Patrick Sweany

At 1:08 in this video from Fender about the '57 Custom Deluxe amp, Patrick Sweany says:

The stuff of myth and legend. Every combo amplifier is trying to approximate what a tweed Deluxe can do. You've got all these amazing tones, you know, from the cleans that emulate the twin to the raunchy kind of rock tones. It is the working amplifier. It is the template for what a working musician does. If you want to play in a band and play songs, chances are you're plugging into a deluxe.

Patrick Sweany can be seen playing a Fender Telecaster in red startin at 21 seconds into https://youtu.be/6Nk1Uxt4JB0

Sweany swaps the ouija board for raw-speaking amps and a ’90s Epiphone Riviera with gold-foil pickups, plus a sawdust-and-blood voice that would make Howlin’ Wolf cock an ear, as a means to conjuring the dirtiest, deadliest tones of primal electric blues.

But enough about Patrick. This is an amp column, and when he turned up at a recent Tiger Beats gig to talk gear, he brought three Clydesdales with him: a vintage ’60s Danelectro Explorer, a Fender ’57 Custom Pro-Amp, and an Excelsior from Fender’s Pawn Shop series. What do his favorite amps have in common?

“A 15" speaker with an alnico magnet is it for me,” he says, “and 15 to 20 watts is my sweet spot, where the amp breaks up and still has some bottom end. I’m a fingerstyle player, with a thumbpick and two finger picks, so compression is the devil. Amps with 10" speakers are too harsh, which can work for playing lead like Freddie King, but when I was trying to find my sound, 15s were the answer. It’s very full and rich.”