JOE WALLACE: I'm Joe Wallace for Gearwire.Com. We're at the Krank booth, Summer NAMM 2007. 'm with Patrick Flanagan, and we're talking about buying amps, especially for people who are new to amp purchases, and the head-cabinet combo. What advice have you got for people who are looking at their first combination like that.

PATRICK FLANAGAN: Well, this amp, due to its cost, it will really appeal to a lot of younger crowd, people that, you know, might not be able to afford the full-on, you know, mondo, you know, regular Krank stack, this is more of economy priced, you know, and more in their range. The head, I believe, is going to retail for $699, and the cabinet at $599. So this way, you know, you can get into a half stack at about the same amount of money that would have cost you just to get into the head of our other lines.

JOE WALLACE: now, for someone who's still learning the ropes and maybe they've got a little practice amp, they’re going to get ready to move into a stack, what is the difference sonically between the half stack and the full stack?

PATRICK FLANAGAN: Oh. It's of course it's immensely different. Yeah, you know, you can get that full -- You'll be able to keep up with your drummer with a setup like this whereas when you drag your little practice amp to the practice room and you're not going to be able to do that of course, and something like this can offer you pro features, you know, channel switching. It's going to give you effects loops, you know, and an adjustable level on the effects loop return. It's just a step toward the, you know, the bigger pro setups.

JOE WALLACE: Now, I've got another entry-level question here. Because you see a lot of people experiment with a lot of different setups before they realize why you would want to, you know, bring a stack on stage and why you mic the stack instead of going direct from the head or something like that. What's the science there for a live setup and why would you want to mic a cabinet instead of running it out to the sound board?

PATRICK FLANAGAN: Well, it just depends on the venue that you're playing. You know, if you're doing the normal dome, which, you know, obviously a lot of amateur players, you know, guys just starting out, they don't get that opportunities to right away. So you really, you know, a setup like this isn't exactly, you know, ideal. You know, a lot of times the smaller amp, it will suffice, you know, doing clubs, you know, local bars, whatever. An amp like this is really, you know, that's a lot for such a small place to be playing. So, it's just a matter of -- You know, a lot of it is personal preference. You know, a lot of guys just like -- a lot of it is the look, you know, obviously. You know, you got to have a wall of stacks just like your, you know, your guitar hero, you know. Check your latest, you know, Guitar Hero video game, you know. They all got the stacks behind them. That would be your main concern there is you want to present your band in a light where, you know, you want to look professional. You want to look like, you know, that big band on the, you know, Ozz tour, you know, whatever it is. Sure.

JOE WALLACE: Now again, for people who are getting used to this size and scale of equipment. When you get into a smaller club and you realize you've got too much amp for the club, how do you dial back?

PATRICK FLANAGAN: What I would recommend doing is probably not mic'ing the cab and have your guitar players just run direct out of their amps and have the, you know, everybody else, your vocals, you know, maybe a little bit of the drums, have that all pumping through your main PA and just turn your guitar amp up, you know. This is a small enough place. That should be just fine.

JOE WALLACE: Great. I'm Joe Wallace at Summer NAMM 2007 at the Krank booth for Gearwire.Com.