Decker Amp Co. Hummingbird 20

A brand new amp, that has only JUST gone live on the Decker website — could this replace your Deluxe Reverb? The Decker Amp Co. Hummingbird 20. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

Get yours here:

https://www.decker-ampco.com/products/hummingbird-20

The Decker Amp Co. Hummingbird 20 — featuring Colin Decker's lovely cleans and gain, 2 band EQ, exclusive 3-voice reverb circuit and all-tube power scaling — paired up with my 2002 Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul R8 Historic, Ron Ellis LRP Humbuckers, wired with my signature Emerson Custom x Edge of Breakup Les Paul Prewired Kit & Emerson Custom Treble Bleeds on both volumes. The R2R Electric Klone (Serial #004) and R2R Electric x Henri Cash Cash Boost both feature.

Handbuilt entirely in California, Decker amplifiers capture the warmth and soul of classic tube amps while offering the touch-sensitivity, reliability, and features modern players need. Drawn from Colin Decker's decades of playing, touring, and modifying amps for studio and stage, Decker amps are original designs reflecting his "just play" philosophy — cathode-biased circuits for harmonic richness, simple controls that keep you focused on playing, and responsive combos that feel alive in the room.

The Hummingbird 20 succeeds the Hummingbird 15 — and the improvements are substantial. All-tube power output attenuation across six profiles: 20W, 18W, 15W, 10W, 5W, and 1W — true output-tube attenuation. The Spaces reverb circuit adds three selectable size and depth voicings.

Full specs:

Cathode-biased, Class A design.

2x 6V6 2x ECC83, 1x ECC832 reverb tube. Controls: Volume, Low, High, Reverb Mix + 3-space selector.

Speaker outputs: single 8Ω, single 4Ω, or 8Ω internal + 8Ω extension.

Custom-design transformers by Soursound.

Precision-selected Allen Bradley carbon composition, Vishay metal film, Beyschlag, Piher, and Morel resistors.

Jupiter, Mallory, Vishay, and Mial capacitors.

Sprague and F&T electrolytics.

Carling switches and jacks throughout.

Point-to-point construction using military-spec ETFE wire on chassis-mounted tag strips.

Shock-mounted tube sockets, vibration dampening throughout.

Heavy-duty seam-welded aluminum chassis with stainless steel control faceplate.

Cabinet: special-design Decker Royal 50 Ceramic speaker.

Solid AA Eastern White Pine, finger-jointed, AA Baltic Birch baffle and rear panels, poplar and pine cleating, stainless steel hardware, signature Decker heavy-duty leather handle.

30 lbs unpackaged. 22"W x 18"H x 10"D.

Designed, manufactured, and assembled 100% by hand in the USA.

Pedals: The R2R Electric Klone, Serial #004, is Chris Vincent's exacting take on the Klon-style transparent overdrive, hand-wired with the same no-compromise NOS component philosophy behind every R2R build. The Cash Boost is Henri Cash's (Starcrawler) signature germanium boost — a collaboration between Henri and Chris Vincent, close friends in the LA music and gear scene — built as a faithful reproduction of a 1960s Dallas Rangemaster circuit.

The Hummingbird 20 aims squarely at the conversation the internet has been having about the Deluxe Reverb being "the best amp ever," and makes the case that THIS might be the real answer.

🔊 Decker Amp Co.: https://www.deckeramps.com

🎸 Ron Ellis Pickups: https://www.ronellispickups.com

🎛️ R2R Electric: https://www.r2relectric.com

Subscribe for more boutique tone explorations.

🎸 2002 Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul R8 Historic | Ron Ellis '50s LRP Set (Duane Allman '57 Goldtop Spec) | Emerson Custom EoB LP Kit + 2x Treble Bleed

🎛️ R2R Electric Klone (Serial #004) | R2R Electric x Henri Cash Cash Boost

🔊 Decker Amp Co. Hummingbird 20 | SPACES 3-Voice Reverb | 6-Stage Power Scaling (20W-1W) | Cathode-Biased Class A | 2x 6V6 | Decker Royal 50 Ceramic Speaker

If you could only have one fuzz 🤔 Expresso FX Fuzz Bender Mojo Edition (MKII & MK1.5) | Jules Leyhe

Two legendary Tone Bender circuits. Three NOS Mullard CV7005 transistors. One toggle switch. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

The Expresso FX Fuzz Bender Mojo Edition is played by Oakland blues guitarist Jules Leyhe, running into the Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior with a Wolftone Meaner Dog Ear P-90, into a 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A with a Weber CVA-8 pre-broken-in 8" alnico speaker. The Effectrode Tube Vibe joins from 06:21.

Expresso FX builder Sof has built his Fuzz Bender line around one of the most historically rich fuzz lineages in existence — the Sola Sound Tone Bender family. The Mojo Edition houses both the MKII and MKI.V circuits in one enclosure, selectable via toggle switch, with a side-mounted Bias knob for further tweaking. The MKII (explored from 00:42 and 08:41) is the three-transistor circuit that defined late-1960s British rock in the hands of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton — an extra gain stage slamming the circuit harder for more sustain, gain, and midrange density. The MKI.V (explored from 03:46) sits in transitional territory between the raw, maximally-saturated MKI and the more refined MKII — looser, more unpredictable, deeply expressive. Having both voiced with the same trio of transistors makes for an extraordinary A/B experience.

At the heart of the Mojo Edition: three hand-selected NOS Mullard CV7005 germanium transistors — two black glass, one metal can. Military-spec, same family as the celebrated NKT275, delivering a warm, articulate, touch-sensitive voice that responds to every nuance of pick attack and guitar volume. NOS WIMA TFF polyester film capacitors, NOS Philips and ROE electrolytic capacitors, NOS Allen-Bradley carbon comp resistors, premium Cliff UK jacks, 22 AWG solid core silver-plated copper wire with Teflon insulation. Fully hand-wired on genuine Vero stripboard. True bypass. Three-year warranty.

The Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior — reclaimed old growth Redwood body, one-piece Honduran mahogany neck, 24.75" scale, 5.75 lbs, wood harvested from 800-year-old timber — pairs with a Tone Bender-style fuzz in a way that rewards the exercise. The Wolftone Meaner Dog Ear P-90's midrange character feeds the MKII's front end with exactly the right signal, acoustically vibrant enough that the guitar's resonance opens up through the fuzz rather than compressing or flattening.

Jules Leyhe brings slide and fingerstyle blues to both circuits — including a genuinely impressive slide performance on low-action 9-gauge strings from 09:29.

🎛️ Expresso FX: https://expressofx.com
🎸 Grez Guitars: https://www.grezguitars.com

Subscribe for more boutique tone explorations.

🎸 Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior | Reclaimed Old Growth Redwood | Wolftone Meaner Dog Ear P-90
🎛️ Expresso FX Fuzz Bender Mojo Edition | NOS Mullard CV7005 Ge (2x Black Glass, 1x Metal Can) | MKII & MKI.V Selectable | Effectrode Tube Vibe
🔊 Vintage 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A | Weber CVA-8 Pre-Broken-In 8" Alnico Speaker
🎵 Guest Artist: Jules Leyhe

Recording Rig: Absolutely no virtual/IR/direct sounds. 4 mics on a real cab. Royer R-121, Lauten Audio LS-208, Ohma Ribbon on front of cab, Royer R10 on back of cab. All mics sent through Universal Audio Apollo x4 with default preamps and no digital preamp emulation plugins, mixed in Ableton Live 12.

The Perfect Single Pickup Junior Guitar | Grez Guitars Mendocino Jr. | Feat. Jules Leyhe

The Perfect Single Pickup Guitar | Grez Guitars Mendocino Jr. | Feat. Jules Leyhe

A tree for a thousand years. A structure for a hundred. Now a guitar. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

In this episode, the Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior takes center stage — played by Oakland blues guitarist Jules Leyhe, running into a 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A with a Weber CVA-8 pre-broken-in 8" alnico speaker. The Effectrode Tube Vibe is along for the ride.

Barry Grzebik builds guitars in Petaluma, California — just up the coast in Northern California wine country, between Armstrong Woods State Preserve and Muir Woods National Monument — and his defining material is reclaimed old growth Redwood. Not recently harvested timber. Not farmed wood. Old growth Redwood sourced from deconstructed structures: train tunnels, wine barrels, water vessels, vinegar tanks, barns, and factories. Trees that were 800 to 1,000 years old when they were felled, seasoned for decades or centuries inside the structures they built, and now given a third life as a musical instrument.

Barry plants a tree for every guitar he sells, in partnership with the Redwood Forest Foundation. The wood he uses has already lived two extraordinary lives before it reaches his workshop.

The Mendocino Junior is Grez's take on the classic Junior-style solidbody — an homage to the stripped-down 50s electric guitars that prioritized feel, resonance, and tone above everything else. The body is a single piece of reclaimed old growth Redwood, 13.25" wide and just 1.45" deep, weighing in at an astonishing 5.75 lbs. The neck is one-piece Honduran mahogany with an ebony fretboard, 24.75" scale, and 22 nickel silver jumbo frets. The single pickup is a Wolftone Meaner Dog Ear P-90 — a pickup chosen specifically for its ability to translate the natural acoustic voice of the Redwood body into an electric signal without filtering or compressing that character. Electronics are Emerson 500k volume and 250k tone with a .022 PIO capacitor — exactly the right wiring for a P-90 circuit at this weight and resonance. Music City Compensated Wrap Tailpiece. Matte nitro finish. This is a guitar built to disappear in your hands and let the wood do the talking.

"Building with first growth reclaimed wood originally harvested 100 years ago gave us a head start," Barry has said. "This wood is super well-seasoned and has a liveliness that is hard to get from younger recently harvested trees." That liveliness is not a marketing claim — it is immediately and physically apparent the moment you pick one up. The Mendocino Junior is acoustically vibrant in a way that almost no electric guitar is, and that acoustic resonance translates directly into a singing, three-dimensional electric tone that rewards both the player and the microphone.

Into a 5-watt, single 6V6, Class A tweed Princeton and the warm alnico character of the Weber CVA-8, the Mendocino Junior finds a home that feels entirely natural. Jules Leyhe — Berklee-trained, Bay Area-based, Premier Guitar's best blues slide since Derek Trucks — brings his full vocabulary of slide, fingerpicking, and flat-picking to an instrument that meets him note for note.

Subscribe for more boutique tone explorations.

🎸 Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior | Reclaimed Old Growth Redwood | Ron Ellis Pickups P90 | Emerson 500k/500k Bumblebee PIO Wiring

🎛️ Effectrode Tube Vibe

🔊 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A | Weber CVA-8 Pre-Broken-In 8" Alnico Speaker 🎵 Guest Artist: Jules Leyhe

🎙️ Recording Rig: Absolutely no virtual / IR / direct sounds. 4 mics on a real cab. Royer R-121, Lauten Audio LS-208, Ohma Ribbon on front of cab, Royer R10 on back of cab. All mics sent through Universal Audio Apollo x4 with default preamps and no digital preamp emulation plugins, mixed in Ableton Live 12.

The Perfect P90 for a Single Pickup Junior! | Ron Ellis in a Grez Mendocino Jr

Ron Ellis Pickups returns to the channel with a P90 bridge pickup, installed in the Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

The Ron Ellis P90 bridge pickup — installed in the Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior with Emerson Custom Prewired Kit, 500K pots, and Treble Bleed on the volume pot — runs into the Benson Amps Vincent 2x12" with Scumback H75-PVC speakers. The Expresso FX Beige Dual Ge/Si Fuzz and Ge Boost and Effectrode Tube Vibe both feature.

The Ron Ellis P90 brings Ron's molecular-level materials research to the soapbar format — the same engineering approach he applies to his humbuckers, delivering clarity and dynamic touch response rather than the raw, uncontrolled midrange some P90s are known for. Paired with the Mendocino Junior's compact offset body, the result is articulate and expressive across clean, pushed, and cranked amp tones.

The Expresso FX Beige Dual Ge/Si Fuzz and Ge Boost is a two-circuit pedal from Sof, built in the UK with zero compromise on components. The Fuzz Face-style side is switchable between three transistors — NOS CV7005 germanium, NOS OC202 silicon, and NOS AC188 — giving three distinct fuzz voicings from a single circuit. The Ge Boost side uses an NOS OC45 germanium transistor — the same transistor found in the earliest Dallas Rangemaster units — delivering classic treble booster character.

The Emerson Custom Prewired Kit's Treble Bleed keeps the P90's clarity intact through the full volume knob sweep, and the Effectrode Tube Vibe rounds out the demo with rich, three-dimensional modulation.

🎸 Ron Ellis Pickups: https://www.ronellispickups.com 🎸 Grez Guitars: https://www.grezguitars.com 🎛️ Expresso FX: https://expressofx.com 🔊 Benson Amps: https://www.bensonamps.com/guitar-amplifiers

Subscribe for more boutique tone explorations.

🎸 Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior | Ron Ellis P90 (Bridge) | Emerson Custom Prewired Kit | 500K Pots | Treble Bleed 🎛️ Expresso FX Beige Dual Ge/Si Fuzz & Ge Boost | CV7005 + OC202 + AC188 (Fuzz) | OC45 (Boost) | Effectrode Tube Vibe 🔊 Benson Amps Vincent 2x12" | Scumback H75-PVC