30 watts of Plexi killer. Inspired by rock legends, the Aiken Invader MKII 30 watt head delivers powerful and versatile performance. With 30 watts of precise and dynamic power, this amplifier head allows for seamless tone shaping.
The amplifier was designed specifically to capture those old plexi/ali/bassman tones at less than ear-shattering volumes, with the addition of a 2-knob reverb and built-in power attenuator.
The Invader MKII is an all-tube amplifier, available in 18 or 30 watt versions. This amplifier is truly touch-sensitive, going from clean to crunch to singing leads by just adjusting the volume control on the guitar. The design features two internally-jumpered channels, which are independently voiced, to provide a wide range of tones from any guitar, using single-coil or humbucking pickups.
The Invader is robust: built on 1/8″ FR4 turret boards silkscreened with component-reference designators for ease of troubleshooting and repair, hand-wired to chassis-mounted sockets and pots.
“We use mil-spec RV4 sealed potentiometers for the front panel controls, two-watt carbon-film resistors or two-watt metal film resistors where appropriate for lowest noise, and five-watt metal-oxide power resistors,” Aiken said. “All of our coupling capacitors are 630-volt polypropylene film/foil axial-leaded construction, and we use 500-volt silver mica capacitors for the small values in the picofarad range, like the treble capacitor in the tone stack. The power supply filter capacitors are the standard large 50uF/50uF 500-volt dual chassis-mounted capacitors similar to the old LCR types used in older Marshall amplifiers.”
Rear-panel pin jacks facilitate tube biasing without removing the chassis, using a rear-panel bias pot. Tube sockets for preamps are shielded Belton glass-fiber-filled PPS, with wrap-around pins for reliability. Output-tube sockets are ceramic in EL84 amps or Belton glass-fiber-filled PPS octals in EL34 amps. All Aiken chassis are zinc-plated steel, and front and rear panels are gold anodized aluminum or (on plexi-looking units) reverse-engraved/filled polycarbonate.
The Invader also has a built-in power attenuator that lets you crank the preamp and power tubes as high as you wish, setting the master volume to an appropriate level for stage, studio, bedroom, etc. The reverb feature of this amp is, um… swell! A depth and swell control permits users to decide how much reverb they want and, how fast or slow the reverb tails off. This feature allows players to get an almost “plate reverb” decay that’s impossible with conventional spring reverb units. It’s silky smooth and feels like a combination of plate and spring. Hard to describe, but lovely to hear.
And, all of Aiken’s amps have voltage selector switches on their rear panels, which allow for the use of 100, 120, 200, 220, 230, and 240 volts at 50 or 60Hz. That means the amps can be used anywhere in the world. They also have a matching rear-panel impedance selector switch that allows for use with 4-, 8-, or 16-ohm speakers/configurations. Cabinets are fingerjointed birch, with tolex applied meticulously for a cornerless “vintage” look. The nameplate is engraved and filled brass, and the reverb tanks are Accutronics units.
Comes with flight case.