I have a buddy who used to write about cheap vintage gear—this is going back to the late 90’s and early 21^st century (maybe up till about a decade ago) when there were still steals available left and right on the vintage market. He’s asked me to not name him, as he still writes about gear and tone, but mostly for newer boutique amps and obscure, cool, and great guitars. But he was the friend who taught me a lot about finding, buying, repairing and selling some of these unsung beauties, and for a while about a fifteen years to a decade ago, I was doing really well. On all fronts. Tone, fun, and money. Guitars, too. This was a time you could pick up most Harmony models for $200-$500 (nothing like a like $250 Rocket-ha!). I got an Espanada for $500 (to be fair, the seller knew nothing—don’t you love those sellers?—and there was only one picture so fuzzy I couldn’t tell if it was a 1446 or an Espanada…though I couldn’t have lost either way). 

This is also when you could get great deals if you tried every misspelling of an old Harmony or Kay or Dano you could think of. And if someone tipped you to the fact that a “Holliday” was a Harmony, and so on. With this news, I ended up picking up a perfect Holiday-branded Harmony H-19 for $100. Free shipping, as I recall! And this went on with many other brands…like Custom Craft and Regal and more from various—usually Chicago—makers. Jack White had already jacked up the Airline Jetsons model, but there were still deals on even Airlines, which were gaining perhaps the most notoriety.

My buddy gave up on the funky stuff when, according to him, “it got way to expensive for what it was.” And I can see his point—to…well, a point. I go back and forth. When I first started buying up catalog guitars and obscure amps in the early 2000’s, there seemed to be astounding deals everywhere. I was always a sucker for a good dual 6V6 amplifier with a single 12”…and, of course, the Holy Grail of said amps was/is the 5E3 Fender Tweed Deluxe. After that, everything behind it became, “the poor man/woman’s deluxe.” And, worse, he was seeing his articles quoted in eBay listings (in the days before Reverb.com), driving up the price of the cheap stuff he loved. It seemed annoying enough to him that he was quoted without credit, but even worse was this conclusion: he said to me one day, “I’ve totally doomed myself (he used stronger language).” When I asked what he meant, he pointed out that the gear he’d been buying for peanuts only a few years before, was now much more expensive—largely because of his spreading the word about how great they were. And now he could no longer afford the guitars he’d done so much to make popular in review after review.

But/and back to the poor man’s/poor woman’s (and, hell, I suppose poor circus clown’s and phlebotomists, as well…why limit any of the poor in need of tone?) Tweed Deluxe? What was there out on the market that could be snatched up cheaply and either fixed and flipped, or fixed and used? 

Silvertone 1483 amp

There were so many to take a cheap chance on…I’m mostly talking about the selection of dual 6V6 single 12” amps, but there were deals for bigger amps, as well…I once got an inexpensive Teisco Checkmate 100 that had a VU meter on the front! Did it sound that great? Well, not really. But that, in this case, was not the point: it had a VU meter on the front!  

But back to the single 12”s. They were almost always a very satisfying choice. There was a time not so long ago that you could buy the Silvertone (made by Dano)1472, or the slightly more juiced up 1482 (the better amp, really, but both are very cool) for prices between $150 and $200. You could sometimes get one on the cheaper end of $150 with the (also) Danelectro made Airline 62 9012A. Two hundred or so seemed the standard for years. Both of these were/are great amps. I have a slight preference for the Airline for seeming to have a slightly tougher cabinet (that said, it’s hardly a Fender or a Traynor since those guys used, you know, wood for these cabs and heads), though the Silvertone wins the looks and cool factor with the side knobs, cool gray color and the mod TV-looking front. 

Then there are some of the fabulous Lectrolabs/Sound Projects amps out of Chicago (still something of a mystery, that company) which, while they made amps under their own name and for Harmony’s 300 series, were one of the stranger Chicago companies in that they would sometimes venture into EL84 land for their output. One of the greatest amps I ever owned was a single ended EL84-powered twin 8” amp. The only better model with this set up I’ve ever heard was a friend’s similar Valco/Supro (his with, I believe, a 6V6…though it may have been a 6973) that, to be fair, kind of kicked my amp’s doors in.

Speaking of Supros/Valcos, even they were relatively inexpensive…except when the seller was one of the ten thousand bozos who claimed (no matter what the model) that THIS was the model Jimmy Page used (boy did JimmyPage use a lot of Supros for a guy who only used one Supro). Which did send Supro prices all over the map for a while.

Vintage Supro, just like Jimmy Page’s. No, really!

But I had just about every cool off-brand single 12” I could find for quiet a while (and others, but this was my main addiction, amp-wise). I also suffer from a condition (I used to be even more afflicted) many of my guitar friends seem to have. We want what we don’t have, and we don’t appreciate something we had until it’s gone. And more expensive. More than once, similar friends with the same affliction sit around in a group and one says, “what the hell is wrong with us?” A question their partners, other friends, and spouses have probably been asking for years.

To backtrack a little (or a lot), I started as a pretty stupid kid with this syndrome, but for dumber, younger reasons. When I was sixteen (please keep this age in mind. Please), I traded a 60’s Silverface Deluxe Reverb for a…wait for it…Peavey Renown. I’m not even sure I have the right spelling of Renown, but I’m too depressed, even thirty-odd years later, to even look it up. All I knew (thought) at the time was that my Deluxe wasn’t loud enough. And the Peavey, whatever else it was or wasn’t, was very loud. A ton of solid state watts with a 4X12” cab. I knew nothing about tone (perhaps you have already conclude this). I only knew that volume knob went all the way to the right. Other knobs be damned. I’m sure whatever audiences we drew were thrilled. And deaf.

But over the years (with classic mainstream gear and with the help of some folks like my buddy who was hip to funky gear), I started to understand tone. I got less interested in pedals and more interested in amps (not that they can’t go together). I dug into the history of the catalog guitars and found not only Airlines, and Silvertones, and Harmony, but figured out rarities like that Holiday. I bought an Estey/Magnatone 422 for $40 and it worked perfectly. It was my go-to recording amp for years. But these were all so intoxicating to get on the cheap, they were often even more intoxicating to sell at a decent profit (especially when I’d fixed them up). There are so many more brands I haven’t even touched upon—the Magnatone 213, the Hilgens (who tended to use EL-84’s)…some of the great Japanese amps like Guyatone and Univox and so many others. Forgive me, but I can’t list them all (I don’t even know about all of them, I’m certain).

Big regrets from this period? The DeArmond duel 6V6 single 12” (the same amp was also made and branded as a Martin). These were made in the late 50’s and early 60’s. And while they are a fine sounding amp, their value skyrocketed mainly (as far as I can tell) after a Tonequest review that called them the greatest 6V6 single 12” ever made. They are not. I’ve seen them go from $5,000 and up of late. Which, frankly, despite it being a fine amp, is an astonishingly large gap between quality and price. You can still find a Tweed Deluxe for less. Still, the Martin version had a rad grill cloth. Not a five grand grill cloth. But, pretty cool, nevertheless. 

I bought one of those in excellent condition for $300 in the early 2000’s. Sold it for maybe $500 a couple years later. Clearly, I wish I’d held on to it. At least long enough for this insane bump in price.

The best of these models I ever owned, however, was a two-toned (cream and red) early 60’s Kay. I think I paid $250. It was mint. I traded it for…something. Nothing that could have been as good for me as this model. It had two interactive channels (standard “Micraphone” and “Instrument” inputs…sadly, no hilarious “Accordian” input like so many Ampegs and Maggies). The cleans were lush and sweet and had depth and clarity. The overdrive was amazing…after about one o’clock to two o’clock on the dial, with more grit and volume when you played with the unused channel (just like a Tweed Deluxe). I have no idea who made it. I’ve always guessed it was some Chicago company, because all the Chicago guitar companies used local amps. Another buddy who knows very much about catalog/off brand equipment thinks it may actually be a Kay. It had the cool Frigidaire chrome handle like the Kay 507 model. In fact, it looks like it is may be made by the same company/in the same era as the 507. But, I have no idea. The amp had the two channels, with the second channel having a great tremolo—which was controlled with much smaller knobs than the volume and tone knobs. 

Times have changed… and so have the prices

But back to these amps in general. Now, all those prices have gone up. Some considerably. None are shockingly good deals anymore, because they have been discovered by so many players. But they are still affordable (to some people…other refuse to pay this kind of money for catalog amps) with great tone. Consider this:

The $99 Danelectro/Silvertone Amp-in Case (both the hollow 1457 and the solid 1452 guitars) would be roughly $814 in 2018 dollars. It sounds like a lot of money (and, to be fair, it kind of is a little head spinning compared to what they were…it is a lot of money), but think about getting a very cool, very good playing guitar that nothing else—not a single brand—sounds like along with what is pretty much a Champ-type amp in the case. The price for the vintage equivalents would easily be more than a grand. Or course, if you bought one new, you might want the guitar to have a better system for intonation, but…well, it is still a Dano.

The 15-18 watt 1482 (the 1472 looks much the same—albeit with a cooler handle—and has the same tube lineup but was listed at a curious 12 watts…not sure what gives there) listed for $68.95 when it debuted in the 1963 Sears catalog. Adjusted for inflation, that comes out to about $525 dollars in 2018 (which is, more or less, a little below what they’re selling for now on the used market). And, not much different from a new Fender Tweed Blues Deluxe…which is a fine amp, but isn’t hand built like a 60’s Dano. Of course, the expense of the labor Dano had would make it highly cost prohibitive today.

So the question is, are these great, cheap amps still great cheap amps? Well, they are still great amps if that’s the tone you’re going for (and to me, it’s a glorious tone…sound of hundreds of thousands of garages all over America in 1965-1968). No doubt about the great sound. But are they still cheap? Well, they are as affordable as many assembly line tube amps today, and they are easier to maintain being hand-wired and lacking tiny circuit boards. However, their cabinets are still cheaply made (very cheaply made in some cases), and lack the toughness and durability of similarly priced amps today. Most importantly, I would argue they sound a good amount better than their $450-600 contemporary counterparts.

But, sadly, I don’t think they really fall into the cheap category anymore. They are still affordable, for sure. And they have a sound you can’t really replicate for anywhere near the price. Actually, no boutique amp I’m aware of sounds anything like the catalog amps of the 60’s either. So many are great, but it’s simply not a tone a lot of newer boutique makers are shooting for). If you want that tone, it’s the way to go. Just, sadly, don’t expect to get them for a steal anymore.

And if you bought any of them for $150-$250 ten or so years back—don’t be stupid like me. Hold onto them. Unless it’s that Kay model. In which case you should sell it to me. Preferably for $150. Those old catalog amps aren’t worth much more. Trust me. 

The Golden Era of Vintage Catalog Amps from MyRareGuitars.com

I’ve always thought it highly ironic that among the “holy grails” of guitar collecting are the truly “rare birds” that were made in the smallest of quantities, yet most of the action is in the most common mass-produced guitars of the F and G variety.  But then, I’ve always been somewhat off-kilter.  But if you were to be impressed by the truly rare birds, you’d have to be taken by the Kramer Triaxe!

The Klingon-shaped Triaxe was built back in 1986 when Kramer was flying high—as it promoted itself in advertising at the time—as the world’s largest guitar company.  This was a little bit of hyperbole, but they probably were making and selling more guitars than any other brand name guitar company.  If you were to look at OEM manufacturers—companies that produced guitars for other companies (such as Cort or Samick)—(who were making guitars for companies such as Kramer itself), the claim might have been somewhat specious.  

In any case, you have to hand it Kramer for being an amazing bit of American guitar history and a major innovator.  There’s been a lot of mis-information published about Kramer guitars, some of it propagated (quite innocently) by me.  So much of the story is “anecdotal,” being derived from 1^st-person interviews, which provide so much rich detail, but which can also be subject to misremembering!  This is not the venue to set any records straight.  If Gary Kramer’s own account can be relied upon, it was Kramer who bankrolled Travis Bean’s aluminum necked guitar venture “in the early 1970s,” most sources say.  Bean applied for his patent in October of 1974, so 1974 seems as good as any date.  There may have been another person involved.

1986 Kramer Enterprise

According to Kramer’s account, he was not happy the Bean had filed for the aluminum neck patent under his own name.  In addition, Kramer asserts that Bean began to get distracted from building guitars at the time, which could be true.  He also claims that the Bean design was too heavy for constant gigging and he wanted to improve the guitar, make it lighter.  There was also some resistance among guitar players to the “metallic feel” of the necks.  Kramer found himself selling Beans to a store in New York City, where he met Dennis Berardi, reportedly a partner in a music store.  He and Berardi hooked up with an ex-Gibson executive Peter LaPlaca to form BKL International in 1975 to produce a better guitar to be called Kramer.

To get around Bean’s patent, Kramer came up with the idea of a wood insert in the back of a T-shaped aluminum neck, lightening the guitar and adding a more “wooden feel” to the neck.  Anyhow, in 1976 Kramer aluminum-necked guitars debuted.  Shortly thereafter they brought in the owner of building they were leasing, Henry Vaccaro, who helped finance the operation.  These new Kramer guitars were very well received and the company began to grow.  Kramer, for reasons as yet not adequately explained (he claims extraordinary pressure to ramp up production), left the company not long after its founding and now makes Gary Kramer Guitars.

However, as the 1980s dawned, aluminum necks were becoming passe.  Kramer began switching over to wooden necks.  They were just in time for the rise of Heavy Metal, and, along with that, a taste for weird pointy guitars and for double-locking vibrato systems.  Kramer came up with the Pacer in 1983, one of the candidates (among others) for “first SuperStrat.”  Kramer managed to get an endorsement from one of the preeminent guitarists of the day, Eddie Van Halen, and signed an agreement to become the exclusive distributor of Floyd Rose locking vibratos.  

1986 Kramer Triaxe

Not only did Rose let Kramer sell his whammy bars, Rose also began designing certain models for Kramer, including the Floyd Rose Signature and the two alien beings that debuted at the 1986 NAMM show, the Triaxe and the Enterprise, the not to Star Trek pretty obvious.  Reportedly, only 4 of each were made for the NAMM show.  These never went into production, for obvious reasons.  Even a good CNC program ain’t gonna make many of these guitars!

I once owned this Triaxe and have played an Enterprise.  These are not bad guitars at all, with great sound and comfortable to play, but if you tried gigging with one you’d be living in immortal dread of running into a mike stand or an amp.  Especially since they are really, really rare birds and by now worth a lot of money!  

Kramer continued to thrive and grow as the ‘80s progressed.  The sky seemed to be the limit.  Then all of a sudden, they were gone.  There are a lot of rumors surrounding this demise, some probably true.  They may have gotten over-extended into concert promotion.  For sure they were about to run into a wall called “Nirvana.”  By 1991 Kramer guitars were gone.

Henry Vaccaro ended up holding the bag and the Kramer name.  He tried to revive the brand in 1998, as original (more or less) aluminum necks.  However, the finances didn’t work and to get capital he sold the brand to the House of Brands, Gibson, which proceeded to import inexpensive Asian made Kramers that were pale reflections of the glory days.  Vaccaro tried to market his own Vaccaro brand aluminum necked guitars, but, as cool as they were, the market was gone.  As were those fascinating space opera relics, the Triaxe and Enterprise!

By Michael Wright, The Different Strummer

Beam Me Up, Scotty: 1986 Kramer Triaxe from MyRareGuitars.com

Back at the beginning of the 1980s I became enamored of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (I didn’t make that up; that’s what it was called) and especially the sub-genre that emerged from it called “neoclassical metal.”  Music by the likes of Randy Rhoads, Tony MacAlpine, Yngwie Malmsteen, etc.  So, naturally, a little later, I became interested in guitars especially designed for shred-meisters…and those wannabees who actually had to buy their own guitars.  The Ibanez Saber was one of my favorites.

Neoclassical metal has nothing to do with classical music in general, except maybe that sometimes it reminds me of Chopin or maybe occasionally Bach on steroids.  And, that it almost never employs the blues scales so ubiquitous in rock.  Nor does it have much in common with classical guitar—an idiosyncratic finger-style learned from musical scores—except for one thing: classical guitarists and many neoclassical shredders like wide, flat (almost no radius) fingerboards.  This is certainly not universal, for metallurgists, at least.  Narrower fingerboards with a decent radius fit the hand nicely when you’re chording.  Wider, flatter fingerboards make it easier to play fast melodies, keeping the notes clean and separate.  Since I play classical guitar, it was natural that I’d be at home on a guitar built for shredders.

Ibanez RS540S Pro-Line Saber

However, I probably would never have known this piece of arcane obscuranta had an art director I worked with at an advertising agency not played in a band.  He favored his Stratocaster, but his working-horse guitar was an Ibanez Saber.  I was the copywriter, so we were the “creative team.”  On rare occasions, between jobs, we’d jam a little, to get our creative juices going.  Every once in a while a nearby conference room would be in use and the account executive would come in and ask us to turn it down.  Yeah, right!  Everything up a notch…  In any case, as a guitar player, I found myself mildly competitive with my team-mate, so I was mightily pleased when I, too, got ahold of my own Ibanez Saber.  

The Saber was part of the 1986 Ibanez Pro-Line Series that essentially replaced the Roadstar II line of guitars.  It was the Roadstar II line that really established Ibanez as a powerhouse guitar brand—partly for the quality and style of the guitars and partly because they hit the market in the early 1980s just at the time that most young guitar-players couldn’t remember the resentment against Japanese products that lingered in Americans for many years following World War II.  With the Roadstars, Ibanez finally began selling enough guitars to become really profitable.

The Pro-Lines weren’t necessarily an “improvement” so much as a next evolutionary step.  I don’t know exactly why they ware called the Pro-Line but Ibanez was beginning to garner a lot more professional endorsements, and the Pro-Lines were what a lot of them played.  The top of the line was the magnificent 1770, with sleek lines and push-button controls.  The others included a trio of uniquely styled SuperStrats: the super-thin-bodied Saber (played variously by Frank Gambale, Jennifer Batten, Reggie Wu, Scott Henderson, Larry Mitchell), the teardrop-shaped Radius (which would become the Joe Satriani signature guitar), and the Power, kind of reverse offsets (played by Alex Skolnick).  All were perfect for the virtuosic styles popular at the time.

The Saber was/is a remarkable guitar if your taste runs to light-weight and powerful.  That super-thin mahogany body is almost invisible, a mint that melts in your mouth.  The neck is also pencil-thin but relatively wide and flat, perfect for blazing runs.  These necks are really fast if the action is set up right.  The pickups are IBZs, which was a collaboration between Ibanez USA and DiMarzio, and they’re screamers.  Finally, these had Ibanez’s “The Edge” version of the Floyd Rose locking vibrato, a knife-edge unit that’s feather-touch sensitive, if you like that sort of thing.  I don’t dive-bomb, so I’m happy with a Mosrite, but the Edges are sweet.

The Saber, Radius, and Power lasted as such through 1990.  By 1991 the Saber had become the Frank Gambale FG series, the Radius had become the Joe Satriani JS series, and the Power was gone.  

Also in 1991 Nirvana released Nevermind and music changed.  Oh, all the fine neoclassical metal players continued to play.  Some changed styles, some didn’t.  But all of a sudden guitar players wanted funky pawn shop guitars, “alternatives.”  For the next few years guitar-makers struggled to figure out “what’s next” and always seemed to be 2 steps behind.  

I liked those new guitars, too, but then I like pretty much all guitars, so that means nothing.  I never did learn to shred.  Maybe I will some day.  Still love that Ibanez Saber, though. 

By Michael Wright

The Different Strummer

Heavy Metal Thunder: 1988 Ibanez RS540S Pro-Line Saber from MyRareGuitars.com

Back in the mid-1970s guitar players got a bad scare from Disco.  Hard rock had ruled the roost in the early ‘70s, but what had been a fairly monolithic music industry began to show signs of fracturing.  In terms of guitar playing, two anti-guitar factions emerged.  For those who wanted to be a rock star but didn’t want to bother honing chops there was punk.  Learn a few chords and bash away.  At least they were still playing guitars!  On the other side was the disco crowd.  Don a sequined costume and dance the night away to music based on the lush orchestration and insistent groove of keyboard synthesizers.  

The guitar press began to get worried and doom-sayers predicted the demise of the guitar.  We know that didn’t happen, of course, but it was a frightening period for guitar fanatics.  One approach to answering the problem was the synthesizer industry (if you can call it that) itself: put synth controller electronics into guitars.  The Roland GR-500 of 1978 was the first such attempt, a nice Ibanez-Musician-style guitar made by Fujigen Gakki with Roland synth controls that plugged into a large console that converted the analog signal into MIDI signals that then activated tone generators on the console and any external synthesizer machines connected to it.

As you might be guessing from my explanation of MIDI above, I’m part of that generation that started out writing on typewriters and had to trade them in for a computer keyboard.  I tried, but I never really got guitar MIDI technology. I played around a little with the Roland gear, which was OK because the converters had tone generating filters built in, so you could get weird squeaky tones, but I never knew what to use them for.  As for coordinating between multiple synthesizer machines, that was way beyond my pay grade.  

The Casio MG-500 MIDI guitar

Nevertheless, I thought I might be seduced by the dark side and picked up interesting guitar MIDI gear whenever it came my way, including this Casio MG-500 MIDI Guitar.  If you’re close to my age you knew Casio as the major purveyor of digital watches and calculators.  If you’re young you might not know that there were ever anything other than digital watches and you probably don’t know what a calculator is because all that is done for you on your phone.

Anyhow, Casio got into the synthesizer business with a whole range of keyboard synths that ranged from novelty small consumer-electronics keyboards with a few pre-programmed sounds (“piano,” “saxophone,” etc.) to fully professional units.  During the 1980s, toward the end of the synth guitar debacle, Casio introduced a number of very interesting guitars.  One was a sort of toy version with a touch-sensitive fingerboard and plastic strings, programmed sounds, and even a built-in amp and speaker, though you could output the sound to a real amp.  The other was this guitar, which was a serious attempt at making a MIDI guitar controller.

1988 Casio MG-500 MIDI Guitar

Like the Roland (and Ibanez) attempts at making a guitar synth, the Casio electronics were mounted on a guitar made by Fujigen.  While the first Roland guitar synths were put on a “normal” guitar, the concept quickly evolved that a guitar synth should feature an “exotic” shape.  To be fair, guitars moving into the 1980s favored unconventional guitar shapes.  “New Wave” guitarists like Andy Summers of the Police championed the minimalist Steinberger, while Heavy Metal bands liked Flying Vees, Explorers and even more “non-Spanish” shapes.  So if you were going to be controlling whooshes and chinkles, you needed a guitar that didn’t look like a conventional guitar.

The 1988 Casio MG-500 was very similar to guitars made for Roland and Ibanez.  It was basically like a Strat with all the extraneous wood shaved off.  It had a humbucker and two single-coil pickups like most contemporary “Superstrats.”  It had a “traditional” vibrato.  One of the early problems of guitar synths was that guitarists liked to use the wang bar but MIDI signals had to be precise.  By the time of the MG-500 this technical limitation had been solved.  The MG-500 was the first guitar synth to put the MIDI converter right on the guitar.  You could choose to play just regular guitar, just MIDI, or blend the two, or add in an octave line.  It had a regular 1/4-inch jack and a 5-pin MIDI jack.

The Casio MG-500 was a mind-boggling feat of electronic engineering.  That a guitar could have this sort of functionality is astounding.  

Well, it turns out I wasn’t so unusual in being befuddled by MIDI technology.  A fiveway switch and a few mini-toggles turn out to be about our limit.  There was almost no market for MIDI guitars.  The Casio MG-500 was one of the last MIDI guitars to be produced. Roland continued to make aftermarket MIDI convertors you could mount on your guitar, and, for a time, Fender produced some special-order Strats so equipped.  But Disco was long-gone by this time, and the Seattle Sound and Pearl Jam were just around the corner.  While they eschewed heavy metal solos, they did play guitars and there was no reason to be scared.

As I write these words, guitars are under threat again.  “Pop music” is dominated by producer-assembled “beats” and singers sound good through the application of digital auto-tuners.  Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m ready with my MIDI guitars…  No, I don’t think so.

By Michael Wright

The Different Strummer

1988 Casio MG-500 MIDI Guitar from MyRareGuitars.com

Most guitars first speak to me as visual works of art.  The color, the shape, or some sort of unique design.  Or it might be an interesting, obscure brand.  Rarely has the sound of the guitar been the calling card, but that was the case with this 1984 Aria Pro II RS Series Rev-Sound RS-Esprit.  (Don’tcha love those long names!)

Actually, when you look at the RS-Esprit, it has remarkable elegant lines.  It’s got a down-sized body that’s obviously Strat-style, but svelt, balanced, modern.  No doubt the color caused this flower to shrink somewhat.  When you look closely, the metallic greenish turquoise color (officially “Phantom Blue”) is pretty nifty, but across a room, it looks kind of “blah.”  The black pickups disappear into the shadows.  Still, there was something about this guitar that drew me to it.

Now, when the attraction of a guitar is primarily visual, I usually don’t care what the sound is going to be like.  After all, when you factor in an amp and effects, you can make any guitar sound like whatever you want as long as the electronics work.  But for some reason this guitar wanted me to plug it in.  I’m not sure what the “Rev” in Rev Sound is supposed to mean, but if it’s “reverse,” that sure makes sense!  This guitar lives in that out-of-phase world of between the pickups on a Fender Stratocaster.  This guitar is all about shades of twang!  I don’t know about you, but for me those in-between positions are why I’d play a Stratocaster.  I know I’m not alone on that one.  This guitar sounds out-of-phase in single-coil mode, and is still slightly funky in humbucker mode.

1984 Aria Pro II RS Series Rev Sound RS-E CU-tile

The existence of the Aria Pro II Rev-Sounds derives from the conclusion of the “Copy Era” of the 1970s.  By around 1968-69 Japanese guitar-makers had hit on a strategy of making less-expensive copies of popular American guitar models as a way of increasing market share in the U.S.  It worked like a charm.  By the mid-1970s American manufacturers—especially Gibson—were annoyed, to understate the issue.  In 1977, Norlin (the parent of Gibson) filed suit against Elger Guitars (the American subsidiary of Hoshino/Ibanez) in Philadelphia Federal Court claiming “trademark infringement” over headstock shape copying.  Nevermind that Ibanez had changed its heads in 1976.  Japanese makers agreed to cease and desist and in 1978 a new breed of Japanese electric guitars began to appear.  In many ways the cure was worse than the disease, because the new Japanese guitars were original designs built even better, and they continued to grab even more market share than before.  Think Ibanez Studio and Musician guitars.

Aria, which had originally initiated the “Copy Era,” lagged slightly behind, but in 1979 introduced a slew of new electric guitar series, including the unique Rev-Sounds, the 850 and 750.  The idea behind the Rev-Sounds was to use 3 single coil pickups, but with only the front and back hot, the center being a “dummy” coil that could be switched into active status to go from “single-coil” to “humbucker.”  The initial Rev-Sounds were sort of frumpy takes on Ibanez’s Musicians, a little more pointy.  The RS-850 was active while the RS-750 was a passive version.

The RS-Esprit was a much trimmed down version of the active RS-850 that debuted in 1984.  This has an alder body with a bolt-on neck featuring a “smooth joint” heel, a sort of clumsy compromise between a regular heel and the “heelless” designs of guitars like B.C. Rich.  The controls are a 3-say switch with two mini-toggles that activate the center dummy pickup in humbucker mode for front and back.  The knobs are master volume and two tones.  There’s also a little red light to indicate that your battery is still working.  The Act 3 locking vibrato system was similar to some Kahler systems that didn’t make you clip off the ball-end to load the strings.

I’ve always thought these were made by Matsumoku—in which Aria had a financial interest and which made numerous Aria guitars—however, I’m not so sure any more.  It certainly has a Matsumoku feel.  However, as a Trading Company, Aria had other factories from which to source its guitars.  This very well could have been made by another factory.

In any case, this is a really fun guitar to play, with a fully professional feel.  It’s not the most versatile guitar, but then with an amp and effects…  I don’t know if the RS-Esprit is particularly rare, but these were made for little over a year at a time when Japanese guitars were still imported in relatively small lots.  You rarely see these come up for sale, and I’m inclined to think they are.  These were made just before Japanese guitars came out from the shadow of post-World-War-II disdain.

Between new guitars and vintage guitars, guitar players have a gazillion choices these days.  But there are unique, fascinating guitars out there like the Aria Pro II RS-Esprit worth seeking out.  I’ve always been glad I heard this guitar’s siren call.

By Michael Wright

The Different Strummer

1984 Aria Pro II RS Series Rev Sound RS-Esprit from MyRareGuitars.com

Let me start off by saying that the new Magnatone line of amps is no less than stellar! There are three series: the Studio Collection, Traditional Collection and the Master Collection. All exude tonal quality and craftsmanship, and that is before we consider the features of stereo pitch-shifting vibrato or tube-driven reverb. Between the three series or “collections,” Magnatone manages to offer something to meet just about every player’s needs. From five-watt studio amps to 6V6, American-voiced combos to EL34 British-inspired heads and cabs, Kornblum, Khan and the rest of the crew at Magnatone have produced a line of models that covers all of the bases.

Magnatone Amps

Each collection includes three models. In the Studio Collection, Magnatone offers up three lower-wattage, class A tube amplifiers housed in solid pine, finger jointed cabinets covered in either black or burgundy faux crocodile covering.

The Lyric is a no-frills, 10 watt, Class A combo featuring one 12AX7, one 6L6 power tube and a 10-inch speaker. It’s perfect for studio, rehearsal and small club performances.

The Varsity is the big brother to the Lyric. A 15 watt, push-pull class A amplifier featuring two 12AX7 preamp tubes, two EL84 power tubes and a GZ34 rectifier, the Varsity is the perfect size for stage and studio. The combo houses a 75 watt, 12″ custom Magnatone speaker in a box that’s a bit larger than you might expect. The result is an amp with enough power and bottom end to blow the doors off of most joints. One of the coolest features of the Varsity is the Negative Feedback Switch, which acts as a 8db boost/cut, allowing the amp to take on two unique sonic personalities.

The third model in the Studio Collection is the new Panoramic. Debuted at the 2014 NAMM trade show, the Panoramic is a stereo, 5 watts per side, single-ended class A amplifier with two 12 AX7s, a 12AU7 and a duet of 6V6 power tubes. The Panoramic offers the famous Magnatone pitch-shifting, varistor stereo vibrato. Cabinet options include a 1×12″ or stereo 2-10″ speaker cab.

The Traditional Collection showcases the Twilighter, Twilighter Stereo and Single V models. Encased in a classy, brown tolex with retro style, the Traditional series amplifiers would look equally great on stage, in the studio or as a fine piece of furniture in your living room! All three models are American-voiced, push-pull class AB amplifiers featuring either 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes. All Traditional series amps also feature a tube driven, long pan reverb and true pitch-shifting, varistor vibrato which can be switched to conventional tremolo via the FM-AM switch. Each member of the Traditional Collection is an outstanding, boutique, American-voiced tube amp with a warmth and bloom usually only heard in the finest vintage tube amps of the 1960’s.

The Vibrato effect departs from the original vintage design by producing a much more lush and three dimensional quality that can be slowed much slower than it’s ancestors. The result is unsurpassed, dynamic fidelity with a modulation that is mesmerizing.

The Master Collection offers three models inspired by the British amp companies of the ’60s. The Super Fifteen and Super Thirty are 15 watt and stereo 15 watts per side, respectively. They are EL 84, push-pull class A amplifiers designed with sparkly, British styled clean tones as well as full throttle A class overdrive capabilities. Pair that with the option of Magantone’s true pitch-shifting vibrato and you have an amp that will please any die-hard, class A, British-tone purist!

The Super Fifty-Nine head is a unique model, even though it is listed as part of the Master Collection and aesthetically has the same black tolex and white satin grill cloth as its A class siblings. The Super Fifty-Nine is a British behemoth that features a two EL34, 45 watt, push-pull class AB power section. With two channels, the Super Fifty-Nine has the ability to straddle vintage British tones as well as more modern, gainy rock tones of the ’70s and ’80s. With an input layout similar to a vintage Bassman and the pitch-shifting vibrato circuit available in the classic channel only, one can bridge the two channels to produce a warbley, uni-vibe effect that conjures the soul of Hendrix and Trower. After hearing the Super Fifty-Nine, it comes as no surprise that the model was developed in conjunction with Billy Gibbons and has been the Reverend’s go to rig for the last year or so.

Each model is unique yet consistently voiced in the new Magnatone tradition. Most models come with either Magnatone branded, WGS designed speakers, or Celestion Gold Alnicos (Lyric is supplied with a Jensen P10R). Some models include a two button footswitch, and a 20k expression pedal is also optional for hands-free control of the vibrato speed.

Although Magnatone is currently offering amplifiers only, plans are underway to offer high end Magnatone guitars with the help of Boise-based luthiers John and Jake Bolin of Bolin Guitars.

So while we currently live in the golden age of boutique gear, it may seem an impossible feat to offer up something unique both in aesthetic style and high fidelity that balances the much sought retro tones and looks of the great classics with the needs of modern players. Yet Ted Kornblum, Obeid Khan, and the team at Magnatone have managed to do just that! With great tone, vibe and style, the Magnatone line of amplifiers is a home run, and the redesigned, true pitch-shifting, varistor vibrato is just the icing on the cake.

Magnatoneusa.com

Written by: David Anderson

Magnatone Amps – The Evolution of Boutique Tone, Yesterday & Today (Part 2) from MyRareGuitars.com

Magnatone Amps

As a person who has worked in the music retail industry for more than 20 years, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard about how a quality manufacture was acquired by a larger corporation and imploded from bad “business” decisions, ruining the brand in the process. While not the rule, it happens more often than not in most every industry.

So imagine you work for a family-owned company that distributes music equipment. One day, you are looking through some of the old family catalogs and discover that a very cool, unique brand, which has been out of production for years, has a trademark that has expired and is just sitting there for the taking. What would you do?

Magnatone Amps

Ted Kornblum’s grandfather founded St. Louis Music Supply Co. in 1922. Among the many brands that SLM has distributed are Ampeg, Crate, Alvarez, and Knilling. Also on the company’s distribution list: Magnatone.

Magnatone was started in 1946 by Art Duhamell, who purchased the Dickerson Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company. Dickerson was a small, Southern California builder who produced lap steels and amplifiers. Duhamell changed the name to Magnatone a division of his Magna Electronics Company in Los Angeles. Magna also produced record players, speakers, radios and organs as well as amplifiers under brands such as ToneMaster, DaVinci, Pac-Amp, and Estey. The Estey organ’s vibrato circuit was integral in the birth of the famous Magnatone pitch shifting vibrato feature,(but more on that later). Though Magnatone had a good run of building some of the first, high fidelity, innovative, “boutique” amps to hit the market, the company was plagued by mergers and buy outs, poor business decisions, and bad investments. In the end, Magnatone was no more by the end of the 1960’s.

Magnatone Amps

Fast forward to the early 2000’s, Ted is sitting at his desk one day and he discovers that the Magnatone trademark was abandoned — there for the taking! So Ted quietly makes some inquiries and soon finds himself the owner of the Magnatone brand. He doesn’t tell anyone. Not even his buddy, the Rev Billy Gibbons. He just… waits.

After some years the tables turned, and SLM was that company that ended up being acquired by a larger corporation. We won’t get into the details, but Ted Kornblum eventually found himself free to do what he pleased. Maybe start his own company… maybe do something with his secret acquisition, Magnatone.

Now you have to understand, back when Magnatone amps were made, Fender was the utility amp of time, and Ampeg appealed to the jazz market. Magnatone, by contrast, was known as a boutique amplifier, decades before the boutique craze began. Magnatone amps were not cheap. They had great fidelity, reverb and that famous, pitch shifting stereo vibrato. Fender’s dedicated vibrato channel was actually tremolo, not vibrato, changing the amplitude or volume of the signal, not the pitch. To further muddy the waters, Fender incorrectly labeled its guitars’ vibrato unit a tremolo.

Magnatone Amps

So Ted had been sitting on this brand a while. He had a long time to think about how to revive the Magnatone line. The first step would be putting together a design team that could make the amps a reality. While Magnatone was ahead of its time as far as amp design is concerned, it did have its flaws. For one, the amps were fragile, not up to par to today’s rigorous standards. They also had limited power output — not conducive to today’s rock ‘n roll needs. So the new Magnatones would have to have a balance of both worlds. That luscious, true pitch shifting vibrato, tremolo (yes that FM-AM switch allows for either effect) and a deep, well-like reverb — but with more under the hood, some rock ‘n roll torque for the heavy hitters!

To put this plan in motion, Ted had an ace in his pocket… a guy right here in St. Louis who was responsible for designing practically all things tube that came out of SLM, including the revered Crate Vintage Club series amps. Obeid Khan is not just an engineer with a soldering gun, he’s a player…a serious player! Ask anyone in town, they’ll tell you, Obeid Khan is a monster when it comes to amps and blistering guitar. Khan, splitting time between his own company, Reason amps, and a position repairing vintage tube amps for local vintage gear gurus, Killer Vintage, decided he was up to the challenge of working on the foundation and design on the new Magnatone amps.

Ted and Obeid enlisted a team of engineers including Ken Matthews, Greg Geerling, Dan Ryterski, Chris Villani, George McKale, and the famous Neil Young tech, Larry Cragg to make the Magnatone line a reality. Another ace in the hole was having local cabinet builder and owner of Vintage-Amp Restoration, Gregg Hopkins, involved in the design of the amps, making sure to pay homage aesthetically to Magnatone’s retro look.

Magnatone Amps

So with an all-star team of engineers and the discriminating ears of players like Billy Gibbons, Khan, and Larry Cragg, the team began to prototype the first models of the new Magnatone amplifier and guitar company. Once the first models began rolling off the bench, the decision was made to bring Dave Hinson, owner of Killer Vintage (June 2012 myrareguitars.com) on as sales manager in order to help with dealer placement.

Next month we’ll take a look at the models and features including the magic of the Magnatone Varistor Vibrato!

Written by: David Anderson

Magnatone Amps – The Evolution of Boutique Tone, Yesterday & Today (Part 1) from MyRareGuitars.com

11. Ampeg VT 22

Song: All Down the Line
Artist: Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
Ah, Keith Richards and his Les Paul + Ampeg VT 22 combination. It’s like chicken soup/comfort food for the soul of tone. Holed up on the coast of France during 1969/70 to avoid arrest for tax evasion changes back in the UK, Keith and the boys recorded one of my all time favorite albums. Check out anything off Exile on Main Street for reference. The riff and tone on “All Down the Line” is a standout track to me. PURE KEEF!

Keith Richards with the Ampeg VT 22 Amp

Keith Richards with the Ampeg VT 22 Amp

12. Carvin X100B

Song: Blue Powder
Artist: Steve Vai
I’ll never forget the first time I heard Steve Vai’s “Blue Powder” on his breakout give away flexi-disc record that was included in the October ’85 issue of Guitar Player Magazine. The sheer melodic content vs. guitar prowess was beyond insane for the time. Steve Vai houses genius, melody and lighthearted feeling in a way that no other guitar player can. The tone and technique offered in the thin piece of vinyl was a small viewing glass into what was soon to become a new era in instrumental guitar technique.

Steve Vai & the Carvin X100B Amp (1986)

Steve Vai & the Carvin X100B Amp (1983)

13. Marshall 6100 30th Anniversary

Song: Up in the Sky
Artist: Joe Satriani
I had the opportunity to take my stepfather to see Joe Satriani at the memorial auditorium in Sacramento, CA for his birthday on October 29, 1998 during the Crystal Planet Tour. I’ll admit I had stepped outside my earlier hard rock guitar roots at that time and was listening to more alt country and pop stuff then. Seeing Joe on that tour blew my mind and reminded me of why Joe is the KING of all things instrumental rock guitar. I soon went out and purchased the Crystal Planet cd after the concert and was given a heavy dose of all things that inspire rock guitarists to play – including but not limited to – amazing instrumental guitar songs with pure tone and heartfelt performances. In the strange mystery that is life, Joe would later become a client of mine and a good friend. We have talked about how that album was recorded mostly live at “The Plant” in Sausalito. The majority of the core tones were captured with single channel tube amps, including the Joe Satriani staple: Channel One of the Marshall 6100 Anniversary Edition with a Japanese Boss DS-1 pedal pushing the front for the gain. In the hands of the master, even this simple setup can be considered legendary. Check out “Up in the Sky” as a standout track, but every track on this album is pure gold. One of my top ten instrumental albums of all time.

Joe Satriani’s 1992 Marshall 6100 30th Anniversary Amp

1992 Marshall 6100 30th Anniversary Amp

1992 Marshall 6100 30th Anniversary Amp

14. Hiwatt DR103

Song: Comfortably Numb
Artist: David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
David Gilmour of Pink Floyd has always conjured up jaw dropping juicy tones of mythical proportion for decades. The Wall album feature many classic songs and some of my favorite recorded solo guitar tones ever. It seems Mr. Gilmour’s go-to amp on stage and in the studio is the Hiwatt DR103 100W head with WEM Super Starfinder 200 cabinets loaded with Fane Crescendo speakers. In this case I would say that David’s core tone is crafted from his hands, guitar and the highly elaborate Pete Cornish pedal board that is fed into the amp. More so than the amps stand-alone sound, his DR103 acts more as a clean full range power amp in this setup but is still noteworthy. Check out the solo in “Comfortably Numb” as my standout track. For more great info on David Gilmour and his gear, check out www.gilmourish.com as well.

David Gilmour’s Custom Hiwatt 100 Amp

David Gilmour’s Custom Hiwatt 100 Amp

David Gilmour’s Custom Hiwatt 100 Amp

David Gilmour’s Custom Hiwatt 100 Amp

15. Fender Eighty-Five (Solid State)

Song: Creep
Artist: Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)
When the band Radiohead hit the scene in the early 90’s, I was immediately impressed with the songs and the two unique and original guitar parts on every song. Both guitarists (Jonny Greenwood & Ed O’Brien) seemed to cover so much tonal spectrum, yet always giving way to complimenting the song and never walking over the other players parts. I was surprised to find out at a much later date that Johnny Greenwood used a solid state Fender 85 amplifier as his main set up with pedals (including a Marshall Shredmaster pedal) driving the front of the amp to get his signature overdrive sound. Very early in Radiohead’s career, Jonny’s only amp was his Fender Eight-Five, which he used for both his distorted and clean tones. By late 1993, however, Jonny had bought his first tube amp: a Fender “The Twin” – which is the version Twin Reverb produced at the same time as the Eighty-Five. I think Radiohead is one of the most important and truly original groups to come out in the last 20 years.

Jonny Greenwood’s Fender Eighty Five Amp

Jonny Greenwood’s Fender Eighty Five Amp

Jonny Greenwood & his Fender Eighty Five Amp (Radiohead)

Jonny Greenwood & his Fender Eighty Five Amp (Radiohead)

16. Vox AC30

Song: Apache
Artist: Hank Marvin (The Shadows)
Across the pond in the late fifties & early sixties, The Shadows were cranking out pop and instrumental hits left and right. They achieved over 60 UK chart topping singles during there long and successful carrier. As a result of their success at the start of the 60’s, Hank Marvin had an interesting influence on the current VOX amplifier designs of the day as noted in this interview:

Along with the Fender guitar, another cornerstone of the Shadows sound was the Vox amplifier. According to Hank Marvin:

“Vox was one of the first companies to get onto artists and groups so they could promote their amplifiers. In fact, I tried Fender amplifiers first, but preferred the sound of the Vox with the Strat, because I think it was more of a raw sound. The Fender amplifier, to my ear sounded a little too smooth with a Strat, and I seemed to get more guts out of a Vox.”

Reg Clark worked in the Vox store in London’s Charing Cross Road in the early 60’s, and credits Hank with instigating a major Vox development:

“He suggested we made one with two speakers and it was from that comment that the AC30 came.”

The Shadows had tried the more powerful Fender Twin, but the Vox AC15 provided the sound they wanted, albeit with insufficient volume. Using two amplifiers each was rejected, and Vox finally came up with the legendary AC30, with the group taking delivery of four in late 1959. The AC30 was a 30-watt model with 12″ twin speakers and EL84 output valves. Hank’s amp was modified with a treble booster to provide a cleaner sound at high volume levels and this model was later sold commercially as the AC30 Top Boost.

Soon after, Hank changed his echo unit to the Binson Echorec, and a true legendary combination was solidified!

The Shadows & their Vox Amps

Vox AC30 Amp played by The Shadows

17. Gibson EH-150

Song: Stomping at the Savoy
Artist: Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian is the modern godfather of amplified electric jazz guitar. He is credited as a pioneer for taking the humble roll of the rhythm jazz guitar player in non-amplified form and pushing the boundaries to the point where other musicians respected the guitar. He proved the amplified guitar as a viable lead and solo instrument in the context of a large jazz ensemble. The Gibson ES-150 guitar coupled with the very rudimentary Gibson EH-150 tube amplifier paved the way for the future of modern electric guitar. Check out Charlie on the track “Stomping at the Savoy” and think back to how amazing that must have sounded live in the room in 1941 NYC.

Charlie Christian & his 1930’s Gibson EH-150 Guitar Amp

1930’s Gibson EH-150 Guitar Amp

18. Modified Marshall 100W Super Lead Plexi (The “Pete” Amp)

Song: Welcome to Paradise
Artist: Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day)
When Green Day hit the big time on their chart topping Dookie album in 1994, I was immediately intrigued. Dookie was the band’s third studio album and its first collaboration with producer Rob Cavallo – and its major record label debut. Green Day seemed to come out of nowhere with their punk and thrash attitude, yet the songs were tight & concise hit pop/AOR sensations. Not only is Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day a killer songwriter and performer, his guitar tone is super fat and chunky. Wielding his bastard green Fernandez Stratocaster copy and a modified Marshall Plexi Super Lead 100-watt amp head (with the name duct-taped out), Billie Joe has perfected that tight right-hand rhythm and is so locked in with Trey Cool and Mike Dirnt. They create a modern power trio that is highly underrated IMHO. Check out the opening riff to “Welcome to Paradise” and you realize right then and there – this is the fundamental core sound of modern alternative rock as it stands today.

Billie Joe Armstrong on-stage at Woodstock 1994 with his ‘Dookie’ modified Marshall Super Lead

Billie Joe Armstrong on-stage at Woodstock 1994 with his ‘Dookie’ modified Marshall Super Lead

19. Kustom K200A-4 (aka the ‘A4’ or the K200A Model 2-15L-4)

Song: Born on a Bayou
Artist: John Fogerty (CCR)
Another solid state transistor amp to make the list! The Kustom A4 amplifier with 2 x 15″ cab. This was John Fogerty’s main live rig for the classic CCR years, but there is also proof that he did use a a silver face Fender Vibrolux Reverb on many of the CCR studio recordings. The Fender provided more of a natural distortion that the transistor-based Kustom just couldn’t provide. John’s Kustom amps on stage always had the Trem / Vib set at one o’ clock as seen in many photos. Check out this classic performance and tone from Woodstock with the Rik in hand. There’s no doubt in any guitarists mind who the player is when the intro riff of this classic rock song comes through your radio dial.

CCR with the Kustom Amp in the background

John Fogerty’s K200A-4 Amp

John Fogerty’s K200A-4 Amp

1968 Kustom Ad for the K200A Amp

20. Standel Amp

Song: Mr. Sandman
Artist: Chet Atkins
In the mid to late 50’s, all the top guitar players and band leaders of the time were custom ordering Standel amps from Bob Crooks in CA. From StandelAmps.com:

Bob Crooks built approximately 75 amps with the first design (knobs on top of the amp), all out of his backyard workshop at 10661 Freer Street in Temple City CA. Chet Atkins couldn’t order one himself because of his endorsement deal with Gretsch, but he bought one from a guitar player friend and used it on thousands of recordings. You can hear the amp during Chet Atkins appearances on “Classic Country” originally from 1957 but rebroadcast in the mid-80’s on TNN, Chet’s White Standel can be seen behind him on a bale of hay on about half of the performances).

Chet Atkins is arguable the most accomplished and amazing guitar player in US history. This performance of “Mr. Sandman” shows his effortless touch and command of the instrument.

Jim Reeves & Chet Atkins with a Standel 25L15 Amp

Chet Atkins with a Standel 25L15 Amp

Standel 25L15 Guitar Amp

10 Classic Guitar Amps & The Songs That Made Them Famous (PART 2!) from MyRareGuitars.com

Don’t get me wrong. The Deluxe Reverb is a great amp. But the Fenders I love pretty much all fall in the tweed era, where there wasn’t a ton of great headroom and you got into a nice snarl pretty early in the sweep of the volume knob.

1960's Kay 507 Twin Ten Vintage Guitar Amp

You don’t see a bunch of the dual 6V6 single 12” Kays. The models you tend to see the most are the little (and somewhat anemic) single-ended practice amp, the 703. And the Kay tube amp you tend to see the least is the VERY cool duel 6L6 (sometimes) Kay 507 Twin Ten.

1960's Kay 507 Twin Ten Vintage Guitar Amp

As the name suggests, the amp pushes two (ALNICO) 10” speakers powered by a pair of 6L6’s. What’s weird is that a LOT have 7868’s as output tubes and use a 7199 in the circuit. 7868’s have a great tone, in general. They are, from what I’ve read, essentially the same tube as a 7591, but with nine pins instead of eight. 7199’s got used a lot in Ampegs and Sanos and they are very rare and they aren’t made anymore, so they tend to cost a lot of dough. So, buyer beware (especially about the 7199) on this amp. BUT, the model I have has what are obviously original 6L6’s and no rare or obscure preamp tubes (five 12AX7’s do the preamp and phase inverter jobs) and the old stand-by 5U4 for rectification. Mine is all original—as the schematic inside matches what’s in the amp. But there seem to have been some variations on the construction of the 507—so, ask the seller about/check the tubes when buying so you know what your 507 has in it.

1960's Kay 507 Twin Ten Vintage Guitar Amp

Also, it’s one of the coolest looking amps you’ll see. It has two channels (two inputs per channel), a VERY snazzy chrome rear control panel with six knobs (tone and volume for each channel and speed and intensity for the tremolo). And it has a very 50’s-looking two tone appearance (even though it lists that they were made 1960-1963), brown rear and light brown front with a white swirl on brown cloth grill. It’s a great size—not too heavy and 24” wide by 20” tall.

1960's Kay 507 Twin Ten Vintage Guitar Amp

OK, it looks cool, but how does it sound? Pretty freaking cool. It sounds a lot like the other great Chicago amps of the same period. And this is where things get kind of interesting—who made these Kay amps? It has a tone very much like the great Valcos (which ended up branded, at various times, Supro, Airline and, in the 400 series, Harmony). And, like a Valco, it has a tone a bit like some of the great Lectrolabs, too (I’ve seen Lectrolabs branded under their own name and also with Philharmonic and the 300 series of Harmony amps). But, it’s not made by either Valco or Lectrolab (I get this info from a friend of mine who knows more about off-brand amps than anyone I know and has a collection to prove it). It also doesn’t look like a Valco or Lectrolab under the hood. It’s simply made differently (though it is point-to-point like both of those brand—no hand stuffed circuit board like on a Tweed Fender). According to my friend, it was Kay who actually made these Kay amps over these years (go figure). As I say, this friend knows a lot more than me and has written several books on the Chicago giants. Plus, it’s easy to tell from looking that it wasn’t made by Valco or Lectrolab. So, if it isn’t easy to tell who DID make it, at least we know who DIDN’T.

1960's Kay Dual 6V6 Vintage Guitar Amp

Whoever made it, though, it’s a wonderful amp. At low volume, you get a VERY rich and textured clean sound. The two ten inch speakers sound great and the cleans are very complex, much like a Tweed Fender Super from the early 50’s. This is one of the richest, thickest (without being overly dark) cleans I have ever heard in a vintage amp. And when you add the tremolo, wow! It moves from a VERY slow, pulsing tremolo, to a pretty fast one—but it never gets totally choppy and helicopter-sounding like a lot of the late 60’s tremolos. Throughout the range of the “strength” control, the tremolo stays watery and smooth. Just a killer sound.

1960's Kay Dual 6V6 Vintage Guitar Amp

Turned up, it sounds more like a 6V6 amp than most 6L6 amps I’ve ever heard. Very Neil Young and Crazy Horse. If you push the volume on the channel you’re using to 6 or higher, it starts to really snarl and have a complex great sounding distortion. The volume and tone controls are interactive, too, so you can get some very nice textures of distortion by either coupling the channels with a short cord, or just playing with the volume of the channel you’re not using. Open it up full and put the other channel around 5 or 6 and it sounds VERY much like Neil Young’s tone on RAGGED GLORY—that opening of “Country Home” sounds spot on when this amp is cranked.

1960's Kay Dual 6V6 Vintage Guitar Amp

It’s a sleeper. And there don’t seem to be too many of them out there. I haven’t heard the 7868 output tube version of this amp, but I’d sure like to. In any case, if you see one of the 507 Twin Tens with 6L6 output tubes, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. I’m doing a MAJOR purge around here—selling at least five guitars and five amps. And I kept going back and forth on the Kay 507. Then I plugged it in to write this and I decided I’d be nuts to get rid of it. There simply aren’t that many of them. And I don’t want to feel like I felt about letting go of my 4X6V6 Danelectro Challenger with a 15 inch speaker. That was another super rare amp I let go of, and I still get angry at myself. From now on, I’ve vowed to only get rid of stuff I could easily replace if I truly regretted the sale. So this one stays.

1960’s Kay 507 Twin Ten Vintage Guitar Amp from MyRareGuitars.com

1960's Lafayette LA-75 Vintage Guitar Amplifier

What’s to love? First of all, its Jetson-era Mid Century Modern styling that makes it pretty as a piece of vintage furniture. It’s a classy looking little box—the only American made amp it resembles is the nearly-equally cool looking Dano-made Silvertone 1432 (itself a bit of a sleeper, as it was a predecessor to the classic and easier to find 1472 and 1482 series). But while the 1432 relies on the classic duel 6V6 setup for its bluesy grind, the Lafayette runs two 7189s for output.

What’s the difference? Not much, actually in the tone of the amp. The design of an amp has at least as much to do with its tonal makeup as does its output tubes, and this little Japanese combo sounds much like Danelectro’s and the Chicago beasts of its era (Valco, Lectrolab and so on). It’s got the familiar thick, dark, lush tone at under 4 on the volume knob, and it has an impressive and small gig volume when it starts to get into its grind around 5 and up on the volume knob. And it has two channels, which you can jump to enrich both the chewy grind and the thickness of the amp.

1960's Lafayette LA-75 Vintage Guitar Amplifier

Mine seems to have the original ALNICO speaker (Japanese amps don’t always share our speaker codes, so it’s hard to say what make it is) that sounds very much like a Jensen ALNICO I have in a 1958 Ampeg Mercury (I switched them and the tones are nearly identical).

What makes this amp unique among some of the great Japanese made amps of the same era? Its tone is actually very Valco. Dark, chewy, biting and fat, fat, fat. While some of the Guyatone’s and Univox’s have a tone all their own (which, no doubt, is very cool), the Lafayette 75 really has that great thick grind that the Chicago (and New Jersey, in Dano’s case) amps had that is perfect for jump blues and, when pushed, unhinged overdrive into Neil Young territory.

1960's Lafayette LA-75 Vintage Guitar Amplifier

And now that Valco’s have become increasingly expensive (though still worth it in many cases), it’s put the amp lover on a budget hunting for other great amps that are still super affordable. Brands like Premier (in some cases), Hilgen, Univox, Guyatone, Alamo, Lectrolab and some Danelectro’s can still be found in nice shape in the $300 range. For hand-made point-to-point (or hand stuffed circuit boards) amps with good iron and great tone, you’d have to pay a lot more for a new boutique amp. And these can be had needing only minor work (in many cases). What’s not to love?

But back to this model 75. The lush depth of the 7189s is apparent throughout the volume range of the amp. The tremolo is rich and VERY 60’s sounding. It has more of a rounded, gentle wave than a sharp cut-off helicopter tremolo, with no noticeable (or apparent) volume drop when the effect is engaged.

Also, one of the cool things about the 7189s is that they are not like the 7189A’s that are in some great amps, such as the killer Magnatone M10 (and most of the Magnatone Suitcase series). Whereas the very expensive (and increasingly rare) 7189A can’t be substituted with 7189s OR with EL84s (without modification), the 7189 CAN use a rugged EL84 with no modification.

1960's Lafayette LA-75 Vintage Guitar Amplifier

So, an amp with rich clean tones and a super overdrive sound that looks rad and weighs well under 30 pounds. Keep your eye out for this amp (and other Lafayette models—some of which were made by the same factory that made Univox amps—some don’t seem to be. It’s a crapshoot with 60’s Japanese amps).

Are there any problems with this amp? The handle rattles. Annoying, but hardly the end of the world…just use a little form when you’re recording. Not so bad.

It also digs pedals. I’ve added a germanium boost to this and it positively blooms on the notes. Add some reverb and the lower volume cleans are lush and astounding. In an amp/tone world where so many players are looking for the tone and range of the classic Tweed Deluxe, there are so many great tonal options in the 15 to 20 watt range. Enjoy and explore.

1960’s Lafayette LA-75 Vintage Guitar Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

Kalamazoo Reverb 12 Combo Guitar Amplifier

There are some great amps to be found in the Kalamazoo line (Gibson’s cheaper amp line in the mid to late 60’s). Among these are the Kalamazoo 1 and 2, which are single-ended EL 84 amps, the latter with a nice tremolo. These are killer little practice and recording amps with a nice clean and a good over-driven tone. If you’re looking for a good alternative to a Champ, here’s a frugal way you might want to go.

For giggable power, check out two of the real sleepers of the Kalamazoo line: the Bass 30 and Bass 50 models. These are pretty lousy bass amps, but pretty wonderful and affordable guitar amps (how many sub-par bass amps, from the Fender Bassman, to the Ampeg Bassman, to these Kalamazoo models have been used for an unintended purpose as guitar amps to stellar results?). The Bass 30, with its funky, very simple flip-out control panel, runs on 7591s and has two sweet sounding 10” Jensens in a closed back setup. Loud, with lots of nice crunch and not too heavy to lift. If you can find one, you’ll be surprised at what great tone you can get out of it—especially with single coil guitars.

The Bass 50 shares the cool flip-out panel and the closed back cabinet, but generates its output from two EL34s through two Jensen 12” speakers. Tons of grind—and great overdriven tones with single coils AND humbuckers. This is even more rare and hard to find than the Bass 30, but it’s definitely worth hunting down for some awesome overdrive tones on the cheap.

And in between the little practice amps and the converted bass amps? Well, there sits the tops of the Kalamazoo line (such as it is): the Reverb 12. This is often cited as Kalamazoo’s answer to the Fender Princeton and, it’s true, it shares several of that amp’s makeup on the surface: Both are low wattage (about 12 watts) push-pull amps with 10 inch speakers and tremolo and reverb. But, beyond the surface, the similarities end. The Kalamazoo is not as loud as the Princeton, for one, and you’d need a pretty quiet drummer if you were going to use it along (without an extension cab) on a gig (not impossible, but the drummer would have to play pretty light or with brushes). Also, the Kalamazoo doesn’t really start to get into overdrive until pretty late in its game (between 8 and 10 on its “Loudness” control)—whereas the Princeton starts singing a little earlier in its volume range.

What do you get in the trade-off? Some great tone in that wonderful zone between total clean and full-out distortion (think that early great Jimmy Bryant tone—slightly clean, but with a nice textured amount of grit and hair in the mix).

Also, the reverb and the tremolo are VERY nice for such a small amp. It’s a very versatile, great sounding little combo that’s great for bedroom playing, small band practices and, of course, recording.

Kalamazoo Reverb 12 Combo Guitar Amplifier

What’s under the hood? It’s a pretty simple, easy to work on design. Three 12AX7s (running the reverb driver, the tremolo oscillator, and the preamp and phase inverter duties), solid state rectification and two EL84’s for the output into a 10” speaker. I replaced the tired original CTS speaker in mine with a very efficient Celestion, and this really brought the amp to life—bringing out a LOT more volume and clarity and tonal dynamics. It’s a great little amp.

It’s also surprisingly versatile, as a result of the extension speaker output on the back. Run this little “practice” amp into a 4X10” cab, and wow, you suddenly have plenty of power for a gig! The amp also has an odd (for the era) RCA mono phono input (if you want to play along with a CD or one of those old-fangled records you hear us old timers talk about from time to time).

The control panel is simple, but kind of fun and funky, as it has, from left to right Loudness (instead of “Volume”), Treble (which also serves as the on/off switch, Bass, Frequency (for trem), Depth (also for trem), and Reverb. It has two inputs, but only one channel, and the inputs are the same level (that is neither is hotter than the other). The cab is ½ plywood and the construction is true point-to-point (not the hand-stuffed circuit board that often, erroneously, gets called point to point). It’s an easy to follow point to point—easy to work on, which you’ll probably have to do to at least replace the filter caps on these (which were a good deal cheater than the ones used by Fender, and they tend to go bad).

So, you get great cleans…a sweet singling overdrive when pushed to its limit and you can actually gig with it if you run an extension cab. AND they frequently (at least for now) sell for between $200 and $300. What’s not to love? Get yours now, while you can. A very cool amp, with its own sound—and a very usable sound at that.

1960’s Kalamazoo Reverb 12 Combo Guitar Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

Vintage 1960's Guyatone GA-530A Guitar Amplifier

Japanese-made tube amps from the 60’s represent, in general, one of the great values left in the vintage market. Frequently, you can pick up little combos like this Guyatone (or the Univox U-45B) for under $300. Real vintage tube tone for under $300 (and frequently even lower)? What’s not to love?

This Guyatone, along with coming cheaply and sounding great, is a looker. In white Tolex (or Tolex-like material), this is a stunning looking amp that was a popular model (though not for export) in the Mid-60’s Japanese “Group Sounds” movement. A great amp for chiming Beatles-inspired sounds or tremolo-drenched surf-styled instrumentals, the GA-530A is one to keep your eyes peeled for. It’s a classy looking amp, and one that probably looked just fine gracing the stage of the 60’s Japanese TV show Kachinuki Eleki Gassen (“Electric Guitar Tournament”—a highly-rated audience-participation guitar show…something of a Ventures-inspired proto-American Idol for guitar players—guitars were HUGE in the 60’s in Japan).

Vintage 1960's Guyatone GA-530A Guitar Amplifier

What’s under the hood? It’s a pretty simple and well-made amp. Three 12AU7’s (for preamp, tremolo and phase inverter duties), two EL84’s for output and a solid state rectifier and not much else. The speaker is labeled “Guyatone”, though I’m not sure if it was made by Guyatone or rebranded (there are no codes on it). Whatever its source, this is a sweet-sounding ALNICO speaker in the 20-watt range.

Vintage 1960's Guyatone GA-530A Guitar Amplifier

The sound of the amp is very cool and unique. Where most of the Univoxs I’ve heard are little blues and garage-rock machines, this amp is all about chime and cleans. Part of this, of course, comes from the low-gain 12AU7’s. A 12AX7 has, for instance, an amplification factor of 100. The 12AU7’s have an amplification factor of 17. The amp is voiced for cleans and isn’t (as you might guess from the tube line up) the loudest dual EL84 amp you’ll ever hear. Without mods, you can heat things up a bit with a 12AT7 in the preamp, but anything much higher than that makes it start oscillating and wailing a bit. Without some mods, it’s not going to be a high (or even mid) gain amp.

Vintage 1960's Guyatone GA-530A Guitar Amplifier

However, played clean (which it stays until about 7 on the volume knob), this thing really shines and sparkles. Byrds and Beatle type tunes sound incredible and it takes to a 12-string really well. Chords are articulate and well-voiced and the amp rings like a bell. Pushed into overdrive (from 7-10 on the volume), and the amp retains its trebly voice, but pushes the EL84’s into a Vox-like chime and grind (albeit at a lower overall volume than, say, an AC15).

And, while this combo may lack reverb for true surf tones, it’s got the awesome gritty sparkle to base your surf tone on, along with an absolutely KILLER tremolo. With tremendous range of depth and speed, it’s a very musical tremolo effect. One of the best I’ve heard in ANY amp. Add a ‘verb pedal, and you’re catching a wave!

Vintage 1960's Guyatone GA-530A Guitar Amplifier

Issues? Well, you are going to have a few when you buy a mid 60’s amp for under two hundred bucks. First of all, unless you know how to do relatively simple work like cap jobs and basic trouble-shooting for bad resistors and so on, the trip to the tech could cost more than the amp is worth. So, it’s probably not a great deal unless you know some basic repair and maintenance.

AND, there is a design flaw on this amp. The tubes are not mounted separately on the chassis, as they should be, but, instead, they’re mounted on the printed circuit board. This is problematic for a few reasons—the main ones being that it’s not nearly as study or durable as the proper mounting on the chassis and that it’s much easier for microphonic issues to arise (whether from the tube or the circuit board and then amplified through the tube).

Vintage 1960's Guyatone GA-530A Guitar Amplifier

Also, it’s not nearly as easy to modify a printed circuit board amp as it is on a hand-stuffed circuit board or a point-to-point amp. And you might want to modify this model for a little more gain on the preamp, via a nice 12AX7, pushing the rest of the signal down the chain. Or add a bypass cap to fatten up the sound. Both of these are still easy mods—just not quite as easy as if it were a point-to-point amp with a lot of space to be noodling around in the chassis.

Still, you want perfect for under two hundred clams? These are great-sounding, great looking little tone machines. And while the build quality may not equal Fender or Marshall (or even Univox), they are still pretty easy to fix and modify, and you can’t beat a little 12” combo with two EL84’s jangling and grinding for this kind of price. The Guyatone GA-530A is worth checking out—if you can find one!

Vintage 1960’s Guyatone GA-530A Guitar Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

Vintage Magnatone Custom 250 Guitar Amplifier

A quick aside about the difference between Vibrato and Tremolo (and feel free to read ahead if you know all this inside out). Vibrato is a modulation of the pitch of the note. Tremolo is a modulation of the volume of the note. Why do they get confused so often? The main reason lies mainly on the mighty shoulders of Leo Fender (though others were guilty too, such as, among others, Nat Daniel in some of the early 50s Danelectro’s). On just about every Fender amp labeled “Vibrato”, the amp actually has Tremolo. To add even more to the general confusion, Fender insisted on calling the whammy bar on the Stratocaster a “synchronized tremolo system” when, in fact, a whammy bar (perhaps obviously) changes pitch—not volume.

So, in short: MOST amplifiers, no matter what they call it, have Tremolo. Many (though NOT all, and this will be covered more fully next month) Magnatones have true pitch-shifting Vibrato. (There ARE some brown Tolex Fenders and a couple of Ampeg models that have a Doppler-like type of Vibrato, too, but they are not the most common in those respective companies’ lines). So, what’s the big deal? Well, the two effects, while both sounding musical and beautiful, don’t sound much alike.

It’s very difficult to describe the Magnatone’s version of Vibrato (which is the most musical I know of—far more than, say, a Uni-Vibe or some other solid state outboard version of the effect). I need to start doing sound clips with this column—perhaps in the near future. But, back to the case at hand. The Magnatone vibrato can go anywhere from a subtle flutter to a truly intense amount of fluctuation, without ever giving you the sea-sickness than many vibe and chorus pedals can offer. And once you’ve heard it, especially with some Reverb and an extension cab (with you in between the two sets of speakers)? Wow. There’s not another guitar sound like it.

As I say, there will be more about various collectible models of Magnatones next month—the similarities and differences among the different periods of production and so on. But for this month—just one collectible rare gem: The Magnatone Custom 250.

Vintage Magnatone Custom 250 Guitar Amplifier

One look at the control panel reveals a surprisingly minimal amount of controls (yet, paradoxically, it’s an amp with a LOT of tonal variation).

The control panel from left to right:

The first (High Gain) channel has two inputs for high and low gain, a volume knob, a tone knob and a “bright” switch. The 2nd (Low Gain) channel has only a volume knob and is a great for mellow, jazzy tones. Next are the speed and intensity knobs for the vibrato, with a foot-switch input for the vibrato and an extension speaker ¼” out. Except for the on/off switch and a VERY cool red jewel light with a “M” in the middle of it, that’s all there is across the front. And yet, as I say, you can coax a lot of usable tones from this for the studio or the stage. And, like with the great Magnatone 213 (again, to be covered next month) or, say a Fender Tweed Deluxe, the volume controls on the 250 are interactive. That is, you can turn the volume knob on the low gain channel 2 (when you’re plugged in to channel 1) and it will have a noticeable effect on the gain structure of channel 1. Very cool.

As best as I can tell from my catalog collection, the 250 was made between 1958 and 1961 or 1962 by Magna Electronics, which was based in Torrance CA at the time this amp (a 1959) was made. Like most Magnatones of the “brown” era (i.e., 57-62), it has an ALNICO Oxford speaker (mine’s in storage, while this model pumps through a higher efficiency Celestion for more gig volume). And, like many (though not all) Magnatones of this and later periods, it has some relatively unusual tubes—though all for this model are pretty easy to get, unlike some great Magantones in the suitcase line (to be covered next month). This amp pictured, just in the interests of historical accuracy, has a replaced handle, is missing its back panel, and has two chicken-head knobs (on Speed and Depth control) instead of those beautiful white ones on the rest of the amp.

Gear geek paragraph alert: In the preamp, pitch-shifting and phase inversion duties, the 250 has one 12AX7 2 6GC7s, a 12DW7 (which is actually HALF of a 12AX7 in the same bottle with HALF of a 12AU7). The 12AU7 side is the phase inverter, driving two 6973s. If you aren’t familiar with 6973s, they are the tubes that were used in many Valco products from the 60s—perhaps most famously in the Supro Dual Tone (24T). You also see them, frequently, in 1960s Univox amps, and their various re-brands such as Lafayette. The rectifier tube in the 250 is the unusual (for Magnatone) EZ81/6CA4. But back to the 6973s. While the circuit determines more of the tone than many people admit (thanks again to Mack Amps’ Don Mackrill for helping spread the word on how important design is—that’s a big reason why, for instance, a Gibson Minuteman, a Fender Blues Jr. and a Vox AC15 sound nothing alike, even though they all use 2 EL84 tubes for output), the 6973 tube has a very cool gain characteristic all its own.

It’s a very durable and a stunning clean toned tube (hence its use in so many jukeboxes of the 50s and 60s.) But push it hard, and it gets a real Vox-like chime on the high end and a wonderful Supro-like guttural midrange honk. It’s rated, in Magnatone literature of the time, at 20 watts. Mine pictured here gives my Silverface Deluxe Reverb (a plenty loud single 12” combo) a good run for its money, volume-wise. These are pretty rare, but they are WELL worth seeking out on the vintage market (as are many of the less rare models to be covered next month). In short, this is a very versatile tube that can give you beautiful blooming cleans and some very nice crunch, followed by some creamy lead tone the harder you push the volume. And, of course, it has the radical and head-spinning real Vibrato. Hard to beat in a gig-volume single 12” amplifier.

1960’s Magnatone Custom 250 Guitar Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

But New Jersey had a few other great (albeit minor) amplifier companies of the 60s and 70s. You had, from various divorces from the Ampeg company, Stanley Michael’s great Sano company of amps and, later, Jess Oliver’s line of amps (under his name and briefly, a few rare ones under the “Sam Ash” brand in the late 60s). The solid state Andre amplifiers are a surprisingly good sounding series, founded by former Ampeg troubleshooter and designer Gene Andre. It seems like every great amplifier company in New Jersey had some ties, at some point, to the Ampeg Company.

Every one, except (perhaps, maybe—there’s not much written about them) the Hilgen company. Hilgen, by anecdotal evidence at least, did not make a lot of amps and they didn’t make them for very long. They did, however, make them very well, and they made (however briefly) some stunning looking and sounding guitar amps. Like late 60s and early 70s Sanos, many models of Hilgens sport great “swirl” paint grills reminiscent (surprise) of late 50s Ampegs.

They also sport circuits that could have been (and may have been) Xeroxed from Ampeg schematics.

While everyone in California was making amps with 6V6s and 6L6s, and everyone in Chicago and Michigan was using 6V6s and 6L6s and the occasional EL84 (Lectrolab and Gibson/Kalamazoo), it seemed the Jersey makers alone who were finding a good use for the 7591 output tube (although, Kalamazoo/Gibson DID use this one for a couple of models, notably, the super underrated BASS 30, a twin 10” amp that sings with a guitar).

After a few Jets and Reverberockets rolled off the line with 6V6s in 1964, Everett Hull (head of Ampeg) got complaints from Jazz players (his main clientele) that the amps were breaking up too much. From then on (until the monster early 70s amps that the Rolling Stones made famous), the Ampeg Jet and Reverberocket sported the sturdy (and cleaner, at least for a while longer, headroom-wise) 7591 tube. In between a 6V6 ad a 6L6 in output-wattage, the 7591 turns out (while rock-and-roll-hater Everett Hull spins in his grave) to be a fabulous sounding tube under breakup. In the right circuit (and, as Mack amps designer Don Mackrill so rightly points out, it’s the design, more than any other factor, including the tubes, that defines the tone….still, the tubes play a part and they do have different characteristics), a 7591 is a killer rock and roll tube. Push a Reverberocket past its intended operating point and you have yourself an amp that is just as great sounding (in its own way) as a Blackface Deluxe Reverb.

Unfortunately, the secret is out on the Reverberocket. What cost $350 two years ago and $450 last year is now up to around $600-700. Soon, I won’t be surprised to see Jets and R-Rockets going for a grand. They are amazing sounding amps—built like tanks.

But where does that leave all of us cheap, gear addicted tone freaks? Looking for Hilgens (or Sanos…see my earlier column about the Sano Twin Twelve in the archives…another awesome amp on the cheap), that’s where!

Want a great amp with sweet, blossoming distortion at gig-friendly volume? Want a nice pulsing output-biased tremolo? Deep, lush, jazzy Ampeg-style reverb (capacitor coupled, rather than the Fender transformer style…a different tone altogether…neither better, but both cool)? Want it in a small, relatively light package? Here’s your new (old) amp:

Hilgen Victor Model R2522 Amplifier

The Hilgen “Victor” Model R2522. For the tube geeks among us, this starts with a 5AR4 rectifier before running into a couple of 12AX7s for preamp and reverb send duties. Then comes the only expensive and hard to find (although not impossible) tube—a 7199 for ‘verb recovery. From the factory, it came with a 12AU7 for phase inverter, which I switched out to a 12AY7 for a little more drive on the output tubes. I tried going up to a 12AX7, but that made for too much gain and resulted in a mushy, compromised output. The 12AY7 gives it more heat than stock, but still retains the crisp, tight, articulate character of the amp, as intended.

Hilgen Victor Model R2522 Amplifier

The controls along the top (from L to R): Volume, Tone, Speed (tremolo depth is pre-set), Reverb. And it’s got that cool grill cloth with the odd crest (?!) in the lower right corner.

Up to halfway on the volume, it’s a lush, deep, rich, plumy clean amp (remember, it was designed for Jazz and clean headroom). Over half-way, pushed more that it was supposed to be, the amp comes alive at a sweet rock and blues machine. It’s a loud little amp—probably just a little bit under a Deluxe Reverb for gig volume. The distortion is rich and creamy, with a fair amount of grit, yet it still maintains the crispness and tightness for articulate chords and voicing. This is a fabulous amp, with one of the riches reverbs around. The tremolo is good—but not great. It lacks the depth of a classic Valco or Danelectro tremolo, but it still has a nice tone to it, overall.

Hilgen Victor Model R2522 Amplifier

Originally, the Victor came with a CTS ALNICO speaker. It’s a fine sounding speaker, but I replaced it with a more efficient Celestion Vintage 30 for a little better output and punch for gigs. For a loud show, I’ll run this and a Deluxe Reverb together—a monster sound out of two amps that weigh under 35 lbs each. Can’t beat that.

So, grab a Hilgen now, while they are still affordable. They tend, right now, to go for between $300—400 (though sometimes they can sneak in around $250 if they are poorly listed on eBay). They’re well worth it, work and sound-wise. It’s a beautifully made, hand-wired amp that would go for between two and three grand if it were being made in the boutique market today. Grab one for under $500 while you can. Start looking—they don’t come around often, but they’re well worth the hunt. Get yourself a Hilgen, and drop me a line when you do.

Hilgen Victor Model R2522 Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

There’s the truly great moment of American Popular culture where Pee Wee Herman has to go to the Alamo to find his beautiful and prized bicycle (which, he has been told, is in the Alamo’s basement only to find, sadly, there is no basement at the Alamo). There’s the time Ozzy Osborne was arrested for public urination. The list is nearly endless.

Alamo Futura Reverb Guitar Amplifier

But that’s not the Alamo I’m talking about. No, our Alamo in question is the minor, albeit very cool, guitar and amp company that was out of San Antonio Texas from the late 40’s until their demise in the early 80s. Remember THIS Alamo, because they made some great stuff gear geeks might want to get a hold of.

Exhibit A: This twin twelve Alamo Futura Reverb is a true sleeper of a vintage amp classic. This is one of the greatest amps I’ve ever owned (or heard), and they are out there at still very reasonable prices on the vintage market.

When you’re looking at Alamo amps, it’s a good thing to know that there are three distinct periods:

• The late 40’s-1973: Amps are all tube, including tube rectifiers for most models.
• 1973-1980: Along with Music Man, Alamo starts using solid-state preamp sections with tubes for the output section.
• Post 1980: All solid state.

Alamo Futura Reverb Guitar Amplifier

The Alamo Futura Reverb pictured here is one of the hybrids. If you’re going to do a hybrid tube amp, solid state preamp and tube output is the way to go, as you can still get that classic output tube distortion we all know and love. This amp has a 12ax7 phase inverter, and, once the volume is about half way up, the amp drives the 7868 output tubes into a sweet, creamy, lovely overdrive. 7868s aren’t the most common tube but there are plenty of not to expensive NOS ones out there. ALSO, Electro Harmonics has a new one. While I haven’t heard the new one, if it’s anything like Electro Harmonics 6973, it’ll be a winner.

What do 7868s sound like? Well, they are a nine-pin version of the eight pin classic 7591. Electronically, they’re identical to the 7591, which is one of the truly underrated tubes for blues and garage, rock guitar overdrive tones. They are between (both tonally and wattage) a 6V6 and a 6L6, so this Alamo puts out about 25 watts , plenty for small gigs without too loud a drummer or bass player.

You can tell by the control panel that they were looking to look like a Fender Twin Reverb. You’ve got channel one on the left. Then, there’s the Tremolo/Reverb Channel two. The reverb can give you a subtly jazzy ambience and go all the way up to cave-swelling psychedelic, with some fine surf tones in the middle.

The tremolo is among the best I’ve ever heard in an on-board tremolo section. At lower, more subtle settings, you can get 50’s R&B tremolo, but turned up you can get that radical throbbing musical tone from The Smith’s “How Soon is Now?’ It’s a smooth wave not so much of a harsh square wave tremolo that tends to get choppy and helicopter-sounding at the highest intensity setting. This one always sounds musical even at the highest setting. There’s a fine sweep in speed, as well.

Both channels have volume/treble and bass knobs that are very responsive. The verb/trem channel, of course, has added knobs for speed & intensity and depth of reverb.

And while the all-tube Alamos are great sounding (and more expensive) amps, these solid-state/tube output models are incredible sounding and brilliantly designed amps. Because the rectifier, like the preamp, is solid state, the designers intelligently put in a stand-by switch that keeps your power tubes from getting zapped with all the B+ voltage from the get go.

Information on these is pretty scarce. Mine has one alnico CTS and one Jensen Ceramic (which sound pretty nice together, by the way). If anyone knows the original speaker, feel free to drop me a line at: www.myspace.com/robroberge

This is an incredible amp, and still a relative bargain on the vintage market. I plan on getting some of the other models and seeing what else if out there. Here’s yet another great vintage amp that will keep you from getting into that Fender/Marshall everyone sounding alike kind of tone. Dig the Alamo Futura Twin Twelve Reverb model #2567

OK, now I got mine, so I can tell others about it. I was tempted to but three or four more of these before ever writing a column about them, just so I’d have a stash before word got out. But one’s enough. Well, maybe I’ll get a second, but anyway, here is an amp you should own! Start spreading the news.

1970’s Alamo Futura Reverb Guitar Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

Among the best deals out there are the Japanese-made Univox tube amps of the mid to late 60’s. There are some rare birds out there that are worth keeping an eye open for, but the one you see most often, among the low-priced, great sounding Univox tube amps, is the U-45B Model.

1960's Univox Guitar Amplifier

This is a small, incredibly light, and super simple and easy to work on amp that has a great garage and blues tone all its own. What’s not to love? And, while it does employ some oddball tubes, they are readily available and not at all expensive like some of the less common tubes from 1960’s amplifiers.

So, what’s going on with the U-45B? It actually has a lot to recommend it beyond some of the other cheaper vintage amps. The cabinet is solid, and the baffle is made of plywood, unlike, say the cheesy pressboard in an otherwise great amp like the Danelectro-made Silvertone 1482. So, you’ve got, in the U-45B, a fine Jensen 12” speaker that fits tightly and without rattle against some nice solid wood. A nice surprise in a cheapy. Also, the tolex (or whatever tolex-like material is used) on the later, front-controlled version of the U-45B is pretty durable, unlike some of the nice colored paper you might get on some Valco and Dano products.

The tube line up of the amp is the rather unusual 12AX7, 6BM8, 6BM8, 6X4. It’s rated at 10 watts. The 6X4 is an easy to find rectifier. What’s odd about this amp is that the 12AX7 isn’t used as a preamp tube but, rather, as the tremolo tube. The less common 6BM8s are used as both preamp and output tubes.

1960's Univox Guitar Amplifier

The control panel (on the top in early 60’s versions, on the front in later models—otherwise, they are the same amp) is about as simple as it gets. VOLUME. TONE and SPEED (for the tremolo, which has a nice deep set depth).

How does it sound? Well, pretty great. You can get some very fine clean tones when the volume is under half way, from a jazzy laid-back tone, to a twangy rockabilly sound. It’s great for recording. A quiet, smooth sounding amp on its clean settings, but where it really comes alive is when it’s pushed into overdrive. At 10 watts, with a 15 watt Jensen 12”, it really excels for recording rock guitar or for a quiet(er) jam with full-throttle tone. It’s around 15 lbs, yet it’s built solidly and it sounds great. It’s an amp you want, and you can find them, with stunning regularity, for under $250…frequently for a good deal less.

1960's Univox Guitar Amplifier

The tremolo is rich, with a nice range of speeds. The only possible downside to the amp? It has a rather dark voice which offers plenty of sparkle while using a Tele, but it can muddy up a bit with a darker voiced guitar like, say, a Supro Dual Tone. An easy, non-mod fix for this? Any boost pedal gives it plenty of sparkle. (My home-made OC71 Germanium boost gives it a rich, harmonic sparkly push…awesome). But if you want to totally retain the tone of the amp and the voice of the guitar, use a simple EQ pedal, and you can dial in a little more treble, while keeping the basic character of the amp.

This is a great amp. It was also (with the exact same components from the same factory) marketed/labeled as a Lafayette, a Cavalier—and also marketed by the Hilgen brand under the model name Meteor. Most Hilgens I’ve seen (hardly a scientific sampling, but, still…) were made in New Jersey, but, for a time, the company apparently imported SOME of their amps, and the one I’ve seen the most of, among the imported Hilgens, is their Meteor branded amp that is the same, guts-wise, as the Univox U-45B.

So why haven’t these caught on in the vintage market? Who cares, but why not take advantage of it while they’re still cheap?

Next month—more on some of the even more rare Univox’s, like the U305 with the 15” speaker, or some of the more rare 2X10” amps with 6973 output tubes and more! Meanwhile, search away.

Rob’s Crazy eBay Finds: 1960’s Univox Amps from MyRareGuitars.com

It doesn’t really matter, of course. No one sounds quite like Jimmy Page (least of all Jimmy Page these days) and how an amp sounds on an album isn’t exactly how it sounds in a club, anyway. The difference between six inches of mic placement in a studio can make a great amp sound like crap and vice-versa. Yet, people pay through the nose for amps because they think they’ll sound like Jimmy Page if they buy them. Whatever.

But what’s missed in all this (sadly) is that there’s a reason Page dug the Supros in the first place. They sound great. Whether it’s the Thunderbolt, or the Corsica, or the Dual Tone (all claimed by various “experts” as THE AMP Page used), they, and many other models, are great sounding amps.

They are also, at this point, getting to be very expensive amps. And there’s nothing wrong with paying a grand for a Thunderbolt if you want one. They sound awesome for guitar, they’re loud enough for clubs, and they aren’t too heavy to carry. They are point to point (true point to point – not hand loaded circuit board like vintage Fenders. Not that either is better, but Fenders aren’t, technically, point to point). They’re well made, with good parts and, in general, tougher cabinets than other budget tone monsters like Danelectros.

But, some things have gone plain loco in the vintage market. Example A? People are paying over $4,000 for the Supro Dual Tone (AKA the 1624T). And while this is a killer amp, that’s just insane (unless I’m selling it, in which case, it’s worth every penny). Why are the prices so high for this model? You guessed it – it’s the latest that has been swept up by the “as played by Jimmy Page” tidal wave.

But let’s say you’re interested in tone. Not who played what. You want to sound like you, and you want a really cool amp to do it with, and you don’t have an extra 4 Large kicking around your wallet. What’s a tone freak to do?

Well, if you like the sound of that Supro (and it IS a sound worth having, no matter who owned, played, looked at or smelled the damn thing), try and find a circuit that’s similar and go from there. What gave that model Supro its unique and cool tone? Well, as they say, everything affects everything, but the main contributors to that tone machine are the pretty basic 12AX7’s in the preamp and the cathode-biased oddball output 6973 tubes. These have an overdrive all their own – not quite a 6V6; not quite an EL84. They definitely have their own thing going. Chime and midrange grit at the same time – and they’re largely responsible, I’d guess, for when people call these model Supros slightly Vox-like in their overdriven mode.

Univox 202R Guitar Amplifier

What’s an affordable, well made, very cool and not ridiculously expensive amp that’s like the 1624T? I’d say you might want to look at the Univox 202R. The early version of this amp is true point-to-point (before 66 or so, it seems – there’s not a lot of information on Univox amps). Later versions are printed circuit board, like the great little Univox U45 amps (they are mini tone MONSTERS). But the circuit and cap and resistor values stayed pretty much the same. If you can, it’s always better to find the point to point ones, as they’re easier to work on and tougher built – but the PCB ones are good amps, too. Univox amps were made in Japan (all the ones I’ve seen) – most of the ones I’ve been under the hood of were made at the Guyatone factory, and then imported to the United States and branded with various names (see below for some of the other names for this amp).

Univox 202R Guitar Amplifier

These are single 12″ combo amps with Reverb and Tremolo (both VERY nice – a good throbbing smooth trem and a cavernous verb). Chanel one has a Volume and Tone knob, plus the ‘verb and trem. Channel two has only volume and tone, but you can patch the two together for a fuller, raunchier sound. “Normal” and “Bright” inputs for each channel. Earlier models have the following tube lineup: 12AX7 (3), 6AN8, 6AV6, 6973 (2) and a 6CA4 rectifier.

I’ve seen them with ceramic Jensens that seemed original. Mine, a very early model, has a “Deerfield” ALNICO, (looks to be original) with no other markings or speaker codes (your guess is as good as mine – anyone know about “Deerfield”? Drop me a line). Most examples of the 202R have a gold control panel with big round black knobs that look like old Magnatone knobs. They are frequently two-tones, with a dark covering, then a white stripe in the middle, topped off by a handsome wheat-colored grille cloth. They’re lookers.

How does it sound? Pretty incredible. At low volumes it has a slightly dark, incredibly warm clean sound. Think of Peter Green’s tone on “Albatross.” Clean, but wooly. It can get bright, but you’ll need a Tele or a similarly bright guitar to coax that out of it. It’s got that classic mid-60’s budget American midrange-y tone to it that’s to die for.

Turned up and it really starts to release some beautiful overtones from the 6973s. These are a relatively strange output tube for a guitar amp. They were used mostly in old Wurlitzer Jukeboxes, but they make guitar amp appearances in some Supros, the awesome Magnatone 280s and 480s and a few Univox models. As stated above, they have their own thing going, and it’s a good thing at that. A very warm, yet raunchy and still creamy overdrive that cuts well through/with a band. Also, while 6973s were VERY hard to find for a while, and NOS examples were obscenely priced, Electro Harmonics is making a new version that sounds great and costs under 35 bucks a pair. The new EH tube is a lot like their highly respected 6V6 – nice and rugged with a very robust tone. So you won’t have to shell out ridiculous money to re-tube your new tone beast.

These are still available for under $400 with regularity. It will probably go up, as people find out more about the obscure brands (or, err, the MORE obscure brands) in their search for great 60’s tone on the cheap. But, even for a fair amount more than $400, these are great amps. For low volume work, they have a very impressive clean, and turned up they sound like garage heaven. Get yours now before Jack White or somebody discovers them. Or before I start a website saying Jimmy Page used it on EVERYTHING he EVER recorded!

Univox 202R Guitar Amplifier (with Apto badge)

A final note about Univoxes and their various rebrands. The same amp could (and will, on eBay) frequently wear several names. There is, of course, Univox. BUT, you could find the same amp with a “Lafayette” badge. Mine has an “Apto” badge (imported to New York by the “Apto” Accordion Company). I’ve seen one that looked just like these with a Magnavox badge. So, familiarize yourself with the basic look of this model and ask questions about the tube lineup, and you may find yourself with a very cool Univox 202R. No matter what the name on the faceplate, the tone is something special. Happy hunting.

Univox 202R Guitar Amplifier (with Apto badge)

Univox 202R Guitar Amplifier (with Apto badge)

Univox 202R Guitar Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

The reason I bring this up is that my friends know me I’m a vintage amp geek. Not only a vintage amp geek, but an oddball vintage amp geek. Where other people pine for a Blackface Fender, I’d rather have a Valco, Dano or Magnatone any day. Except for the Tweed era Fenders, in fact, I’d much rather have any Airline (Valco made) over any Fender amp.

And yet, for a guy who loves obscure amps (I gig often in a PAC-AMP 660…which is really just a re-branded Magnatone 260, but still, I’m usually the only guy in the club with a PAC-AMP), there are a few I SHOULD have been really familiar with, but am not.

So, which amp am I admitting to not have played until recently (although I’ve played it a LOT for the last three months)? The classic Silvertone 1484 (aka one of many different amps known over the years as a Silvertone Twin Twelve).

Silvertone 1484 Guitar Amplifier

One of the true major players in oddball amps, the Silvertone 1484 guitar amp is pretty well known. It’s so well know, that it may not actually qualify as an oddball amp. But it’s still from the great Nat Daniel, the man behind the awesome kings of Masonite and lipstick pickups and wallpaper-as-Tolex’ the Danelectro company, who designed and produced some of the greatest oddball amplifiers ever done.

It’s not like I was unfamiliar with Dano amps. I’ve owned several over the years, including an awesome 4 6V6 powered Challenger, a Champ-killing 1457 Amp in Case, and a classic Tweed Deluxe-sounding 1472. I’d also restored and owned one of the rare 1485’s’ the 4 6L6 head with the cabinet with six ten inch Jensens. This was the model that had languished in its rare pawn shop obscurity until Jack White re-introduced them to the ears of garage-rock fans. Now they cost a trillion dollars, last I checked.

So, I’d had plenty of Danos. But, oddly enough, until I bought one three months ago, I’d never played through the old standby of giggable-power Danelectros: The Silvertone 1484. I got one at a killer price and figured I could tune it up and turn a profit. I don’t know why, but I just assumed it would be an overrated amp (I’d always been a bigger fan of the low wattage 1472 than the higher watt 1485, and I assumed the 1484 would share the strong-but-not-incredible tone of its big brother).

Silvertone 1484 Guitar Amplifier

And now? Now I can’t believe what I was missing out on all those years. This amp has a great, rich, textured clean. It has the distinctive warm, dark sound of all great Danelectros, but it has the ability to get treble and chime in a manner that no other Dano model I’ve played through does.

It’s a standard two channel amplifier with Reverb and Tremolo on channel two. The knobs are interactive, so you can thicken your tone just by playing with the knobs on channel one while you’re plugged into two. Or, you can add significant thickness and grit by bridging the channels with a jumper cable.

If you were to judge this amp on its clean tone and tremolo alone, it would be a keeper. But where it really shines and separates itself from the crowd is when the volume knob is up at Ten O’clock, or higher.

This is the best overdriven amp tone I have ever heard. Without pedals, this is one of the true stunning overdriven amps EVER. In fact, there are only a few amplifiers I’ve ever heard in its class for pedal-free overdrive. Those two? My buddy Ray’s modified Supro Thunderbolt, and my friend Orlando’s 1958 Tweed Deluxe. And the thing that the 1484 and the Thunderbolt share is that they have the power of their 6L6’s with the texture and breakup of a good 6V6 amp (the Tweed Deluxe being head of that class).

And since it’s rumored that Jimmy Page may have snorted some drug off a Thunderbolt before locking away a 14 year old groupie in a closet, using the Thunderbolt to jam the door closed, that amp has become a thousand dollars. Or, wait, did he record the first Led Zep album through a Thunderbolt? Or was that a Coronado? Another model? Well, the Supro Thunderbolt was in a room where Jimmy Page was breathing, surely, at some point, and it’s worth lots of money because playing one will make you more like Jimmy Page (thankfully, this wanting-to-be-like Page thing hasn’t led thousands of old men to start sleeping with 14 year-old groupies).

But, you know, the Supro Thunderbolt, Jimmy Page or no Jimmy Page, DESERVES to be a thousand dollar amp. It’s as good sounding as any of the boutiques I’ve heard, and those two 6L6’s breathing heavy through the 15″ Jensen is a wonderful sound.

The 1958 Tweed Deluxe needs little introduction – nor even a famous person rumored to have played it, and yet it goes for three grand (drink rings and cigarette burns tossed in for free!). Neil Young plays an earlier version of the Tweed Deluxe (and listen to Ragged Glory to get a sense of what one of those sounds like opened up and roaring).

So, for the five hundred to eight hundred these 1484’s are going for, they are still a relative bargain on a vintage amp. They cost less (WAY less, in fact) than a re-issued Bassman, for instance and they blow those away for tone. You would have to go the hand wired boutique route (which is a route worth going down – support these modern amp makers!) to get this kind of tone.

The overdrive in a 1484 is rich and complex. Deep, driving and with a sweet, singing sustain. And it cleans up VERY well when you roll off the volume on the guitar. Really, there’s no amp I’ve ever played (or heard) quite like it for touch and response.

And, the head tucks into the back (how cool is THAT design)? I run mine with its head into a single 12″ cab for small gigs and into its own twin twelve (Jensens) for larger shows. Adding this amp to a really efficient speaker (like the Private Jack – thanks, Don!) is an amazing experience. A lot of these old amps (Lectrolabs, Silvertones, and Valcos) are losing a LOT of their voice due to tired old speakers. Trying a new speaker, whether a copy of its original Jensen Alnicos, or a more Celestion-voiced highly efficient ceramic (like the Eminence Private Jack), is a cheap, easily reversible mod with a vintage amp that can really take it to gigging heights.

All this and Tremolo and Reverb, too! Actually, all this and Tremolo, too. The “Reverb” that comes with this is truly awful. It’s also some weird noise that is not, let’s be clear, like any reverb you’ve ever heard. It sounds like your reverb But, this isn’t a surf amp, and you’re not Dick Dale (unless of course you are Dick Dale – hey, it’s possible – Hi, Dick! Not the amp for you). For making noise in the garage (or bar or studio), there may not be a better amp out there. Go get yours now. Yes, they were two hundred bucks 5 years ago and there a lot more now. So what? They’re still worth it. The Silvertone 1484 is a tone monster.

Silvertone 1484 Guitar Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

I pride myself on only keeping equipment that I play, – I don’t have any collector’s-only pieces. Still, I have the cool gear disease. I did some quick math. “Five,” I said.

“What does your wife think?”

“Well, she has three amps,” I said.

“So, you only have two?”

“No,” I said. “Those are in addition to mine. She’s a bass player, so she doesn’t need as many. I have five.” Whoops. I’d forgotten my Deluxe Reverb. “Actually, six.” I said.

This non-guitar player turned to the other player. “How many do you have?”

He shrugged. “Four,” he said. “Right now, I think it’s four.”

The non-player looked confused.

“You need at least three,” I said. “You need your single-ended, your mid-power and your high-powered amps.”

“Right,” my guitar-playing new friend said. The third person shook his head, laughed and walked away.

“They all sound different,” I called after him. “You don’t understand!”

1966 Lectrolab S 400 Guitar Amplifier

But you, dear reader with several amplifiers, you understand. And this month, I sing the praises of another obscure and beautiful amplifier, in this case a 1966 Lectrolab S 400. I’ve seen a few Lectrolabs over the years and they are all pretty cool amps. The 400 series seem to be (and this is based only on observation and scattered information. No one seems to know very much about these) all single-ended small amps with a single EL84 for output and one or two eight inch speakers. The 600 series are more in the 15-20 watt range with either two 6V6’s or two EL84’s (driving a twelve inch speaker), depending on the year. And the 800 series, which I’ve never seen in person, I haven’t been able to find much about, other than that they seem like later versions of the 600’s. The 900 series are El84-equiped heads (very rare).

So who was Lectrolab? As I say, there isn’t a lot of information out there about these. The chassis/labels tend to read “Lectrolab: Sound Projects, Chicago, Illinois/Venice, Florida.” The Chicago location leads some people to speculate that Lectrolab had something to do with Valco. And they do have a sonic texture much like the great Valcos (big midrange, great distortion, slightly dark sound). Yet, the rectifiers in these are usually a 6X4’s (not used much, if at all, in Valcos). The preamp tubes are frequently 6EU7’s (again, not often in Valcos), and the output tubes are often EL84’s (which most American amp companies didn’t use in the 1960’s’Gibson being the notable exception).

So, whoever Lectrolab was, we don’t know. But they probably were their own company, and almost certainly not Valco, or Gibson or any other well-known maker.

1966 Lectrolab S 400 Guitar Amplifier

Whoever made these, they knew how to make an amp sound good. I have never heard a bad sounding 60’s Lectrolab. My S 400 has become my number one practice amplifier. I’m so in love with its tone, I added a ‘line out’ so that I can use it as a preamp for rehearsals and gigs. Coupled with a Magnatone 213, and it’s an awesome gig amp (and you get the added bonus of tremolo and vibrato’rad!).

This S 400 is from late 1966 and had two CTS 8″ alnico speakers. It’s got the 6X4 rectifier, a 6EU7 for the preamp and a single EL84 for output A 6AU6 takes care of the deep, pulsing tremolo. The control panel has four knobs: Volume, Tone and Speed & Intensity for the tremolo. This is a superb recording amp’a rich, complex overdriven tone that sounds huge with a mic. It reacts really well to the picking attack and cleans up as you roll off the volume. The tremolo is very musical and thick. For a small practice amp, it has a very nice bottom. With an overdrive pedal, it thickens and deepens even more and nails tones from the early 50’s Hubert Sumlin to the early 70’s Ronnie Wood Faces’ tone (one of the great, underrated guitar tones of the 70’s).

If you can find an original 60’s Lectrolab, you should snatch it up. I’ve played this next to a Supro Twin Eight and it held its own (and the Valco-made Supro Twin Eight is an awesome little amp). The twin eight inch speakers sound much fuller than your traditional single eight (like a Champ), and it’s got a superb tone for guitar or harp. A hard-to-find sleeper of an amp, but worth the hunt. And happy hunting!

1966 Lectrolab S 400 Guitar Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

Back in the day Kay was actually called Stromberg-Voisinet and actually produced the first documented electric guitar, the Stromberg Electro, in 1928. Good idea but it had some problems and promptly disappeared. Kay didn’t exactly rush back into electrics with any alacrity, but after the War, when it became clear that the electric Spanish guitar was going to be viable, Kay took the plunge like everyone else. Some of its guitars from the 1950s, like the Thin Twin, are classics of the era, though a little stodgy.

1965 Kay K350 Titan I Electric Guitar

By the ’60s guitar boom, of course, Kay was pumping out trainloads of guitars. The market for these mainly beginner-level electric guitars was, of course, young Baby Boomers. By around 1960 Kay was making attempts at upgrading its image to a hipper one, with truly ugly guitars like the Solo King or “State of Ohio” guitar that we’ve talked about before. One of Kay’s improvements was the adoption of chrome plastic pickup covers with etched lines often called “Kleenex boxes” by collectors. They look cheesy to me, but cool cheesy, in a tacky sort of way, if you know what I mean.

But it’s really all about that headstock. Someone at Kay thought they needed to hippify the heads on their solidbodies and came up with what many collectors call the “bushwhacker” design. No chance of being sued by Fender on this puppy! What’s particularly amazing about it is that it must have been a bear to produce. The lower edge or throat is beveled away from the face, while the tip on the upper side is also beveled out, but just beyond the tuner buttons. There’s a ton of carving here in the days before numerical carving machines.

1965 Kay K350 Titan I Electric Guitar

The head, as goofy as it is, isn’t the only impressive feature of the Titan. Those angled double parallelogram inlays are real pearl. Routing for those much have been fun. Then dig the body. Again with the bevels. Everywhere! On a two-piece solid mahogany body. With a good, tight, snug fit for the neck.

And, I guess while I’m complaining, who could love that awful plastic Kay logo? I guess someone did.

1965 Kay K350 Titan I Electric Guitar

In any case, this all came together in 1965 to form the Kay Titan I, a remarkably nice little guitar despite it’s looks. Technically, the Kay Titan I lasted only one year, although it was still around as the Kay Titan II beginning in 1966, when the juke box company Seeburg purchased the company. Little other than names changed with the Seeburg possession, so they obviously didn’t have any objection to bushwhacking or plastic parts. But then again, have you ever seen a juke box? Also cool, but hardly models of high art or great aesthetic taste. More like, “Hey, look at me!”

Come to think of it, maybe it’s NOT the goofy headstock or plastic parts that make this guitar odd. Maybe it’s the really nice mahogany that’s the problem. Maybe the Titan I just needed some pink and green lights and a mirror-ball finish to complete the “Hey, look at me”… Oh well, let’s face it, if guitar designers didn’t come up with some klinkers once in awhile we wouldn’t have the fun of coming up with such goovy descriptions as Kleenex box and bushwhacker.

Bushwhacked by the Past (1965 Kay K350 Titan I Electric Guitar) from MyRareGuitars.com

Sano Amplifiers

I’m going to start with the Ampeg, go Ken Fischer one up in sleepers, and save the amazing 415 for a later column (I was recently lucky enough to trade for a beat up 415, and it is truly THE sleeper 18-watt amp out on the vintage market… more in the next couple of months on that one).

To the Reverberocket. Along with having one of the coolest names ever (don’t ya love all the late 50’s and early to mid-60’s Space-Race names? Harmony’s Rockets, Ampeg Jets…the Atom symbol on everything from Gibson amps to Stratatone headstocks to breakfast cereal…remember Quisp, anyone?), it is a great amplifier. The early (1963 and some 1964) models used the nice and gritty 6V6 tube for output. This, according to legend, had them breaking up considerable quicker than the largely Jazz-centered Ampeg crowd (an image fostered by founder and, in 1964 still head honcho, Everitt Hull) wanted, and the design quickly shifted to the one most listeners are familiar with (with the clean fat-bottomed 7591 output tubes). Most had a single 12″ speaker with the early ones sporting big octal preamp tubes, and the later ones the more commonly scene (today, at any rate) 12ax7’s and the like.

Sano Amplifiers

I first heard one of these at an NRBQ show in the early 80’s and was hooked. Reverberockets have a reputation for being clean amps, and that’s true enough (though they can break up nicely when pushed). They do have a great clean (and crunchy) tone. But what, perhaps, doesn’t get enough play is their reverb. It sounds to me (ears being subjective, after all) to be a much deeper and more lush verb than the Fenders of the time. Jazzier and less surf-y (though Reverberockets may be THE most underrated surf amp ever) than the traditional Fender surf sound. Also, for your early Dick Dale tremolo rolling tone, Reverbrockets have it wired.

They are awesome amps. And you’re still able to catch one for under 500 bucks on the Ebay market (sometimes in the $250.00-300.00 range, depending on physical condition).

BUT, if you’re really in love with the Ampeg sound and want to stand apart from the crowd (or, err, stand apart from the dinky cluster who is standing apart from the crowd), you, my friend, want a SANO twin twelve. Check out the photos.

These are not, as some websites (and Ebay listings) made by people who worked at Ampeg, but a separate and consecutively running company right down the road (both located in New Jersey at the time). They might have been reading each other’s mail (or amp designs), though, because this SANO is a LOT like a Reverberocket with an extra speaker in the cab.

The Sano is a great and affordable way to get that super Ampeg Reverberocket tone at about 60% of the price (mine cost $300 and, as I said, has 2 twelves to the Ampeg’s one). This is a twin 12″ amp (around 30 watts) with Oxford Alnico speakers. The AMAZING reverb (same sound and circuit as the Ampeg talked about earlier). Good, if not incredible tremolo, topped off by a SUPER cool swirly grill.

Sano Amplifiers

And, yes, icing on the cake, it has the 60’s spaceman swirly atom graphic on the control panel. YES!

The guts? 3 12axy’s for the preamps and reverb with a 6sc7, for the tremolo. And two 7591’s for clean, bottom-rich output…an incredibly clean full sounding amp that when cranked, can garage rock with the best of them. Not so loud, but plenty for mid sized and below gigs. It has two channels, which you can bridge with the convenient, though mis-labeled “stereo” input.

If you see them on Ebay, you should be able to snatch a minty one for under $350. A great deal for a vintage amplifier built like a tank. And now that there are new 7591’s on the market, there’s really no good reason (as there was ten years ago) to avoid Ampegs and Sanos that use these underrated output tubes, or to switch their circuitry to accommodate 6L6 tubes.

Be aware, though, there are a lot of Sano amp models. (For info on some other Sano amplifiers, and a history of the company, check out singer-songwriter Larry John McNally’s website: http://larryjohnmcnally.com/sano_amps.html) Some have a duel EL84 output and a single 12″ speaker (never heard it, but would like to), and SEVERAL that look a lot like this model are solid state. Ask questions, as always, before you buy. There are also models with a single 15″ and two 8″ speakers (for the accordion amplifier market…which has, well, dwindled since the mid 60’s).

So there you have it. Two sleepers in one (three, if you count the early 6V6 output Reverberockets). Surf is, indeed, up. New Jersey surf, that is.

Sano Amplifiers (Like the Ampeg Reverberocket Amp) from MyRareGuitars.com

So, I was looking for a single-ended amp. Say what you will about class A/B amps (and, to be fair, most of the great recorded tones in rock history are class A/B push-pull amps), some of them don’t really get singing until they’re too loud for the bedroom or studio. Sometimes you just need to hear that cranked tone without getting the knock from the neighbors. To quickly recap:

1. I wanted a small, easy to carry amp that screamed at relatively low volumes.
2. I didn’t want to spend much money (I’m a cheap bastard…part of me thinks I could never truly love a 59 Bassman unless I scored it at a yard sale for a hundred bucks. Now, tone matters more than money to me, but I tend to love the tone of crappy amps just as much as high enders, so I’d feel like a stooge dropping that kind of money on an amp. Especially since I play them and would ruin the collectable value of anything by gigging with it).
3. It needs to be an amp that another guitar player would say, “What the fuck is that?

1940s Fidelity Amplifier

So what did I buy? A late 1940’s FIDELITY, of course. Haven’t heard of FIDELITY? Me, neither. But it met the needs. It was very light an easy to carry. As for meeting my volume needs…it was VERY quiet. Dead quiet. As in, silent. So, that part needed some work. Sixty bucks. Not bad. Less than an assembly-line stomp box. It looked like a 50’s space heater in crap brown with tootsie roll brown and vanilla cream paint and chicken head knobs. Score, Daddio

When it showed up, my wife shook her head. This can be a good sign or a bad sign…it depends on how it turns out down the road. Sometimes, I fix these things up and make lots of money and buy her a new bass. Sometimes, I lose money and crap piles up in the garage. I try to remind her often of the former and play down the latter as much as possible.

1940s Fidelity Amplifier

Anyway, this little beast didn’t need much work. This is one of the pleasures of working on a Champ-style practice amp. They have so little in them, there’s simply not much to go wrong or fix. This one, it turned out, only needed a filter cap job, a new preamp tube and one coupling cap. Piece o’ cake. Twenty minutes of soldering and one $4.00 7F7 tube later, I had a monster little Champ-esque amplifier (actually it sounds a little more like the Gibson Skylark than a Champ, but that’s cool by me) for under $80.

1940s Fidelity Amplifier

Quirks? Some. The old Rola was kind of tired, so I saved it and put in a new Jensen Mod I had laying around (not a bad little speaker, but not a vintage Jensen, either…expect a future upgrade). The 7F7’s are supposed to be very loud and micro-phonic (which was why we don’t tend to see them in guitar amps after the mid-late 40’s), but this one sounds just fine. And they’re cheap, so it’s not like you’re hunting down good EL86’s or anything. Also, one thing that took some getting used to was the tone knob is backwards by contemporary standards. That is, turn the creamy chickenhead to the left, you get more treble (and more drive and volume). Turn to the right, and it gets very bassy and like a chewy jazzy tone.

The other cool thing about these old non-collectable brands? A modification isn’t sacrilege. I added a “speaker out” jack to drive a bigger cab (using a practice amp cranked through 4X12’s is too much fun…a little amp can move a lot of air in a big cab) and a “line out” jack to use this as a pre-amp with a bigger power amplifier at shows.

1940s Fidelity Amplifier

Where can you find one? My guess is that FIDELITY was a housebrand (like Holiday or Silvertone), and these might be Valcos or some other maker. But I have since seen 2 or 3 of them on Ebay, not going for too much money. Also, there are several other brands (and no-brands) that look much like these, so keep your eyes peeled, don’t pay too much, and score a little gem that will have other guitar players saying “what the hell is that” and have your significant other shaking his or her head when the UPS/Fedex people come knocking.

Rob’s Crazy eBay Finds: 1940’s Fidelity Amplifier from MyRareGuitars.com

So, then, let’s say you’ve got your wonderful freakazoid guitar collection underway. What’s the next move for you’ You like collecting gear, but you think those folks who spend three grand on a 75 Strat are loons of the highest order. Why, for that kind of money, a sane person could buy ten guitars! (well, sorta sane, anyway) So you got a few offbeat guitars and now you need something to plug your Guyatones and Kawais and Kapas and Airlines and so on into. What’s the point of getting such a strange one-of-a-kind guitar and then plugging it into some amp that anyone could wander into a guitar center and buy off the rack. So, where do you go from here?

Here’s a bunch of oddball and wonderful off-brand sleeper amplifiers you may or may not have heard of. For each brand/model, I’ll include some of the features (the Skinny), the tube complement and the ease or lack of ease for a DIY-er to work on the amp (Geek Love), a sound comparison to a more familiar amplifier (Sounds Like), and what you might expect to pay, and what price would be an absolute steal (Price). I’ll also include a section on why you should want this amp, and why you might want to stay away from this amp. (Why You Want This Amp/Why You Don’t Want This Amp).

Here is a group of, in my opinion, seriously undervalued amps. Even the priciest of them are still, in these times of inflated value for anything tube or tweed, well worth the coin.

Univox U45 Guitar Amplifier

1) Univox U45 and Univox U60 Guitar Amplifiers

Got the blues, but don’t want your wallet to have them too’ Check out the Univox U45 and U60 models.

• The Skinny: These are relatively simple amps with a very basic control panel (Volume and Tone and only Speed for the Tremolo). Most of these are housed in a black tolex cab that holds a single 12″ speaker (usually a ceramic Jensen). With a silver grille cloth and the Univox (or Lafayette) logo, these are good looking, if somewhat aesthetically pedestrian amps. Very lightweight – super for recording or a small jam where you need a nice bluesy overdrive at low volume. Not the most versatile amp on the list, but a very cool one-trick pony at, often, a great price.
• Geek Love: Both these amps use the seldom-seen 6MB8 output tubes. The U45B’s I’ve seen have two 12AX7’s for preamps, while the U60’s have had either two or one 12AX7. They are low powered (8-12 watts) amps, with a great smooth overdrive with crisp highs and woody, warm mids and lows. Cathode-bias, non-feedback loop amps allow for plenty of spongy tone and singing sustain. These are Printed Circuit Board (PCB) amps from the late 60’s and early 70’s, but they are incredibly simple in their layout and they are a surprising joy to work on. Well laid out. Simple wiring to follow (for a PCB amp). Plenty of space for upgraded Sprague Atom, or other high end, Electrolytic caps. This means either you’ll enjoy working on them, or your tech will have fewer headaches, which translates (or should) into lower repair and maintenance bills.
• Sounds Like: Well, the 6MB8 output tubes have a tone all their own. They are a little bit like a slightly rounder, mellower EL84. They reach overdrive and grit a little sooner, at lower volumes. Think of a low(er) powered Vox AC-15…the same woody warmth when overdriven.
• Price: Expect to pay between $150-$250 for a U45 or U60 in great condition. They’re very lightweight, which makes them cheaper on shipping if you see it on Ebay (should be 25-30 bucks anywhere in the lower 48, slightly more north of the border), or an on-line dealer. Anything under $150 for a good working model is a steal. Your friends will drool when they hear the tone you get out of this little unsung brand.
• Why You Want It: You get great tone for well under $300? You need an answer for that? They generally have 20 watt Jensen Special Design speakers in them that weren’t pushed hard (due to the power of the amp). A small gig (to be fair, a VERY small gig or, for bigger shows, a mic’d through a PA gig)/practice/recording amp that’s easy to repair for this price? Why not?
• Why You Don’t Want It: The tremolo rarely works in these, and when it does, it’s anemic and only the frequency (SPEED) is controllable. You will need a good tremolo pedal if you use that function. Plus, you’ll need a reverb pedal, if you want it, since this has none. The 6MB8 tubes are strange, but they can be found NOS and they won’t kill you, price-wise (30 bucks a matched pair seems to be the on-line price). Stay away, in general from NATIONAL tubes. They are the easiest to find, and there’s probably a reason for this. I haven’t heard a good set yet of them in the 6MB8s OR the 7189A’s. Another minor negative about the Univox models: While you can never tell about such things, they show no signs of being collectable. So, buy a player, not a collector. None of these factors are prohibitive, but they are things to consider if you’re negotiating for one of these little gems.

Silvertone 1482 Guitar Amplifier

2) Silvertone Amp 1472 and Silvertone Amp 1482

Since the boutique amp boom of the early 90’s, one of the most commonly copied circuits is the 50’s Fender Tweed Deluxe. And while this IS an awesome amp, one absolutely worthy of copying, there are several low-budget funky alternatives for those who love the bluesy grind of a 6V6 circuit. The most frequently seen, and hence, easiest to find are the Silvertone Amp 1472 and 1482 Model. AKA the “TV set” model. A new boutique version of this general circuit can cost you around a grand and up. Heck, a KIT for this amp goes from $400, and more. And those prices are legit – there are cool parts in them. But why not buy one of these models and get your hands dirty for under two hundred bucks and get that Link Wray Rumble tone on the cheap?

• The Skinny: Two channels, which are bridge-able with a patch cord for super thick sound. Volume, tone controls for each channel, and speed and depth for the Tremolo (foot-switch for the Tremolo, which is frequently lost on old models). No Reverb. A single 12″ alnico speaker, frequently a Jensen or Oxford, depending on the year. This little guy, made by Danelectro, comes in a small, portable and astoundingly light cabinet. Covered in a gray wallpaper-ish material, and front-facing controls running vertically down the side, this is one cool looking amp.
• Geek Love: This is where it earns the nickname of a poor person’s Tweed Deluxe, even if that’s stretching the facts a bit, since it the transformers and the rectifiers are quite different. Still, it does have a lot of the same tone, as a result of the cathode-biased 6V6’s in a non feedback loop amp. Two12AX7s for preamp, 6X4 rectifier, 6AU6 (for tremolo) and two 6V6’s for output. These amps are very easy to work on, well laid out and astoundingly simple for a gigable amp. A cool geek factor is that, as a result of the way the amp is laid out in back, you can sub 6L6’s in the output for a little more headroom, and the trannys seem to be able to handle the extra heat nicely in these models.
• Sounds Like: Well, like their reputation (and nickname) says, they sound a lot like a Tweed Deluxe, though a bit looser and wilder. Like the Tweed Deluxe spunky, unkempt friend. Decent cleans at low volume. Nice bottom, rich, textured mids. But, get the volume up past 11 O’clock, and these amps really start to show their stuff. Great overdrive – the classic American tube push of the 6V6’s. Just a great, classic blues and garage rock tube sound. Great, deep 60’s style tremolo with a good sweep of speed control. I’ve A/B’d several of these models with a buddy’s 1958 Tweed Deluxe and they handle the comparison well. Are they as well made as the 1958 Fender? Nope, not at all. They’re not as rugged or durable, or well put together. BUT, they are not $2,500, either. Which leads us to:
• Price: You can snag these in excellent condition between $250 and $300. But, only get a minty one if you’re a collector. If you’re a player, these cheap pressed paper cabinets will get dinged so quickly it isn’t funny. So, why pay more if you’re going to use the amp? You can get these in great playing shape frequently in the $150-$225 range (a friend of mine just got one at a Los Angeles pawn shop, hardly the town for bargain pawn deals, for $150). They are cheap to ship, because of the light weight. If you find one in need of minor work (a tune up, new tubes and/or a cap job), you can get a steal in the low $100’s. Just stay away from the ones with rust on the transformers. It happens a lot with these type of amps – possibly because they were quickly forgotten by budding guitarists and left in their parent’s basements and garages for years of quiet neglect.
• Why You Want It: For the price, it’s just a great amp. Actually, for a good amount more, it would still be a great amp. Super for any recording studio (they’re an awesome little harp amp, too) with lush fat cleans at very low volume, and total blues and garage snarl at mid and high volume. Really easy to find tubes, and at this price you can buy a super speaker to replace the original if it’s tired, and get boutique tone well under $400. (It’s a good idea, if it’s in decent shape, to take out the original speaker, anyway. They aren’t made to crank and they’re made of 40 year-old paper. Keep the original in working condition if/when you want to sell it, and it will retain more value). They’re way cool looking, too.
• Why You Don’t Want It: Well, there’s really no reason to not have one of these. BUT, the big strike against them is their cabinet construction, which makes them a dubious choice for touring. And while you should never allow your friends to sit on your amps, these Danos are amps you REALLY don’t want folks sitting on. Crush, kill, destroy.
• See Also: There are several great and affordable vintage amps, made by Danelectro and Valco, that are so similar in sound to the Silvertone 1472 and 1482’s that giving them their own entry here would be redundant, so I’ll give a short list, with some important ways they differ from the above amps.

Harmony 210 Guitar Amplifier Ad

Harmony Model H210 Guitar Amplifier

The Airline (made by Dano) mid-60’s 90813A amp. Much like the 1482 (the guts are the same), but a top mounted control panel, in black tolex-look paper. You can’t fit a 6L6 in these, as a result of the back cab angle, but otherwise, they are the same awesome amp. You can get these, often, in the $200 range. Highly recommended.

The Harmony 210 (made in the late 50’s by Valco). While several Valco models (mostly the SUPRO-labeled ones, as a result, partially of all the Jimmy Page rumored usage on the early Zep albums) are starting to fetch major dough on the vintage market, these Harmonys are still pretty much dirt-cheap. This may be partially as a result of Aspen Pittman’s misinformation about Harmony amps in the latest Tube Amp Book and we should thank him for this. Where else can you get a wood cabinet (mostly, anyway, except for the top) two 6V6 amp with a 12″ alnico Jensen, made by Valco, for under 200 bucks’ These are sweet amps, and they use a 6X5 rectifier, which is cheap and easy to find.

The later model Harmony 306A (in the black paper covering with the blue painted control panel with white chicken-head knobs) was also made by Valco and has the same features with only a 5Y3 rectifier as the difference from the Harmony above. You can get these between $200-300. The Jensen Special Design ceramic speaker is a nice feature – it sings the blues very well.

The best (and most rare) of this cool bunch, though, may be the Valco-made Kay 6V6 amp. These have all of the great sound and features of the amps above, but the added cool factor of a two-tone (cream and red) cabinet and a swirl grille cloth. PLUS, they use the more common (these days) 5Y3 rectifier, which also makes replacing (if you have to) the power transformer easier and cheaper. These go in the $175-275 range. These are frequently mis-labeled as “Airline” amps – if you see a two 6V6 amp with a 12″ speaker that looks like a bigger red and cream version of the familiar, small (and anemic) Kay 703, snag it, no matter what the seller is calling it. Inside, this and the Harmony 306A are the same amp. They sound sweet – and they look like what made have happened if Frigadaire and Studebaker merged and started making amps.

Magnatone M10A Guitar Amplifier

3) Magnatone M10A Guitar Amplifier

Want some more features, but still don’t want to take out a 2nd mortgage for your rocking amp collection? Try the Magnatone M10A. The easiest-to-find of the Magnatone (by this time in the mid 60’s, Estey-owned) suitcase models, these are either some of the ugliest or funkiest amplifier ever made, depending on your take on them.

• The Skinny: This is one of the most well-appointed and versatile tube amps ever made. Both channel one and two have Volume, Treble and Bass controls, plus a three-position switch for ‘Mellow/Bright/Tone Boost.’ Channel One has tube-driven Reverb (control only for Depth) and the truly amazing Magnatone true pitch shift Vibrato (Speed and Depth controls). If you’ve never heard real Vibrato (Fenders and other amps used Tremolo, which is volume shifting, and labeled them Vibrato’only Maggies actually shift pitch) in an amp, it IS a treat.
• The two channels are bridge-able by an input labeled ‘stereo’ which exponentially expands this amp’s versatility. Put channel one on ‘Bright’ (you get the Reverb and Vibrato as long as you’re using channel one…only when channel two is used alone are they not activated), and channel two on ‘Tone Boost’ and you can dial in all kinds of great chime and grind. This is an amp that you can tweak and play around with for hours.
• Reverb and Vibrato are foot-switch able. All this goes into a closed back cabinet that houses a 12′ speaker (I’ve seen Utahs and Oxfords in these, along with Jensen ceramics). There’s an ‘Extension Speaker’ out on the control panel.
• Geek Love: Magnatone is somewhat famous (infamous) for using oddball tubes in their amps (such as the rare, expensive and hard to get 6CZ5’s in the awesome 280 Stereo Vibrato amps from the late 50’s), and this amp is, sadly, no exception. The preamp and reverb driver and recovery tubes are the usual suspects (12AX7’s and 12AU7’s, depending on the application), but the output tubes are the rare 7189A’s in cathode-bias. On the plus side, this is a great sounding tube. It’s the high-voltage sibling of the 6BQ5 (EL84), with a tolerance for a 100 more volts on the plates. An EL84’s on steroids, with a great overdriven sound.
• Inside, this amp is a tech’s nightmare. You may have a qualified tech in your town, but he or she may have never seen a Magnatone. And if they have, they may have seen the more common and simpler 213 and 260’s made by Magna Electronics in Torrance, CA. When the company moved after the Estey purchase, followed, years later by the introduction of these suitcase models, the amps got even more complex. The power supply and solid-state rectifier are in the bottom of the amp. They are connected, via much spaghetti to the chassis, which is housed in the suitcase top. Here, you have a (relatively) complex circuit with plenty of places where things can go wrong. In engineering, it’s always nice to have a simple design that leaves fewer areas where things can break or go wrong. This amp makes you (or your tech and your wallet) pay the price for all of its cool features.
• Sounds Like: Nothing you’ve ever heard, in many of its settings. However, you can get some very British sounds out of this American-made (1964-66) amplifier when you play around with it. Set up properly, these can crank to rival any 18-watt Marshall or Vox AC-15. At lower volumes, you can’t beat this lush (more Ampeg-ish than Fender) Reverb and Vibrato for surf sounds, ambient music or clean country. In between, it gets a nice crunch rhythm. This amp can do anything but metal, and do it well. Really well. And it will look like a mid-sixties Samsonite Luggage bag while doing it, which may or not be a positive for you.
• Price: In mint condition, expect to pay anywhere from $450-$550 for this amp. Beat up cosmetically, you can score them for between $200 and $350. They cost a lot to ship (it’s VERY heavy for a single 12′ combo). And because of their strange and finicky construction, the suitcase models frequently get damaged in shipping. Consider trying to find one locally, but if you get one at an on-line site (auction or shop), make sure they know how to ship an amp (true of all vintage amps, but especially true here).
• Why You Want One: The tone, man, the tone! The Vibrato. You hear this thing, and you’ll want to grab Elwood and Jake and get the band back together. This is simply one of the best-sounding, most versatile amps you’ll ever have the pleasure of playing. Hook it up to an extension cab, let that vibrato and reverb work on you, and get lost. It responds really well to different guitars and pickups and has rich cleans and creamy overdrive. If you’re just going by tone and price, it’s hard to argue against the M10A. And, you’d be one of the few people around who have one, and they are VERY funky looking.
• Why You Don’t Want One: Here’s the rub. Actually, there’s a few rubs involved with this amp. A pair of good, NOS 7189A’s cost at least $50. Sometimes, much more. Techs, many of them, have no idea how to work on a Magnatone (many do, but I’d check with your local people before you buy one). You CAN modify this amplifier to take EL84’s (a MUCH cheaper tube that sounds great in many circuits), but I haven’t heard one that sounds quite as good as it did with the 7189A’s. The Vibrato rarely goes bad in these (a good thing, as the Varistors are hard to get), but the Reverb is temperamental. The whole amp is oddly put together and top-heavy. They get damaged so often in shipping simply because they are not very well designed (two thin aluminum arms carry most of the tension and weight of the top). It has gig power and tone, but it doesn’t like something as simple as a bumpy ride in a car. A Fender Twin, it ain’t.
• I am a huge fan of rugged amps you can treat like the tools they are. I HATE finicky amps that always need attention if you take them out of the house. The fact that I would not get rid of my M10A for anything except 10% above market value speaks volumes for what a beautiful and individual sounding amplifier this is.

Fender Telecaster Guitar & Danelectro Challenger Amp

1950’s Danelectro Challenger Guitar Amplifier

4) 1950’s Danelectro Challenger Guitar Amplifier

Who has ever played in a band with a guitar player would wouldn’t turn down because he (or she, though in my experience, this is sadly just us guys) couldn’t get ‘their tone’? Or, worse, who has BEEN that guitar player (my hand would be raised if I weren’t typing)? It’s an understandable, if annoying, dilemma. You want pure, beautiful, overdriven tone, but you can’t get it unless you amp is really pushed. If you own a Fender Twin Reverb, you may be the most hated person in your band. Want some great gigging tone with an early breakup, yet a lot of punch and a huge bottom’ You want a mid 50’sDanelectro Challenger (from their ‘C’ series). An amp that sounds huge, even at low volume settings.

• The Skinny: Ain’t nothing skinny about this one. If it ate, it would eat nothing but fried stuff and starches. If it could talk, it’ll swear a blue streak. It’s built for comfort and it’s not build for speed and if you want to sound like Hubert Sumlin (and if you don’t, I feel safe in saying, without fear of argument, there is something wrong with you on a fundamental level, my friend), you might want to try this amplifier out. Two channels, but they are independent and can’t be bridged. Hard wired footswitch Tremolo (mis-labeled, of course, ‘Vibrato’). Volume, Bass and Treble on each channel. Two inputs per channel. A 15′ alnico speaker. That’s it. This is a set it and forget it amp’control your grit, grease and cleans from your guitar’s volume and tone, and just play all night.
• Geek Love: Here is where it gets really interesting. A four 6V6 output section gives this amp lots of snarl with more power and oomph than most of us are used to hearing from 6V6 circuits (which usually come in pairs). Preamps are a 12AX7 and a 6SN7. Tremolo is driven by a metal-cased12SJ7. Rectification comes courtesy of a 5U4 tube. The insides of this amp are a little clustered and messy. It’s point-to-point wired, but not as well laid out as, say a Fender or an Ampeg of the same period. It is, however, spacious and pretty simple and easy to work on. An issue of working on this amp is that the chassis is rather awkwardly mounted to the cabinet, and sometimes it feels as if you could use three hands to get it in and out of the amp. But, overall, it’s pretty straightforward and the tubes are not very hard to find, and the guts are pretty simple to service.
• Sounds Like: It sounds a little bit like any number of the Valco or Danelectro models with two 6V6’s but, with the doubling of output tubes, plus the 15′ speaker, MUCH bigger and nastier. This may be THE sleeper blues club/gig amp out there. At low volumes, you get a rich, thick, warm and bouncy clean sound with great response and dynamics. Turn up the volume (or ‘Amplification’ as it is labeled), and the 6V6’s really get going to the point where this has the rich, classic rock bigness and breakup of the Fender Bassman at a lower, more club and band-friendly volume. Plug a single coil guitar into it, you get chimey, crisp highs, underneath the bluesy breakup. Plug a P90 or humbucker guitar into it, and stand back and listen to the thick, luscious sustain. This isn’t a guitar that’s going to do surf or clean jazz, but for rock, blues, fusion, garage rock or snarly Dave Allen-style instrumentals, man it’s hard to beat. There’s not an amp out there that sounds like this one. The Tremolo is lush and swirling. Set it all the way up and feel the floor move, it’s got so much bottom. Lovely.
• Price: It’s pretty rare, so it’s hard to get a market sense of this as easily as you could an amp that is more frequently seen o the used market. However, in good working shape, expect to pay $350-500 for this amp. Think about it’that’s less that you could probably grab a Peavey Delta Blues for, and it’s a much better amplifier, and one that will increase in value over the years.
• Why You Want It: Well, it’s always nice to have a variety of amps (I think you should have probably one for every guitar, on average, but this is bad math for a successful relationship and home life). And it’s not too common (other than some old Bell and Howell PA’s from the 50’s, or some super expensive Jim Kelly amps from the 80’s) to have a four 6V6 power section, and nothing sounds quite like it. Add that to the 15′ speaker, and you have a unique tonal experience with this amp. The dynamics are fantastic. This is the kind of an amplifier that reminds you these amplifier gizmos are not just things that make instruments louder; they ARE instruments. An amp that responds to the player’s touch is a beautiful thing to feel and hear. This is one of those amps. It’s incredibly lightweight for a large(r) amp. Plus, it looks radical. Fake brown leatherette paper, with a three inch gold stripe around the perimeter, and brown burlap grille cloth all add up to a piece that looks as good in the living room as it sounds on the stage or in the studio.
• Why You Don’t Want It: Great tone, cool looks, a hip factor that’s hard to match (who else has one’ And it looks funkier than Pee Wee Herman’s bike!)…what’s not to love’ Well, the big snag might be its…err… PAPER cabinet. That’s right. Pressed paper! So, if you find one still in one piece after fifty-plus years, consider yourself extremely lucky and find a woodworker or cabinet maker who can copy its simple lines and put the chassis into some wood, and THEN you may take it on the road. As it stands, it would be a tricky and dangerous thing to take this amp out for anything more than a local gig. The good news here is that most weekend woodworkers could copy this cabinet, it’s so very basic. Also, the chassis mounts on four small points, and most of these I have seen have weakened metal on the chassis by the screws. Not the end of the word (it can be re-enforced), but, clearly, a design flaw.

Montgomery Ward 6L6 Guitar Amp Head

5) Montgomery Ward / Valco Two and Four 6L6 Amp Heads

In the wake of Jack White and the White Stripes success, the price of the Silvertone 1484 Twin Twelve (with the two 6L6’s and the 2X12′ cabinet) and the 1485 (with the four 6L6’s and the 6X10′ cabinet) have gone through the roof. They may be worth the prices they’re commanding, but they are no longer sleepers or unknowns on the used market. So, what’s a gear freak to do? Look to the Montgomery Ward/Valco two and four 6L6 heads. These are great amps, somewhat rare, but if and when you see them, they can be had for some really great prices.

• The Skinny: Two channels. Volume, Bass and Treble on each. Depth for Reverb. Speed and Intensity on the Tremolo. All housed in a really cool looking head that has three lights (and a separate switch just for the lights!) that run across the top of the head like a 60’s dashboard. The knobs are huge (silver-dollar sized faces), and with the lights on, they are easy to see and set on a darkened stage. I have never seen one of these with its original speaker cab, but I have run them into cabs with two twelve inch speakers and into cabs with fifteens, and had great luck.
• Geek Love: Both amps (the 40 watt and the 80 watt) use three 12AX7’s in the preamp, a 12AU7 for the Tremolo, and a rare choice of a 6V6 to drive the surprisingly good Reverb circuit. The layout inside of these amps is stunning. Really beautifully structured and very easy to work on. Much better than one might expect from an amp that could be ordered out of a Montgomery Ward Catalog. The particle board case for the head, however, tends to get stripped by the wood screws if it’s been taken in and out too much and/or jarred hard on the road. The smaller head has the two 6L6’s for output while the larger one has four 6L6’s.
• Sounds Like: Well, if the Silvertone 1482 is the poor person’s Tweed Deluxe, these heads are the poor person’s Dual Showman head. These amps offer huge bottom and tons of clean (unusual in the bargain tube amp business) that would be positively great for the surf band on a budget. Try plugging your Eko or your Rangemaster into this and see the cool/rare envy pop in the crowd. Surf will be up, but it will be odd.
• Can you get these into overdrive? Well, yes, the two 6L6 version, at any rate. But it’s a very tight-bottomed, snappy and crisp high-powered overdrive (partially as a result of the solid state rectifier). The 80 watt version of this amp will stay clean until your neighbor’s neighbors are begging you to turn it down and calling the local authorities. This makes it quite the sleeper for the club-sized bass head, as well.
• The big surprise on these amps, as alluded to earlier, is the reverb. Anybody who has owned (and loved) the Danelectro-made Silvertone 1484s and 1485s knows that, great as they are, they have some of the cheesiest reverb ever produced. Their reverb pan is the side of a small tissue box. And it sounds kinda awful. Not even really usable as an odd effect, even after you have long given up on it as a useful reverb. These Montgomery Ward heads, however, use Hammond-Gibbs reverb pans (2 and 3 spring) that are driven by a 6V6 tube and they have a wonderful depth and texture. Very cool. Also, the tremolo has a harder clipping than the smooth tube driven tremolo common in the early to mid-60’s. A monster depth accompanies a wide speed control. Very interesting sounds available from this amp, and a killer rockabilly or surf tube amp.
• Price: While it’s become hard to touch the Silvertone heads in good shape for under $275, their Montgomery Ward counterparts can be had in the $100-200 range with some regularity for the two 6L6 model and a little higher (50 bucks) for the four output tube model.
• Why You Want It: Your surf band is starting to play bigger clubs and you need to Dick Dale the crowd into submission with your mega glissando. If you want to feel it under your Chuck Taylors when your descend-throb that low E-string, but you want gas money left over to get home from the show, this is the amp for you. Plus, it has that cool light-up panel on the front. You can toss in blinking X-mass lights and have a light show while you play. Snazzy. Also, it sounds, like many great clean tube amps do, wonderful with pedals in front of it. This amp likes pedals quite a bit, so if you’re the kind of a player who uses their amp as a pallet for your sound, rather than as the only aspect of your sound (other than the guitar), this might be for you.
• Why You Don’t Want It: Not a lot of negatives. If you don’t like it, the resale value blows, but that only matters if you paid a lot for it. The particle board construction was a cost-cutting measure for a reason: it’s cheap. And, as a result, it breaks easily. But at this price, hey, that’s why they sell duct tape. If you find one in the hundred-dollar range, hell, buy two. Anytime you can get a stylin’ vintage tube amp for less than a boutique pedal, well, you have to buy it, don’t you? Don’t you?

Silvertone 1464 Solidstate Twin Twelve Guitar Amp Head

6) Silvertone 1464 SolidState Twin Twelve Guitar Amplifier

The last amp on the list for now is where I turn away from the tubes and check out the solid state of the nation address. While, in general, tube amps are the thing for vintage tone, it’s true that solid state done right is better sounding than tubes done wrong. Also, if you loved the sound of the first Velvet Underground album, or many of the songs on the Nuggets compilations, you’ve been tapping those fingers on your steering wheel while listening to and groovin with transistors. So, my last amplifier here is a name you’ve heard, but maybe not a model many of us have played, the Silvertone 1464 SolidState Twin Twelve.

• The Skinny: Two channels, one with reverb and tremolo. Controls for volume, bass and treble on each. A lightweight, simply laid out head that tucks, like its tube amp brethren, into the cabinet that houses two ceramic-magnet Jensens.
• Geek Love: Well, there’s not much to love for tech geeks here. SolidState technology offers fewer areas for modification and whatnot. On the up side, not much tends to go wrong with these (unlike, say, the first Fender Solid State offerings, which were notorious for not working and equally notorious for their shrill sound when they did). The filter caps DO go bad (just like on the tube amps), and they are pretty easy to get to and replace.
• Sounds Like: See above. Listen to the guitar on ‘Run, Run, Run’ or ‘Waiting For My Man’ by the Velvet Underground, and you’re hearing the swampy trashy overdrive of the Silvertone (and a solid state Vox bass amp, according to most reports). It’s edgier than most tube amps, but these Silvertones are NOT without warmth, by any means. The tone controls are very responsive, and the amps are lovely through their clean range for Jazz, Country, or Surf music. And, with a good pedal in front of them, you can get some great crunch from them.
• Price: The heads show up a lot on eBay and on-line sellers (and pawnshops), and they don’t command mucho dinero. You should be able to catch a head in really good condition for $100 or under. With a minty cab (and, remember, those twin twelve Jensens work with your tubes heads, too…good to have around), you’re still talking about under two hundred bucks. How cool is THAT?
• What You Want It: Like I said, the cab is a good thing to have. It’s also really great to run this along side a tube amp and either A/B foot-switch them for clean and overdrive, OR just run them both together for fat, rich complex sound. Too cool. And while I don’t think many players would choose solid state as their main sound, it’s good to have a variety of tones at your fingertips. Plus, the price is right. For now.
• Why You Don’t Want It: Well, they aren’t worth much on the resale market, so you may find yourself with an old solid state head with a bad rep (deserved or not) that is hard to get rid of. But that only applies if you want to get rid of it, which I don’t think most folks would, especially if they got it for around a hundred and fifty clams.
• A minor negative (seeing a trend here with these cheapies): The cab is an odd combination of particle board and pressed paper. If Fenders, Traynors and Hiwatts are the brick houses of the amplifier world that no amount of huffing and puffing can bring down, well, under minimal stress these Dano made cabs are pretty much like a trailer park in a hurricane. They’re not made for the rough life’so baby them a little bit, and you’ll get many more years out of them.

So, there you have it. Some affordable amplifiers that will go well with your oddball guitars. And they will keep your friends (and your drummer) shaking their heads and saying, ‘A new amp’ I thought you had an amp’ Why do you need two (or three, four, five, etc….whatever number your sickness has progressed to.)’ Tune up, plug in, drop out. Enjoy.

Oddball Amps: Univox, Silvertone Amp, Harmony, Danelectro, Magnatone & More from MyRareGuitars.com