10 years ago, I was able to buy the #1 Golden Ratio 1.6 from the builder who’d kept it as his personal amp since it was built. That was the actual amp that was sent to the ToneQuest Report and garnered a glowing review. I later was able to acquire this one as well, the only difference being the speaker and faceplate color. The #1 amp now lives with a good friend of mine, and I’ve babied this one for awhile now.
Being so few of these in the world, and owing to the fact that they came out prior to the days of YouTube gear reviews, there are virtually no clips online. But there are plenty of glowing reviews, from the aforementioned 2008 ToneQuest Report to a handful of folks of this forum who have tried one. The vibe of this amp is influenced by Trainwreck, as it’s got plenty of gain on tap and cleans up better than anything else with the volume knob. But it reminds me very much of a Jim Kelley in the way it sustains and has lots of tweakability with the switches, trim knob and EQ. It’s been referred to as a “Dumble Killer”, although I don’t think that’s accurate, unless you’re talking about an Ultraphonix Dumble. The trim knob let’s you tighten it up like a proper hotrodded Marshall or get a bit looser and fatter like a tweed (switched to Hi Tilt and Plush) or a Vox (when switched to Lo Tilt and Lean). Being a 6V6 amp, the cleans are pretty Fender-y but with slightly more prominent midrange. It’s a room-filling 20 watts, with a very full low end…” SCMAVL @ The Gear Page
