Reflectedinthemoon Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I thought we could start a thread on the rogues gallery of vintage amps. You know the type: little underdog brands, beat up and dusty, weird circuits, crazy looks, serious mojo, devoted cult followings, and increasing value on the collecting market. A lot of them were cheap back in the day, some of them were not. A lot sound fantastic! Let's talk about them! This was my first vintage amp: It's a 1960 Valco-made Supro Super 1606. That's right, the same amp that Tweedy used for AGIB's insane lead tones. It has one knob (that's also the on/off switch), and achieves nastiness pretty quickly (it weighs in at 4.5 watts). Its overdrive is sludgy and super-compressed, especially with humbuckers, but never flabby. It doesn't take pedals very well, but who would expect it to? This is a plug-in-directly kind of amp. Even clean, it has a tone way huger than anything its size has a right to have--sparkly, well-defined, and dynamic. Now, just need to finally replace that 2-prong power cord so it doesn't shock me any more... And I just got this puppy off the 'bay: It's a 1960 Magnatone 213-A Troubadour! With true vibrato: Anyhow, it's incredible. It's got a pretty mellow sound at low gain levels, with a single tone control that sounds a lot like a guitar's tone knob. When cranked, its distortion is articulate and biting, but not harsh. It takes pedals interestingly, somewhat cooling and compressing overdrives and fuzzes, and bringing the lushness out of delays and reverbs. Moreover, it has a supremely unique tone, something like if Fender (with its legendary cleans) and Vox (chiming breakup, warm cleans) had a sonic baby. And then there's the true pitch-shifting vibrato!--wobbly and wiggly and pulsy... I've never heard anyhting like it before. I know there are more weird old amps out there, probably in some of your collections. What are you using and what does it do? Old weird amps need more love! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ghost of Electricity Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 wish i had something to contribute to this thread. i used to have a (early 70s probably) solid state Novanex (Dutch company). Does that count? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GtrPlyr Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Lovely looking amps you've got there Reflected. I'm a big fan of old tube amps, unfortunately I don't have anything that fits the bill in my personal collection unless a '99 Fender Twin Reverb counts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PopTodd Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Used to have this old thing:I got it for free from a friend and wound up trading it away for a crappy 1980's Peavey twin because I just couldn't get it to work.Turned out to be a $35 repair job (according to the guy that I traded it to) and it was the best-sounding amp" he ever heard. Damnit.One of those things that just got away.It must've weighed about 100 lbs, though. Thing was damn heavy. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Reflectedinthemoon Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Lovely looking amps you've got there Reflected. I'm a big fan of old tube amps, unfortunately I don't have anything that fits the bill in my personal collection unless a '99 Fender Twin Reverb counts. Wait another 5 years and that's totally vintage! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thecowboyangel Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I've got a few silvertones, 1471, 1484, and a 4771. Also an head by a Canadian company called Northern from the early sixties. Not sure what the model is, but it did at one time have a two ten cab attached. I use it with a '70's Mitchell 210 sand cab. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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