Masterverb Amp by Eagle Guitar

The Inspiration

The Eagle Guitar Masterverb is based on the legendary Bright Channel of a classic 1959 Fender Bassman, the holy grail of guitar amplifiers. Intended for use by Fender’s revolutionary Precision Bass, guitar players soon found that the higher gain and fatter tone suited them better than other Fender amps of the era. Jim Marshall used the Bassman circuit for the basis of all his original designs, including the classic “Bluesbreaker” and Plexi amps use by every rock guitar hero.

In the early 1960’s, before spring reverb tanks became common in amplifiers, Leo Fender designed an external reverb unit for his amps that went in front of the amp’s inputs. This approach yielded a different sound that what later became common, that is to say inserting the reverb circuit between the preamp and the power amp.

Putting the reverb unit in front of the amp defined the sound a whole genre of music (Surf) but your Masterverb is far more than just a Surf guitar amp. Diffusing the guitar’s tone going direct into the preamp section gives the tone a wider and more majestic effect that is suitable for any style of guitar music, from jazz to country to rockabilly to metal to indie rock to post-rock and whatever comes next.

An analog spring reverb and its accompanying circuit has the perceived effect of adding a gain stage to the overall tone of the amp, which many players found desirable. Hence, the Masterverb, a classic tweed Bassman amp with an early 1960’s Fender 6G15 reverb unit as the first stage of your tone stack.