Recent Sound City amps?

[shoule79]

I’m looking for an amp to leave at a practice space, and a Sound City 40c just popped up locally. It’s all tube, 40 Watts, 2x12, and the price is right (about $300 USD).

The drummer I’ll be playing with hits hard, so my Princeton is out, my JC77 wouldn’t fit with what I’m gong to be playing and I don’t feel like lugging my Mesa around all the time. The 40 watts will be useful as long as it doesn’t sound like complete garbage.

It’s a el84 based amp, so it’s not going to sound like an old Sound City/Hiwatt, but am curious as to what it would sound like. I’m not concerned about the drive channel, I usually dial my amps in to a bit of dirt and let pedals do the rest. Are the reverb and speakers decent?

Looking for overall impressions, any insight would be appreciated.

[shoule79]

Nobody?

[Witchburner]

Do some research on the amp, what kind of speakers does it use, try to find an old schematic, sounds like a good rig for 300$ i'd definitely buy it.

Make sure to test everything when you try it to make sure it all functions as it should, let it rip, dime it see how it sounds.

Take it too a tech, who knows what It may or may not need

upload a pic when you get it

[MuscleDad420]

Assuming I’m looking at the same amp, it looks to be a rebadged VHT Lead 40/AXL Akita 40. All the same amp. I’ve worked on the AXL-branded version before. It was pretty well-built for a PCB amp. Clean output was generous. For $300 you could do worse for an EL84 pedal platform.

[shoule79]

Yeah, I think I read that it was a rebranded VHT, never thought of that. There is more info on it than on the Sound City version.

I'm going to message the owner next week and see if I can get a demo. I'm not in a huge rush because I won't be needing it till April. Its a lot of amp for the price though.