LA Amp Show: Kelemen Amplifiers

The Roadrunner is a single channel amplifier that is configured for 35 watts when it has EL34 or 6L6 power tubes in it. You can substitute 6V6 tubes and lower the power rating to 20 watts, the preamp section has three 12AX7s. One of the coolest features of this amp (beyond the internal wiring – more on that later) is the bias adjustment on the rear of the amp. The left and right bias adjust each have a twenty turn fine adjustment and a positive and negative test jack to making biasing the amp with a volt meter fast and easy. This makes this amp perfect for tube rolling to really dial in the tone that you are looking for.

But the most striking feature of this amplifier has to be the part that you can’t see without a screwdriver – the inside. The internal wiring of this amp is a work of art onto itself (look at the pictures on the left to see what I mean). The majority of this amplifier has part connecting directly to parts without hookup wire; in fact, there is hardly any hookup wire in the amp at all! This type of construction is said to increase the touch sensitivity and pick attack of the amp and help with the overall dynamics of the amp’s tone.

The Roadrunner weighs in at a svelte twenty pounds, which is surprising when you look at the back of the amplifier and see the massive transformer on the left hand side. Joe tells me that his use of a lightweight aluminum chassis really helps with the weight of the amplifier - and after picking it up it makes perfect sense. The Roadrunner also has an impedance switch that allows you to select between 2, 4, 8, and 16 ohms for your speaker cab.

The Raven, is a two-channel amp that allows you to switch between clean and overdriven tones. Channel one is voiced toward the clean end of the spectrum, but you can also dial in some creamy tube overdrive if you want to. Joe says that this side of the amp is perfect for those of us who love our pedals, which is most of us out there! Channel two brings you into the bit of dirt to blistering distortion side of the amplifier. This side of the amp has a similar preamp to the Roadrunner, but it will distort much faster and have an overall more saturated tone. The output power of the Raven is 25 Watts when you use EL34s or 6L6s.  You can switch to 6V6s, without re-biasing, and bring the overall power down to 15 watts.

Kelemen also offers a 2 x 12 cabinet with a semi closed back in the form of a large rear oval port. A unique feature of the cabinet is the built-in “treble shields” that “block concentrated high end frequencies from blasting straight out of the front, thus creating not less high end but a superior balance of tone.” I did not get a chance to hear the difference that the treble shields make, but I am very interested in checking it out. You can see the pictures of the shields at the top left of this post.

While I was in the Kelemen room there was a jam session going on and one of the guys was sporting a well played 1960 Gibson Les Paul. The tone of that guitar through the Kelemen Raven was simply blues heaven; the Kelemen shined with every note that was played. If you want some sound samples of the amp, you can find them on the Kelemen site HERE. If you are in the market for a new amp, you should really have a look at these, if I bought one I might just have to pull the chassis out and build a see-through enclosure just so I could check out the amazing wiring all day long.