About
Avery Amps is about Great Tone One Amp at a Time.
Ragnar Avery is a long time tone junkie that has taken his mechanical engineering background and put it to use for making great amps. Ragnar's custom built amps are built with an attention to detail and performance. Check one out!
Ragnar Avery
Ragnar has been playing guitar for over thirty years. Playing guitar has made Ragnar come to appreciate the tone of an all tube guitar amplifier. Being an engineer, Ragnar is always curious about how things work. He had a remarkable chance conversation with an amp builder that sparked his interest in building guitar amps. Ragnar spent about four months soaking up any amp building information he could gather. He then started his amp building journey with a classic Fender Tweed 5F2A Princeton in 2009. The 1950’s Tweed Princeton is a simple amp with an amazing history for inspiring great music. The build took several days and when it was complete, it didn’t work. Ragnar found the process of troubleshooting the amp very stressful and extremely rewarding when the problem was solved. The amplifier sounded great and Ragnar was hooked. Over the next four years Ragnar would continue other amplifiers and expand his knowledge of the craft. Finally in 2014 with a basement full of amps, Ragnar connected with Traverse City Guitar Company to start consigning his amplifiers and Avery Amps was born. The greatest satisfaction that Ragnar can receive from one of his amplifier builds, is hearing what a great player can do with his amp. This is the spirit that drives Ragnar to continue building amplifiers one at a time with great tone.
Tim Harding
Tim Harding is Avery Amps' technical advisor.
(He's not affiliated with Avery Amps in a paid position or founder)
Tim has a long history of working on and modifying guitar amplifiers. He's really been a strong supporter of Avery Amps. He's the one that coined the term "Tweedy Twelve" for the Avery Amp 5E3 Tweed Deluxe. Tim is a working musician with gigs throughout the Traverse City region. He knows what he wants for good tone and he likes the tone he gets from his custom built "Timmy Ten".
Avery Amps has the Mamba 10 and the Tweedy 12 in stock at the Traverse City Guitar Company for you check out.
Tim will be happy to set you up.
Mark Farner
Rock legend, Mark Farner, was introduced to Avery Amps by his good friend Stefan Graf. Ragnar began working with Mark to develop an amp that would work in harmony with his trusted "Betty" and his pedal board. What came to be was the Mark Farner MF15-35. A 35 watt combo with a single Weber 15" speaker modeled after the JBL D130 that has been part of Mark's sound for decades.
Here's a short excerpt from Mark's website giving a little background about the rock legend. It's been a pleasure working with Mark.
Legendary all-American frontman and guitarist, Mark Farner, was the engine that pulled the original Grand Funk Railroad repeatedly to the top of the charts, and today he’s a platinum recording artist 30 times over. At age 70, Farner commands the stage with the same intensity and outpouring of love as he did during the summer of ’69 and his fans are still flocking to see “the Captain.” The rock patriot’s synergy and open heart still come through in epic hits that defined a generation including— “I’m Your Captain” (Closer to Home)” “We’re An American Band” “Heartbreaker” “Bad Time To Be In Love” and recut covers of “The Loco-Motion” and “Some Kind of Wonderful.” Being viewed as a “Rockstar” is only one facet of the legacy of this Michigan-born son. Mark is as real as they get: he’s a husband, a father, and grandfather, and in his fourth decade of marriage to wife Lesia. He’s a true family man.
Jabo Bihlman
Emmy Award winning artist, Jabo Bihlman, was first introduced to Avery Amps after checking out the Avery Amps at TC Guitar. Jabo contacted Ragnar to further explore the possibilities with a full tour of the amp builds in Ragnar's shop. After a great collaborative relationship, the Jabo45 was developed to meet Jabo's exacting needs for tone and flawless integration of his guitar and pedal board. The Jabo45 is a 45watt amp that started out as a JMT45 and then was modded to come closer to Marshall's JTM50. Later Jabo worked with Ragnar to develop the "Red Rocker" as a great "Grab & Go" combo. The Red Rocker is a 35 watt 2x10" combo that is light with great tone.
Here's a short excerpt from Jabo's website:
Jabo (Jay-bo) Bihlman is an Emmy award winning guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. His music has appeared on all major networks in shows like "Big Sky 211", "All my Children", "Manifest" and "Sons of Anarchy". Formerly with Warner Chapel, his catalog is back in his possession and continues to garner synch placements in film and TV.
As an artist he was the lead singer/guitarist for the popular blues rock band The Bihlman Bros. He is also the lead guitarist for the Metalville artist Grinder Blues, with his brother Scot and legendary King's X frontman Dug Pinnick. Their first record debuted at #8 on the Billboard Blues Charts. Their second album, El Dos has garnered worldwide critical and fan acclaim and sat at the Billboard top 20 for weeks.
He has toured internationally for many years, performing in over 15 countries at festivals and clubs in the US, Europe and Canada.
Jabo was the bandleader and guitarist for Alligator Records artist Son Seals. With Son, he toured the US & Europe and recorded on the "Lettin' Go" album for Telarc Records with Trey Anastasio.
His film credits include Deadrise, Love and Dancing starring Amy Smart and Betty White, The Road to 751 Fairfax, Edmund Fitzgerald: 30 years a Legend, Surviving the Bradley and more.