OffsetGuitars.com

Hey all-- I just started a new project with a drummer here in Prague that's going to be an avant-garde noise/doom sort of deal. So in doing that, I realized that I'm going to need to add some more muscle to my rig (currently a Traynor Bassmate YBA-2B, Dynacord Twen) which was doing well for solo shows/smaller venues but isn't going to move the amount air we want from this project (and the drummer's a crazy Georgian girl who has some POWER).

So, naturally, I started looking into prices for loud, clean tube amps-- my rig for a long time in the US was a silverface Bassman 100 and/or a Magnavox-era V4-- but realized that most of the American brands are WAY too expensive here. Naturally, this lead me to wonder, what other amp brands are out here that aren't often talked about in the context of making loud, heavy music but would be perfectly suitable for this? I mean, a Sunn Model-T wasn't originally designed as a doom amp.

What other European brands should I look for? The Czechoslovak stuff (Tesla, mostly) seems to be too quiet for my needs, but I've only played a few 10-40w heads which weren't very well maintained. Are there German (believe the Klemt M40s is pretty loud, linear bassman circuit for example) or British brands I should keep my eyes open for? Other former Soviet Bloc amps to watch out for? Weirdo French brands?

Let's discuss!

Hmmm... once had a handwired German "PCL Vintage" 1x15-combo that I got for pretty cheap. Some kind of Fender-/Boogie-ish amp, very nice quality. But I don't know if they're hard to find these days. If you need real high wattage, you could also look into older (somewhat domestic) PA heads... some guys here praise an older British make, but I can't remember the name.

You could keep an eye out for a ROOST head. British, EL34s. I know they did 50w ones, I dunno if they ever did 100w or more. There's not a lot of info on them out there but they show up from time to time and for cheap.

Sound City
London City
Power City
Marquis / Maquis
Selmer
Simms-Watts
Dynacord
Elka
Geloso
Eko

Power City/ London City, Dynacord and Selmer all come by here often for pretty good prices (Netherlands). There's a lot more but these popped into my mind first.

You should get in touch with forum member 'Racing', or at the very least have a read of some of his restorations:

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viewtopic.php?f=10&t=93458&p=1298721#p1298721

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Tube Works
Music Man
Crate VTX series of amps. Either 200W stereo or the 350W Mono head.

Thanks guys! These are great places to start.

I want to also make clear that I'm not necessarily looking for Orange/Matamp tones, or hi-gain amps-- this project is going to focus a lot on delayed cleans and weird fuzzes and less on traditional doom/stoner sounds.

Oranges may not be the only fruit, but they're fairly abundant in Europe and very loud. For clean volume I'd look at transistor (solid state) amps, H/H being a personal favourite of mine.

Where you are, you might find a wellspring of offbeat tranny amps aimed at the electronic accordion market, like the Farfisa TR60 - not exactly what you asked for, but well worth picking up if the price is right.

WEMs are probably the last bargain valve amps out there. PA heads in particular can still be had for peanuts at flea markets and suchlike and these are likely to be the highest wattages.

+1 for HH. I run a set of HH pa cabs. super loud. i also use a fal phase 100-4 as a slave rig. it's a old SS unit and most fal stuff is pretty crappy quality but if you can solder then easy fixes.

there was one old cab i seen on ebay i wish i brought last year but i had no money at the time. it was made by a company called austrovox. it was a offset 4x12 bass cab and it was so weird i really wanted it. i still keep an eye out once in a while for them to come up.

also, i want to bring up selmer. what the fuck happened to the prices of these? a good treble and bass used to be worth about £150 tops. now they seem to be about £300

s_mcsleazy wrote:also, i want to bring up selmer. what the fuck happened to the prices of these? a good treble and bass used to be worth about £150 tops. now they seem to be about £300

Selmer and WEM have gone wayyy up in recent years. I've seen people asking £500 for a Selmer T&B, especially the earlier versions with the crazy crocskin covering.

MechaBulletBill wrote: I've seen people asking £500 for a Selmer T&B, especially the earlier versions with the crazy crocskin covering.

And I've seen those same people asking silly prices over and over and over again, and still not getting a bite.

The more desirable Selmer combos - Zodiacs and Thunderbirds - are fetching premium prices - and who doesn't want a croc-covered combo with a magic eye pulsing in time with the tremolo? - but T&B heads are just so plentiful that I doubt old age is enough to push them up to the Vox/Marshall level....yet.

MechaBulletBill wrote:WEM have gone wayyy up in recent years.

Ulrich will probably also remember when WEM's were close to worthless, something like £10 if you were lucky. I had a full WEM PA that I found lying in the street and I ended up having real trouble giving it away. I've a couple of Copicats and I remember rejecting a really clean one for being priced at the outrageous price of...£25 and later coming back and getting it for 15 since nobody wanted it.

I had a couple of WEM amps early on but I thought they sounded shit compared to the Jazz Chorus I so desired and the H|H I used before I got a JC. The again I chopped in lots of fusty old flea market pedals, that I thought stank of bellbottoms, that are now hyper desirable, to buy the Boss pedals I so desired but financial concerns aside I did the right thing since I still use and play Boss 30 years later and even then some of them are now considered 'vintage'.

D

I like WEM amps. I think their speakers are uniquely dark, possibly because they were made in-house whereas other companies tended to outsource that part of the puzzle.

MechaBulletBill wrote:You could keep an eye out for a ROOST head. British, EL34s. I know they did 50w ones, I dunno if they ever did 100w or more. There's not a lot of info on them out there but they show up from time to time and for cheap.

I own a roost sr50, the earlier southend made ones, not the later ones made in leeds (i think).

They did make 100w ones but roost amps so rarely come up you cant be picky with what you get.

They sound amazing though, from what ive read they took parts of the design from hiwatts and sound city amps.

I don't particularly like the sound of them dimed, they get a bit mushy for my liking. But with drive pedals it sounds great.

You rang Sir?

Prague huh?
Hm. Former eastern state. Ok. Dunno of any local production but there sure are amps around that could be used with a few simple mods.

By simple mods i mean stuff like replacing old defunct jacks ,both in and out,for instance. In short you or a buddy or similar needs to know your way around a digital multimeter.

Italy produced craploads of tubeamps at the time. Some REAL good and some midrange units. Italian amps from the -60s and into the -70s..it about half hard diggin real crap up.

Nice ones..Geloso of course. FBT´s 500/600 or 1200 models.. Marelli made toobers too...as did Farfisa...Galanti..and god knows what all else.

Checko being a former eastern state..stay away from the older russian stuff. It simply isn´t up to snuff for modern music use. EastGerman stuff on the other hand...some REAL nicely made amps from there.
The "Böhm" ones for instance. Their "30watt" combo becomes a 50w screamer by some simple rearranging. Then there´s the...



Reissman KR-56. Made in 1960 according to legend. Rather funky amp that with the mere replacement of jacks will work just fine for what you´re asking.

In turn,back to Italian amps,we´ve got the....



Lesa. Real well made amps. In this case with a pair of 807 powertubes that are run at REAL high voltages making that there perform like thunder when called upon.

Newer stuff?
Sure. In that case we´re into the Petersburgs..the Sovteks asf. The latter a sort of ripoff of a Marshall really. The MIG-50 is a real nice sounding amp and sturdy to the build.

Older German made stuff then?
Sure! There´s the various Dynacords...often real highend builds that sounds of crap in stock form. Easy to modify tho...



In turn...the Stange und Wolfrums. From model LVM-30 and up real screamers if you just let the breathe. The 60 and in turn the 120 will blow you right out of your sox power wise..make no mistake.



Here the LVM-60. Runs the plates at approx 760VDC under load...and delivers accordingly.



The various Echolette´s in turn. Any of them will do really. Bingo= a BS-40. A bassamp from the onset,all tube..works as is.


Next up...Winston.



In this case a PA-200. They are to be found as BA-200(bass) and GA-200 (Guitar)


Then for a word of warning...
If you dwell on some of the older designs you MIGHT run into amps that lack a powertransformer or that to half runs parts of the amp directly off of the mains net.
In that case...back off. Right there and then.





This WSW is a prime example of such an amp. Made in Austria at the time.

Hm.
More German made...



Rather obscure. Suprem amps. In this case an early -60s Suprem Club. Real nice,and in this case 50watts of power worth,German made amps that stand out. Later ones are way less sturdy built (usually finished in black tolex) but will get the job done none the less.

Dynacord and newer such then?
Yeah.



IF you against all odds run into one of these..pick it up for the love of GAWD! It was made in the late -80s and to this day from most respects one of the most overdesigned tubeamps in existence.

...and the list goes on and on...

Feel free to post if you run into something. I´m by NO means a know it all when it comes to Euro made amps but have none the less seen my fair share and that above..isn´t even the top of the iceberg.