Vintage amp resources
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 10:56 am
Since I am getting extremely excited about the Selmer Treble & Bass 50 I'm buying tomorrow I thought it might be a good to have thread for us to share the few sleeper amps that can still be found on the webs. Now, with prices exploding still (have you guys seen what vintage Orange Amps go for these days?) there is still a lot of stuff flying under the radar. Some of them are being rediscovered, others are still completely obscure.
Being almosta always broke and also a cheap skin, I have made a point of getting awesome amplifiers at a good price. Sharing my knowledge now:
Roost
British amplifier company, shared a supplier with Hiwatt, maybe there has been some personal overlap too. At least they are a cheap alternative that sounds similar. They can do Hiwatt cleans, but break up earlier. I like to run mine with a bit of hair. All of them have Master Volume and two channels that can be bridged for extra goodness. There are 50W, 100W, 200W and slave amps. The combos are all 100W, the rest are heads that resemble Hiwatts with black tolex and white piping. EL35 power tubes.
There are at least three generations that can be told apart by the pilot light. Orange light is the oldest version and the most desirable. They have Partridge Transformers and were point to point. Red light gets you a Partridge Transformer and pcb wiring, the green ones are supposed to sound much worse, they have plastic switches and Drake Transformers.
Roost also built amps under the brand name Funkshun. These are equivalent to the Mid-Series iirc.
http://www.roostamps.co.uk/
Selmer Treble & Bass
There are three versonis of this. I'll cite from another thread:
I played a silverface Bassmaster 100 once and it did not sound much like this. The Fender was gnarlier. Altogether I'd prefer the Selmer.
http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/ ... /selm.html
some more stuff I've heard are good deals, maybe some of you can fill in the facts:
Carlsboro Tube heads & Combos (Marshall-like)
Park Amps (actual Marshall with other branding ??)
No idea how these are priced:
Some of the italians. Meazzi, anyone? (They have an amp that is called the 666 plus it has a built-in tape echo. win in spades.)
Schaller KV40 might be interesting as well, Tube Trem and Disk Echo, I think...
Please add!
Being almosta always broke and also a cheap skin, I have made a point of getting awesome amplifiers at a good price. Sharing my knowledge now:
Roost
British amplifier company, shared a supplier with Hiwatt, maybe there has been some personal overlap too. At least they are a cheap alternative that sounds similar. They can do Hiwatt cleans, but break up earlier. I like to run mine with a bit of hair. All of them have Master Volume and two channels that can be bridged for extra goodness. There are 50W, 100W, 200W and slave amps. The combos are all 100W, the rest are heads that resemble Hiwatts with black tolex and white piping. EL35 power tubes.
There are at least three generations that can be told apart by the pilot light. Orange light is the oldest version and the most desirable. They have Partridge Transformers and were point to point. Red light gets you a Partridge Transformer and pcb wiring, the green ones are supposed to sound much worse, they have plastic switches and Drake Transformers.
Roost also built amps under the brand name Funkshun. These are equivalent to the Mid-Series iirc.
http://www.roostamps.co.uk/
Selmer Treble & Bass
There are three versonis of this. I'll cite from another thread:
I am a big fan of the MKIII and that's what I'm getting. Huge low end, even on the 50W version. The guy that had mine before used it for bass. It stays clean forever and comes close to a sort of linear sound. Meaning it will accurately reproduce the zinging sounds of your hands sliding on the strings or the flabby sounds and farting lows of downtuned fuzzed out guitar. Rules hard.rustywire wrote:
The MK I aka "Bassmaster Fifty" is EL34 powered, GZ34 rectified, and uses 4 ecc83 preamp tubes.
It sounds the *smoothest* and has the most clean headroom.
The MK II is EL34 powered, GZ34 rectified and uses 3 ecc83 preamp tubes.
It sounds the grittiest. Think Interstellar Overdrive.
The MK III and SV IIRC are EL34 powered, silicon rectified and use 4 ecc83 preamp tubes.
They sound the *tightest* ...like comparing a Plexi to a Bluesbreaker or Twin Reverb to a Super.
I played a silverface Bassmaster 100 once and it did not sound much like this. The Fender was gnarlier. Altogether I'd prefer the Selmer.
http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/ ... /selm.html
some more stuff I've heard are good deals, maybe some of you can fill in the facts:
Carlsboro Tube heads & Combos (Marshall-like)
Park Amps (actual Marshall with other branding ??)
No idea how these are priced:
Some of the italians. Meazzi, anyone? (They have an amp that is called the 666 plus it has a built-in tape echo. win in spades.)
Schaller KV40 might be interesting as well, Tube Trem and Disk Echo, I think...
Please add!
