there's been some talk on the GDP of dario gomez and his fine handmade amplifiers. his g-reverb caught my eye as a lower wattage alternative to my victorilux 1x15". the vicky is a 35 watt amp... sounds fantastic but i've found it's more power than i need for most of the bluesy/rootsy music i play. most rooms can't handle the volume even at half way. after seeing guys like jim campilongo work magic with some vintage princetons, i thought maybe that was the way to go. the g-reverb is a handwired princeton on steroids: 12 watts into a 15" jensen, surf city reverb and thick trem. i live in brooklyn and while most of the venues we play here in the city have a decent if not great house PA, i've wizened up over the years and learned the hard way that there is immense value in controlling your onstage volume. hey, i used to have a 100 watt marshall half stack 10 years ago. i've come along way! 
so ups delivered my spanking new gomez g-reverb amp yesterday. i messed with it a bit before taking it to my gig at hill country in manhattan (a great country bar/BBQ joint) on stage i set the amp up on a chair and we mic'ed it with an sm57. i try to keep it simple with my setup: dsw -> fulltone tape echo -> amp. let me tell you, this thing rips. at a modest enough volume i had the gomez tearing up some sweet overdrive while maintaining that precious low end (in thanks part to the nice 15" jensen) i like my setup so that with a heavy pick attack and the guitar's volume at full there is some natural overdriven grind, but back off with the right hand and maybe lower the guitar's volume and i get a nice clean sound. whereas i used to use an overdrive pedal with the victorilux to approximate this tone, the gomez gets that sound at a usable volume. standing between my amp and our drummer gave me a nice mix of the kit as well as the bass and house vocals. moving in front of the amp allowed me to hear the guitar better for solos. simple!
i've been searching for that great guitar-straight-into-the-amp thing for some time now. i like to use my amps for what i think they were designed for: cranking the volume to drive the tubes and speaker. keeping an amp's volume on 2 or 3 just seems to be under utilizing the thing. what's the point? and power attenuators? no thank you. with the gomez, i was happy to hear my guitar sound more detailed and focused, allowing a more even balance of the notes in every chord to come through. more importantly, the sound guy, my band and i all enjoyed the sound and lower volume. my initial worry with the g-reverb was that i might be under-powered compared to what i'm used to. however i was happy that i could still 'feel' the amp; nothing felt lacking. it's honeymoon time so i'm not selling my other amp just yet. i'm hoping i found a good way to downsize though. 
check out the g-reverb and dario's other great products here
