Supro has lifted the lid on The Royale – a combo it's billing as its first “loud clean amp”.
The Royale is designed from the ground up as a high-headroom clean platform. As such, there’s a choice of 35-watt Class A power, or 50-watt Class AB power.
The former offers “delivers the traditional, cathode-biased Supro sound with a bold, spongy midrange”, but flip the toggle and the Class AB offers a more scooped tone reminiscent of Fender-style builds.
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There’s a lot of control available via the top panel, with a three-band EQ, preamp volume and boost knobs, built-in spring reverb and a master volume control, plus toggle switches for the boost, reverb and buffered effects loop.
Eric Krasno certainly makes it sound very good indeed, but perhaps that's not surprising...
Speaker duties are taken care of by a single custom 12” Supro BD12, housed in a poplar cabinet, and it’s all wrapped-up with Black Scandia tolex and a hemp grille cloth, which has a smart retro vibe.
Supro says the build is aimed at “genre bending” contemporary players and represents “a new chapter” in Supro’s history . The firm, which was revived in 2014 and acquired by D’Angelico last year, has predominantly focused on reestablishing itself as a name among vintage-style amp market until now, so it will be interesting to see how The Royale fares as a fresh offering for D'Angelico's core audience.
The spec certainly plays to the brand's strengths as purveyors of simple builds that pack a huge punch, tonally. If it plays nicely with pedals, it could see Supro find a home with a wider variety of players.
For more information on The Royale, head to Supro.
