Reviews

The Buzz Bin by Guitar World - May 2001 SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST Penn Instrument Company Pennalizer 50

In the past few years, custom amplifier manufacturers have been dropping like flies. The slaughter can partially be attributed to the fact that, for most players, standard production models offer a much more affordable and therefore attractive means of making noise. Another thing that has harmed the "boutique" amp market, however, is an excessively traditional outlook that leads most manufacturers to produce almost exact replicas of vintage models that are as limited and impractical as they were 40 years ago.

Why not offer a 4 x 10 Bassman-type amp with reverb, or a Blackface Super Reverb replica that powers two 25-watt Greenback Celestions? Why not, God forbid, do something completely new? After all, the creators of vintage amps were fiercely inventive for their time.

In such a retro-obsessed field, the Penn P-50 ($1,539) is a welcome breath of fresh air. Yes, this amp's design is certainly rooted in Fender's designs of yore, but it's not trying to ride on anybody's coat-tails or snake a specific trademark vibe. A fully bypassable Master Volume allows for smooth medium-overdrive tones to be attained at even neighbor-friendly levels. A handy footswitchable EQ Bypass provides ample volume boost for solos, and the two-spring Accutronics reverb is lush and complex. But what is most impressive (and decidedly not old-school) about the P-50 is the amp's tight, percussive low end. This is a rarity in most combo amps and basically unheard of in the vintage combo universe. Chalk it up to the 3/4-inch finger-joined clear pine cabinet, the 1/2-inch birch ply baffle, the Jensen C12N speaker or a magical confluence of the three, but this unit has enough ballsy "knock" to deliver even the gnarliest of rock riffs with aplomb.

Simple, lightweight, bulletproof and tantalizingly toneful, this is one boutique amp that deserves to live long, and prosper. - Tom Beaujour