Handcrafted analogue guitar amplifiers, made in England

homepage-slider

Unique creations, built for feel, response and a lifetime of playing

Designed to be part of your story

Your amplifier should respond to the way you play. It should serve your guitar, give your pedals space to breathe, and feel alive under your fingertips.

That’s why Colson guitar amplifiers are built as complete analogue ecosystems from start to finish. Everything works together, with hardwoods selected for beauty, stability and acoustic character, alongside electrical components designed for tone, feel and response.

It’s a sound shaped by the hands that made it, the natural materials, and a fully analogue signal pathway.

The result is tactile and physical. Beautiful creations with their own unique stories, made in Bilton-in-Ainsty on the outskirts of York, and built to be enjoyed for decades.

Make an enquiry

Yorkshire sycamore, seasoned by time

Colson cabinets are hewn from Yorkshire sycamore, harvested just north of Harrogate, and air dried for nearly twenty years, ten of them by Drew Colson personally.

The wood has been spalted by hand, to achieve highly sought-after colouration and patterns that emphasise the lustre and grain.

Drew often pairs sycamore with sapele, sourced from RH Chappelow of York. It’s a hardwood associated with guitars and bespoke cabinetry rather than amplifiers. Sapele brings depth of colour, strength and tone, and a lasting connection to the work of guitar luthiers.

Shape follows sound

The distinctive Colson design began with the way amplifiers are used by musicians. The speaker is tilted slightly upwards to project sound more naturally, while the controls sit on top of the body where they are easy to reach.

From these choices, the Colson amplifier inherited its stance. The sloping front, deep body and generous cabinet size are all part of how the amplifier works in the room, giving weight, reach and presence to your sound.

The result is a cabinet that’s harder to make, but far more rewarding to use, look at and live with.

Analogue feel and immediate response

Colson amplifiers are built around carefully selected and modified analogue platforms, with no digital modelling, impulse responses or menu-driven simulation.

The aim is a direct relationship between guitar, pedals, speaker and cabinet, a sound that responds at the strings and feels alive in the room.

Each amplifier is voiced as a complete system, with the electronics chosen to suit the cabinet, the speaker and the intended feel of the build.

Three sisters, three originals

The Three Sisters of Ainsty amp series comprises three, and only three, original amplifiers: Maria, Charlotte and Emily.

Named after the three eldest Brontë sisters, one of Yorkshire’s great literary families, each amplifier has been painstakingly crafted by Drew Colson in Bilton-in-Ainsty, YO26.

There is only one Maria, one Charlotte and one Emily. No variants, no repeat run, no second set. Three related voices, each with her own material story, character and presence.

These three amplifiers are highly exclusive and will never be repeated.

Limited editions and one-off voices

Colson amplifiers are made in small named series, each with its own material language, visual identity and playing feel.

Some are built as families and others are completely individual. All of them share the same commitment to handcrafted hardwood cabinets, analogue response and long-lasting character.

Get in touch

Made by Drew Colson

Colson of York guitar amplifiers are the work of Drew Colson, made by hand in Bilton-in-Ainsty, on the outskirts of York.

Each amplifier is built in small numbers, with the cabinet, speaker and analogue platform considered together, right from the start.

This is slow, meticulous, individual work, combining amplifier building and circuitry, woodworking, carpentry and instrument design.

Interested?

Colson amps are available in very small numbers.

Finished amplifiers can be purchased through the online store. For forthcoming series, private builds or early interest in future Colson of York work, please request an order or make an enquiry directly to Drew.

Get in touch

Get in touch

FAQs

Are Colson guitar amplifiers valve amps?

All Colson amps are are built around analogue platforms chosen for feel, response and musicality. Most Colson amps don’t use valves, but some do.

The important thing is that the amplifier itself preserves an analogue pathway all the way from the input jack to the speaker. And when you use analogue pedals, the entire chain can remain fully analogue, shaped by your guitar, pedals, circuitry, speaker and cabinet, never digitised into ones and zeros.

Are Colson amplifiers digital modelling amps?

No. Colson amplifiers are built around analogue platforms, not digital modelling or menu-driven simulation.

For me, that matters. I’ve played for decades and owned my share of digital and modelling amps, as well as plenty of valve amps. I understand the convenience and light weight of digital, but it has never felt quite right under the fingers. Sometimes there’s a sense of distance. Sometimes even a hint of lag. And while valves can sound glorious, they aren’t always the most dependable solution.

But analogue doesn’t have to mean valves, and they can even be used in ways that are more dependable. What matters is that a fully analogue amplifier feels direct, with the guitar, pedals, circuit, speaker and cabinet all responding in real time, without the sound being turned into data inside the amp. There’s no screen to navigate, no endless models to select, no barrier between the player and the response.

With Colson of York, the aim is to plug in, feel the strings answer back, and let the amplifier become part of the way you play.

Are Colson amplifiers good pedal platforms?

Absolutely. And in many ways, this is why Colson amplifiers exist.

I’ve spent years trying to get pedals to feel right through amplifiers that seemed to fight them. They were either too coloured, too compressed, too sonically brittle, or just felt too disconnected from the guitar. From a player’s perspective, analogue fuzz, drive and distortion pedals can easily lose depth through the wrong amp. They can sound compressed, hollow, flat or strangely separate from the strings.

A good pedal platform shouldn’t flatten everything or impose too much of itself. It should have the headroom to let the guitar, pedals and player remain recognisable.

Colson amplifiers are built to give pedals somewhere musical to live. These amplifiers are analogue platforms with immediacy and feel, paired with cabinets and speakers that add weight, movement and physical presence. I’m not creating a blank canvas, more a rich and responsive one, which lets your pedals speak while still feeling fresh, alive and exciting.

Where are Colson amplifiers made?

What woods are used?

Colson amplifier cabinets are made from selected hardwoods, chosen for their beauty, stability, acoustic character and the way they shape the identity of each build.

The first Colson guitar amplifiers use Yorkshire sycamore harvested near Ripon, air-dried for nearly twenty years and seasoned further by Drew Colson by hand. Some of this timber has been spalted, creating distinctive colouration, grain movement and natural patterning that makes each cabinet impossible to repeat.

This is often paired with sapele sourced from RH Chappelow of York, a hardwood more commonly associated with stringed musical instruments and bespoke cabinetry. Future builds will use other carefully selected hardwoods, including oak and further character timbers. In some choice pieces, reclaimed wood from Drew’s 200-year-old Georgian house is incorporated, giving the amplifier a direct material link to an earlier Yorkshire life.

Some naturally seasoned or spalted timbers show historic insect traces. Where present, these are intentional, fully treated, made sound and preserved only where they add character without compromising the cabinet. Like grain, spalting and colour variation, they are part of the story of the wood.

What amplification platform is used?

Different Colson builds use different analogue platforms. The choice depends on the cabinet, the speaker, the intended feel of the amplifier, and how the build is meant to respond to guitar and pedals.

Some Colson amplifiers use compact integrated analogue platforms, chosen for immediacy, reliability and a pedal-friendly response. The Three Sisters of Ainsty are powered by Hughes & Kettner’s Spirit Tone analogue technology, selected because it gives those particular cabinets a lively, responsive feel in a dependable form.

Other Colson builds explore more modular architectures, with separate analogue preamps and power stages. This allows the preamp to shape the voice, the power amp to shape the behaviour and interaction, and the cabinet to become the final instrument.

Future modular builds may include Class A or Class A/B amplification where it suits the design, chosen not for specification-chasing, but for feel, musicality and the way the amplifier interacts with the speaker.

Hughes & Kettner is a third-party trademark. No affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement is stated or implied.

How much do they cost?

Prices are shown on individual product pages. The Three Sisters of Ainsty are expected to be around £825 each, with final pricing to be confirmed.

Each Colson amplifier represents far more than its parts. Before the first finished builds, Drew developed and tested a series of prototypes, refining the cabinet form, the speaker choice, analogue platform, internal layout and finishing process. Every completed amplifier involves days of work: selecting and cutting the timber, forming the joints, gluing, screwing, shaping the cabinet, sanding, treating, waxing and finishing, then soldering, assembling, testing and voicing the complete system.

A Colson amplifier offers something highly individual. Each one is a unique handcrafted hardwood masterpiece, with carefully chosen analogue electronics, a hand-picked speaker and a level of material character rarely found in conventional guitar amplifiers anywhere near this price.

How do I order one?

Available amplifiers can be purchased directly through the online store.

For any future series, private builds or early interest in forthcoming Colson work, use the enquiry form. If a build is agreed, a deposit will usually be taken to secure your place on the build list, with the remaining balance due just before completion or delivery.

Because every Colson amplifier is made personally by Drew and only in small numbers, build slots are limited.

Home

Unique creations, built for feel, response and a lifetime of playing

Designed to be part of your story

Yorkshire sycamore, seasoned by time

Shape follows sound

Analogue feel and immediate response

Three sisters, three originals

Limited editions and one-off voices

The 27 Club

The Three Sisters of Ainsty

The Veils of York

Made by Drew Colson

Interested?

Get in touch

FAQs

Are Colson guitar amplifiers valve amps?

Are Colson amplifiers digital modelling amps?

Are Colson amplifiers good pedal platforms?

Where are Colson amplifiers made?

What woods are used?

What amplification platform is used?

How much do they cost?

How do I order one?