I bought this amp a long time ago; maybe around 1985 and have had quite an extensive renovation done on it a few years ago to restore it to peak performance.

​

It was made as a loud, powerful stage amplifier to provide players with unrivalled sound levels and clean headroom. Not a Marshall by any means with a mushy low headroom output suitable for hard rock but nothing else, this amplifier suited Fender Rhodes players, pedal steel players and anyone who wanted tons of high headroom output. It will distort just like any valve amp but at levels that are unsurvivable.

​

I sent it off to Time Travel Audio for them to do a renovation and service on it and their work can be seen in the slideshow above after the 3 shots of the amplifier today.

I had all the electrolytic capacitors replaced and new valves fitted. Specifically, it was biased for Svetlana Winged 'C' 6L6GC valves. Also the speakers were showing light through the cones and were basically needing replaced and , with the originals being nothing special really, I bought 2 Electrovoice EVM 12L to go in. Each one rated at 200W, so the theoretical 135W of the 4 6L6GC power section would be well within limits. As if I was going to turn that thing up all the way!

​

If you have one of these, you know the perceived wisdom is that these amps are somehow inferior to the 'classic' blackface designs. Just wrong. These amps do what they are meant to. They are superb sounding amplifiers. Lush bass, a sparkling treble and a slightly scooped midrange which is adjustable.

It is a top of the range amplifier and in the late 1970's, this was the big Fender.

They had tweaked the circuit and used an output transformer that allowed the amp to run in ultra linear mode - a design which originated in 1938 and allowed the amplifier to have more output and have less distortion than the previous designs.

​

Of course, the plate voltage on these beasts is quite high and 500V is not uncommon, so output valves have to selected to be sturdy enough to withstand that. The valves in the '70's were still in production and GE supplied Fender who re-branded them. Now that major production in the US and the UK has ended, there are few valves which meet the requirements of an old spec 6L6GC. The Svetlana winged 'C' is one that works and I got Time Travel Audio in Leith, Edinburgh to fit a matched quad and add a bias adjust circuit, uprate some grid stoppers and generally renovate it.

I fitted NOS Mullard valves to V1 and V2 and replaced the noisy and howling Accutronics reverb tank with a TAD tanks and new shielded RCA terminated cables.

​

What a beast but it doesn't have to be loud. It sounds full and sweet and with all that power in reserve, you have a lush full frequency sound. Tap the palm on the strings and you feel the thump, even at low volume levels. Massive transformers and hand-wired Fender quality make this a great amp.

​

Thanks to Time Travel Audio for the great job they did on this and for the renovation record above.

You can find them in Leith adjacent to Edinburgh and on their website here: Time Travel Audio

​

​