The announcement of Blackheart Engineering's new Little Giant amplifiers intrigued us here at Gearwire - Blackheart is a new company that we didn't know too much about. LOUD's Kevin Van Pamel, with some contributions from amp designer Pyotr Belov, was happy to fill us in on Blackheart Engineering's exciting plans and further detail about their new Little Giant.

Can you tell us a little bit about Blackheart Engineering and what sets you apart from other amp manufacturers?

The primary differences are the design process and manufacturing approach. We treat every design like a handmade amp: Pyotr Belov designs each model and builds it by hand without worrying about the cost and remaining focused on both the build quality and the quality of the tone. So we essentially prototype a hand-wired, handmade amplifier. From there, Pyotr details every performance and component specification, replacing the hand wired elements with a double-sided PCB. The purity of the signal path is retained by utilizing this extra rugged PCB as well as 2 oz copper traces that are routed point to point. The components that are mounted to the PCB are essentially the quality and “overbuilt” spec that Pyotr built into the bench proto. For example, the Little Giant 5 has 1W carbon film resistors in the signal path and a combination of 2W and 5W resistors in the power section. All critical specifications and design elements remain intact throughout the process with the hand-wired proto used as the benchmark. All material specifications remain intact through manufacturing-16 gauge steel, folded and welded chassis, 18mm thick 15 ply void-free-birch, DC power to the filaments, etc. The final result is a boutique quality amplifier that just needs to be manufactured properly.

At the manufacturing point, Pyotr stays with the design, teaching factory staff how to properly maintain build quality and testing results against the original, hand-wired amp. From hand applied tolex to proper cabinetry joins, he literally educates whichever manufacturing resource is chosen and certifies them to build or not. While we produce a lot more products than a typical boutique builder, we still work with only a couple of select manufacturers and build less than a mass producer of amplifiers. Pyotr also blesses each one in an ancient Russian cleansing ritual, guarding the player against bad luck and promoting hair growth.

The Little Giant series looks like it packs a lot of punch in a nice, compact package. What are some key features on the Little Giant series?

Single ended Class A with Pentode/Triode modes, 3 band EQ, multiple speaker outs, 16 gauge folded and welded chassis, DC power to the filaments, double sided PCB with 2 oz traces, 18mm thick 15 ply void- free cabinetry, guaranteed to get you laid, which we’re pretty sure no one else offers yet.

How would you describe the sound you get out of a Blackheart Little Giant amplifier?

Because it’s Class A, Single Ended, these are very responsive to the player. The most amazing thing about them is their volume and versatility. In 5W mode, the extra headroom gives you an expressional palette that ranges from Page to SRV depending on the attack. Drop it down to 3W and the headroom closes up a bit and you actually have a very grizzly gain at the most aggressive attacks and this “just about to break” into greasy overdrive when you back off and pluck a bit. When you open up every knob and dime it, in 5W mode, it sounds exactly like an angel screaming power chords from the sky while the clouds part and a great, white chariot picks you up and takes you towards eternity. That’s what happened during safety testing anyway so we might not be able to sell them in areas of Belarus.

What kind of uses are ideal for the Little Giant (i.e. gigging amp, practice amp, etc.)?

Recording: If you want to get a true classic tube tone that plucks when you're gentle and gets good and greasy when you jump on it, there’s no model, effect or preamp that’s going to emulate the real thing.

Club: Also more than adequate for a small club. People get confused by 5W. In a single ended amp, that’s a lot of volume.

Can you tell us a bit about Pyotr Belov and the making of the Little Giant?

I think most of this was covered in the first question. To add to that, Pyotr and I (Kevin Van Pamel) met at Gibson a few years back and he introduced the idea of making truly boutique amps anywhere in the world. It took some convincing but his points were completely valid: the right materials, the right designs and a commitment to quality was all it took. Human hands are human hands and everyone else in the amp business was focused on manufacturing overseas as cheap as they could rather than maximizing some of the potential capabilities available offshore. Pyotr applied what he loved about making amps and threw out a lot of assumptions, prejudices and compromises that were, and are, driving other amp builders’ quality. Ever since then, he and I have been dedicated to expanding the concept. Blackheart started as one of my sketches on a cocktail napkin and the desire to get people excited about something again... something other than how cheap they could get a crappy piece of gear. We start with great ideas for uncompromised gear and then we make them as accessible to as many people as possible without sacrificing the results.

What kind of projects, amplifiers, or instruments can we expect to see from Blackheart in the future?

We chose to do amps first because we have a particular passion for stuff that gets hot and screams. In fact, come January, you’ll see quite a few new models and we’ll again get people talking. But we called it Blackheart Engineering for a reason. We want to build anything that brings something cool, useful and inspiring to a musician. If that’s a guitar or a skateboard, we don’t care. Aside from some really neat modeling technology, which, let’s face it, is a recording of other gear at best, instruments have been in an emotional slump for awhile. We’d like to be the guys who get people excited about their instruments again, excited about a brand again. Whatever shape that takes is going to come from what we hear from our Test Animals and from our own inspirations. We’ll see what that is.