The Big Trees

Audio Kitchen is a West London builder known for valve-powered equipment. The Big Trees is a 2.5-watt Class A amplifier in stomp pedal format, hand-built by their expert technicians.

Two 12AX7s and one EL84 drive a power transformer. Controls include gain, root (bass), branch (treble), plus Clean and Dirt knobs controlling speaker output and line level attenuation. Functions as tube overdrive, preamp, 5-watt amp, or re-amping device.

Used by Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, the Killers, and the Vaccines. Alan Moulder used one for re-amping on the Led Zeppelin O2 DVD. Class A power stage provides quick attack with organic low-watt sponginess. From $780.