GURUS AMPS
1959 DOUBLE
DECKER
REVIEW BY ERIC TISCHLER
STREET PRICE $429.67
The Gurus 1959 Double
Decker is a beast—a threechannel, tube driven answer
to all your Marshall needs.
The Double Decker has two
overdrive channels and an
independent (or stackable)
solo boost, and includes an
effects loop and a built-in
DI. It manages to provide
all of this with a nine-volt
power supply, and in a
footprint that’s about the
size of . . . three pedals,
which makes sense.
Each of the two channels
has a three-band EQ and
independent Volume and
Gain Controls. The channel
switching is a little odd:
step on Floor Channel 1 to
activate the first channel,
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GEAR REVIEW
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step on Floor Channel 2 to
activate the second channel,
and step on Solo to activate
the clean boost. To turn
a channel off, you either
step on another channel
or step on bypass; that
means the channel and Solo
footswitches will turn those
channels on, but stepping
on the same footswitch
again won’t turn that
channel off.
Channel 1 is clearly based
on a Marshall Bluesbreaker
amp, and it does a fantastic
job of emulating that amp.
This channel loves single
coils; I could dial in bite
and grit, and the pedal was
responsive and present,
cleaning up when I backed
Gurus Amps 1959 Double Decker
off my attack, and barking
when I dug in. I’m going
to credit the 12AX7 tube
with the Double Decker’s
3-D quality; there was a
real depth to my tone that
had me carefully comparing
it to the (excellent)
Bluesbreaker I’ve already
got on my board.
Moving to Floor Channel
2, I initially struggled.
Still using single coils, I
was overwhelmed by the
amount of gain on tap, and
this channel’s more radical,
Plexi-like EQ. I dialed the
gain back dramatically,
and found I had a decent
low-gain setting—a little
treble-y, but cool. Switching
back to Floor Channel 1 and