thread on larry amps and who he says ripped him off!

[Wizard of Ozz]

I think it's likely Larry is "generally" saying Fortin has no original circuit designs, which would probably be true based on all the Fortin schematics I have.
If that's who he's even talking about.

No “think or generally” about it. Larry is very specific. Fortin ripped off Larry’s designs after buying 2 Larry Amps... a Dino and a British Purist. Then 6 months later opens his own amp company. Fortin has done similar with other amps from other companies.

Specifically the Larry “Bite and Punch” control filters which Fortin calls “Girth and Grind” and claims came from some obscure amp. Also a few other design tweaks specific to Larry’s amps.

Larry has straight up called out Fortin. No ands or ifs about it. Sad too. I wonder how the Fartin Army would react if they knew their Supreme Leader was a hack and plagiarist.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

Some bold talk there Senor Henson.

Did it sound 3 years wait and $6K good though???

If I could get it in a month or two, I'd do it in a heartbeat. My attention span won't extend longer than that. lol

This one was purchased on Rerverb for about $3500 or so, maybe a little less. It didn't have a logo on it, but Larry gave him a new one and confirmed the details/history of the amp. He actually went over it for Warhead78 before it was shipped to him I think. Seller was semi-local to him I believe.

I agree. 2 years is a stretch.

2 other members here have the current Dino 962 and sent me clips. I wasn’t blown away. So it could just be the clips, the settings, who knows. But I’ve not heard a single clip or video that was amazing.

But if you say it can hang with the Wizards... hmmm.

 

[RedB4Black]

I think it's likely Larry is "generally" saying Fortin has no original circuit designs, which would probably be true based on all the Fortin schematics I have.
If that's who he's even talking about.

No “think or generally” about it. Larry is very specific. Fortin ripped off Larry’s designs after buying 2 Larry Amps... a Dino and a British Purist. Then 6 months later opens his own amp company. Fortin has done similar with other amps from other companies.

Specifically the Larry “Bite and Punch” control filters which Fortin calls “Girth and Grind” and claims came from some obscure amp. Also a few other design tweaks specific to Larry’s amps.

Larry has straight up called out Fortin. No ands or ifs about it. Sad too. I wonder how the Fartin Army would react if they knew their Supreme Leader was a hack and plagiarist.

Yeah, as I said every Fortin schematic I've seen has been somewhat a rip of another amp. I've actually pissed off the Fortin army for saying some of his amps are direct rips before. Now that being said I've seen very few amps (from all manufactures/builders) that were not at least partially ripped off from another amp.

As with anything in life, we rarely reinvent the wheel. The DNA of amps usually get passed on to the next thing, like evolution.

I wonder whose making the new cabs. The new FL cab looks similar to a Fryette Fat Bottom cab, which I love. I may order one to go with my Cali.

 

[RaceU4her]

Warhead78 and Flavatrocious here on RT are local to me. We had a mini ampfest last month. Warhead78 owns the Larry and a Hermannson. I was able to get the Fortin dialed in similar (not quite exact, but close) to the Larry actually, but it lacked the balls of the Larry. The Larry had the balls/punch of the Wizards, super tight and percussive and aggressive. More saturated than the Wizards and the slightest bit of compression. The overall voicing was more in line with the tones I go for. It's an older Dino not sure the model number.

curious which Hermansson it is and how it compared to those two??

It was this one. They were actually pretty close to one another overall. Not sure what the specifics are to it. I think Hermansson did a build thread on this amp with clips if you search for it. I think Warhead78 may have posted a video of it as well. He had it listed in the classifieds here for a while after he got the Larry, but I think he took it down.

i know that amp and build thread, i had henrick build me a carlsbro to sound like that right after seeing it. i saw that one for sale, was thinking about going for it but figured its too similar to mine to justify

 

[mooncobra]

Warhead78 and Flavatrocious here on RT are local to me. We had a mini ampfest last month. Warhead78 owns the Larry and a Hermannson. I was able to get the Fortin dialed in similar (not quite exact, but close) to the Larry actually, but it lacked the balls of the Larry. The Larry had the balls/punch of the Wizards, super tight and percussive and aggressive. More saturated than the Wizards and the slightest bit of compression. The overall voicing was more in line with the tones I go for. It's an older Dino not sure the model number.

curious which Hermansson it is and how it compared to those two??

I have heard some AMAZING Hermansson builds!!!

 

[novosibir]

One thing I will say is...I know a few who have a Larry. They've had Wizards, 2C+s, SLOs, modded Marshalls X50. All those have been sold, and they still have the Larry. And, when was the last time you saw one for sale? I for one have NEVER seen one come up. So they must be pretty damn good. Would I pay that kind of cash and wait a few yrs? I don't think I'd have the patience for it lol.

As a person with 3 Wizards - (down from 4 - just sold one )..... I love them all. That being said, after playing an older model Larry Dino I would take a new Larry Dino over any of them. The cost isn't an issue. I just can't deal with an unknown, years-long wait.

Out of curiosity, where’d you get to try one?

Also, how would you describe its tone and how it would compare to something like the Wizards?

Warhead78 and Flavatrocious here on RT are local to me. We had a mini ampfest last month. Warhead78 owns the Larry and a Hermannson. I was able to get the Fortin dialed in similar (not quite exact, but close) to the Larry actually, but it lacked the balls of the Larry. The Larry had the balls/punch of the Wizards, super tight and percussive and aggressive. More saturated than the Wizards and the slightest bit of compression. The overall voicing was more in line with the tones I go for. It's an older Dino not sure the model number.

Wow, very impressive to hear this.
Impressive because the 'DINO' seen on the photo isn't a real DINO, but a DINO JM what means, that basically this amp has been a regular Marshall before, which I've rebuilt completely, based on my DINO circuit. Hence the added initials JM what simply means 'Jim Marshall'

But... I've accomplished this rebuild already in the mid 90' what means, inside this DINO JM there's my technical condition of 25 years ago, never updated.

Just wondering how much you'd have been impressed by comparing the other amps with a current DINO 939 or a DINO 962

 

[novosibir]

I'm surprised this topic is still floating around. There is a thread on here from a few years back where Larry asked Mike about the Girth and Grind on the Hulk mod. Mike told him what he used and Larry even said that circuit was way different than his Bite & Punch circuit. It's safe to say he didn't/doesn't believe it, but best I can tell that is where all of this started.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=56786&p=667137&hilit=book#p667137

I own, love, and abuse some Fortin amps and Mike has been nothing but cool to me over the years. I haven't played a Larry, nor have I had any interaction with him, but based what I've heard about Larry's amps I would also own a Larry Dino PMM in a heart beat if I had the cash.

At that time Mike has posted a schem of some Garnet circuit out of his embarrassment and said, that this would be his Girth & Grind controls.

But even a novice in electronics easily could see by looking at this schem, that it might do anything, but nothing like a Bite & Punch control - or after Fortin a Girth & Grind control - would do. It's been a simply piteously answer of him.

 

[novosibir]

I went and looked up larry amps on youtube ..........Can't understand why anyone would rip that off .

If my amps in reality would sound like in these YT clips, which MF (as gainmonster) has uploaded at that time (and obviously by some reason), then even I'd never buy such an amp, even not for only 1k

 

[novosibir]

Warhead78 and Flavatrocious here on RT are local to me. We had a mini ampfest last month. Warhead78 owns the Larry and a Hermannson. I was able to get the Fortin dialed in similar (not quite exact, but close) to the Larry actually, but it lacked the balls of the Larry. The Larry had the balls/punch of the Wizards, super tight and percussive and aggressive. More saturated than the Wizards and the slightest bit of compression. The overall voicing was more in line with the tones I go for. It's an older Dino not sure the model number.

Is the Fortin a calimod? Because that's just a jose/cameron kind of circuit. My point being if Larry is saying Fortin ripped him to make the cali, then Larry would have had to ripped the Jose circuit.

I think it's likely Larry is "generally" saying Fortin has no original circuit designs, which would probably be true based on all the Fortin schematics I have.
If that's who he's even talking about.

No the Cali isn't a rip off of my circuits and to make it clear, I don't have anything of Jose (what Cameron ripped of him in the first place, others later then) in my circuits.
I've basically designed the circuit of my DINO amps already back in 1991 at a time w/o internet, email, PDF's aso. and at that time I still didn't know about someone named José at all. Sure my DINO circuits have been upgraded permanently over the years until the year 2017 and to be concrete altogether 28 times.

 

[novosibir]

Some bold talk there Senor Henson.

Did it sound 3 years wait and $6K good though???

If I could get it in a month or two, I'd do it in a heartbeat. My attention span won't extend longer than that. lol

This one was purchased on Rerverb for about $3500 or so, maybe a little less. It didn't have a logo on it, but Larry gave him a new one and confirmed the details/history of the amp. He actually went over it for Warhead78 before it was shipped to him I think. Seller was semi-local to him I believe.

I agree. 2 years is a stretch.

2 other members here have the current Dino 962 and sent me clips. I wasn’t blown away. So it could just be the clips, the settings, who knows. But I’ve not heard a single clip or video that was amazing.

But if you say it can hang with the Wizards... hmmm.

Since the turn of the millennium I've sold more than 60 DINO's to North America, but it's only one DINO 962 among these yet.

 

[Goat]

Larry's always been a good dude about sharing info on amp building when he was on Metro. He's knows just about everything regarding amplifier and electrical design. That doesn't always lend itself to great business practices. I always wondered how his amps sounded. There are some recent very unflattering clips of a Dino 939 on YT, could have been the player but...not impressive for 6K.

If you've personally played these Dino 939's and only this amp does it and feel the price is fair... then 6K is relative.

To my ears, this rig sounds like a Rockman Sustainor, pushed with a TS9.

 

[novosibir]

Larry's always been a good dude about sharing info on amp building when he was on Metro. He's knows just about everything regarding amplifier and electrical design. That doesn't always lend itself to great business practices. I always wondered how his amps sounded. There are some recent very unflattering clips of a Dino 939 on YT, could have been the player but...not impressive for 6K.

If you've personally played these Dino 939's and only this amp does it and feel the price is fair... then 6K is relative.

To my ears, this rig sounds like a Rockman Sustainor, pushed with a TS9.

Absolutely agree.

If my amps would sound like this in reality, I'd shoot down myself.

 

[Goat]

Larry's always been a good dude about sharing info on amp building when he was on Metro. He's knows just about everything regarding amplifier and electrical design. That doesn't always lend itself to great business practices. I always wondered how his amps sounded. There are some recent very unflattering clips of a Dino 939 on YT, could have been the player but...not impressive for 6K.

If you've personally played these Dino 939's and only this amp does it and feel the price is fair... then 6K is relative.

To my ears, this rig sounds like a Rockman Sustainor, pushed with a TS9.

Absolutely agree.

If my amps would sound like this in reality, I'd shoot down myself.

 

[Racerxrated]

Larry's always been a good dude about sharing info on amp building when he was on Metro. He's knows just about everything regarding amplifier and electrical design. That doesn't always lend itself to great business practices. I always wondered how his amps sounded. There are some recent very unflattering clips of a Dino 939 on YT, could have been the player but...not impressive for 6K.

If you've personally played these Dino 939's and only this amp does it and feel the price is fair... then 6K is relative.

To my ears, this rig sounds like a Rockman Sustainor, pushed with a TS9.

Absolutely agree.

If my amps would sound like this in reality, I'd shoot down myself.

Clips just don't work, IMO. I've heard some really great clips...then bought the amp only to be disappointed(EVH). On the other hand, bad clips don't mean jack to me. I know we can't all try some of these rare high gainers out, but, being here at RT means we have access to individuals who HAVE played one and offer their opinion. Knowing that these guys have or have owned some great amps, lead me and many others here to trust their opinion.
Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust that an SLO does NOT IN ANY WAY sound like a 6505...and in the same way trust that those clips of the Larry DO NOT SOUND ANYTHING LIKE IT AT ALL. Lol.
Too many guys who have played the Larry absolutely rave about it.
I trust them.

 

[SBlue]

When Larry speak about the Dino 962 in the US he is probably speaking about my amp.
Delivered on September 2018.
When someone else talked about Larry not delivering the amp paid for, mentioned on the Gear Page, he is also talking about me and the British Purist that I have on order.
Yes, three years is a lot of time, but Larry seems to be taking care of the back ordered list already, so much that my BP is arriving next Wednesday, and I’ll be glad to post back here confirming this.
Regarding the Dino, some people don’t wanna hear a great recorded video or sound file, otherwise how would they bad mouth the amp?
Yes... the videos on YouTube of the Dino sound like crap. And I would not pay what they cost based on these videos.
Matter of fact, I would be a dumb ass, if I would base a guitar amp investment over $2000 on YouTube videos.
I did my research and it paid off.
I do own a few good amps, and as far as high gain amps go, I could not find what would touch my Dino, Cameron and Wizard Metal. I do love all the ones I own, included my rectifiers(have a C, E and F), had Uberschall, SLO, VH4, Poundcake 100(another one that Fortin ripped off, even the visual)... you name it.
Like it or not, no other manufacturer build a 4 channels high gain amp, ptp, with the same quality as Larry does it.
In case you can, get together with someone who owns one and play the amp for a bit. It’ll change a lot of things in your mind. For better. Trust me.
If you cannot do it, don’t believe the YouTube videos. They’re not representing the amp well at all.

 

[MourningEngine]

I played a Dino 962 and Pure Metal Machine at Larry's place (before ordering both) and can confirm that they sound NOTHING like that YT clip.

Larry's amps deliver the nicest three-dimensional overtones I've ever heard.

 

[cardinal]

I know nothing about Larry amps (they seem cool!), but about YouTube clips: it seems like when I take just a iPhone clip, as long as I put the phone in a reasonable spot, it sounds pretty representative of what I'm getting in the room.

But for whatever reason, it seems like there are just no quality YouTube clips of certain amps. I've had a few VH4s, and I've never heard even a pro demo vid that actually sounds like the amp. I don't know why that is. The VH4 in person is just awesome. Like someone let Godzilla into the room, and he's rampaging molten metal all over your face. Every single YouTube vid of that amp, to me, sounds meeehhhhhhhhh.

So I can definitely believe that random YouTube vids don't capture this Larry amp. That's unfortunate though. I'd love to hear one.

 

[Goat]

For the record... my "sounds like a Rockman" comment was in reference to the quality of the recording, not the actual sound of the amp.

In the right hands...

 

[Devin]

If you've personally played these Dino 939's and only this amp does it and feel the price is fair... then 6K is relative.

Sounds like he has the gain set on zero or something lol, wtf

 

[thegame]

Ugh...so much to say but I'll address this clip first. Not to be mean but I don't know how else to put this. Dino amps are not very kind to "tentative" guitar players. If this guy was playing outside in the rain, the rain drops hitting the strings would provide more pick attack than his playing here. Also, in the comments of his other Dino video he mentions a Tube Screamer is turned on. The stock Dino already has a fairly hot boosted feel to it and very midrange dominated frequency response. To further compress the feel and frequency response with a TS is counter productive to say the least. It also looks like the master volume is set to 0.5. BELOW bedroom volume.