2008 Premier
As the year comes to a close, we’ve been
reflecting on the 200+ pieces of gear that
came through our doors. How lucky are we
to be living in the golden age of gear! Our
reviewers plugged in, played, eyeballed,
and otherwise tested just about a ton of
exquisitely good gear this past year—so
much outstanding gear, in fact, that we
couldn’t fit it all in these pages. We’re putting the entire list of top-rated gear ( 4. 5 or
5.0 ratings) we reviewed during last year on
our website, so you can see everything at a
glance and read any (or all) of the reviews
with just a click.
Rather than repeat ourselves in a nutshell
here, we’ve gathered a select group of items
from all that gear, to show you a few things
we thought were really special, and broken
it down into twelve categories. All the gear
we’ve singled out here either exemplified a
trend, represented new ideas, displayed first-rate attention to quality, was real bang for
your buck, or possessed some other quality
that’s harder to name. Whatever the name,
you can be sure our reviewers thought it
was something worthy of your attention. Of
course, a lot of this gear could easily fit into
more than one of these categories, but we
tried to put things where we thought they
would best highlight the reason why each
reviewer was so impressed. Watch for “
revisited” products, where our reviewers give
you some extra input, now that they’ve let
the gear’s effects soak in. Remember, there’s
more where this came from—just click on
over to premierguitar.com/premiergearawards
and see for yourself.
Without further ado, the 2008 Premier Gear
Awards go to…
LOW WATTAGE/
HIGH PERFORMANCE
There’s no denying the impact that the low-wattage resurgence has made on the amplification industry in the past decade. This
year saw a mind-boggling number of amps
checking in at increasingly miniscule wattages, yet somehow retaining tonal qualities
that blew our minds. We averaged nearly
one low-wattage amp review per month
this year, so the pool for this award was
broad. The Premier Gear Low Wattage/High
Performance Award recognizes those companies that broke away from the pack.
Reinhardt SV 18
Not all low-wattage amps are quiet, as evidenced by the gig-ready Reinhardt SV 18.
Starting with the same basics as the Marshall
1974X that spawned the entire genre—three
12AX7s, two EL84s and a EZ81 rectifier
tube—Bob Reinhardt created an amp that
sounds great at pretty much any setting. This
versatility made the amp great for a number of
genres, but fans of old-school Marshalls should
take special note.
“Reinhardt Amplification has come out swing-
ing, and in the process has placed the SV 18
near the top of a crowded field.” – March ’08
