# New Fortin Amps? Cali, Monolith



## technomancer (Jan 16, 2019)

Saw Mike posted this on Facebook a couple days ago. My guess is Per Nilsson sig amp given he is playing at the Fortin NAMM both on Saturday and he has been touring with Meshuggah. Maybe a Meshuggah head with no NOS components? All my guesses.

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And the new Cali amp

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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Jan 16, 2019)

Would be cool to have a Meshuggah head that's a bit easier to produce on a larger scale.

And you know.

Pay for by normal means.


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## FitRocker33 (Jan 16, 2019)

They just announced a new amp called the Fortin Cali on their page earlier today. I believe it is in addition to the announcement of whatever the monolith is. 

Will be interesting to see specs and pricing....and whether or not metroamps is gonna be making it all like the last meshuggah run.


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## narad (Jan 16, 2019)

Eh? I never heard about this Metroamps thing. So Mike wasn't hands-on with the Meshuggah run?


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## technomancer (Jan 16, 2019)

FitRocker33 said:


> They just announced a new amp called the Fortin Cali on their page earlier today. I believe it is in addition to the announcement of whatever the monolith is.
> 
> Will be interesting to see specs and pricing....and whether or not metroamps is gonna be making it all like the last meshuggah run.



Just saw that, looks like a production version of his Cali modded Marshall with a clean channel.

Somebody was saying they think the Monolith is a power amp for modelers.



narad said:


> Eh? I never heard about this Metroamps thing. So Mike wasn't hands-on with the Meshuggah run?



At least the last production run of Meshuggahs were shipped from Metro... I compared the address somebody posted they got theirs from with the Metro address from a loop I just bought... and about the same time George was posting online about how exhausted he was from building a lot of amps for a client he couldn't name.


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## FitRocker33 (Jan 16, 2019)

technomancer said:


> At least the last production run of Meshuggahs were shipped from Metro... I compared the address somebody posted they got theirs from with the Metro address from a loop I just bought... and about the same time George was posting online about how exhausted he was from building a lot of amps for a client he couldn't name.



This, and it seems most of not all of the current fortin pedals are made by AllPedals in Paducah,KY


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## mnemonic (Jan 17, 2019)

Power amp for modelers would be cool, he did make Ola a one-off 50 watt tube power amp for his AX8. I can’t remember if it was a Satan power amp, or something more flat.


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## technomancer (Jan 25, 2019)

I've seen some posts from the booth, 2 Calis one white and one black and Jason Frankhouser's orange pumpkin that he uses to demo. No sign of the Monolith yet. Seems like either it's not getting released or it's getting unveiled at an artist demo at some point during the show.


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## prlgmnr (Jan 25, 2019)

technomancer said:


> I've seen some posts from the booth, 2 Calis one white and one black and Jason Frankhouser's orange pumpkin that he uses to demo. No sign of the Monolith yet. Seems like either it's not getting released or it's getting unveiled at an artist demo at some point during the show.


Something like:


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## technomancer (Jan 25, 2019)

technomancer said:


> I've seen some posts from the booth, 2 Calis one white and one black and Jason Frankhouser's orange pumpkin that he uses to demo. No sign of the Monolith yet. Seems like either it's not getting released or it's getting unveiled at an artist demo at some point during the show.



Wait, may be completely wrong. I just noticed a smaller box off to the right in one of the pics that may be it. Little box on the 1x12 to the right of the white Cali.

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## mnemonic (Jan 25, 2019)

Looks just like Ola’s 50 watt Fortin power amp, so I think so.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Jan 25, 2019)

Looks a lot like the box Mike made for Ola.

Aaaand ninjad


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## technomancer (Jan 25, 2019)

Yep believe we have a winner. So nothing I can't live without... excellent


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## MASS DEFECT (Jan 25, 2019)

yep, it's the power amp. 50w mono.



Then the HYDRA. A pedal switcher.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Jan 25, 2019)

It has a depth and presence control.

IT HAS

A DEPTH

AND PRESENCE CONTROL.

Why is it so goddamn hard for all power amps to have those controls?


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## mnemonic (Jan 26, 2019)

Now I wanna know what it’s like. I wonder if it’s designed to sound flat response, like the Fryette power station / LXII, or is it just a normal tube power amp?


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## technomancer (Jan 27, 2019)

I'm not on the Fortin facebook group, but so far I've seen nothing about availability for any of the amps. Starting to wonder if they're actually being released or if these are just a bunch of demo amps for NAMM as opposed to products. I was hoping they were going to announce distribution through someone so normal purchasing vs bank wire was going to be available, but that doesn't seem to be a thing either.

The only actual product releases I've seen were the Whitechapel pedal and the Hydra midi footswitch, and the Whitechapel is a preorder.


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## Meeotch (Jan 27, 2019)

Thanks for the updates! I'm really interested in this Cali, and I'm hoping it goes into production. Subscribed.


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## narad (Jan 27, 2019)

Man, FWIW, not impressed with the Cali sound at all. Not sure it's the venue or what, but I'm surprised that I heard the Hiwatt Fortin and thought "Hell Yeas!" and everything else has been "meh", even though they must all be rather small tweaks on the same circuit? Maybe it's just how guys are dialing them in?



HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> It has a depth and presence control.
> 
> IT HAS
> 
> ...



I don't know, I think most of the established ones do? All the rack stuff from Engl / Fryette always had these.


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## prlgmnr (Jan 28, 2019)

narad said:


> Man, FWIW, not impressed with the Cali sound at all. Not sure it's the venue or what, but I'm surprised that I heard the Hiwatt Fortin and thought "Hell Yeas!" and everything else has been "meh", even though they must all be rather small tweaks on the same circuit? Maybe it's just how guys are dialing them in?
> 
> 
> 
> I don't know, I think most of the established ones do? All the rack stuff from Engl / Fryette always had these.


Some say the Hiwatt cab/speakers are the secret sauce.


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## technomancer (Jan 28, 2019)

narad said:


> Man, FWIW, not impressed with the Cali sound at all. Not sure it's the venue or what, but I'm surprised that I heard the Hiwatt Fortin and thought "Hell Yeas!" and everything else has been "meh", even though they must all be rather small tweaks on the same circuit? Maybe it's just how guys are dialing them in?



Could be because the Hiwatt is a very different circuit compared to the Jose modded Marshall the Cali, Meshuggah, etc are based on. That's assuming the Hiwatt is in fact a hotrodded Hiwatt design and not another Marshall variant under the hood.


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## TedintheShed (Jan 28, 2019)

Is it just me, or is Fortin pretty much just an amp builder for celebrity players? Seems impossible to order an amp now. Iean you can get a pedal, I guess.


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## StevenC (Jan 28, 2019)

TedintheShed said:


> Is it just me, or is Fortin pretty much just an amp builder for celebrity players? Seems impossible to order an amp now. Iean you can get a pedal, I guess.


After selling the Natas and Meathead to Randall, yeah he hasn't built a lot of amps. Not even the Meshuggah amps.


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## sakeido (Jan 28, 2019)

I'm fine with Fortin not building amps, let em design all he wants then have the designs built some place affordable. 

made in China Fortins when

Cali ain't sounding good in that demo though. way, way, way too much gain


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## Werecow (Jan 28, 2019)

sakeido said:


> I'm fine with Fortin not building amps, let em design all he wants then have the designs built some place affordable.
> 
> made in China Fortins when
> 
> Cali ain't sounding good in that demo though. way, way, way too much gain



I was hoping he'd get BAD to make them and distribute them, to at least keep the quality up. Ordering directly from him would incur large import fees for me. But instead it went the other way and there's been zero mention of not only how to get the amp, but zero mention it even exists on his website, when the new pedals were put straight on there.


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## Aso (Jan 28, 2019)

TedintheShed said:


> Is it just me, or is Fortin pretty much just an amp builder for celebrity players? Seems impossible to order an amp now. Iean you can get a pedal, I guess.


I ordered a Bones about two years ago and this was just as he was getting heavily into the pedals. After several pushed back delivery dates Mike offered me a refund and I took it. Really would have liked to have a Bones but I end up a PoweredByOmega Iriduim that is amazing so it all worked out.


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## technomancer (Jan 28, 2019)

There were the Meshuggah limited runs of 100 or 150 amps total and the Hiwatt and that has been it since he left Randall. Mike also pretty much told me when we were exchanging messages about the Meshuggah that he had no intention of offering anything other than bank wire for payment going forward and that if that lost him customers he wasn't worried about it. That was six months ago or so so it may change, but he seemed pretty set on it at the time.


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## TedintheShed (Jan 28, 2019)

StevenC said:


> After selling the Natas and Meathead to Randall, yeah he hasn't built a lot of amps. Not even the Meshuggah amps.



Randall equivalent being the SATAN and 667?


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## KnightBrolaire (Jan 28, 2019)

TedintheShed said:


> Randall equivalent being the SATAN and 667?


yup, and he designed the thrasher/diavlo as well iirc


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## StevenC (Jan 28, 2019)

TedintheShed said:


> Randall equivalent being the SATAN and 667?


I think the Satan is the Fortin Satan, the Thrasher is closer to a NATAS and the 667 is the Meathead. The Satan is a NATAS mod.


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## technomancer (Jan 28, 2019)

StevenC said:


> I think the Satan is the Fortin Satan, the Thrasher is closer to a NATAS and the 667 is the Meathead. The Satan is a NATAS mod.



Yep.


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## TedintheShed (Jan 28, 2019)

StevenC said:


> I think the Satan is the Fortin Satan, the Thrasher is closer to a NATAS and the 667 is the Meathead. The Satan is a NATAS mod.



Since I traded my Archon, I've been looking for a new amp. The 667 looked really nice.but I've not heard that it can get a moreodern tone.


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## C-PIG (Jan 28, 2019)

i dont get fortin


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## Ola Englund (Jan 29, 2019)

Not sure regarding the Monolith, but what I asked for Mike 2 years ago was basically a 50W version of the Fortin Satan. It's a crushing power amp, no compromising on the transformer and parts either. They all fit in that box.


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## jco5055 (Jan 29, 2019)

C-PIG said:


> i dont get fortin



My very general sense is Fortin is the "master" at high gain/brutality. Like if your goal was to get the most crushing sound ever you'd look at his products. Not to say his stuff can't be versatile, but when you look at something like the Meshuggah that's only single channel I think we know why so many people wanted one.


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## technomancer (Jan 29, 2019)

jco5055 said:


> My very general sense is Fortin is the "master" at high gain/brutality. Like if your goal was to get the most crushing sound ever you'd look at his products. Not to say his stuff can't be versatile, but when you look at something like the Meshuggah that's only single channel I think we know why so many people wanted one.



Good marketing?


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## mnemonic (Jan 29, 2019)

Marketing seems to be Fortin’s number one strength in my opinion. 

In other NAMM news




I wonder why the tape over the Meshuggah logo on the amp in the back?


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## StevenC (Jan 29, 2019)

mnemonic said:


> Marketing seems to be Fortin’s number one strength in my opinion.
> 
> In other NAMM news
> 
> ...


Probably because they got in trouble over it and had to change it for the mater runs.


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## mnemonic (Jan 29, 2019)

StevenC said:


> Probably because they got in trouble over it and had to change it for the mater runs.



Good point, looking closer, the outline does look like the Marshall script logo rather than the redone Meshuggah logo.


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## KnightBrolaire (Jan 29, 2019)

mnemonic said:


> Marketing seems to be Fortin’s number one strength in my opinion.
> 
> In other NAMM news
> 
> ...


marketing is definitely their strong suit, considering how people went apeshit over the grind 2.0, 33, zuul, the meshuggah amp, fortin plugin. Definitely doesn't hurt that mike knows his way around a marshall amp and how to tweak it in a slightly different way from the other guys out there doing that exact thing (ie basically everyone that makes or mods amps).


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## Meeotch (Jan 29, 2019)

To his credit, I bought the Zuul because to me it's the best gate on the market. Sold my decimator g-string for it. I don't have any experience with his amps but certainly curious.


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## technomancer (Jan 29, 2019)

KnightBrolaire said:


> marketing is definitely their strong suit, considering how people went apeshit over the grind 2.0, 33, zuul, the meshuggah amp, fortin plugin. Definitely doesn't hurt that mike knows his way around a marshall amp and how to tweak it in a slightly different way from the other guys out there doing that exact thing (ie basically everyone that makes or mods amps).



Mike is great at slightly tweaking what other guys have done... Each of his amps bears striking similarities to stuff other guys have done, specifically the Elan Metalhead, Larry Dino, a Cameron one off Jose which was what Ceriatone copied for the Chupacabra, etc.

Zero argument that his stuff sounds great though.

I really do need to get around to opening up my Zuul and comparing it to the gate circuit from the Elan amps.


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## KnightBrolaire (Jan 29, 2019)

technomancer said:


> Mike is great at slightly tweaking what other guys have done... Each of his amps bears striking similarities to stuff other guys have done, specifically the Elan Metalhead, Larry Dino, a Cameron one off Jose which was what Ceriatone copied for the Chupacabra, etc.
> 
> Zero argument that his stuff does sounds great though.
> 
> I really do need to get around to opening up my Zuul and comparing it to the gate circuit from the Elan amps.


I think people vastly underestimate how similar a lot of amps are. Remember how everybody got butthurt about the dual rectifier basically being a "copy' of the SLO, while the 5150 got off scott free? Or how the mark comes from the bassman, marshalls all derive from fender, etc. It's like pedals, there's metric tons of crosspollination/outright copying since most of the older circuits aren't protected in any way.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Jan 29, 2019)

technomancer said:


> Mike is great at slightly tweaking what other guys have done... Each of his amps bears striking similarities to stuff other guys have done, specifically the Elan Metalhead, Larry Dino, a Cameron one off Jose which was what Ceriatone copied for the Chupacabra, etc.
> 
> Zero argument that his stuff sounds great though.
> 
> I really do need to get around to opening up my Zuul and comparing it to the gate circuit from the Elan amps.



Which one of his amps is "based" on the Metalhead?


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## technomancer (Jan 29, 2019)

Actually forget I said anything, otherwise we'll end up attracting the fanboy army to swarm the site and a new account from the serial troll that has turned another forum into a complete shit hole 

Mike is a total genius that never copies anything or makes blatantly false statements.


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## jco5055 (Jan 29, 2019)

technomancer said:


> Actually forget I said anything, otherwise we'll end up attracting the fanboy army to swarm the site and a new account from the serial troll that has turned another forum into a complete shit hole
> 
> Mike is a total genius that never copies anything or makes blatantly false statements.



You don't tire from seeing a smirking James Comey avatar?


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## technomancer (Jan 29, 2019)

jco5055 said:


> You don't tire from seeing a smirking James Comey avatar?



All I can say to that is


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## Wizard of Ozz (Jan 29, 2019)

technomancer said:


> Mike is a total genius that never copies anything or makes blatantly false statements.



Sarcasm... it is prevalent. 

+1 regarding the other place. Time to take out the trash over there. It’s bad.


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## JerEvil (Jan 31, 2019)

I did a vid of the Cali at NAMM. It was the first time trying the Fortin stuff. It’s pretty ridiculous... in a good way. It was slot of fun to play. I never tried any of the Randall stuff so not sure what’s what with those. 



I got an impromptu with the Super-Hi as well but somehow I didn’t notice the kid at the Hiwatt booth taped the mic to what ended up being damn near the center of the cone so it came out a little bright. The Super-Hi is bitchin though. Punchy as all getout in that room. Josh from Cattle Decapitation is using these and has a demo coming. Guitar in this vid is a Reverend. Low output buckers...



Fortin seems to be s very polarizingbrand. People either love it or hate it. I thought both amps were pretty bad ass.


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## technomancer (Jan 31, 2019)

No arguing that Mike puts out some great sounding amps.


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## kingpinMS3 (Jan 31, 2019)

dino ripping on a cali with his new ormsby

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtI-E_VnhH4/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=950hauurdwih


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## StevenC (Feb 20, 2019)

https://www.fortinamps.com/product/cali/


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## sezna (Feb 21, 2019)

StevenC said:


> I think the Satan is the Fortin Satan, the Thrasher is closer to a NATAS and the 667 is the Meathead. The Satan is a NATAS mod.


Is the Diavlo also based on the NATAS?


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## Werecow (Feb 21, 2019)

Has anyone here ordered a Fortin? Can you tell me how the ordering process goes? And how you're supposed to stay in touch with them in the ordering process, or even ask questions before you buy? I can't find any sort of contact details on the website at all, no telephone number, no email address, not even a postal address.

This is a serious question by the way, not a rant.


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## kingpinMS3 (Feb 21, 2019)

Werecow said:


> Has anyone here ordered a Fortin? Can you tell me how the ordering process goes? And how you're supposed to stay in touch with them in the ordering process, or even ask questions before you buy? I can't find any sort of contact details on the website at all, no telephone number, no email address, not even a postal address.
> 
> This is a serious question by the way, not a rant.


https://www.fortinamps.com/contact/


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## technomancer (Feb 21, 2019)

sezna said:


> Is the Diavlo also based on the NATAS?



The Diavlo was an existing Randall design that Mike hotrodded... they actually sold the modded 50w version before they got the production line running for the newer version.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Feb 21, 2019)

technomancer said:


> The Diavlo was an existing Randall design that Mike hotrodded... they actually sold the modded 50w version before they got the production line running for the newer version.



Yup. IIRC the Diavlo was originally a mini-ish versatile hot rodded Marshall-esque 50w deal. It wasn't meant to be a super tight modern metal head. 

Then when Mike came in, he tweaked the circuit and that replaced the original circuit. (was pretty much the first amp with their collaboration. Lasse Lammert has a video of the "modded* Diavlo on his channel). Then they eventually released the revamped line of Diavlos and replaced it with 1w, 5w, 20w, 45w, and 100w (3ch version) versios.


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## sezna (Feb 21, 2019)

technomancer said:


> The Diavlo was an existing Randall design that Mike hotrodded... they actually sold the modded 50w version before they got the production line running for the newer version.


So the current Diavlo lineup is fortin modded?


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## technomancer (Feb 21, 2019)

sezna said:


> So the current Diavlo lineup is fortin modded?



They're based on a Randall design with Fortin's design changes. Fortin currently has nothing to do with Randall so it's not like they're shipping amps to them and he's modding them.


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## sezna (Feb 21, 2019)

technomancer said:


> They're based on a Randall design with Fortin's design changes. Fortin currently has nothing to do with Randall so it's not like they're shipping amps to them and he's modding them.


Yeah, sorry that’s what I meant. I ask because I tried a Satan and a Diavlo and I found their gain sound to have a lot of similar characteristics. But I don’t know enough about amps to know what that means.


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## oneblackened (Feb 21, 2019)

technomancer said:


> I really do need to get around to opening up my Zuul and comparing it to the gate circuit from the Elan amps.


Spoiler, it's a THAT 4301 example circuit.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Feb 21, 2019)

sezna said:


> Yeah, sorry that’s what I meant. I ask because I tried a Satan and a Diavlo and I found their gain sound to have a lot of similar characteristics. But I don’t know enough about amps to know what that means.



The old Diavlo had the controls on top like a Fender or a combo amp and a regular grille cloth front. The new Diavlo has the metal grille and has the controls on the bottom like your standard amp head. All the new Diavlos have the Fortin tweaks.


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## Werecow (Feb 21, 2019)

kingpinMS3 said:


> https://www.fortinamps.com/contact/



"*info at fortinamps dot com" is that supposed to be their email address? I just skipped over that before because of how it's been written.*


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## sezna (Feb 21, 2019)

Werecow said:


> "*info at fortinamps dot com" is that supposed to be their email address? I just skipped over that before because of how it's been written.*


people write emails like that so web crawlers don't pick them up and spam them


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## narad (Feb 21, 2019)

technomancer said:


> They're based on a Randall design with Fortin's design changes. Fortin currently has nothing to do with Randall so it's not like they're shipping amps to them and he's modding them.



It's not even like Randall is shipping the amps to Metropoulos to mod them and add a Fortin logo to them.


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## technomancer (Feb 21, 2019)

narad said:


> It's not even like Randall is shipping the amps to Metropoulos to mod them and add a Fortin logo to them.



Do you want gay frogs? Because that's how you get gay frogs.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Feb 21, 2019)

narad said:


> It's not even like Randall is shipping the amps to Metropoulos to mod them and add a Fortin logo to them.


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