Only 50 signed units of the new valve combo will be made, each pairing the preamp of the one-watt Nymph with a scaled-back version of the original amp’s power section.
Jimmy Page has shrunk the sound of his Led Zeppelin I combo down to six watts with the Dragonette, a new signature amp from Sundragon that bridges the gap between the company’s one-watt Nymph and the full-size recreation that started it all.
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The source of all this is a modified 1959 Supro Coronado 1690T, which Page relied on throughout the band’s debut album and which owes much of its character to the repairs and alterations it picked up along the way, including the swap of its twin 10-inch speakers for a single 12-inch Oxford alnico after it reportedly fell out the back of a truck. Page formed Sundragon in 2017 with amp builder Mitch Colby and producer and collector Perry Margouleff to reproduce that amp, releasing a signed run of 50 combos in 2019 before turning to his modded Marshall Super Bass with the Super Dragon in 2023.
Last year’s Nymph went the other way, squeezing the Supro’s character into a one-watt combo with a newly designed preamp and an eight-inch speaker. It found plenty of fans, although Dweezil Zappa was among those who wanted more power from it, and the Dragonette is the result. Sundragon has taken the Nymph’s preamp and paired it with the power section from the original combo, scaled back to six watts and driving a 10-inch speaker. “The result is a perfect blend of the old and new,” says Page, who adds that musicians in the company’s inner circle have responded well to it.
Sundragon’s own pitch centres on overdrive, which it says can stay mild or go much deeper, and six watts should get the power section working at volumes a studio or rehearsal room can tolerate without needing the larger combo’s output.
Each amp is hand-wired in New York using new old stock parts and valves and built to order. Like the original combo and the Super Dragon before it, the Dragonette is limited to 50 units, each signed by Page, with orders going directly through Sundragon.
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