20.12.2024: Gladius
Our last project for this year. Here you can see a new Gladius JTM 65 with an old Radio Spares (RS Deluxe) output transformer (that alone costs 3k euros these days), old mustard caps and completely old tubes, exactly as they were used in the Marshall JTM45 in 1965. Gladius sometimes does projects like this, especially when the amps are played on the biggest stages in the world.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year. The store is closed from December 21st, 2024 to January 6th, 2025. We will be back for you from Tuesday, January 7th, 2025.
5.12.2024: New Return Policy
However, experience has taught us something different. ProGuitar customers want to buy new and unplayed amps to be sure that the hand-wired amps in one-off production also have the quality as offered by the manufacturer. It is easy to exchange the expensive and hand-selected tubes in cheap ones. Or even exchange the paper transformers into Chinese. Even if only the case is damaged, replacement usually has to be ordered from the USA! Often the costs are in no relation. For this we guarantee absolutely new and genuine Boutique products that are guaranteed to reproduce the sound of the manufacturer.
Thats why ProGuitar is offering a return and a money back policy which should be negotiated before purchase! Thanks.
9.11.2024: Read this carefully
Since this summer we have had delivery problems with Dumble style amps and manufacturers are being forced to change the names of their amps. A Dumble website has recently been launched which may shed some light on this. http://dumble.com
26.08.2024: Vincent Van Tright has left Fender.
I received today a 59 Strat in black color - this will be the very last MBVVT guitar ever.
20.07.2024: BrownBox 2 available!
This is the Voltage Correction and VARIAC for all of you US vintage amps using it in Europe.
Use the BrownBox 2 ONLY in 230V countries (Europe) AND with 110/120V Amps AFTER a 230V Step Down Transformer wich generate 110/120 Volts!
20.06.2024: Gladius JTM MK5 models available!
The JTM series is still Gladius' most successful amp series. After 20 years, the MK5 versions are now being released in July '24. Adrian, the engineer behind Gladius, has always wanted to preserve and improve the exact sound of the world-famous Plexi amps. That's why there are also the 4 most influential amps in this era with the corresponding seasons of the years of release. The major differences can be found in the transformers, which Adrian has had reproduced in the USA with meticulous precision over decades. Single channel point to point and hand-wired is of course a must. The arrangement and selection of components are also essential. Over the years, the various MK versions have brought more and more features from the 70s Marshall to the JTM models without changing the original Plexi character. One of the most important innovations was the lossless master volume in conjunction with a real Variac. The last development stage was the use of selectable bright caps, which catapulted the amps into the new millennium and completely changed the sound character. The decisive factor was always to retain the Plexi character 100% and still get a selectable, very modern metal tone. I have offered many well-known manufacturers from the USA and England for sale here in Europe over the last few decades, but nothing is as powerful as a Gladius sword and nothing sounds as big as a Gladius amp.
15.06.2024: Gladius Roc95 available.
Gladius is making music history: the new Roc95 is the first produced EL95 amp and has an output of 2.5W triode / 7W pentode.
8.032024: The BrownBox 200 is now available.
Many guitarists in the USA have been using the BrownBox for decades to get a harmonious and organic tone from their amplifiers and pedals. In Europe the BrownBox was known as EuroVolt and was also manufactured in Europe. Now AmprX has decided to build the 230V version itself, with the additional designation 200. 3 reasons for using the BrownBox 200. 1. All over the world there is only "polluted" electricity, caused, among other things, by photovoltaic systems. Thanks to the galvanic isolation, the BrownBox gives you a clean sine wave of 50Hz. 2. On the display you can see exactly which voltage you have and can therefore reduce the voltage until the sound is correct. 3. Unlike a cheap VARIAC, where the power tubes quickly suffer, the current is kept stable with the BrownBox. This means there is never any risk of power tubes breaking.
13.11.2023: I have decided to bring Daniel Margasa's Valkenburg USA™ guitars to Europe.
Daniel's guitars and finishes are extraordinary. His custom instruments have precisely the look, feel, tone and playability so critical to me. He is well known among professional musicians and builds for some of the biggest names in the business. He is a master luthier, honest committed businessman, and great communicator.
Daniel is now building very special Valkenburg USA™ guitars that play in the Champions League in terms of technology, feel and sound
17.09.2023: JOHN CRUZ
One of the biggest disappointments in my over 30-year career as a high-end dealer of guitars and amps, has been my very disappointing dealings with John Cruz after his surprising departure from Fender.
I made good faith advances of several hundred thousand Euro’s in 2021 for instruments to be made by his company John Cruz Customs Guitars, LLC. Only a portion of those instruments were ever delivered, some of them with serious quality control problems. As of last October, a sizeable number still remained un-delivered. Of course, I have been reaching out to John during this entire experience, but most of those telephone calls and emails went unanswered.
I recently got an email from a lawyer representing John that informed me John’s company had gone out of business, disposed of all of its assets. My deposit money still owing me was gone, and there was no hope of receiving that back nor any more of the guitars I had paid for two years ago.
John did not have the courtesy to call me directly, but rather hid behind this lawyer.
I am done representing John Cruz guitars!
We no longer have any relationship with John or his Company.
13.09.2023: New batch of Candy Old Guitars are available
The new available guitars have one special upgrade. NOS Wired Pickups!
This pickups will offer some of the clearest, warmest and most transparent tones, along with the unique voice of the 50s! This NOS sets also offers exceptional chord definition!
18.08.2023: Check Gitarre & Bass 9/23
Udo Piper did a nice review about the amplified Nation Trem-Drive Amp.
24.06.2023: New Fane speakers arrived
Bartel & Gladius was one of the 1st companies who switched fro Celestion to Fane speakers. The brand new F25, F30 or A30 are killer speakers for British style amps.
10.04.2023: Candy Old Guitars
Javier Alemany was Nacho's guitar builder from 2015 to November 2021. He built all the guitars and also made the relics on all guitars. You've probably noticed that I haven't ordered any guitars from Nacho since 2021 and there were reasons for that. Now Javier is finally directly on the market and is now building the best 50s style Leo guitars using the finest tone woods, hardware and components. This instrument was made to last a life time and become the ultimate!
30.03.2023: Intra-community distance selling: One Stop Shop (OSS)
All non-commercial customers within the EU will receive an invoice from ProGuitar from April 1st, 2023 with the VAT rates that are customary in the European country of the customer. Since Germany has one of the lowest tax rates, our non-commercial customers can experience a price increase of up to 6%. So in order to publish an actual selling price for our European customers on our web site, we would have to use net prices. Which in turn would be a contradiction for German commercial law. Thank you dear EU for further hurdles that we somehow have to overcome.
16.01.2023: All Bartel 2023 models have now an immense sound improvement:
Updates: Fane A60 speaker, Lenco transformes, Red Base tubes!
To me, the Celestion alnicos never quite achieved the essential characteristics of a well broken-in, vintage alnico, while the Fane does this reasonably well.The Lenco transformers made a small improvement too and some of the redbase tubes we're using now sound a little better than the older types, but I think most of the difference you are hearing is the Fane
23.11.2022: The Gladius AVT 18 is back
By popular request from our customers, we have reissued a small number of the popular AVT-18 amps. Master Volume, Variac and Bright Cap are now standard.
22.08.2022: Amplified Nation
The D-Style amps from AI are maybe the best replicas around the world and are back in stock now with new models and 3 options of speakers.
20.06.2022: Gladius is steps into the D-Style jungle
Until the D-Style amps from Gladius are finally available at the end of the year, I can already present the final version of the 2x12" cabs today. This D-Style box was modeled after the version used by Robben Ford in Europe!
18.12.2021: Trainwreck vs Gladius
A nice review came out today in the German magazine Gitarre & Bass about the 3 famous Trainwreck amps Express, Rocket & Liverpool and versions from Gladius including power reduction!
25.10.2021: Trainwreck Amps made by John Mark added to my web
it was a long journey to get the legendary and now incredibly expensive amps from Ken Fischer called Trainwreck. For almost a year I exchanged views with John Mark, Ken Fischer's long-time sound tech, to get to the heart of the spirit of the legendary Trainwreck amps. From now on you can compare the original Trainwreck amps with the Express, Liverpool and Rocket models further developed by Gladius includes VARIAC and Master Volume. We are also looking forward to a comprehensive report by Udo Pipper in the 1/2022 issue of Guitar & Bass.
22.03.2021: Matchless C-15 now available
Matchless is very bussy and the backorder time is now more than 4 month. But we have the new C-15 head in stock based on the best seller C-30!
25.02.2021: Gibson Murphy Lab
We are really proud to be one of the first in Germany to get guitars from the Gibson Murphy Lab - just when you open the case you smell the difference. Finally really aged new guitars from Gibson - great!
15.02.2021: Gladius
Today was a very busy day. The goal was to develop a new 2x12 cab, which can perfectly reproduce the Trainwreck character. For the Rocket, for example, a mid 60ties VOX cab is the must heave, but with the range for today's demands. As always with Gladius, the focus is on quality. The cab must still reproduce the full tone at low volume, but also be tight under full power. The character of the speaker is extremely important, of course, matched to the speakers used. Almost infinitely small details had to be taken into account. Today they are finally Prototypes ready to the point that they can be produced.
2.02.2021: Fender
The new Fender Design Guide is now available! With this manual you can design you dream guitar we’re happy to order for you. ProGuitar has a backorder list of 500k $ of Fender Masterbuild guitars!!!!
30.11.2020: Gladius Liverpool available today
The logical consequence is of course to round off the Trainwreck offer. From today the Gladius Liverpool is officially available. The difference to the one-to-one comparison with the original is now only due to the old tubes that the original used. Otherwise Gladius guarantees the original sound, but with VARIAC and loss-free power reduction, as well as the very popular 3-stage Bright switch. A drew comes true.
19.11.2020: Gladius Express available today
It took many years to unravel the myth of the legendary original Trainwreck amps. Gladius was able to extensively test the original Trainwrecks from Ken Fisher, as well as those from John Mark and today presented his version of the Express. The US made transformers, which cost three times as much as conventional ones, but ultimately make the decisive difference, were a big challenge. Ken with his original amps, as well as Mark with his Trainwreck certified amps, still used old tubes from the 60s, Gladius, however, is only allowed to use new tubes (old tubes have the clarity, the explosive attack and an unbelievably great compression), that alone was already one huge challenge. But also the arrangement of components, as well as their location underlines the genius of Ken Fisher again. I myself first heard his Apms in the Ultra Sound Studios in New York and have definitely been my all-time favorite amps ever since. For me personally, the Gladius Express is one of the best new amp that has ever been built.
29.10.2020: Murphy Lab starts now: we placed a very big order with Hvy & Ultra Aged guitars today
According to Tom Murphy, he can finally dispose of his razor blades 😀 this is finally the official aging with cold, heat and UV light, just as Fender does. He also says: none, really no guitar has ever been manufactured or delivered by Gibson in this quality. First deliveries from February 2021! I'm curious!y!
29.05.2020: The Gladius Rocket 1x12“ Cab!
The Gladius Rocket Guitar Amp is already the most successful amplifier in Gladius history. That's why he was given a matching cabinet. Incredibly beautiful, it sounds sensational in every volume and weighs only 12.2kg!
24.05.2020: The Gladius review in Gitarre & Bass 6/2020!
The new Guitar & Bass, the most read German-language trade magazine, is published today! On the front page is one of the most impressive new amps ever. The Gladius Rocket. The sales figures prove it, one of the best new amps with the spirit of Trainwreck amps. Test the amps exclusively in my shop!
10.03.2020: The Gladius 2204 is born!
The new Gladius 2204 is a further development of the 2204 from 1973. Unlike the Gladius JTMs, its sound is much more modern and rocking, but with all the features that have made the British sound so unique. The most important feature that modern guitarists are looking for is the solo boost function. However, not as a channel switch, but as a lossless pre-master volume, foot switchable. This enables the player to jump in volume for his solo at any gain level without loss of dynamics, for clean or distortion. Hence the post-master volume, which, like all Gladius amps, enables completely loss-free master volume at any volume. In order to get the full tone at Bedroom Level, the Gladius cabinets are recommended. With the Variac you can set the power tubes of saturation / distortion, which then changes the tone dramatically - like EVH. The pre-gain has enough distortion for metal in hi-input. The Lo input is specially designed for clean sounds and pedals. The difference is powerful and not just a few db as with commercial amps. A lossless effect loop (passive parallel) remains tight even with delays. The Gladius 2204 has the variety of sounds from the 2203 to the JCM 800 with Mullard tubes and aged transformers. Killer tight and fast in attack like the roman sword Gladius.
14.12.2019 Kikusui AC Power Supplies:
Yesterday we had a visit from the company DHS Elmea Tools, the German distributor of Kikusui, who manufacture the most popular AC power supply for many well-known musicians. The most important question now was, how do our amps sound at 60Hz? Present were Mr. Reccius from DHS, the electrical engineer Sigi Bombik who worked for us, Andy Blueml one of our best guitarists and me. For decades I have been trying to compensate the 60 Hz problem with my manufacturers using a modified power supply, but this does not always work. Yesterday, however, we took a lot of time to really get to the bottom of it. And there was an incredible difference to be heard. The 60 Hz makes the sound much bigger, a bit louder but much fatter and more organic. Thanks to the stepless control from 45 Hz to 70 Hz, the differences were quickly heard clearly as the tone changes. The biggest surprise, however, was the absolutely flawlessly screened power supply. By eliminating all disturbances in our power network (and there are quite a few), the amps sound much clearer, tidier and also softer in the heights. The more you play distorted, the more drastic the difference is. Now we can clearly understand why so many of our guitar heroes opt for a very expensive Kikusui power supply.
6.12.2019 Gladius Rocket now Available:
This amp now has 5 years of research and development behind it to revive the spirit behind the amps of Ken Fisher's Trainwrecks. For me personally, these are the best British style amps I've ever heard. Gene Sinigalliano from the Ultra Sound Studios in NYC made that possible for me many years ago. This sound just burnt into me and I've been searching for many years. Many have tried, but are miles away from this unique sound. Finally, I can announce: the Gladius Rocket has him: the spirit of Trainwreck amps.
This amp has the latest technology for lossless power reduction on board. A Variac and a post phase Master Volume developed by Ken Fisher. A 2x bright switch as well as usual for Trainwreck, the most harmonious Gain ever.