#CoffeeAndKlon is my (irregular!) Sunday morning magazine series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind right now. There’s always coffee, and there’s normally chat about the Klon and its many competitors.
This week, I want to talk about the new products that were announced at (or around) Winter NAMM 2026 that I’m very interested in … and the ones that I wish had been.
We’re Addicted To Wonky Coffee Atm
No, that isn’t a euphemism, nor a typo.
Wonky Coffee “rescues” coffee beans from … I don’t know where, exactly … and resell it. By “rescue”, I think they mean that they buy up unsold stock from other coffee brands, stick it into their own packaging, and then sell it on to their own customers.
So you’re basically buying a bag of mystery coffee. And every bag is going to be different from the last one.
We’re just finishing off our first bag of Dark Roast; the next bag has already arrived and is waiting for us to open it.
I’m not sure how we came across them, or why we decided to give them a go – Kristi deserves all the credit there. But I’m very glad we did. We’ve both loved the coffee so far!
What Do I Want To Talk About Today?
The Winter NAMM Show over in Anaheim has just ended. I want to talk about the products announced at (or around the same time as) NAMM that caught my eye. I also want to touch on a couple of products that I was hoping for, but which haven’t turned up.
Let’s start with the products that are in the shops right now.
Chris Buck Finally Got His Signature Yamaha Revstar
I think that this is great news, both for Chris Buck and for Yamaha. And I believe that the guitar is proving a big hit. (Thomann are showing over 3 months lead time right now!)
I really don’t understand all the Yamaha-bashing amongst the YouTube demo community. My Yamaha SG1082 is right up there in quality and tone with the very best that I’ve played from the Gibson Custom Shop – and it cost less than many Gibson USA Les Pauls currently do!
Blackstar Launched A Couple Of Tempting Amp Heads
Regular readers may recall that I used to own a Blackstar Studio 10 6L6 combo amp. It replaced my Marshall Origin 20H as my main pedal platform amp. I ended up selling it because I just didn’t have space for it any more, after I bought my Tweed Deluxe amp.
The Studio 10 amps were replaced in 2024 by Blackstar’s TV-10 range. They originally launched as combo amps, which is why I bought a Blackstar Debut 100 RH amp head instead last year.
If only I’d waited!
Blackstar have just released the corresponding amp head variants: the TV-10 A (for American sounds) and TV-10 B (for British sounds). Both amp heads are very affordable (for valve amp heads). And, if it’s anything like the old Studio 10 6L6, the TV-10 A should be a great pedal platform amp.
Best of all, both TV-10 amp heads are already in the shops here in the UK.
I haven’t tried them yet, mostly because I’m worried that I’ll want one (or both of them) once I do. My old Studio 10 6L6 was a great little amp for testing pedals, and I’d love to have another one in head format.
Wampler Teased An Upcoming Power Amp Pedal
In the run up to Winter NAMM, Synergy and its partners were teasing big things. I think they massively over-did it, but I can kind of see what they were up to.
It’s easy to forget that NAMM is a trade show: it’s a show for gear manufacturers to showcase their products to distributors, dealers, and partners. Despite all the media coverage in recent years, it isn’t really a show for marketing products direct to end customers.
One of those products turned out to be a power amp in pedal form: the Wampler Pedalhead. The cool thing about this is that it takes a class D solid-state power amp, and makes it sound and feel like a tube amp. A big part of this is the built-in Synergy-branded machine learning to build a speaker impedance curve on the fly.
Sadly, there’s no release date or pricing yet. It doesn’t appear to be imminent.
This is an exciting product for me. I’m using my Synergy setup more regularly now, and while I love the sound of my SYN-5050 power amp, that tiny whiny 80’s CPU fan that they stuck in the SYN-5050 makes it really difficult to use in a small room for us home hobbyists.
If I can replace it with something that doesn’t leak noise into the room, I’m very interested.
Synergy’s Top-Secret Power Amp Was Leaked
The Wampler Pedalhead is interesting, for sure. Putting the same solution into a rack unit (as a direct alternative to the SYN-5050) … that would be ideal.
Now, despite all the teasing in advance, Synergy didn’t actually announce anything. But, at Winter NAMM, someone did snap a photo of a Synergy power amp rack unit.
Over on Facebook, Synergy later explained that this is a one-off prototype for a touring artist. It isn’t clear if this does include the new tech that’s also in the Wampler Pedalhead, but I don’t think it would make sense for this prototype to exist if it didn’t.
I’m really hoping this one-off prototype turns into a full-blown product at some point. It could be exactly what I want.
(Someone also posted a photo from NAMM showing what might be a second Synergy power amp rack unit. Synergy hasn’t responded at all to that photo yet.)
A Couple Of Upcoming Synergy Preamp Modules Were Leaked
In the run-up to Winter NAMM, Synergy accidentally released some marketing material which showed that an official Marshall JCM 800 Synergy module is on its way.
At Winter NAMM, it emerged that Synergy have developed a new preamp module based on the Orange Rockerverb amp. It’ll be called the Synergy RV. It hasn’t been officially announced, but it was reported to be at the Synergy booth.
Synergy’s Teased Upcoming Preamp Module Remains A Mystery
Over on Facebook, the Synergy team have been teasing another upcoming preamp module. All that we know about it is that it’ll be 50 USD more than the regular price, because there’s something extra special about this module, and that it will release at some point after the Synergy RV has released.
So it definitely isn’t the Synergy RV module. And I can’t see why a Marshall JCM 800 module would bring something extra special to justify a premium price.
While I’d love it to be a 5e3 Tweed Deluxe (especially if it is an official Lazy J module), I’m not getting my hopes up!
No Fender Tweed Deluxe Tone Master Amp 🙁
More than anything else, I was hoping we’d see Fender announce the Tone Master version of their Tweed Deluxe amp. Alas, nothing has been announced.
Last year, Fender added a (partial 🤬) Tweed Deluxe model to their Tone Master Pro floor modeller. I was really hoping that this meant that the full physical Tone Master amp wasn’t far away – similar to what happened with the Fender Bassman Tone Master amp.
Will we see one at all this year?
Final Thoughts
While I’m frustrated that the products aren’t available yet – and might never come to market – I’m excited by Synergy’s efforts to come up with a modern alternative to the SYN-5050 power amp.
There must be plenty of other SYN-1 / SYN-2 owners who are looking for such a power amp!
I know that there’s the SYN-20IR amp (and I almost bought one in January), but I’m far more interested in having a standalone power amp that I can also use with non-Synergy products.