Un peu de lecture :
This battery-powered brew will blast your guitar
By Chris Hansen Orf, Get Out
November 25, 2007
It looks like an ordinary 24-ounce can of Heineken beer — and, indeed, it used to be.
But don’t crumple up this can and throw it in the recycle bin. Plug your guitar into it.
Tempe-based custom guitar amplifier company Cactus Tube Amps has just introduced the Cactus Can (aka the Amp in a Can), a 2-watt guitar amplifier built from the lager’s keg can.
The Cactus Can runs on a 9-volt battery, has a speaker built directly into the top of the can and has a two-way switch for “clean” or “dirty” tones. Its small stature makes it perfect for the street musician busking for change, the pro who wants to jam on the tour bus or the everyday player not wanting to annoy the neighbors.
The idea came to Cactus Tube co-founder Chris Gebhart on a trip to Flagstaff with a friend, where he contemplated the Smokey Amp, an amplifier the size of a cigarette pack.
“I was like, 'Well, it’s a cool idea, but they don’t really sound that great,’?” Gebhart says. “I’m like, 'Well, no one’s ever put (an amp) in a beer can before.’?”
“We did try different cans at first,” says company co-founder Russell Jacobs, “like the Fosters (can), which used to have that oil-can feel. But now it’s not durable enough.”
Now that they’ve settled on the Heineken keg can, which is sturdy and durable, the guys have parties where friends come over to help “drink the stock.”
“We buy cases of beers,” says Gebhart. “There’s been a lot of long nights of Russ and I sitting up drinking and building (the amps).”
“Sometimes they don’t end up the way they’re supposed to be,” Jacobs adds with a laugh.
Cactus Tube Amps’ powerhouse Monsoon amp — a 50-watt head in a 12-by-10-foot cabinet — retails for $1,500, but the Cactus Can is significantly more affordable: $59.99, including tax and shipping, through the holidays. The company has plans for future editions.
“The next one is going to have a built-in loop, so you can record 30 seconds of music and play along to it,” explains Gebhart, who runs sound at Mardi Gras in Scottsdale and plays guitar in Valley band Vinyl Revival. “It’s going to come in a road case and will have a spring-loaded stand, so the Amp in a Can will sit on top. It’s going to have a speaker jack in the back, and the case will have a 30-watt speaker on the side.
“And it’s cool because it looks like a beer can — that’s rock ’n’ roll.”
