One of my favourite quirky old solid states is the HH IC100/IC100S (pretty similar amps with some minor differences - the IC100S is basically a simplified version without active treble and bass EQ, tremolo or spring reverb).
(This is actually a picture of my very own IC100S which I pulled from a completely unrelated source on google images... weird.. I bought it on ebay and this was one of the pics the seller uploaded)
These amps have a very neutral, transparent voicing. when used clean, they have a lot of headroom in the power amp but the preamp is easy to push into breakup, especially with humbuckers. If you take care not to boost the signal too much, this is a great clean platform for use with pedals and there's another guy in a local band with an IC100S who uses one with a multi fx unit to great effect. But that's not what these amps are best known for - They are best known for the hugely saturated wall of thick distortion introduced when you turn the "sustain" switch on - a distortion circuit with no gain control which appears to cause a huge volume drop and simply has too much gain to be useful... Until you realise that you can control the level of gain with the volume knob on the guitar, and if you turn it down enough you can even out the volume difference between clean and distorted tones and get a much more manageable level of gain out of the distortion setting which is a great starting point for dialing in the best tone you can from one of these amps.
Since the voicing is pretty flat, it really helps to turn the presence knob up quite a lot - this is the only EQ control that is pre-gain, and turning it up will bring out the upper mids that give clarity and definition to the fundamental tones of the guitar, within the overall onslaught of distortion. The treble and bass controls are post-gain, and on the IC100S, I often find I have to turn the treble up all the way when using distortion, because otherwise it just filters out too much high end and muffles the tone - it seems to work like a low pass filter. I also like to keep the bass pretty high, too - lots of people find the distortion a bit overpowered and oversaturated in the low frequencies, and try to cut it out, but since the control is post-gain, all this does is hollow out the sound, rather than cleaning up the low frequency range. I like the "roar" of the low end and want to make the most of it, anyhow.
Did I mention, there's a power output switch, too? Studio and Stage. Studio is basically "useful and relatively noise free" mode. Stage is "lots of white noise, and every volume setting is too loud". These amps are completely insane, volume wise, and not in a good way. Loudest 100 watt amps I've ever heard... my Fender Bassman 100's got nothing on this. I never use the stage mode, even on stage, because my hyper-sensitive aspie ears can't cope with the volume levels even on a minimal setting - it's just always too loud, and very noisy too. Even in studio mode it can get unreasonable at the higher numbers, but at least it allows for a much more usable range, and a much lower noise floor.
Well, that's 3 paragraphs... I could go on for many more hours but it's getting late and I don't think anyone really cares about what I'm rambling on about anyways
"Say what you wish in abuse of me, for my silence towards the idiot is indeed an answer. I am not at a loss for a response but rather, it does not befit the lion to answer the dogs." - Imam al-Shafi'i
(4 ohms impedance, matches both amps). Does NOT take pedals well either, turns into buzzy, trashy solid state dist....
