SMALL WONDERS

Having nailed the vintage-style bolt-neck guitar, K-Line attempts golden age–inspired 1x12 combos. How do the Bevo and Manchester measure up?

- DAVE HUNTER

THE VINTAGE-REPRODUCTION format has long formed a significant part of the boutique guitar and amp market, and if you've already proved your mettle at one, why not take a shot at the other? Long respected for its outstanding '50s- and '60s-evoking bolt-neck guitars, K-Line has released a line of golden age-inspired amps, and they're just as delectable as we would have hoped.

However good you may be at crafting vintage-inspired guitars, hand-wired amps patterned after the best of the original '60s offerings are another kettle of capacitors. Chris Kroenlein, the man behind K-Line's popular guitars, recognized this and brought in as his partner Dustin Sterling, the amplifiers' sole designer and builder. Both have expressed a deep love for the small-to-medium-sized vintage combos, which the new K-Line amp range expresses via its debut trio of the Bevo, Manchester and Parkmoor Reverb. I'm looking at the first two in this issue, while the third is an homage to the world's favorite black-panel 12-watt 1x10 combo of the mid '60s.

"The guitar is only half the instrument. The amp is the other," Sterling tells us. "Small combos allow you to crank up the volume and get into what the amp's circuit and tubes can do. A light touch of the strings gives shimmering cleans, while an aggressive sweep will make the amp growl and sustain."

Regarding K-Line's pitch for quality, Sterling tells us, "We use eighth-inch G10 turret-board construction and premium parts, like SoZo vintage-reproduction capacitors. We are after the vintage tone, with improved performance and a few minor changes to reverb and tremolo." All amps are meticulously hand-wired and hand assembled, and rendered with a stylistic touch that stays true to the originals.