Ordinarily, if a friend were to tell us that they were about to part with $9,000 on a new six-watt tube amp, we would try to talk them out of it – maybe stage an intervention.
We love a modestly powered tube combo as much as the next player but there are limits, right?
Well, there are exceptions to every rule, and the Dragonette, the latest signature collaboration between Jimmy Page and Sundragon, is that exception, and as guitar amps go, this is truly exceptional. It is… Well, it is for Led Zeppelin fans a true holy grail amp.
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The lineage of these Sundragon signature amps goes way back to the beginning of the Led Zeppelin story, when Page was tracking the band’s incendiary debut with his Fender Telecaster and a modded Supro Coronado. Page, producer/audio engineer Perry Margouleff and the former owner of Park amps, Mitch Colby, got together and decided to make an exacting replica of this amp.
It was launched as the eponymous Sundragon in January 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin I – appropriately with an initial run of 50 before a Standard Edition arrived in the summer. Needless to say, it was a success.
Kirk Hammett was one of the first pick one up. This is what he told me about it in 2020: “It’s amazing. It’s am-a-zing! I could sit there for hours just turning knobs. ‘Oh! Now it sounds like something off Houses Of The Holy. I plug Greeny into that, I crank it up, and it sounds like Custard Pie from Physical Graffiti.”
With Led Zeppelin I covered, Sundragon then launched the Super Dragon, taking a similarly forensic approach to replicating Page’s number one amp from Led Zeppelin II onwards, a ‘68 Marshall Super Bass modded by the enigmatic amp guru Tony Frank in thE US.
“I sent Frank my favorite Marshall, a 1968 Super Bass and the result was exactly what I was looking for,” said Page. “Frank’s modification enhanced the amp’s power of the dynamic range. This amp became the main amp for live shows as well as the principal amp I would rely on in the studio for all Led Zeppelin records from Zeppelin II onwards.”
Next up was the Nymph, a single-watt tube combo with a 1/4-watt setting for nailing Led Zep tones at home. The Dragonette sits somewhere between the Nymph and the original Sundragon. It has a similar preamp to the Nymph, and a power amp stage like a lower-powered Sundragon.
“The result is a perfect blend of the old and new,” says Page. “The response from musicians in our inner circle has been great and we are happy to release the amp for this fall season.”
Again, this is limited to 50 units, with each amp signed by Page, and again it’s got all the mojo of that souped-up Supro, and it’s loud enough for small gigs. Also, expect this one to be something of a firebreather.
“While it gives you everything from clean to overdrive, it’s a rock and roll amp with surprisingly satisfying overdrive,” says Sundragon. “It’s totally hand-wired in New York using New Old Stock parts and tubes for an experience you won’t forget.”
And as we said at the top of the page, it’s $9,000, and if we had it we’d spend it. At the time of going to press, only eight of the original 50 are left. Head over to Sundragon for more.
