I have recently been collecting vintage Pignose amps.  They are pretty much the only vintage amps that are actually affordable to the extent that I can have a half dozen of them in a row, compare the sound and choose the best one or two to record with.  I probably should not be writing this piece just in case some collectors are reading this and decide to to stock pile on them and push the market price up.

The thing is, either not many people latched on to the fact that the ‘70s made-in-USA Pignose is a wonderful amplifier that was used on many classic recordings (the modern made-in-Hong Kong reissue versions don’t record like the old ones at all or I have no ear), or the sound of the vintage Pignose (which is a transistor amp after all) is rubbish and does not deserve to be revered. It's a matter of opinion, of course, but I certainly have recorded with them through a vintage AKG tube C12 microphone and surprised the engineer and others with the sound I got out of this little amp.

The vintage Pignose is definitely louder than the reissue and has richer harmonics depending on the condition. Abused ones can sound a bit rough around the edges but I have a couple of treasured sweeties with low serial numbers. The first impression of the sound being dark usually comes from the fact that as the speaker is so small, your ears are not in line with it to hear the full tone.

Vintage US made Pignose can be easily recognized by: (i) red/blue/silver label inside (photo below) as opposed to the white label of the Chinese-made reissues; (ii) larger weave pattern on the grill cloth; (ii) the angle of the Pignose logo; (iv) bigger and deeper contoured metal corners; and, (v) the louder, fatter and more powerful sound with richer harmonics.

The typical vintage Pignose tone can be heard on Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” and Eric Clapton’s “Motherless Children” (recorded with his cherry-red Gibson ES-335 according to the 1976 Guitar Player interview). Frank Zappa was another Pignose user who played his SG through it. You can hear my Pignose on the track “Enough” if you hunt it down on the Snowcap player at www.myspace.com/saiichi.

A late 1970s US-made Pignose

Inside a vintage Pignose – showing the label