Check the OP. I updated it with pics of my actual amp.
The amp came in yesterday afternoon, finally. It didn't ship out until Wednesday last week and of course got delayed several days with USPS. It did arrive safely though.
Before you hit the wall of text...
My overall impression is positive and I'm overall very happy with everything. Where it counts most, it sounds great and is exactly what I was hoping for. There are a few deficiencies in the build quality. Most of that is with the headshell. Circuit wise it's pretty solid.
When I ordered it was listed for $100 less than now with $100 off and an extra 15% off sale on top of that. So I paid $475 total; including shipping, feel like I got my money's worth, and am happy with my purchase. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I paid full price of 699 + shipping. Probably still overall satisfied since it sound great, but maybe think the price is a little steep given some of the deficiencies.
And now the more detailed first impressions:
I played it for about an hour or so. I really like the sound and is what I was hoping it to be. For a 6 watt amp it can put out a respectable amount volume through my 610 cab. It's enough to move a bit of air where it gets too loud to not disturb anyone, but not so much that it earthquakes the walls and kills small animals. I haven't put the dB meter to it yet. I'd gauge it in the same ballpark of my 5 watt guitar amp at about 100 db or so fully cranked. I'm sure I could shave a few dB off it if I ran it through a 110.
It's very punchy and responsive to both pickups and playing. With hotter pickups it'll hit edge of breakup around 3-4 on the volume. Lower output ones it can be pushed to 5 or so before you start getting grit. Light playing will get you a more clean sound. Digging in will give you the grit. And it responds well to the bass's volume knob to ride the line between clean and dirty. Full bore and you get some real meaty overdrive. For having only Bass & Treble controls there's a wide range of sounds. Both knobs have a really nice sweep across the spectrum. It's very easy to dial in several nice tones.
I did pull the amp out the shell to take a look at the guts. I'm not going to post a pic of that as the circuit is likely proprietary and I don't want to spread the design without permission. Overall it's a pretty good job on the wiring. The circuit doesn't look to complex. There's not a bunch of leads all over the place, and it's more in line with simple vintage circuits. The bulk of it is a single strip eyelet board. All the solder joints looked solid. Component aren't as neatly laid out as I would expect from a professional builder. I also caught a spot where it looked like a resistor may have been bumped with the soldering iron. I'll put it this way; I've built 2 relatively simple amps and I'd consider my neatness on par with this amp. My builds are by no means sloppy. I guess I expected someone with years of experience over me to have a cleaner build. Or maybe my expectations are a little high since the last amps I bought came from Jason, Jeremy, and Shea. Like I said though, overall it looks like a solid wiring job and I'm not displeased.
I do have one area of disappointment. That is the headshell. From a few feet away and in pics it looks fine. But when you get a good look you notice several imperfections that once you see then you can't unsee it. As a woodworker for the past few decades those imperfection are glaringly obvious. First the chassis was mounted a bit crooked. There's about a 1/16" gap on the left side between the face of the shell and the control plate. And you can see the gap's taper along the whole length of the control plate cutout. The inlay work of the 2 stripes on the face is a tad sloppy. The inlay isn't perfectly flush, there's some tear-out in the maple, a little glue squeeze-out here and there that wasn't cleaned up. There's also about a 1/16" gap between the shell's top and face that fairly noticeable. The last piece that's unsatisfactory to me is the control face. It's made of maple which is cool. But it looks like someone with Parkinson's cut it to thickness. It's not cut evenly at all. Some places are a good 1/8" thick (like it should be) and other chunks are so razor thin it barely the thickness of veneer.
I will give some leeway on the shell quality as it was all hand made to order, not purchased from a cab shop. Even the chassis looked to be hand made in house. A positive spin would be to think of it as adding to the aesthetic of being 100% hand built. Another positive is the black tolex wrap is done well. The seams match up very nicely. And I do like the flamed maple face and laser engraved badge. I think it adds a nice touch as something different. The maple control place is rather unique way to go as well over plexi or screen print. I just with the construction was more on the level of cabinet maker than general carpenter.
All that said about the shell, it's not that big of a deal to me. I wanted to make my own shell out of some nice hardwood I have. So even if the headshell was perfect I would have discarded it anyway. I wasn't expecting the control plate to be as sloppy as it is so I guess I'll make a new one of those as well. I have some birdseye maple veneer that I can layer up that I think will look nice. I just don't have a laser engraver so I'll have to use decals for the control labels; which should look just as good.
So yeah, My overall first impression is positive. Where it matters most it sounds excellent. Easy to dial in. Loud enough, but not too loud. I think this is a perfect practice and recording amp where you want power tube grit without the deafening volume. Circuit quality wise it may not be as neat as expected, but it looks like very solid soldering work everywhere. My biggest complaint is the imperfections in the headshell. And since I was planning to build my own anyway it's really a moot point for me.
