At Mars has built more Specialists than any other model. This amp is driven by a pair of 6V6 power tubes with the power supply rectified by the 5Y3 rectifier tube. The front end normally uses a 6SL7 and 12AX7 for the preamp and driver/phase inverter. However both of these tubes can be substituted with any tube from their respective families to provide a variety of gain structures based on your preferences. The Specialist is a cathode biased amp and puts out about 15 watts. The Specialist's circuit is designed to be very “touch sensitive”. Although normally the amp starts to dirty up at about “3”on the dial, adjusting your pick attack or rolling back your volume knob can take the amp from dirty to clean without the use of a stomp box. The amp responds to how hard or soft your pick attack is, so you can control the amount of distortion with just your fingers and the strings of the guitar.

Although this amp might be considered “low power” at 15 watts, it is not a practice or bedroom amp. It can be surprisingly loud especially with efficient speakers. Running the amp half way open is the kind of fun that makes your ears ring. All the amps are equipped with 8 and 16 ohm speaker taps allowing you to run a variety of different speaker configurations.
 

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