Limited edition 30th Anniversary Komet. This is 1 of 30 amps, but I was told this is only 1 of 3 with the Trey Anastasio ("TA") modification.

This particular amplifier was announced in November 2019 as a 20th Anniversary limited release of 30 amplifiers.  The background story (as I understand it) is that Komet co-founder, Hogy Notzel, wanted an amp that was a combination of a Vox AC30 and an early Marshall JTM45.  Over the period of three years, Hogy experimented with different amp designs, eventually settling on a Class A amplifier with the huge KT88 power tubes and a massive 18 lb. hand built transformer.  It is a complete departure from the Ken Fischer / Trainwreck inspired designs that Komet has used for most of its history.  The circuit and tubes are different. The Fast / Slow switch on the back is gone, and the sound is different.  In addition, this amplifier has a controllable tone bypass, completely removing the “tone stack” circuitry from the amp, allowing the tubes to run at full capacity.

The KT88 Power tubes used in this amp are sometimes called the “King of Power Tubes.”  The sound of the amplifier is clean at low volumes.   The distorted sound is similar to Vox or Dumble, although it seems to roar more than those.  KT88 tubes have a very clean high end and a huge low end – an improvement on the KT66 tubes used in early Marshalls and with much greater bandwidth than the EL34s used in many of the late 1960s “plexi” Marshalls. The tubes being used are the new Russian made Genelex “Golden Lion” KT88s, a faithful reproduction of the famed 1970s English Genalex Golden Lion KT88s.  

I saw a few videos of Trey playing the Silver Cloud test amp in an old Songwriter headshell at shows in November and early December 2019.  The result is that he had some tuning requests for Komet before they released the amp.  

I was told that Komet only did this special tuning for Trey and two other people. (My studio had seven Komet amps at one time.) So, this is one of three of the 30 Silver Clouds that have the “T.A.” tuning upgrade.  That switch is on the back of the amp with the original “SC” (Silver Cloud) tuning being down, and the “TA” (Trey Anastasio) being up.  After playing it, I did prefer the TA tuning quite a bit.

The amplifier has a signed card on the right side of the rear of the amplifier showing it as #11/30 and with signatures of both of the owners of Komet; Michael Kennedy and Holger “Hogy” Notzel.  The chassis is then also signed by both.

Why am I selling this amp if it is a rare amp?

I had a burglary of my recording studio and home in May of 2023. I sustained over $2,000,000 loss including historically important gear (Abbey Road, Rolling Stones Mobile, Olympic, etc.) and my lifetime collection of high end mics, guitar, bass, drum, synth and recording equipment. I lost approximately 30 very high end amps from Vox, Marshall, Fender, Trainwreck, Tony Bruno, Komet, Van Weelden, and many more - all gone. Helios preamps from the Rolling Stones mobile - gone. EMI RS124 compressors from the Beatles sessions at Abbey Road - gone. Consecutively numbered pairs of U47s - gone. U48 tuned by Klaus Heine - gone. Al Schmitt's mics including his primary Brauner - gone. Board, Merging AD/DA converter, all outboard gear, computers, everything was stolen. It was a life changing event for me. My insurance companies have denied the claim. So, my recording studio is gone and I'm selling off what little I had off-site or that I've recovered. Otherwise, I wouldn't sell this amp.