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

Says Dave:

The guitars were American-made and made at the height of American craftsmanship, the Marshalls were made with quality parts, and you had quality players – you couldn’t record a record unless you had a high level of ability.  Plus studios had the best mics in the world, they had good consoles and tape. Now we might have more stuff available, but it’s not as high-quality.

Jay goes on to ponder the current state of electric guitar gear and whether it is actually more difficult to get what he calls “a convincing, old-school rock tone” than it was when Page, Clapton and Beck were young. So, here’s the deal!  I thought I would ask what you think about this topic…

First, read Jay’s article. Then click on the link below to take a quick four question survey and tell me what YOU think!

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE “BETTER NOW OR THEN?” SURVEY!

As always, I’ll share the results next month!!

Cheers!

Don Mackrill – Don@MackAmps.com

PS: Check out another article on Woody Tone: “Mack of Mack Amps on EL84s and Tone Controls”. In this two part interview I explain why I like EL84s, how the Heatseeker line of amps came about and why I don’t like TMB tone stacks!!

PPS: Join the Mack Amps mailing list and take advantage of the current Member’s-Only discount on Heatseeker HS-18 and Skyraider SR-15 boutique amps!

Better Now or Then? (The Tone Survey!) from MyRareGuitars.com

This month we’ll look at a few aspects of getting a good live sound. While this article is mostly aimed at those of us with who have don’t have much or any stage experience, there may be something of interest here for almost anyone.

Last week I had the genuine pleasure of attending a League of Rock ‘dark stage’ rehearsal night at Toronto’s famous Chick’n Deli night club. This was an opportunity for the six bands in the current session to rehearse their three songs on a real stage – and in this case, somewhat unexpectedly, in front of a real audience.

League of Rock is the creation of Terry Moshenberg, a dynamic entrepreneur and experienced marketer and promoter – who also happens to be a guitar playing musician.

Each LOR session, of which there are three per year, some 26 to 30 amateur musicians – ‘regular’ folks, some of whom have never before been in a band let alone performed live – are formed into six ‘bands’ and, over a 12 week period, work up three songs. Each session culminates in a recording date in a pro studio and the final gala gig at a major Toronto live music venue.

So, how did I end up at a LOR gig? Well, Mack Amps is pleased to announce that it is now the official guitar amp sponsor of LOR, Toronto!

Along with meeting a bunch of great people and having a blast, witnessing 18 songs being performed by a diverse group of guitar players who, for the most part, used various Mack amps (2 guys brought their own amps!), was a tremendous live guitar sound learning experience.

Here are some thoughts about what I learned.

The Guitar’s Place In The Stage Mix

I think of live guitar ‘sound’ as being comprised of two concepts: how good is the tone and can it be heard by you and the audience?

Consider what is going on when a typical rock band performs live:

• Drums: A drum kit produces a tremendous amount of sound energy with fundamental frequencies that range from the bass part of the audible frequency spectrum to mid range. Harmonics of fundamental tones reach all the way into the high midrange and even high frequency portions of the spectrum. You might be surprised at how much high frequency sound energy is present in a kick drum thwack not to mention toms!
• Cymbals. Of course, cymbals produce lots of high-mid and high frequency sound energy. However, their fundamental tones are centered in the mid range.
• Bass. True to its name, the bass produces fundamental tones in the bass to mid range frequencies.
• Vocalist. The vocalist is producing mid range fundamentals with high-mid and high frequency harmonics.
• Keyboards. If your band includes keyboards, they can be pumping out sound that spans the entire frequency spectrum from sub-bass to highs.

The guitar’s fundamental tones span bass to mid range frequencies and the guitar’s harmonics add energy in the high-mid range.

If you simplify each instrument’s frequency range to be generally characterized by its fundamental tones you can get a fairly realistic picture of what’s happening on stage:

• Lots of bass and low-mid energy from drums and bass.
• Lots of high-mid and high frequency energy from cymbals, vocals and often keys.
• Lots of mid range energy from low frequency instrument harmonics and lower fundamental tones from vocals and keys.

There is a LOT of competition on stage fighting to be heard!

Obviously, guitars are a critical part of a band’s sound and are known for being heard, but how do you obtain that ideal combination of stellar tone that is easily heard by both you and your audience?

EQing guitars in a recording mix is a topic of many books and is well beyond the scope of this article. However, there are a few simple things that any guitarist can do to get good live sound.

Analyze Your Guitar Tone

Your tone may sound great when you are practicing at home or playing along with recordings. However, it may not translate well to the live stage.

A fairly common characteristic of what I heard the other night is guitar sounds that seemed muffled and lost in the low-mid wash of sound booming from the stage.

In these situations the guitar players usually increased the volume at the amp in an effort to hear themselves, further adding to the general pandemonium going on in the lower half of the audio spectrum.

What to do? Here are two very basic, but critical suggestions:

1. Turn your guitar volume to 10. Many, but not all guitars feature a ‘volume control bypass capacitor’. No, that’s not something from a Star Trek episode, it’s an electronic component wired across a guitar volume control that prevents your tone from becoming muffled (reduction in high midrange frequencies) as the volume is turned down. If your guitar does NOT have one, whenever you turn down its volume your tone will generally lose presence and recede into the mix. In this case keep your guitar’s volume at 10 to help you stand out. If your guitar does have a volume bypass cap, it’s still a good idea for you to have all of your guitar volume pots full up when you hit the stage and adjust your sound before the first song’s count-in. This will ensure that you are tweaking your sound with the most signal possible coming from your guitar and gives you the best chance of avoiding a gear adjustment that will actually fight against getting a good stage sound.
2. Turn your guitar tone to 10. Guitar tone controls have one function: they roll of high and high mid range frequencies. Since we are trying to achieve optimum ‘sound’ – the combination of great tone that is easily heard by you and your audience – and since guitar tone ‘lives’ in the upper and high mid range frequencies, it makes sense to hit the stage with tone on 10. As with guitar volume, this gives you the best opportunity to properly adjust your gear and it ensures that you do not inadvertently roll of the highs and cause your sound to recede into the mix. Having said that, there are times when a tone control adjustment is certainly warranted: for example, removing the ‘ice pick’ quality from some Teles or getting Eric Clapton ‘woman’ tone from a humbucker guitar. But, generally tone on 10 will help you cut through the mix.

3 Ways To Get Clean Electric Guitar Tone On-Stage

The term ‘clean headroom’ is often used, but having spoken to many guitarists over the years there is generally some confusion as to what it means.

The practical definition of clean headroom is the volume level at which your guitar signal starts to become distorted. The volume at which your tone just starts to breakup or overdrive is the point of maximum clean headroom. How loud you can get a clean tone depends on many variables such as how hard you pick, pickup output level, amp design and settings, etc.

There are three ways to achieve a clean tone:

1. Guitar volume 10, amp clean. Your basic sound is clean and, if you use overdrive and distortion it will come from pedals.
2. Guitar volume less than 10, amp dirty. In this case you set up your amp for a distorted tone and roll off your guitar volume to get a clean tone. Your distorted tone is only a flip of the guitar volume away. Note that this contradicts my earlier recommendation to leave your guitar volume on 10. “Switching” from clean to overdrive and distortion via your guitar volume control is a great strategy if your guitar volume pot is set up properly (see above) and your amp is sensitive enough to changes in guitar volume. Some amps do a great job of changing their tone with guitar volume changes and some don’t – check our your amp to see how it responds.
3. Guitar volume 10, amp channel switching. If your amp has multiple channels one is usually adjusted for a clean tone and one for an overdriven or distorted tone.

Any of the above methods of achieving a loud clean tone is valid. The one you choose depends on your gear, the music you play and whether switching tones within a song is a necessity.

Note that a clean tone will most likely have a better chance of cutting through the stage mix. Generally, the balance of upper and high mids will be greater than an overdriven or distorted tone and your guitar sound will be less compressed allowing your picking and playing dynamics to be heard.

Distorted Electric Guitar Tone On-Stage

Whoever came up with the phrase “Less is more” must have been referring to distorted electric guitar tone!

You will likely have heard this before, but some of the heaviest electric guitar tones feature relatively little distortion.

For example, Keith Richards, ACDC, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, etc. have recorded some of the heaviest rock guitar sounds ever – and many of these iconic ‘heavy’ tones are really not all that distorted.

I realize that LOTS of great guitar tones feature LOTS of distortion, but to achieve the best stage guitar sound for classic rock and blues music styles, dialing down the distortion is almost always beneficial.

While there are many flavors of distortion – overdrive, fuzz, etc. – I generally think about it related to two needs: rhythm and lead.

If a song requires a distorted rhythm tone, often referred to as ‘crunch’, the ‘less is more’ credo is critical. Richards and the Young brothers are the masters of getting incredibly juicy, resonant and HEAVY crunch tones that are, when you listen closely, amazingly clean relative to their impact.

The distortion required for lead playing is dependent on the song and the player. However, I believe that the ‘right’ amount of distortion for solos is just enough to produce ‘flow’. What’s flow? It’s that musical moment where your tone is distorted and compressed enough and possesses enough sustain that the player can focus on their performance without having to ‘fight’ their way through a solo.

This may sound kind of esoteric, but I am sure you have wrestled with solos where your tone wasn’t quite there – either there wasn’t enough sustain or not enough distorted breakup and compression. Dialing up the distortion to get to that point of ‘flow’ alleviates the problem, but overdoing it will cause your sound to, once again, recede into the stage mix.

I also believe that the amount of distortion needed to obtain flow varies according to the song. Heavy songs with lots of crunch backing the solo requires more distortion; a much less distorted tone is often the perfect fit for obtaining flow with ‘lighter’ songs.

Having said that, I know there are lots of examples of impossibly distorted solos in otherwise clean songs and clean solos in heavy songs – in those cases the contrast is what works. However, I believe that a good rule of thumb is to use just as much distortion as it takes to get you into flow – and no more.

What happens if you use too much distortion on stage?

Your tone won’t fit the song and will negatively impact the quality of your band’s overall sound and its performance. Part of getting a great stage sound is making sure your audience isn’t cringing even if they can hear you LOUD and clear. Since the primary objective of performing live is to provide your audience with an enjoyable experience, this problem should be avoided at all costs!

Worse yet, using too much distortion can overly compress your tone and, depending on how the distorted tone is EQ’d, there can be a dramatic perceived loss in highs and clarity and you end up not blending in with the song and not being heard properly! I suppose that if your tone is negatively affecting the overall performance, not being heard might be a good thing, but I think you get my point.

How do you easily get the right amount of distortion on stage?

So,this is how to best get a distortion sound on stage and still be heard properly:

1. Crunch. My favorite method of getting good crunch is from an amp – preferably one that features power tube distortion. Richards and the Youngs rely on plugging a great guitar into a great amp and turning it up until they get the tone they want. Although there are lots of overdrive and boost pedals that can get crunch tones, for the most part you will find that amp crunch is more dynamic, resonant and pleasing to the ear. Dynamics are important because a good amp will respond to your picking attack by changing the amount of crunch. Organically altering your distorted tone by playing harder and softer during a song is FUN!
2. Lead. This is where pedals can really come into play. Stomping on a box to elevate your tone for solos is a classic method. However, you can get great amp lead tone by setting your amp for lead distortion and rolling your guitar volume down for clean/crunch and up for solos. Or, if you have a multi-channel amp it is easy to set up rhythm and lead tones.

There are many more aspects of live guitar sound that we haven’t covered. If there is enough interest in this topic I’ll continue next month.

Let me know how you get great live guitar tone by emailing me at Don@MackAmps.com or simply post your reply, below!

Don Mackrill
www.MackAmps.com

Getting Great Guitar Sound On Stage from MyRareGuitars.com

Small Is Beautiful: Under 10 Watt Guitar Amps Grow Up
Last year I discussed what I believed to be the growing fascination with power reduction. At that time I reviewed the ways in which an amp’s power can be reduced: attenuators, variable power reduction, switchable power reduction, pentode/triode operation and single tube, low watt amps.

One year later it turns out that the industry seems to have focused on single tube amps and either variable or switchable power reduction.

In 2009 the already crowded ranks of the ‘under-10-watt’ category grew significantly. Three aspects of that growth are, I believe, interesting and give us an indication of what’s coming.

1. VERY low power. Not only did many manufacturers introduce under-10-watt amps, a number of them provided the ability to reduce power to under 1 watt – sometimes well under 1 watt. I believe this acknowledges the fact that the vast majority of electric guitar players – if not all – spend a significant portion of their time playing at home. Therefore, it makes sense to provide amps optimized for home playing and less than a 1 watt output is necessary to obtain the best tone at bedroom volume.
2. The economy made me do it. The impact of the economy has helped fuel the industry’s interest in low power amps – 2009’s Mesa’s Mark V and the PRS amp line being notable exceptions. In the worst economy since The Great Depression it makes sense that manufacturers introduced lower priced products. Relatively few guitarists were willing and able to spend over $1,000 on a guitar amp this past year – and likely won’t for some time to come.
3. The economy made me do it, part II. Boutique builders embraced low power for the same reason the rest of the industry did: to have something to sell! Good news for tone hounds! Prior to the world’s economic bubble bursting, boutique amps were overwhelmingly focused on 15-18 watts and above – (2+ power tubes).

Where are we headed?
I believe that the low power amp trend will have legs at least as long as the ’18 watt’ trend – that is 5+ years. For the next few years expect to see more under-10-watters hit the market. This trend will be long lived for two reasons:

1. First, with the global economy expected to experience only limited growth over the next two years (and perhaps longer) and unemployment expected to decline at a very slow rate, high ticket guitar amps will not be selling like hot cakes. As I mentioned above, amp companies have to have something to sell at a price people are able to pay. Hello under-10-watters!
2. Second, I predict the electric guitar world will discover that under-10-watt amps can provide GREAT tone and surprising flexibility – they can be legitimate tone machines suitable for more than just bedroom strumming.

The positive result for all electric guitarists is that as more and more builders pursue low power amps of their own, the quality and variety of under-10-watt amps will increase – just like 15-18 watters did a few years ago, which were considered low power amps before the under-10-watt trend took hold!

Guitar Amp Industry Reacts to Change – Extension, Contraction and Caution
It’s no surprise that this year the Crystal Ball is clouded by the effects of the economy. Most industries (all?) have been forced to change tactics. Here’s how I think the guitar amp industry will cope.

Up until the fall of 2008 the overall guitar market was as overheated as the rest of economy. Vintage guitar prices were sky high, manufacturers were introducing new products at a rapid rate, a boutique builder baby boom was in full swing with new arrivals being born almost every week. Music Industry revenue statistics confirmed double digit annual growth: guitarists were buying gear like there was no tomorrow.

Sound familiar? Substitute guitars and amps with almost any product you can think of and the scenario was the same.

And then we hit the wall.

How have manufacturers reacted and how will they struggle through until sales start to grow?

Product Line Extension – Want More Pedals?
As mentioned above regarding low power amps, many guitar amp companies that previously relied on $1,000+ products to sustain business are searching for lower priced offerings that appeal to income battered guitar players.

This is confirmed by an interesting fact about how this recession differs from those of the past: the sale of ‘luxury’ products have dropped right along with everything else. In every recession since the Depression, luxury goods manufacturers (in our case think boutique builders) enjoyed relatively robust sales: those with money kept buying high-end items. Not this time.

So, I believe that in addition to under-10-watt amps many amp builders will extend their product lines by creating their own line of effects pedals. After all, compared to a guitar amplifier an effects pedal requires less labor, fewer components (usually), no power supply (or an off the shelf, cheap wall wart), a dramatically smaller and less costly cabinet and, as is the case with combo amps, they don’t require a large and expensive speaker.

To an amp company, that looks like a promising path to a relatively inexpensive product line add-on. I’m certain that I am not the only amp builder who has thought of that!

However, will extending a previously amp-only product line by adding pedals be the ‘answer’ to increased sales? Maybe.

We all know the pedal market is as crowded as the amp market if not more so. Will amp company offerings cause guitarists to buy a pedal when they otherwise wouldn’t or cause them to choose the amp company’s product vs. a pedal company’s?

Time will tell, but those amp companies that successfully launch a line of pedals will do so solely on the merit of their product (and their marketing budget!): amp builder pedals will have to be sufficiently different from the crowd to garner attention and sales.

Can that happen? Who knows for sure, but I believe you will see an increasing number of pedals offered by amp companies that are, of course, designed using their knowledge of tube amp design and tone – not from a pedal manufacturer’s ‘pedal-centric’ perspective.

So, expect to see pedals that are designed to form a ‘system’ with an amp rather than being simply an add on. How a pedal compliments, enhances and changes the amp’s tone (and vice versa) and how the pedal interacts with the amp’s first preamp stage will, I think, be areas of interest for amp-centric pedal designers.

Pedals designed to, in effect (bad pun), add another channel or multiple channels to an amp… pedals designed with a frequency response perfectly matched to an amp’s voicing… overdrive and distortion based on the detailed knowledge of how tubes produce their particular mojo and long experience ‘voicing’ amps. I think that amp builder’s will have their own take on pedal design, particularly in conjunction with their own amps.

Guitar Amp Product Line Contraction – Less Choice
I think we will see some amp companies narrowing their product lines. Following the unfortunate theme of this article, higher priced and/or lower volume models may see the end of their life cycle in the coming 12 months.

Too bad for guitarists, but inevitable at least to some extent I think.

Guitar Amp Product Line Caution – Fewer New Products
This is another prediction that isn’t a surprise. When sales are down there is less money available for research, product development and product launches. Plus, these days the risk inherent in any product launch is much greater than in the past.

So, as was evident in 2009 – aside from low power amps – I believe that the number of new amp product introductions will significantly lag that of past years.

Again, too bad for guitarists, but inevitable.

2009 Tube Tone Crystal Ball Revisited.
Last year I made three predictions. As it turns out, it looks like I called two of them correctly!

1. End of the 18 Watt Guitar Amp Trend: In my opinion 2009 proved what I believed was already happening in 2008: the fascination with dual EL84 amps has ended. Although I don’t have precise statistics, I think there were dramatically fewer amps of this type launched in 2009 – yes, launches were down overall, but other than perhaps a small hand full none were twin 84s. As I pointed out last year, this is not to say that EL84 based, 18 watters aren’t good amps! In fact, the trend was legitimate – these things can sound fantastic!!
2. Guitar Amp Power Reduction – enough said above.
3. PCB Amps On The Rise: My prediction that more ‘high-end’ amps will feature printed circuit boards (PCBs) instead of hand made, stuffed and soldered circuit board has not been realized. Nonetheless, I believe that this change will occur, but when it will start given the current industry situation, who knows.

I’d like to know what you think is happening in the world of tube amps. Send me an email at: Don@MackAmps.com.

Mack Amps: Skyraider SR-15 Amp (front)

Don Mackrill
www.MackAmps.com

Tube Tone Crystal Ball 2010: Amp Trends & Future Predictions! from MyRareGuitars.com

The Meaning of Boutique
Boutique is a French word whose literal translation is “shop”. It appears to have come to prominence worldwide in reference to the fashion industry: boutique fashion designers and boutique clothing stores that sold pieces made by boutique designers.

Two dictionary definitions of the word boutique reads: “a small business, department, etc., specializing in one aspect of a larger industry” and “a small, exclusive producer or business”.

These are somewhat vague explanations and if we were to get really philosophical we would examine the terms “specializing” and “exclusive” in an attempt to achieve a precise definition. You’ll be please to learn that we won’t go there in this article!

It appears that there is a common theme developing regarding the concept of business size: to be considered boutique a business must be small.

However, is there more required of an amp company to be considered boutique?

The Boutique Debate
If you spend any time at all browsing online forum threads that address this topic you will see a number of different criteria discussed relative to defining a boutique amp and/or amp company.

Following is my assessment of the most commonly mentioned characteristics. And, I’ll give you my 2¢ worth on each one!

• Size: Yes, as the tired joke goes “size does matter”, but in this case small is better (if only my wife would agree…). Virtually every participant in the online boutique debate agrees that to be considered a boutique amp company small or limited production capacity is a requirement. A common example is Mesa Boogie. Often considered the first boutique amp company, Mesa seems to have outgrown the genre. I agree that mass production is not a characteristic of a boutique builder. There are some fine amps that are mass produced – many by Mesa – but, that is not the essence of a boutique builder as will be discussed below.
• Philosophy: There’s that word again. Don’t worry! A few thoughtful forum dwellers brought up the idea that boutique amp companies have a different mission than non-boutique companies. They believe that a boutique amp builder’s primary focus is on the integrity of their product concept: “built to a standard not to a price” was how one put it.I think this is a critical characteristic of boutique amp companies. Whether a builder focuses on replicating vintage designs or developing unique creations, each one follows their own recipe to make a ‘better than mass produced’ amp.Evidence of this is seen in any boutique builder’s product line. There is almost always a direction or common theme to which their products adhere. You don’t see boutique builders going after widely divergent market segments as some ‘big’ companies do: $200 entry level amps all the way to multi-thousand dollar, hand wired reissues!
• Hand wired vs. printed circuit boards: There is much lively debate concerning the authenticity of boutique amps that use printed circuit boards (PCBs). Is this an oxymoron? Many guitarists think so. The hand wired camp believe that only an amp whose every component and wire has been hand soldered can be considered boutique. However, there are many amp companies that are generally considered to be boutique, such as Soldano, Rivera, Fuchs and THD to name a few (Mack uses a PCB in the Gem) that use PCBs. Note that while these amps use PCBs, they are hand assembled and, in at least the case of the Gem, are hand wired to the chassis mounted components.Does an amp have to be hand wired to be considered boutique? Not in my opinion. The manner in which components are attached and soldered to a circuit board simply does not affect tone. A poorly laid out eyelet board will sound just as bad as a poorly designed PCB. A well designed PCB amp will sound indistinguishable from a hand wired example.Reliability is often cited as a problem with PCB amps. While a poorly designed, mass produced amp is a recipe for problems, a well designed PCB amp will be at least as reliable as a hand wired amp. After all, PCBs are used in spacecraft and military electronics – two of the most inhospitable environments on or around the planet – and, since in both of those applications cost is insignificant compared to reliability, hand wired electronics would be the norm if PCBs were unreliable.
• Price: Many guitarists believe that boutique amps are very expensive – and many are. As we all know boutique amp prices can easily run from $2,000 up to tens of thousands for Dumbles and the like. However, there is a growing segment of boutique builders who offer amps at prices in the $1,000 range and sometimes less. While $1,000 is not inexpensive, it is much less than many guitarists believe possible for a boutique amp. Plus, there are many mass produced amps from big companies that are in this price range – and higher!Nonetheless, relative to a small builder (there’s that size thing again) price is indicative of what goes into their products. Building amps completely by hand or hand assembling them simply requires more labor than if the same product is mass produced. That means a higher price. When you add in the additional cost of high-end and sometimes custom components that some boutique builders use, the price quickly escalates. BTW, my explanation of high priced, mass produced amps is that their price reflects what the company thinks they can get for them.
• Location: Most if not all participants in the boutique debate seem to agree that to be considered a boutique amp builder, production must take place locally – not in Asia or other areas of the world where labor rates are low. To my knowledge there is no small amp building company from these areas that claims boutique status (although there is a Malaysian maker of reportedly high quality amp kits that many consider be in the boutique category).I tend to agree with the assessment that an amp builder should not be considered ’boutique’ if it has their product manufactured by a third party company in, say, China. I believe that the ability to maintain product integrity relative to component quality, build quality and functional consistency is compromised if production is not close at hand.There appears to be a growing body of evidence supporting this belief based on a North American amp company that would have previously been considered boutique, but who has, it appears, elected to manufacture at least some of their product overseas. While their amps have proven to be popular and are now sold at GC (the boutique builder kiss of death?), anecdotal reports suggest that the tone and build quality of the amps are not on par with their past, domestically produced, products.
• Tone: It’s interesting to note that in all of the online forum threads that I studied, VERY few participants mentioned tone as a defining factor of a boutique amp! A few commented that not all boutique amps sound good to them. Most did not mention relative tone quality at all!I think this reflects the reality that while many boutique amps produce exceptional tone, there are mass produced amps that sound good too – or at least ‘good enough’. This is where price enters the thought process of guitarists. Is the improvement in tone worth the extra money for a boutique amp? Or, is there even an improvement in tone at all? Since tone is such a subjective assessment there are many answers to the above questions. That said, I think there are many guitarists who don’t equate significantly better tone with a boutique amp simply because they would never consider buying one.Nonetheless, I believe that if an amp claims to be boutique, that it should produce very good tone indeed. This leads to another personal belief: once in the boutique price range every increment in price should produce a noticeable improvement in tone – otherwise the value of the higher price amp is degraded.

What Is A Boutique Amp?
I believe that a boutique amp is made by a small manufacturer who follows their own philosophy of how to build amps that are better than mass produced products.

Yes, there are lots of ways to interpret that… and that’s why there are lots of boutique amp companies!

Mack Amps Heatseeker HS-18

Send me an email and let me know what you think!

Don Mackrill
Don@MackAmps.com
MACK AMPS

What Is A Boutique Guitar Amp? 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

First some quickie suggestions right off the bat for you guys and gals.

Phase 1

1. When using a wah wah and a distortion always have the wah wah before the fuzz box (how’s that for old school?) in your chain. You want to effect your guitar signal before you distort it. When using a clean boost that should be last in your chain right after your distortion units.
2. Use as few pedals as you can. The more effects you use the more your sound suffers. If you are using more than 5 or 6 pedals try using an A/B switch and set up two loops to keep the chain as short as possible.
3. If you like a tight sound, ceramic speakers are a good way to go. In general AlNiCo speakers tend to be a bit more saggy. But there are some Alnico speakers that are clean too, these tend to be the higher quality ones. And as they break in the ceramics tend to be tighter and cleaner.
4. Lower output pickups tend to be thinner eq wise, and subsequently a hotter pickup tends to be darker sounding. If you want to use a lower output pickup for the reason that they reproduce your playing dynamics better, you must use a higher output amp. Again, if your guitar is a high output axe you can use a smaller amp, and still achieve a nice fat sound.
5. Shorter scale guitars make light gauge strings feel extra light, and consequently longer scale guitars make light gauge strings feel a bit heavier. This is why back in the day when light gauge strings were not readily available, guitar players preferred Gibson guitars over Fender.

1962 Fender Telecaster Electric Guitar (Vintage)

Phase 2
Next on the cavalcade of hits, I will give you some examples of typical setups for certain types of music. Remember you can mix and match these suggestions for your signature sound.

Clean Country Sound:
This is a sound made popular by country pickers since the 1960’s. It’s a clean sound, very little if no distortion at all.

• Guitars: Fender Stratocaster, the bridge pickup for a bright twang with a bit less output and fatness then the Tele bridge p/u. You can also get a great albeit a more modern country sound using the between the pickups sounds (2nd and 4th) on the Strat. For all you Eastwood fans check out the Wandre and the Joey Leone Signature Models for a great bunch of aforementioned country sounds.
• Gretsch models w/ DeArmond Dynasonic pickups give you a great country sound with alot of dynamic range for subtle to ear splitting tones. For those of you who want to dabble in some cool country tones try the Eastwood Classic 6 for a very reasonable starter country axe.
• A Gibson thin line arch top like a Byrdland is also a great clean country axe, don’t believe me? Ask Roy Clark and Hank Garland (Mr. Sugarfoot Rag). One of my idols Scotty Moore (of Elvis fame) played an L5 and an ES-295 during his years with the King.
• Amps: The cleaner the amp the better, period. A Twin Reverb comes to mind immediately as well the solid state high wattage steel guitar offerings from Peavey like the Nashville and Session 400. Amps with at least a 12-inch speaker will help you get that twang. If you are the only guitar player in the band consider using an amp with a 15-inch speaker. You can also use a smaller amp at a lower volume with a mike on it.

Gritty Country Sound:
Same guitars choice as above, just crank your amp up. 10 inch speakers are okay for this application. The Marshall TSL Series, Fender Deluxe. Vibrolux, and Super Reverb will make you smile.

Heavy Rock Sound:
Again I remind you I am an old school guy so I say….

• Guitars: Gibson SG w/ humbuckers is my choice for ultimate heavy rock guitar. It cuts and yet is still as fat as your fifth grade Home Ec. teacher. Tony Iommi, Angus Young, and Glen Buxton (the most underrated heavy rock guitar player) are shining examples of what an SG in the hands of a capable axe murderer can do. Gibson Les Paul Customs like Steve Jones and Mick Ronson used to play also kill.
• Those pointy guitars from the 80’s, Jackson, Charvel, Ibanex JEM and ESP’s are all a bit more edgy and hotter then a stock SG or Les Paul.
• I also love the sound of P90 equipped solid body axes for a great crunch sound, maybe a more punky sound is a better explanation. Les Paul Jr.’s ala Johnny Thunders and Leslie West are prime examples of this guitars sound when cranked. I am sure these guys influenced Billy Joe Armstrong in his choice de axe. Again, Eastwood offers some great single coil guitars of this ilk, the P90 Special, Stormbird and JR Elite just to name a few.
  1962 Fender Telecaster Guitar – Sunburst
• Amps: Marshall, Marshall and more Marshall. The JTM 800 is numero uno in my book, as well as the JCM 900 for a more modern shred vibe. I was also impressed with the Carvin stack offerings back in the day. THD, Randall, and Peavey also have really good sounding shred generators in many configurations.

Marshall Guitar Amps

Rock and Alternative Sound:
This is a potpourri of suggestions, please take one and pass the rest back.

• Guitars: Well take your pick, I am just gonna rattle em off….first the off the wall ones. These are the “next big things.” Maybe? Remember Cobain’s JagStang? Gretsch solid bodies from the 70’s and 80’s ugly as your neighbors AMC Gremlin. Silvertone’s and Danelectro’s from the 60’s. Link Wray, Jimmy Page, duh! Kramer’s from the 80’s, Eddie something or other played one of these. Carvin solidbodies from the 80’s. Still a great deal on Ebay. Ovation guitars form the late 60’s and 70’s (the Deacon, the Breadwinner, and Tornado.) The pickups were nasty sounding, but oh so cool. Legit ones. Fender Telecaster, Rickenbacker solid and semi-solid guitars, Gretsch arch tops, Mosrite solidbodies, and Gibson solidbodies guitars w/ P90’s.
• Amps: The Vox AC-30 is a seriously important amp in the history of rock and roll, for a very good reason, it’s an original. History tells us that early Marshall’s are in essence copies of a Fender Tweed Bassman. So the Vox is the only original amp design of the “Big Three”. Best news about that is that it sounds great! The Vox AC-15 is also a slammin’ amp. Portable, strong and ballsy just like my first wife.
• Fender Deluxe Reverb, crank it up and feel the magic. The singularly most versatile amplifier in the history of guitardom. This little dynamo is IMHO the best sounding amp ever made (Blackface models produced from 1964 to 1967).
• The Silvertone/Danelectro Twin Twelve. What a great/cheap amplifier should be. Two twelve inch speakers (usually Jensen’s) a killer tremolo and reverb. Most models I have seen run four 6L6’s in the output section. Although I own an early Danelectro Twin Twelve which runs a duet of 6L6’s that is a great amp. Also any of the Valco made amps will do the trick (Supro, National, Airline, Montgomery Ward).
• There are so many great boutique amps out there that are really well built and versatile. They are expensive, usually very expensive. Also they are tough to try out as many of these amps are not in music stores. Making it hard to test drive them . And if they do have one, that’s the problem they only have one, so you can’t a/b them with your favorite guitar plugged into them. Some of the ones I have either owned or played are Victoria (a tweed Fender vibe), Matchless (some Vox like models). I also really liked the early Bedrock amps that were basically JTM 45 clones.

Getting Your Own Sound with Guitars & Amps 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

More tone controls are better – treble, middle, bass – a tone stack for every channel! Always has been, always will be… maybe not!

WHY?

Tradition is a powerful thing and change is hard to make. But, if you consider how tone controls affect an amp’s signal chain, investigate what a guitar and amp sound like with minimal tone controls (or none!) and then decide if you REALLY need them, you might be surprised at your conclusion.

Tone controls change or modify the tone of an electric guitar signal as it passes through an amp. However, the primary determinant of how your electric guitar sounds is the instrument itself, the amp’s overall design (gain stages, pre vs. power tube overdrive, etc.), its tubes, the speaker(s) and YOU the player. Tone controls are but one in a long line of factors strung between your brain, your gear and your ears.

We all have used tone controls to change the sound that our amp produces. Roll off the bass for a humbucker equipped guitar; trim the treble when you plug in that ice-pick Tele; peg the bass when playing your Strat; boost the mids to cut through the mix. All useful stuff. But, what would you sound like if you didn’t have tone controls at all?

In my opinion, despite their tone tweaking usefulness, traditional tone controls can detract from the quality of the tone… if you consider what your amp would sound like without them. Let’s dive into the nature of tone controls to find out why I hold this wacky belief!

Virtually every tone control you’ll run across, at least in a typical tube amp, is a ‘passive’ device. That means that it cuts or reduces the volume of certain frequencies. A passive tone control cannot boost frequencies.

Terminology check: tone controls are often referred to as ‘tone stacks’. The passive components that comprise tone controls – resistors, capacitors and potentiometers – are connected in such a way that when they are drawn on a piece of paper – a schematic – the treble, middle and bass controls look like they are ‘stacked’ on each other. That’s where the term tone stack comes from.

Because tone stacks are constructed from passive components, even if you turn the knobs up to 10, each tone control still reduces certain frequencies.

Yes, that’s right. With passive tone controls there is no such thing as a TRUE ‘flat’ setting where the signal is not affected in any way there is always some signal loss.

What the heck does all that mean?

Below is a graph that shows the frequency response of a typical treble, middle, bass (TMB) tone control often used by an amp company originally located in southern California. The graph depicts the level of frequencies with all the tone controls set to 10. As you can see the signal level at all frequencies is well below 0 dB — that means that the signal level is being attenuated or reduced as it goes through the tone stack – even at a 10 setting (yes Nigel, the same would hold true at 11 too!).

What does this mean? Two things.

First, a tone stack reduces the overall level of your signal. That’s why amps with traditional tone stacks need an extra gain stage to return the signal to its level before it got hosed down by the tone stack – more components, more cost, more complexity.

Second, even when all the knobs are on 10 the stack is changing the tone profile of your signal. The tone stack’s frequency response as shown in the graph has a big dip centered on 300 Hz. That means that the volume level of those frequencies around 300 Hz is a lot less than the rest of the frequencies – a cut in the low mids.

Here’s our tone stack’s frequency response set to provide a flat frequency response. Note that although the tone controls are not shaping the tone – all frequencies are being passed at an equal level -the signal has been severely attenuated across the board.

• 10Hz
• 100 Hz
• 1000 Hz
• 10000 Hz

You’ll likely be surprised to learn that to produce this ‘flat’ response the controls have to be set as follows:

• Bass = 1
• Middle = 8
• Treble = 0

I bet that’s not where you set your tone controls!

There are a few things at play here. First, at this flat response point you have to really boost the volume to compensate for the gain loss through the tone stack. Second, it shows how much the typical tone stack scoops mids – bass and treble have to be severely attenuated to match the low mid-frequency response of the stack. Finally, this shows that the tone controls are highly interactive and changes in one dramatically affect the other – you have to dial in crazy settings to get a flat response.

So, if it takes this dramatic an alteration of your tone controls to get a true representation of what your guitar sounds like why bother?

Is all this ‘bad’? Not necessarily. The tone stack in question has been used in dozens of amp designs that produce great tone. Maybe you won’t like the true sound of your guitar!

However, I want to plant a crazy idea in your brain: what would happen if you didn’t have a tone stack or you had a very simple tone control that could make subtle tone changes, but would not suck nearly as much gain and would not dramatically alter the frequency response of your guitar?

Well, in my experience you can really ‘hear’ your guitar (!) … you’ll hear a more balanced tone coming from your rig. Your tone will have more presence and, with an amp that has been designed with minimal or no tone controls, you will experience a more responsive, dynamic feel. If you like that sort of thing it’s VERY cool!

Of course, it’s impossible to properly convey the sound of a ‘tone-stacklessR17; amp on a piece of paper … you have to hear the difference!

So, when you see amps with minimal tone controls don’t dismiss them. Play through them when you get the opportunity so you can see for yourself. You may be surprised at what you hear and feel!

Send me an EMAIL (Don Mackrill) if you would like to discuss this further!

PS: Crystal ball time! I predict you’ll see an increasing number of amps with ‘lift’ switches that take the tone stack completely out of the circuit. A few big name amps have had this feature for years labeled as a “solo” switch. Why call it a solo switch? Because eliminating the tone stack increases gain and midrange response – both perfect for bringing your sound front and center! Wouldn’t that boost in tonality be a good thing all the time?

Consider having your local amp tech add a lift switch to your favorite box so you can experiment for yourself … the stack might get lifted and never put back!

Amp Tone Controls: Tone & Gain Sucking Leeches? from MyRareGuitars.com

You’ve finally made your decision to slap down some of your scarce cash on a reissue or new model tube amp built in the Far East for a BIG name manufacturer. It seems like a great deal: the vintage amps of this model sell for thousands of dollars more, it looks like the real thing and the specs appear to be the same (same tubes, same power, same controls, etc.). And, it sounded pretty darn good in the store too.

So, why should you NOT buy it and instead consider a hand made, BUDGET BOUTIQUE amp?

An excellent question and on that I’m sure will generate many opinions. Following is my take on this scenario. It may change how you pursue your quest for spine tingling tone … without having to re-mortgage your house to get it!

Why shouldn’t you buy the reasonably priced BIG name amp? That question can be answered in two words:

Value and Quality

BORING you may be thinking: these are goals that any business tries to achieve. However, in this case they really mean something and by paying attention to them you can have a significantly better amp ownership experience.

Bottom line: you CAN get an amp that sounds better and is more reliable than the BIG name, mass produced amp made in the Far East … for not a lot more money.

That’s right, in exchange for a reasonable price premium (I know … yeah right, you’re thinking) you really can get kick-ass tone that puts a mile-wide grin on your face and a piece of gear that is versatile and won’t break (and if it does it’s fixed pronto by someone who cares!). That’s the definition of a BUDGET BOUTIQUE amp. Sounds like good value? It is.

Here’s the alternate scenario to the one above. Magically, you’re now presented with a second amp featuring:

• All tube circuitry
• Kick-ass tube tone that blows you away
• Telepathic sensitivity to the player’s touch
• The ability to morph from chime to crunch to face-ripping distortion with the twist of your guitar’s volume knob
• Hand made, hand wired construction that is robust and reliable
• Customer service provided by a company that cares about creating a great ownership experience

All for only $200 – $300 more than recent Fender reissues or the same price or LESS than many Marshall tube amps… that are made in the Far East featuring printed circuit boards to minimize cost.

How do you decide whether to spring for the BUDGET BOUTIQUE amp? Let’s play out the scenario.

Is the tone difference that big a deal?
You bet it is – that’s owners speaking, not me. The difference between playing through an amp that sounds pretty darn good vs. playing through a BUDGET BOUTIQUE amp that blows you away is huge – you deserve the experience! BUDGET BOUTIQUE amps can do that.

Touch sensitivity isn’t even on my radar screen, what’s up with that?
An amp that is sensitive to your playing dynamics and instantly responds to your picking hand is a revelation. Warm, vibrant notes pop out of the amp almost before you play them. It adds a new dimension to your sound and a whole new layer of pleasure to your playing.

In my experience I set my amp up for a good tone and go for it. If I want to change tones I twiddle with the amp or throw pedals in front of it. What’s wrong with that?
Nothing. But, a really good BUDGET BOUTIQUE amp will be versatile giving you a range of awesome tones controllable from your guitar. Set the maximum volume and level of distortion you desire and then roll off your guitar’s volume to morph into beautiful clean tones and everything in between.

Won’t a mass produced amp with machine-stuffed, printed circuit boards be more reliable than a hand made amp?
Talk to owners of these amps and read on-line reviews to discover the answer. Amps that use printed circuit boards instead of hand wired boards or point-to-point wiring are inherently more difficult to repair. For example, a simple component replacement job that takes a few minutes on a hand wired amp could take an hour on a printed circuit board amp.

My local music store gives me good service. They’ll look after my amp if it breaks won’t they?
Sure they will or at least they’ll try. Unfortunately, the good people at your local music store are often stuck with a BIG name amp manufacturer’s less than satisfactory repair policy and response time. Dealing with a small amp builder can be a vastly different experience. Most recognize that satisfying EVERY customer is absolutely critical because they don’t have as many as the big guys and they know that bad customer service can sink their business. That means you get responsive service designed to get you back up and playing as quickly as possible.

Hand made, boutique amps have an image of being extremely expensive. However, BUDGET BOUTIQUE builders really do provide terrific amp value. It just takes a little effort to find them. Believe me, they’re out there all right … making great amps.

So, for a few hundred dollars more – or in some cases at the same or even lower price (!) – you can get strikingly better tone, much better reliability and personalized product support if anything goes wrong. Which amp would you choose?

BUY TONE NOT GLITZ!

Budget Boutique Amps: What Are They and Why Should You Buy One from MyRareGuitars.com

Class A tube guitar amps. Everyone’s heard the term. It’s generally associated with higher-end amps in support of an amp maker’s claim that their product sounds “better”.

I’ll leave the debate as to which is better to others. What I want to discuss is what Class A really means and, from the pet peeve perspective, to debunk many amp manufacturers’ claims that their products are Class A when clearly they’re not! You may be surprised at how many amp makers falsely claim Class A operation. So, let’s review, in practical terms, what Class A really is and learn a simple rule of thumb you can use to spot operating class BS!

There’s no denying that Class A amps have different tonal characteristics when compared to the more common ClassAB amps. However, as with anything related to tone, “better” is in the ear of the beholder. There are plenty of butt kickin’ amps out there of both classes.

What does “Class A operation” mean? Technically, it refers to where on a tube’s operating curve, it’s biased. That’s it. Bias a tube one way and it’s operating in Class A, change the bias and it’s in ClassAB.

Of course, there are always technical details that complicate things. In this case, the complicating detail is that tubes biased to operate in the Class A “zone” require a lower voltage supply. Otherwise, they’ll quickly fail. Enough tech stuff, no need to worry about that. I mentioned it to avoid a misperception that you can simply take your amp to a tech for a 5-minute re-bias job and you’re in Class A land. Can’t happen. Fundamental changes to your Class A/B amp would be required to lower the voltage and otherwise set it up for Class A operation. Back to regular programming!

Fixed vs. cathode biasing is another “Class A” related misconception. Many believe that if an amp is cathode biased it is Class A. Not true. An amp can be A or A/B and fixed or cathode biased. Again, it depends on where the tube is biased on its operating curve not how it is biased.

Another factor in the myth is that if an amp has a “single-ended” power tube configuration it is Class A. Conversely, so the myth goes, if an amp has a push-pull power tube configuration it is Class A/B. Once again, the operating class of the amp is not defined by the power amp configuration. It is true that many (most?) single-ended amps are, in fact, Class A. But, on its own “single-ended” does not define an amp’s operating class. An amp can be Class A push-pull or Class A/B single-ended or vice versa.

The technical difference between single-ended and push-pull power amps are perhaps a topic for another article; I mention it here because they are common terms and often enter into the Class A vs. Class A/B confusion.

I mentioned above that Class A amps sound different from Class A/B amps. To review, Class A means the tubes are operating in a different part of their operating zone as compared to Class A/B. Two important things happen as a result. First, tubes operating in Class A produce more even harmonic content. Second, they produce less power.

Tubes biased to operate in Class A/B produce more odd order harmonics. Generally, even order harmonics sound more pleasing than odd. That’s why Class A and Class A/B sound different. However, as I mentioned earlier there are MANY GREAT sounding Class A/B amps. Don’t get unnecessarily biased toward Class A amps (amp builder’s humor – HAHA!).

The fact that a Class A amp with the same power tube configuration as a Class A/B amp produces less power leads us to the simple rule of thumb you can use to check whether an amp is really Class A: just compare the power tube configuration to the claimed output power rating of the amp.

Here are the guidelines I use to tell if an amp’s manufacturer doesn’t have their facts straight:

*Some smaller Class A/B Fenders (e.g. early Princetons and Deluxes, etc.) that feature two 6V6s are rated around 15 watts – later examples are in the more typical 20+ watt range.

If the marketing hype shows output power near or above these ratings and it says the amp is Class A – there’s something wrong! If the output power is a fair chunk lower, the amp is most probably Class A. Simple!

Next time you read a guitar mag have fun by checking the tube configuration, power rating and operating class claims of your favorite amps. You may be surprised at what you find!

Class A Tube Amps: Marketing Hype vs. Reality 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

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

Peavey Delta Blues Guitar Amp

#1: Peavey Delta Blues

$550 new, used from $300 to $400

Lush reverb and tremolo, a quartet of EL 84’s a very nice sounding tight Eminence 15″ guitar speaker. This is one of the only affordable 15 inch speaker guitar amps that is not a steel guitar amp. Although it is outfitted with four EL 84’s, its no AC-30. To its credit the Delta Blues is its own man. Very road worthy and consistent. When they first came out they were using Chinese power tubes and they sounded good. Later on Peavey, through its dealers, started selling Russian (Sovtek) tubes as replacements, but these tubes biased a lot cooler then the Chinese ones did. And unlike many other EL 84 combos the Delta is not cathode biased, so when you change tubes the amp must be rebased. Not a real big deal, but a deal just the same. Also if you want the amp to sound good all night long, have a tech install a fan to cool off those overworked power tubes. Peavey told me awhile back that 6 months of steady use and you should change the tubes. I agree whole heartedly!

Gibson Lab Series Guitar Amp

#2: Gibson Lab Series

Used price- $400 or less

These Moog designed amps were very well made and quite dependable, but probably misunderstood for its time. Lots of different eq settings were available, which made many guitarists feel (yours truly included) a bit overwhelmed. Old Bob Moog did not realize that he was a few years ahead of the amp-tweaking rack-friendly guitarist. My favorite of all of these was the L9 model outfitted with a JBL 15 inch guitar speaker in an open back cabinet. Great reverb too! I would say you could get a Twin Reverbesque sound plus! I also very much liked the L5, a 2×12 inch version. This amp was used by BB King for many years and it sounded great. Also good for funk rhythm with a good on-board compressor.

These amps are very reasonably priced, but make sure you also get a service manual as this will confuse many an amp tech once he gets it open.

1970s Fender Twin Reverb Guitar Amp (Silverface)

#3: Any Silverface Fenders (1968 to about 1980)

From $250 to $750

It’s a hardwired amp for less then a grand, what else needs to be said. In the hands of a capable tech it can be easily modified to Blackface specs for about 250 dollars. Some Fenderphiles will also want to have their tech upgrade to the Blackface correct solid core cloth covered wire. I will say again, the Blackface are the crowning achievement of Leo Fender Amp legacy. No Doubt.

I highly recommend modding the high power Twins and Supers from the late 70’s they have an very desirable headroom, especially when Blackfaced. And for God’s sake get rid of that stupid master volume!

Traynor Guitar Amp

#4: Traynor amps circa 1960’s through 1970’s

These Canadian made hardwired amps are an unbelievable value. They are built like a Sherman tank, have very high quality transformers, and the quality of the handwiring rivals any era Fender.

The Bass Master series of Traynor heads are going up in value, but they are very, very close to being JTM45 clones, which we all know are pretty much 59 Bassman copies. I also love their Reverbmate guitar combo amps. Online right now you can find many hardwired Traynors for under $400, some as low as $200.

If you are a want to be amp tech looking for his or her first project try a Traynor.

Peavey Classic 50 (4x10) Guitar Amp

#5: Peavey Classic 50 (4×10)

New about $600, used from $300 to $450

Another Peavey standard bearer amp for sure. 50 watts out of an open back 4×10 cab housing some very well suited Eminence ceramic speakers. Forget the Master volume and dirty channel – use this amp as if if were a non master Super or reissue Bassman (w/ reverb) and get your distortion from a pedal you like. Great blues and rock amp, I also think it’s a good country amp although I think a bit more presence would help for a real country twang. Unlike its smaller sibling the aforementioned Delta Blues this amp can go years without power tube change. I dunno I think this amp could actually live up to its name.

Vox AC-30CC Guitar Amp

#6: Vox AC-30CC

New w/ AlNiCo Blues $1500, std model $1000

The amp I am recommending is the currently available Chinese made Vox AC-30 combo with the AlNiCo Blue Celestions in the 2×12 configuration with a street price of about $1500. Now that’s a significant amount of scratch I know, but I believe this amp to be a real bargain once you see what you get for the $. The standard speaker version is also a steal @ $1000 but to my ears the stock speakers are not efficient enough to reproduce accurately the many subtle possibilities of this amp. It is not a reissue although it looks like one. Vox basically took all the mods and options from all the model variants over the past forty years and put them into one amp. It also lets you run the power tubes hotter or colder as well as the voltage going to the filter caps, this option gives you the option of running the amp tighter or with a bit more sag. It has a master volume and you can combine the two distictincly different sounding channels with a flick of a mini toggle. I also love the versatile reverb controls.

All in all this amp is a great deal for the $, but you better work out before you bring it to your gig, it will make your Twin Reverb feel like a Pignose.

1974 Marshall 18-watt combo amp

#7: Marshall 1974X HW

New about $2250

This amp is a faithful reissue of the 18 watt single 12 inch combo from the late sixties. The amp has two channels which sound virtually the same, one of which sports a great sounding tremolo. Let me say it right away this is not a versatile amp it has basically one sound, and depending on the volume it gets crunchier as you turn it up. This is the deal, put a Les Paul through it and you will sound like Jimmy Page. Plug in an SG toggle to the back pickup and you will cop the Tony Iommi Sabbath sound perfectly. I personally think that if you want the same response with a single coil guitar you will have to drive the preamp a bit harder using a clean boost like an MXR Micro-Amp.

I use this amp exclusively as my dirty amp that I keep on at all times in my live setup combined with either an AC-30, Super Reverb, or Twin Reverb as the clean amp according to the size of the venue. And funny as it may seem it stands up even to the Twin.

Again, this amp is expensive but when you can get a piece of history with a warrantee I believe its worth it.

1960s Maestro Guitar Amp

#8: Maestro and Gibson amps circa 1960’s
Used price from $250 to $550

Now if you cannot afford the Marshall but want an ass kickin little combo try one of these little devils. They are usually around 20 watts or so, powered by a duo of 6V6’s. I have been told by my amp tech the great man himself Bill Carruth( Montpelier, Vermont) that the wiring in these amps leaves a lot to be desired, I have seen the inside and can tell you that they look like a twister hit a spaghetti factory But when up and running they sound great, and the reverb is to die for. It is set up like the old Ampeg reverbs at the end of the circuit, unlike Fenders which is in the middle of the circuit. The tremolo is fantastic, very strong and controlled with the same hardwired footswitch that controls the reverb.

My two faves are the 22 watt Maestro which features a single 15 inch Jensen C15N ceramic and the single 12 Gibson Falcon. Check em out Sport!

Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus Guitar Amp

#9: Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120

Used from $250 to $400

This amp has a great sound, we all know this and remember having one back in the 80’s and thinking “my God I will never get rid of this amp”. And guess what, you should not have. But you know what happened you woke up one day and realized nobody wanted to sound like they were playing in the Fixx anymore. Fender started reissuing (not really) the Bassman and that was that.

But a good amp then is a good amp now. They were dependable, they sounded full yet never loud, the speakers were very unguitarlike but the friggin amp was amazing. The chorus was the best period, and the vibrato was also very cool although I always thought you should be able to footswitch between the two. Tons of treble and low end, and everyone in the band loved it ( big deal!) The reverb was lush and very useable. It had very good casters and a cool kind of industrial look to them, that even when they get old and beat up they still look cool, very much unlike many other 80’s icons. There are tons of these things out there as we know Roland made zillions of them, but as a testament to their value you rarely see a used one in a music store.

That’s my list of great amps for the money. Please send me your selections I love hearing from you all.

The Best Guitar Amps for the Bucks 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

Now the next question you may ask is, “are there any guitars that will cut through coming from one of these Tweed amps?” I say yes, plug a Strat in that same Pro and see how awesome it sounds, thick yet trebly.

So the point of this column is, the choice of guitars is a primary decision – I don’t think there are many players out there saying “I wanna play a Twin Reverb what guitar should I get?” – and the amplifier choice is key in getting the sound you want. I am sure that there are some guitar strummers out there who would embrace the potential “mismatch” in guitar and amp symmetry, to assist in them finding there own voice. To this I say Cheerio! Always seek your own sound. Sometimes I believe that playing a Tele through a Twin Reverb can be a potentially intimidating experience as so many great guitar players have that combo as part of their signature sound.

So here are a few suggestions that seem to work for me.

Fender Vibrolux Amp (Blackface)

#1: Fender Blackface Vibrolux amp and most Gibson equipped guitars especially a Les Paul, an SG, or any ES series guitar.

This is a great combo for rock, blues, country, pop and even jazz at a low volume. This was originally brought to my attention by my friend and fellow Vermonter John Sprung (knower of all Fender amplifier lore, etc). And as always he was right, this combo sound great!

#2: Fender Brownface tremolo-equipped amp and a Stratocaster. This is a sound from the gods, an incredibly thick, full, hypnotic sound, not too dissimilar to Jimi’s sound using the Uni-Vibe but, I feel a more organic sound than even that striking sound. I do believe that when you start to overdrive this set-up from the front end with a pedal you do lose some of the clarity and basic integrity of this sound. If you don’t have a Brownface Fender and don’t want to change your primary amp you are now using just to get this sound, you might want to check out the Victoria Tremverb, it’s a tweed free standing unit ala the Fender Reverb unit but has the Brownface tremolo circuit also.

1974 Marshall 18-watt combo amp

#3: Marshall 18-watt combo amp and a Les Paul. Not much else to say here really, this sound will absolutely blow you away, it’s the sound we all marveled at on those early Clapton/ Peter Green recordings. I know a lot of you are saying that’s the “Bluesbreaker” sound and yes you are right it is but, I believe you can only get that sound from a hand-wired Bluesbreaker combo.

The new Reissue Marshall 1974x HW is the absolute balls! I own three of these and cannot tell you how happy I am with them. Get one!

Fender Twin Reverb Amp (Blackface)

#4: Fender Blackface Twin Reverb amp and a Fender Telecaster. Clean, toppy and true, baby. Your technique will show through with this set-up like no other. If you are confident and want to be heard this is true test. And please don’t fool yourself into thinking that this is a country exclusive combination, because it is not, ask Mike Bloomfield. Those of you familiar with his guitar lineage will know that before the great Bloomfield went to the “Burst” he played a Tele through a Twin for years. Again I will tell you that this set-up will work for blues, rock, country and yes, even jazz.

If you are looking for this sound in a more manageable context try the “Baby Twin” the BF Pro Reverb instead. It will sound similar but break up a bit easier, and a bit more “club owner friendly.”

Vox AC-30 Guitar Amp

#5: Vox AC-30 amp and the Rickenbacker 12-string and the Gretsch Chet Atkins Models. Yeah I know another no-brainer, but how could I speak on the guitar-amp relationship without discussing the perfect one. As a foolish young man I was heard to say on occasion “imagine if the Beatles had used Fender amps and Gibson guitars instead of those god awful sounding Gretsch’s.” Oh boy was that a moment of genius, heh?

The AC-30 and its Top Boost circuit helped the Gretsch cut through so well on those recordings while still remaining full and complete sounding across the frequency range of the guitar (a reoccurring theme in this column I’d say).

Now onto the Rick 12 and the ¾ scale 325 model that John Lennon favored in the early Beatle days. Both of these guitars were equipped with what has been called the “toaster pickups”, These pickups did not have a lot of output which only enhanced the “jangly” sound we all came to love back then. The AC-30 embraced this aspect and produced a clean but yet again strong sound with not much in the bass end but with plenty of treble and mids. Another seldom ignored aspect of this sound was the fact that the Ricks came with flatwound strings and were smart enough to supply the Lads with replacements.

Just a couple of quickies for you.

• Polytone Mini-Brute and a Gibson ES 175 (Joe Pass sound, but you can’t buy his technique, sorry!)
• Magnatone tremolo amp with a Stratocaster (if it’s good enough for Buddy Holly its good enough for me)
• Any cheapo hand wired amp from the early 60’s (Valco, Supro, Kalamazoo, take your pick) with a Danelectro lipstick pickup outfitted solid body guitar.
• And last but not least, a Tweed Fender Champ and any quality solid body guitar, cranked up to 10 baby!!!!

Feel free to email me some of your faves and I will include thrm in future columns.

Amplifiers: The Real Voice of the Electric Guitar from MyRareGuitars.com

The problem…

Probably every guitar player knows the problem, especially on jam sessions or on jobs with non-professional musicians: You are standing on a small stage or in your practicing room, the band plays well and as loud as they can, the mood and the feeling of the song reaches heavenly highs. The volume knob of your electric guitar is already on 10 and the pedal of your volume pedal is pushed to its maximum already. The speakers of your amp are almost bleeding sweat and tears. You’re not able to control your tone nor the feeling of your notes anymore, playing gets harder and harder and your hands are turning to stone. All you can hear is a wild mess of way too much drum, along whit some misty basslines and your guitar solo disappears into the background of a bad sound mix. Frustration pure for guitar players. Could it be that you have placed your amp in the wrong spot?

Another problem…

Another problem with amps (especially with Fender style amps) are certain high frequencies. They cut through almost everything like a knife cuts through butter. When you’re on stage and you have put your amp against the crowd, people sitting or standing directly in front of your speaker will suffer an unforgettable highs experience that drops out of your amp. Don’t need to mention the problems of the sound engineer to mix a smooth, fine sound out of a band, when certain units/frequencies on stage are louder than the P.A., especially on smaller gigs.

One solution…

Of course, I have seen different amp stands in music stores before. But for bigger ams (like my Fender Bassman), I could not find anything that was sturdy enough or easy to transport. I did not wanted to change the look of my priceless amp by putting some amp holders on it’s sides, which means to drill holes in the side of the amp. I wanted a system I could use with different amps without having the problem of the size or weight of the amp. It had to be sturdy, even on the sometimes unstable stages of small outdoor concerts.

Another solution…

My solution was an easy to build, self-made amp stand. It’s made out of 3 wooden boards and 4 movable angles. Since I use this construction, I always can hear myself properly, which makes playing much easier of course. My engineer (on live gigs) does not have troubles anymore with the sometimes extreme highs, because the speakers look upwards now. And, most important, I can use any of the three amps I own, without changing the look or diminish the worth of my amps by drilling holes.

Homemade Amp Stand

Homemade Amp Stand

Homemade Amp Stand

Homemade Amp Stand

Homemade Amp Stand

Homemade Amp Stand

Homemade Amp Stand

Homemade Amp Stand

The pictures show you how to construct this easy, sturdy amp stand.

Greetings from twangy Switzerland

Post by: Dano, the Catman

Making an Amp Stand from MyRareGuitars.com