GRAMMATICO
KINGSVILLE
BY MATTHEW HOLLIMAN
Leo Fender may have been a genius, but his legacy has benefitted from more
than a few happy accidents. Consider the
Fender Bassman: This tweed beast was
never intended for guitarists—it surfaced in
1952 to go along with the Fender Precision
Bass. But somewhere down the road, a budding guitarist plugged his 6-string into a
Bassman and a classic guitar amp was born.
Leo’s great tweed Bassman circuit
(known far and wide by amp nerds as the
5F6A) was such a success it has inspired
imitators and homages ever since. No less
than Jim Marshall launched his amplification empire with his take on a ’ 59
Bassman—the JTM45—and 50 years later,
amp builders are still plying those waters.
Grammatico Amps is one of the most
impressive of these and the Austin-based
outfit has created a groundswell of praise
for it sole product, the Bassman-inspired
Kingsville. It was good enough to get the
attention of Bassman-champion Jimmie
Vaughan, who purportedly wrote John
Grammatico a check after playing a few
runs through a Kingsville. We were, as it
turns out, similarly impressed.
Familiar territory
The Kingsville’s top-panel control layout
will be familiar to anyone who has ever
used a tweed Bassman. It’s a simple control
set—presence, middle, bass, treble, bright
volume, and normal volume, all on a scale
of 1 to 12—though it takes a little adjustment if you’re more accustomed to simpler
blackface-style control arrays.
Each channel (bright and normal) has
two separate inputs, and the second is
ostensibly better suited for instruments
to hear audio clips of the amp at
premierguitar.com/mar2012
CLICKHere…
with higher output. Aside from the tone
controls, there’s a threaded orange indicator
jewel, an on/off switch, a standby switch,
and an easy-access fuse holder. Curiously,
there’s also a spot for a ground switch, but
this is purely for the cosmetically nostalgic—it’s not actually hooked up.
John Grammatico’s exacting approach to
building the Kingsville is impressive. When
he tired of sifting through signal capacitors
that weren’t up to his standards, he had
his own made in the USA. And the entire
circuit is an amp tech’s dream with flawless
handwiring and snug, but accessible components. The 45-watt power section is driven
by two Tung-Sol 5881 tubes, and the amp
Jensen P10R speakers in a 4x10 configuration
Dual Tung-Sol 5881
power section
