3RD Power Amplification, makers of the unique HLH100 guitar amp system, have announced the sale of one its first production units to Simon Townshend, guitarist on the current Roger Daltrey tour. Simon purchased the amplifier and cabinets immediately prior to the start of the tour after a demo at Tour Supply's Hollywood location.

According to the tour's FOH sound engineer, Mark Brnich of 8TH Day Sound, Townshend was using a different amp during rehearsals. "We only did about 10 days rehearsal, and this is the first time I've worked with him as an engineer," states Brnich. "During the rehearsal, I was in a completely separate room, so I'm not even sure what he was using. But the 3RD Power rig definitely sounds better. It's go more balls to it, more bite. It's fatter sounding."

While the HLH100 is designed for a three-channel "wet-dry-wet" output, Brnich's setup for Townshend's guitar uses two, with one channel for clean signal and one for effects. "It's just because that's the way the stage was patched for the other amp and I just decided to leave it that way," explains Mark Brnich. "But if I started over, I probably would use 3 channels for it."

Brnich has no trouble bringing Townshend's tone to the audience. "I don't really have to EQ it at all," he notes. "He's pretty well flat. I've only got some low-end rolled off - a high-pass filter at about 130 Hz, and that's it. And it sounds great."

Asked about the amp's unique triangular cabinets, Brnich admits to being bemused. "Literally, while we're loading the truck getting out of rehearsals, they haul this thing over from Tour Supply. And I'm like, what is up with this triangle thing? It took us a couple weeks before we got a case for it, so it was kind of a pain at first. But once Simon set it up, everybody was like - hey, this thing sounds good!"

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