The Blackwood N.A.S.A. 40 was developed after receiving multiple customer requests for a portable, feature-laden 40-watt tube head paired with a tuned/matched cabinet.
The N.A.S.A. 40 features three selectable levels of negative feedback that can be added to the circuit resulting in the ability to switch from super-tight, focused response to ‘spongy’ touch-sensitive bliss, with an in-between setting that is the perfect combination of headroom and ‘give’.
Another innovative feature of the N.A.S.A. 40 is a front-panel toggle switch which changes the operational effect of the tone stack when the amplifier is pushed into overdrive; engaging this switch results in additional gain and produces a musical, singing midrange by reducing the muddled low end that typically occurs when ‘pushing’ a tube amplifier.
There is also a second front-panel toggle switch which lifts the ground to the vibrato circuit. This allows the player to bypass the vibrato section, resulting in increased gain as the signal is still fed through the vibrato driver tube.
The modified reverb circuit takes the player from soft ambient textures all the way to surf heaven, while the vibrato circuit has been designed to provide a deeper pulsating effect. Both the reverb and vibrato are tube-driven and are selectable via a two-button footswitch.
The matching tuned N.A.S.A. 40 speaker cabinet is loaded with two 10” Eminence Ragin’ Cajun speakers. The combination of the speaker cabinet’s semi open-back design and these specially-selected 10” speakers produces a tight, punchy bottom-end and focused tone.
Like all other Blackwood ‘point-to-point’ hand-wired amplifiers, the N.A.S.A. 40 packs player-friendly features, uncompromising build quality and amazing tone into a portable package. |