• Account
  • View Shopping Cart

Menu Search View Shopping Cart Call Us

Suhr Badger 18 Amp Head Black - Used  From Suhr Amps

2014 18 watt Badger amp head from Suhr with slip cover

Close

Our product photos are the actual, specific serial number for sale!

This specific item was photographed by us here in Durham, North Carolina. We are a very small team dedicated to providing you the most accurate photos possible, through our obsessive focus - individually photographing nearly everything that comes through the door. Questions about what you see? Want more information, photos, or just a friendly conversation with someone that cares and who has actually had their hands on this exact item? Contact us now!
Close

Buy Pre-owned from Sound Pure with Absolute Confidence

Sound Pure's dedication to pre-owned products is unprecedented in the industry. We are a small team of dedicated experts that buys, trades, and consigns. We are trusted by customers all over the world. Our curated collection, is thoroughly tested and inspected by some of the best in the business. Our inventory is constantly changing, ever-evolving, with some items sold before reaching the website. Looking for something specific? Have questions about this product's condition or history? Want more photos, or to simply chat with an expert who's had his hands on this actual piece? Contact us now.
Our Current Used/Vintage Collection »

Sound Pure's Consignment Program »

Luthier Certification for Used Instruments »

John Suhr Amplifiers

"Gone, Baby, Gone"

This one is sold. Don't miss the next one. Some things never even make it to the site so stay up to date on our used collection.

We get in many oddities, rare and vintage products, most of which go fast. If you're on the hunt for something specific, something unique, or something priced right, let us notify you on our used collection before the items even hit the site.

Want to know if one lands?

Notify Me

Want to discuss what's coming?

What We Think

Condition: Used, Excellent

Original version Badger head, includes slipcover and power cable

Manufacturer's Description from Suhr Amps

The Suhr Badger is the first of many Suhr-branded amplifiers we have planned for the future. Nearly a year in the making and in the concept stage in John's mind for an even longer period of time, the Badger has been John's labor of love and the crystallization of his vision of the ultimate low-wattage cathode-biased all-tube amplifier. Tonally, the Badger imparts a distinctly British flavor with the EL-84 output section, but it doesn't quite sound like any of classic UK vintage amps.
 
The Badger has its very own tonality with a very broad range of sounds covering a wide spectrum of clean to overdriven tones typically not found in amps of this class. This new little beast of an amp also offers unmatched flexibility with a defeat-able Drive control (pseudo master volume), the defeat-able Power Scaling feature for great cranked amp tones at low volume levels, and a tube-buffered effects loop.
 
From warm three-dimensional crystal clean tones with a surprising amount of headroom for an amp within this power range class, to spine-tingling on-the-verge-of-breakup sounds that are super touch-sensitive to your picking dynamics, to sweet and singing bluesy overdrive lead tones, to broad and open-sounding crunch rhythm sounds that are ideal for classic rock riffing, to juicy and fat lead sounds with the right amount of grease and sustain for fusion and classic rock single-note playing, the Badger does 'em all with authority, character, and tonal quality that simply has to be heard to be believed.
 
The Badger sounds big – really big! Plug this little monster into a 4x12 and you will not believe that the broad soundstage this amp covers is coming from such a small power section. Low-wattage amps typically sound small, but not the Badger; this beast sounds as big as most 50 and 100 watt heads without a lot of bass and other such artifacts of big amps.
 
The Badger can operate in 3 distinct modes for a variety of musical situations. The first is the non-master-volume mode. When the Drive and Power knobs on the far left of the front panel are turned all the way up, they are out of the circuit. This means the Gain control on the far right becomes the volume control. The EQ section of Treble, Middle, and Bass act as normal.
 
This is the ultimate in simplicity like the great non-master vintage amps and ideal for playing in small clubs and venues where you can really get the power section involved in the tone you're getting. The second mode of the Badger kicks in once you bring the Drive control into the circuit. The Drive controls the amount of signal being sent into the power section, which in turn controls the volume level. The Gain knob now acts as a preamp gain control. This mode is the familiar "master volume" setting on virtually all modern guitar amps being produced out there today. The third mode engages the unique and extremely effective Power Scaling feature. In this mode, the Drive control becomes like a secondary gain control and the Power knob controls the overall volume. With careful balancing of the settings of the Drive and Power control knobs, you can get power tube overdrive from moderate to bedroom volume levels with a full transparent tone without the squashed compression artifacts of most attenuators and load boxes. With the Badger, you now have total control over your tone and volume from the clubs to churches to garage rehearsals to home recording to late-night practicing in your bedroom.
 
The Power Scaling feature, licensed from London Power, lowers the wattage to the power amp, allowing the power tubes to clip. The tubes run cooler and aren't running as hard compared to using the speaker load while still retaining the interaction of the tubes and speaker(s). This proprietary technology allows the output power of an audio amplifier to be dialed down from 100% to less than 1%. This requires a modification to the amplifier's power supply.
 
Unlike external attenuators or load boxes, which interfere with the amp-speaker interface, Power Scaling does not alter that relationship between the output tubes and the speakers. Tube life will be greatly enhanced by the Power Scale circuit as well. What you get is improved transparency, less squash, more natural and pleasing compression, and the sound of the power tubes working hard. Add the tube-buffered effects loop with a fixed level send for use with both instrument-level pedals and line-level rack effects and you've got one very versatile tone machine ready for a variety of environments and musical situations.
John Suhr Amplifiers

About Manufacturer

Amplification has been a love of John's from the early 80's. Surprising to many, John designs, modifies, and builds amplifiers that are amongst the very best and the most highly sought-after in the world – certainly a worthy match for our renowned guitars. It's John's complete understanding of the entire signal chain – from the woods and the metal components in a guitar, to the pickups and their materials and structure, to the design layout of the PC board or PTP construction and the value of each component in an amplifier, to the design of the cabinets and its acoustic properties – that gives Suhr Guitars a distinct advantage in creating the best possible playing experience. Working with some of the top players in the industry from his days in New York, John learned on his own about what makes a great sounding amp.

After leaving Rudy's Music Stop in NY, John made the trek to LA and joined forces with Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics in 1991 to design and manufacture the 3+ preamp and the OD-100 amplifiers. The OD-100 and the 3+ (later the 3+SE) soon became a standard in the LA studio scene, embraced by top-flight players such as Mike Landau and Steve Lukather as well as many others. John also did extensive amp modification and repair work for various great players such as Eddie Van Halen. John's uncanny ability to envision a great sound that players seek and applying his natural engineering skills to develop great sounding amps for professional use won him a diehard following of some of the best players in the world.

Even after John left CAE to work at the Fender Custom Shop, he continued to modify amps on the side and found the time to build the low-power Tweed Twin that Eric Clapton used in the mid-to-late 90's. John's broad and deep knowledge of both the classic American Fender circuits as well as the classic British Marshall circuits is what allowed him to design what many consider the best American-and-British-sounds-in-one-box amplifier in the world: the OD-100. The OD-100 has evolved into several versions to cover a wide array of musical styles and tastes and the basic OD-100 design is being used by players ranging from Scott Henderson to Mike Landau to Reb Beach to Steve Stevens to Kirk Fletcher to Rob Marcello.

The OD-100 production languished under CAE during John's years at the Fender Custom Shop and the early years of Suhr Guitars, but John always knew that he'd be getting back into amps. In 2004, Suhr Guitars took over the manufacturing and distribution of the OD-100 and the amp immediately became a big hit amongst the tone aficionados who had heard of or about this legendary amp but never actually heard one in person or played one. All of a sudden, Suhr Guitars had become a serious player in the crowded high-end "boutique" amp market. There are four versions of the OD-100: Standard, SE, Classic, and the 50, each with a distinctive character to suit particular musical situations.

From the most gorgeous vintage American clean sounds with a beautiful sparkling high-end and a big punchy low-end, to warm growling overdrive sounds that are organic and sweet, to singing and silky lead sounds that cut through a dense mix, to brutal and intense modern distortion sounds that pulverize with a chest-thumping low-end and shred with cutting yet toneful high-mids and smooth treble that never gets ice-picky in your ears, our OD-100 can cover all the bases and then some! Suhr Guitars is just getting started on a whole new line of Suhr-branded amps and we will extend the tonal foundation that has been laid down by the OD-100 in the years ahead. As is with our guitars and pickups, the future of tone is with Suhr Amps. You can look forward to many new Suhr amp models to suit every musical style coming out for many years to come. We look forward to providing you, the serious player and tone freak, new amps that will inspire you to creative heights that you've only imagined but never achieved. Now plug in and play!

Specifications

Year: 2014
 
Serial Number: 963
 
EL-84 Power Section
 
18 Watts
 
Cathode Bias-All Tube Design
 
Power Scaling
 
Tube Buffered Effects Loop
 
Dimensions: 20.5" wide x 9.25" high x 8.25" deep
 
Weight: 25 pounds

Related Videos

Luxxtone Choppa T Trans White Electric Guitar #240 Quick 'n' Dirty

In this video, Sound Pure electric guitar specialist Michael Buckley plays a Luxxtone Choppa T Trans White Electric Guitar #240 through a Suhr 1X12 Veteran 30 Cab, Graphite Black/Silver Grill and Suhr 2017 Badger 18 Amp Head.