A few weeks ago I decided that I’d sell my Peavey Transformer 112 amp.  I bought it off eBay in mint condition a few years ago after I heard Peter Ruth’s harmonica and yukele project CD, where the Transformer is all over the place.  It’s a very modern amp with built-in amp modeling and effects, about 50 watts of power, and a 12″ speaker.  I wasn’t all that knocked out at the time by what I was able to get out of it, so I hadn’t touched it in years, and I figured somebody else could use it.

So I listed it on eBay, and nobody made a bid.  I listed it again, and today, with a few days left to go on the auction, I decided to check it out again.  

Wow.

It’s really a remarkable amp for harp.  It doesn’t sound like anything else, which is something I really like in any instrument.  It has a big, modern tone–kind of like a heavy metal guitar sound translated to harp, rather than a Chicago blues tone, though it can do more-traditional sounds well enough.  The effects are very cool–the phase shifter is big, dark, and auto-wah-ish, the chorus is thick, and the rotating speaker effect really sounds like a rotating speaker.  The delay has a nice, floaty character too.  

So I spent an hour pulling some big, metal sounds out of the thing, and then I went to eBay and canceled the auction.   I’m keeping it.

Like I said before: never sell an instrument that makes a sound that inspires you.  And you know all that stuff I said before about never bringing a real amp onstage again?  Yeah, well forget that.  I’ll keep using the Digitech for most gigs–it sounds great and it’s easy to haul around, so why do more work than necessary?  But for some rock gigs, the Transformer might be the only amp I bring onstage, and for others, I’d bring both the Peavey and the Digitech with an A-B pedal to switch between them.  

Isn’t gear fun?