TomaTone – Stella

A Single-Ended EL84 With a Big Soul — Engineered and Designed by Chris Phillips

The TomaTone Stella is what happens when an amplifier is designed with zero shortcuts and zero compromises. Conceived and crafted by Chris Phillips, Stella is a single-ended EL84 masterpiece that sings, blooms, responds, and inspires in ways small amps simply aren’t expected to.

Stella doesn’t copy anything. It doesn’t follow a recipe.
It is pure, intentional, hand-crafted tube design —
simple where it should be, wild where it needs to be, and musical everywhere.

THE HEART OF STELLA — PURE, SINGING TONE

At its core is a single-ended EL84, breathing openly in all its harmonic richness. Stella isn’t merely an SE amp; it’s a tone instrument built on the belief that one output tube, given the right environment, can produce music that feels alive under your fingertips.

There is no tone control, because the amp was purpose-voiced to sing.
You plug in, strike a note, and Stella answers with clarity, bloom, and emotion.

PARALLELED 12AU7 PREAMP WITH DUAL COLD CLIPPERS

Stella’s front end is unlike anything in the SE world:

• Two paralleled 12AU7 triodes for harmonic fullness

• Each triode feeding a dual 10k cold clipper

• Engineered for sweet, musical, controllable clipping

This design gives Stella:

• Smooth edge-of-breakup

• Long, singing harmonics

• Zero fizz or mush

• Exceptional note separation

• Articulate dynamics, even with hot pickups

It’s the kind of overdrive that makes you keep playing after the note fades — because the harmonics don’t want to stop.

A SMALL AMP THAT HITS LIKE A BIG AMP

Even with a single EL84, Stella delivers surprising authority:

• Tight, controlled lows

• Sweet, vocal mids

• Smooth, musical top end

• More volume than expected

• A harmonic footprint far larger than its size

Combined with Stella’s tweak controls, you can shape the amp into:

• A studio recording amp with controllable power-tube saturation

• A desktop amp with near-silent operation

• A practice amp that stays sweet at whisper levels

• A pedal platform when run cold with bypass caps disabled

• A small-stage amp that sounds bigger than its rating

Stella adapts to you — not the other way around.