I have been playing guitar since 1965 and I have seen a lot of unusual guitars, especially during the guitar boon of the mid sixties. I have also run across and played through some pretty weird amplifiers. Here are a few unusual and downright strange guitar and bass amps.
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| Unixox U45 |
The Univox U45 and Univox U60 Guitar Amplifiers. Well, they weren’t Fender amps, but they were not bad at all. They were relatively simple amps that had a very basic control panel (Volume and Tone and only Speed for the Tremolo). Most of these are housed in a black tolex cab that holds a single 12″ speaker (usually a ceramic Jensen).
These amps had a silver grille cloth and the Univox (or Lafayette) logo, these are good looking, and very lightweight. They are super for recording or a small jam where you need a nice bluesy overdrive at low volume.
Though this is not the most versatile amp on the list, it is a very cool and often can be found for a great price. Leland Sklar recorded a lot of hit records using a Univox 45B bass amplifier.
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| Lafayette U65RN |
Both of these amps are low powered (8-12 watts) amps, and can provider a great smooth overdrive with crisp highs and warm mids and lows. They are cathode-biased with a non-feedback loop amps allow for plenty of spongy tone and sustain.
These both had Printed Circuit Board (PCB) amps from the late 60’s and early 70’s. Lafayette was a hobby company, so you bought the parts for this mail order company, and put the amp together yourself. As you can expect from a hobby kit, the layout was fairly simple.
Each came with a 12” Jensen 20 watt Special Design speaker. Most don’t have reverb, and the tremolo, which seldom works in older amps, is somewhat anemic.
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| 1961 Silvertone Model 1472 |
The Silvertone Amp 1472 and Silvertone 1482 Amps were designed by Nate Daniels and have circuitry based on a 50’s Fender Tweed Deluxe. These amps were known back in the day as the “TV Set” models, as they sort of resembled a 1960’s console television.
They were very popular back in the mid 1960’s as they were sold by Sears through their catalog at a reasonable price.
Each amplifier had two channels with volume and tone controls for each, and a tremolo with speed and intensity controls. There was no reverb for this basic amplifier.
The 12” speaker was made by either Jensen or Oxford. The amp was housed in a particle board cabinet, with a particle board baffle. The original model 1472 had a circular hole cut into the baffle, while the later model 1482 had a diamond shape cut out. They were essentially the same amplifier, but the chassis were updated. The 1472 was made from 1961 to 1963, while the 1482 was offered from 1963 to 1968.
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| 1965 Silvertone Model 1482 |
There were also two 12AX7’s for the preamp.
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| 1965 Silvertone Model 1484 |
The most popular Silvertone amplifiers were the "Twin Twelve" 1484 model that had 60 watts RMS into two 12" Speakers. But the smaller models were very nice, especially for the price.
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| 1960's Harmony H210 |
The Harmony Model H210 Guitar Amplifier was offered under the Airline brand for the Montgomery Ward Company. This was made in the late 50’s by Valco. Several Valco models, which sold under The Supro Brand are selling for a lot of money. However the Harmony models, made by Valco for the Kay Musical Instrument company can be found at a reasonable price.
These amps have a solid wood cabinet, two 6V6 power tubes and a 12” Jensen alnico speaker.
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| 1966 Magnatone M10a |
I recall seeing the Magnatone M10A Guitar Amplifier around 1966 at my favorite music store and thought, what a cool amplifier! It was housed in what looks like a molded plastic cabinet. The Magnatone Company has a very interesting history. This amplifier was made when the Estey Organ Company purchased Magnatone.
This is one of the more well-appointed and versatile tube amps ever made. Both channel one and two have Volume, Treble and Bass controls, plus a three-position switch for ‘Mellow/Bright/Tone Boost.’ Channel One has tube-driven Reverb (control only for Depth) and the truly amazing Magnatone true pitch shift Vibrato (Speed and Depth controls).
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| Magnatone M10a Control Panel |
If you’ve never heard real Vibrato (Fenders and other amps used Tremolo, which is volume shifting, and labeled them Vibrato), however Magnatone amps actually shift pitch.
Check out old Lonnie Mack recordings to hear this sound. In the early days Lonnie played through a Magnatone amp and dropped the output, and then fed the input into a Fender Bandmaster to increase volume when he was playing live. (He later achieved a similar tone using a Roland JC 120 Jazz Chorus.
The two channels on this Magnatone amp are bridge-able by an input labeled ‘stereo’ which exponentially expands this amp’s versatility. Put channel one on ‘Bright’ (you get the Reverb and Vibrato as long as you’re using channel one…only when channel two is used alone are they not activated), and channel two on ‘Tone Boost’ and you can dial in all kinds of great chime.
The Reverb and Vibrato are foot-switch able. All this goes into a closed back cabinet that houses a 12′ speaker which was either made by Utah, Oxfords , or Jensen ceramics. There’s an ‘Extension Speaker’ out on the control panel.
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| Magnatone M10a wiring |
Magnatone is somewhat famous or infamous for using oddball tubes in their amps (such as the rare, expensive and hard to get 6CZ5’s in the awesome 280 Stereo Vibrato amps from the late 50’s), and this amp is, sadly, no exception.
The preamp and reverb driver and recovery tubes are the usual suspects,12AX7’s and 12AU7’s, depending on the application. However the output tubes are the rare 7189A’s in cathode-bias.
This is plus side, this is a great sounding tube. It uses a high-voltage version of the 6BQ5 (EL84), with a tolerance for a 100 more volts on the plates. An EL84’s on steroids, with a great overdriven sound.
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| 1965 Supro Thunderbolt |
The 1965 Supro Thunderbolt S6420 Combo Amp was marketed as a bass guitar amplifier, but as I recall when my friend tried one out at a gig, cranked up, this amp rattled like crazy and distorted. This was not a good thing. However when used as a guitar amp, the Supro Thunderbolt rocked.
The Thunderbolt was a very basic amplifier and only had only two control knobs; Volume and Tone, reminiscent of like The Fender Blues Junior. However the Thunderbolt put out 35 watts of full-range sound honest midrange into a nice vintage “Class A” tube tone. The Thunderbolt was great for everything from clean jazz to twang, to humbucker grind.
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| 1965 Supro Thunderbolt |
Turned all the way up, the Thunderbolt exhibits nearly zero noise, and it puts out enough volume to be easily heard on large venue and theater stages, with overdrive completely controlled by the guitar’s volume knob.
As a plus the Thunderbolt has a singe 15" Jensen C15P Speaker. It had a gray speaker baffle covering and "blue rhino hide" cabinet covering. This amp was manufactured by the Valco company. These amps are available, but are very expensive on the vintage market.
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| 1969 Fender Bantam Bass |
One of the weirdest and most unusual amps that I have ever encountered was The Fender Bantam Bass amplifier. This creation was put together by the engineers at CBS. And much like the Supro Thunderbolt, this amp was better suited for guitar, except for the extremely weird styrofoam Yamaha speaker. What were they thinking?
Instead of a practical round Jensen, or JBL speaker those in power put in this strange trapezoidal speaker with a cone made out of the same substance used for cheap beer coolers; Styrofoam.
The amp section was essentially a version of the Silverface Fender Bassman head, but in a combo. It employed the same tone circuit and pumped out 40 watts RMS into a 15” polystyrene speaker, which in most cases blew out.
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| 1969 Bantam Styrofoam Speaker |
The amp, which was a commercial flop was offered from 1969 until 1971. By 1972 Fender came out with the Bassman 10 as it’s successor.
30 watts may be alright for a jazz club, but is not enough power for Rock.
The Bantam Bass circuitry was similar to the Silverface Fender Bassman head.. On the downside, too often than the speaker blew out.
Before that, in 1970 the Yamaha Corporation offered a whole series of amplifiers that used those same weird trapezoidal Styrofoam speakers. These amps, known as the Yamaha TA series came in triangular wedge shapes. They included the TA20, TA30, TA60, TA90, and TA120 solid-state amplifiers.
For most of my life I have lived near Cincinnati, Ohio, which was the home of the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company. My father even worked there for a while. This company made some very fine pianos and organs.
But there was one Baldwin Amplifier that really stood out from the rest and that was The Baldwin Exterminator.
The Exterminator came with two channels; normal and reverb. The reverb channel had a depth control, The tremolo section include controls for speed, and intensity. The amp also had the usual volume, treble, bass, three-way Supersound switch, and the five button Supersound controls. The normal channel just included volume, bass, and treble.
Both the 15” and 12” speakers came with fuses that were actually automotive turn signal lights lamps. These would shine out of the back of the amp, and get brighter as it was played louder.
One last amplifier that I briefly used was a 1965 VOX / JMI AC100.
When I was a 14 year old kid I went to my friend Stew's house. He was the drummer in our garage band and an avid Beatle fan. He had this huge Vox amplifier in his basement that a music store had lent him. He insisted that I trade in my 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb for this model. I had to think about this. I didn't think my Dad would spring for the extra money.
The Vox/JMI AC100 amps were originally made in Britain in 1963 through 1965 for The Beatles to use at their stadium shows. The "Lads" used these amps at their Hollywood Bowl show in the United States by the group. The AC30's did not prove loud enough to be heard over the crowd. So they craved a louder amplifier.
Despite the benefits of being an extremely powerful amp, the AC100 was very much a basic amplifier. The controls consisted of two input jacks, volume, treble, and bass controls, a pilot light, an off/on switch, a fuse, and the voltage selector.
The cabinet was the exact size of a Silverface Fender Super Reverb. The amp even came with tilt-back legs. Most of those that owned this amplifier removed the Yamaha speaker and replaced it with a practical 15” paper-coned speaker. The Bantam Bass was offered from 1969 until 1971. It was a flop.
By 1972 Fender came out with the Bassman 10 as it’s successor. 30 watts may be alright for a jazz club, but definitely it did not produce enough power for Rock.
I can't be sure, but I always wondered if Fender's use of the trapezoidal Styrofoam speaker had something to do with Bill Schultz's connection to The Yamaha Company. Mr. Schultz became president of Fender in 1981 and pne year later put together a group of investors to purchase Fender. However prior to that he worked at Yamaha.
What we do know for certain is that Yamaha briefly licensed these speakers to Fender. These Styrofoam speakers were also used in some Leslie cabinets.
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| Yamaha TA Solidstate Amps |
The TA30 was enclosed in the wedged shape cabinet with the control panel on the amplifiers top and the inputs were on the side. The amplifier section was housed at the cabinet's base, with the speaker mounted above it. The TA30 was a 30 watt twin channel amplifier.
The speaker was supposed to represent the shape of a human ear. To me that is a stretch of the imagination. These speakers were used in Yamaha organs of the day.
The TA20 amplifier was a single channel version with a smaller speaker. The TA60 pumped 60 watts of power into two of the Styrofoam speakers. The TA90 consisted of a PE90 head, and the TS90 cabinet which housed three Styrofoam speakers.
The Yamaha TA120 was a stereo amp that housed two 60 watt amplifiers and four Styrofoam speakers. This amp was mounted on a detachable roller dolly. I have come across only a few of these TA amplifiers since they were a short-lived venture.
Around 1965 the Baldwin Company decided to cash into the Guitar business. In my opinion Baldwin was a few days late on that venture. At first hey tried to purchase The Fender Company before CBS did, but bid way too low.
So Baldwin purchased The Burns of London guitar company for a mere $380,000. Burns shipped their remaining stock to the United States where those guitars were re-branded as Baldwin's. Baldwin later purchased Gretsch however that is a whole other story.
For many years Baldwin had been building organs for years at their facility in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They used this same solid-state organ technology to build a series of guitar amplifiers at their plant.
The desired sound of the day in 1965 was loud and clean and those amps did a great job. Willie Nelson still relies on his Baldwin C1 amplifier. Neil Young traveled with with a Baldwin Exterminator in his rig.
The better model Baldwin Amplifiers came with “ Supersound circuitry” which was basically just a preset EQ for Treble, Mid 1, Mid 2, bass, and a “Mix,” This let the user combine two settings or use just one. The Supersound circuit was controlled by three-way select sliders/buttons that let you go from normal output to Supersound or combine both.
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| 1965 Baldwin Exterminator |
But there was one Baldwin Amplifier that really stood out from the rest and that was The Baldwin Exterminator.
This amplifier was almost the size of a small refrigerator and stood 4 and a half feet high and was over two and a half feet deep. This amplifier pumped 100 watts RMS (250 watts peak) into two 15″, two 12″, two 7″ speakers. It was loud!
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| Exterminator Controls |
The Exterminator came with two channels; normal and reverb. The reverb channel had a depth control, The tremolo section include controls for speed, and intensity. The amp also had the usual volume, treble, bass, three-way Supersound switch, and the five button Supersound controls. The normal channel just included volume, bass, and treble.
This solid-state beast came with baby blue side panels, brushed aluminum control panels, and of course the five colored push-button controls. The styling was actually more keyboard than guitar.
The Exterminator also came with a warning stick on the amp’s backside that told the owner about possible hearing damage if it was turned up too loud.
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| Speaker Layout |
Both the 15” and 12” speakers came with fuses that were actually automotive turn signal lights lamps. These would shine out of the back of the amp, and get brighter as it was played louder.
There are not a lot of these amplifiers available. If you find one, I warn you they are very heavy.
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| My High School Garage Band With Vox AC100 in the background |
I decided against it. At the time I did not realize there were only 800 units of this hand-wired model ever built.
And now in 2021 there are only around 200 of these amps that still exist. Had I been a little more business savvy I might had made the purchase.
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| Vox JMI/AC 100 |
The Vox/JMI AC100 amps were originally made in Britain in 1963 through 1965 for The Beatles to use at their stadium shows. The "Lads" used these amps at their Hollywood Bowl show in the United States by the group. The AC30's did not prove loud enough to be heard over the crowd. So they craved a louder amplifier.
The Vox AC100's used a quartet of EL34 power tubes that were enclosed in a metal shield to cut down on vibration and dissipate the heat. The tubes ran in Class AB push-pull mode.
This amplifier's head stood on top of a large chrome chassis while the four 12” speaker cabinet was below. The user could pivot the cabinet if needed.
The two output jacks on the backside had cable jacks that sort of resembled the ones on XLR microphone cables. One was for an 8ohm load and the other was for 16ohms.
This amplifier unit came with a voltage adapter for use in all other countries.
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| AC 100 Control Panel |
Internally the amp had the four EL34 tubes, two ECC83 preamp tubes which were comparable to a 12AX7's and one ECC82 dual triad tube, comparable to a 12AU7. This tube was used as a phase inverter.
This amp also contained a choke that was straddled by two 100uf filter capacitors. The first 1963 models were cathode biased. The later design was changed to fixed bias.
The JMI/AC100 pumped out 80 to 100 watts into four 12” Vox Bulldog speakers. It was very heavy amplifier, although the stand was on wheels. However there were no effects, such as reverb or tremolo. It could be used for guitar or bass. Paul McCartney still uses his Vox AC 100 through a Vox T-60 cabinet at his live shows.
I decided against the purchase and kept my Deluxe Reverb. In my quest for a larger amplifier I eventually bought a 50 watt Kustom solid state head made during the Bud Ross era, and a large Fender Bandmaster two 12 speaker cabinet.
Click on the links under the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.
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