Collecting Guitar Amplifiers
Part 1 - From the Beginning to 1965
by Don Corbett

I regret having to use the above title for this article, since it indicates that we musicians may no longer be able to afford the fine old tube amps that have defined the sound of rock, blues and country music for the past 50 years. Designers using semiconductors have tried continually and unsuccessfully to duplicate the vacuum tube designs, but have failed. One bright spot, however, is that the increasing value of the vintage amps has motivated the manufacturers to bring out " exacttm0 copies (at prices starting around $1000). These are good amps, but do not really sound the same as the originals. There is also a large up-market demand for tube amps among musicians. In researching this article, I reviewed a current amp buyer's guide and found that of 460 units listed, 176 or 38% were of the vacuum tube variety. Tube amps are alive and well in the music scene today, but the days of buying a classic Fender Pro-verb for $150 are gone forever.

The first tube amps were built as part of Hawaiian guitar/amp "outfits". In the 1920s, Hawaiian guitar music was immensely popular. User demands that the instrument be made louder so that it could be used for orchestral lead led to the development of guitar amps. Many of these had only an On/Off switch, as the tone and volume controls were located on the guitar body. From about 1932 to 1938, this equipment was manufactured by Rickenbacker, National and Dobro, among others. A typical unit had an output of five to fifteen watts, a dynamic speaker and an enclosure so small that it appeared the owner was probably ashamed of being seen with it (he probably was!). Output tubes were typically 45s or 6V6s. Few of these units have survived, and today they are quite rare. Since so few
remain today, it is difficult to value them properly. They are of interest only to collectors, since they are too obsolete and too valuable to use. Like many collectibles, the price you will pay depends upon how badly you want the item.

As we have seen, Hawaiian electric guitars and amps have been around since the early '30s. In 1936, Gibson came out with the first good electric spanish guitar, which from now on I will refer to as a "guitar", since the Hawaiian became known as a "steel" guitar. They teamed it with a steel guitar amp which they had been making for years, the EH15O (Electric Hawaiian $150). The guitar itself was an L50, a lower end Gibson arch-top model (but still a good instrument). The pick-ups modified from a steel guitar, was a realU monstrosity, and required severe butchery of the
guitar for mounting. Nonetheless, it was a pretty good guitar, even by today's standards, and led to the creation of the "lead guitar" position in orchestras.

Despite the above, there was great resistance to electric guitars. One country artist appeared at the Grand Old Opry with one, and was told not to bring it back. Lead instrument players, such as trumpet, sax and piano feared and despised the electric guitar and would not play in a group that had one. A hero was needed, so along came Charlie Christian. Christian was one of the great jazz guitarists of all time. However, when he appeared with the Benny Goodman orchestra, he was just another unknown. Goodman disliked the electric guitar, after all he was a clarinetist, and had no use for more competition within his own orchestra. Accordingly, he refused to have anything to do with Christian when he was recommended to him, and would not even listen to ) him. Some of the orchestra members sneaked Christian onto the stand for an afternoon gig, and when Goodman came on stage it was to late for him to do anything about it. Goodman proceeded to call for "Rose Room", one of the most difficult tunes the orchestra played, and then call for Christian to take the lead. Goodman did this in the hope that, without practice, Christian would make a fool of himself. Instead, Christian made history. He played chorus after chorus with incredible creativity, and the audience nearly tore the place apart. Goodman, knowing which side his clarinet was buttered on, relented and Christian took his place among the musical greats of all time. He died at an early age of tuberculosis, a fatal disease of the day, but not before he established the electric guitar as serious jazz and orchestral instrument. The time was 1939/40.

Very few of the EH15O amps have survived. Strangely, quite a few of the "Charlie Christian"
ES15O guitars (Electric Spanish, $150!) are around, and they sell for about $1000. This is because there are so many playable electric guitars available from later development of the instrument. I do not expect that price to last for long, now that the "collectors" are into it.
By now, the Hawaiian guitar was fading and the electric guitar (as we understand it) was becoming more popular. In the early '40s, amps were being produced by companies such as Supro, Valco, Oahu, and Gretsch, as well as by Gibson. These amps occasionally turn up, usually in very bad condition, and find ready sale with collectors. They rarely sell to musicians, however, since they are quite obsolete and need extensive rebuilding before they can be used. In 1945, amps were still small and primitive by today's standards. This was all about to change, as Leo Fender appeared on the scene.

Leo was making lap-top Hawaiian guitars and small amps under the name Kaufman & Fender,
selling them mostly through music schools as student outfits. Leo had also made a few solid-body guitars, which he loaned out to musicians to try. He became convinced that there was a market for these, and wanted to start a factory to produce them. Doc Kaufman, however, was not convinced. He opted out and Leo went on alone to found the Fender Musical Instrument Co. in mid 1946. The early Kaufman & Fender amps are very collectible. They can be identified by a "K&F" metal logo plate, and are usually painted grey. Fullerton, California, was home to Fender Musical Instruments.

Fender marketed his model 26 amps with 8', 10" or 15" speakers. They were excellent units with about 12 watts output, using (2) 6V6's, a 6SC7, a 6N7 and a 5Y3. I believe they still used dynamic speakers. In 1949, Leo brought out a small amp using one 6SJ7, a 6V6 and a 5Y3 driving a 6" speaker. He called it "The Champion", later shortened to "Champ". It was cheap, awesomely reliable and would absorb unlimited abuse and still keep playing. It has to have been one of the most influential amplifiers ever built. Most blues and rock musicians were introduced to the joys of distortion via the Champ, and thousands of recordings were made featuring the tough little unit emitting undecipherable levels of distortion at gut-wrenching levels. To the emergent world of rock and electric blues, this was the sound to have. I don't know what they originally sold for, but it was probably about $50. Today, one is worth upwards of $450, depending on condition and model rarity. Recording engineers of the time were not able to handle 100 watt amps going full blast in a studio, so they too liked the little Champ. After all, five watts was still within their bounds of reason.

It is worth mentioning that audiences in those days were quite different from those of today. They actually listened to the music and if they wanted to talk, get drunk or shout at each other, they either went outside on their own or were thrown Out. It was not necessary to have an amp capable of stunning them into submission. I have played many dances using a 12 watt amp into a pair of 15" Wurlitzer speakers, and never had a need for more power. At that time, a 25 watt unit was considered a large public address amplifier.

The explosion came in the late forties and early fifties. A huge market developed as blues and rock bands multiplied. In 1947, Leo Fender brought out his first big amp using 6L6's. It had two 10" Alnico PM speakers and was called the "Dual Professional". This amp introduced the tweed covering that trade-marked Fender amps through the 50's and into the 60's. Fender amps made during this period have great collector and player value. The Fender line now ranged from the 5 watt Champ to the 80 watt Twin with four 6L6's.

By now, Leo had a new problem. Rock and rollers were driving his amps wide open, and the speakers would not take it. To the disgust of musicians, speakers regularly blew out during concerts and gigs, prompting some musicians like Pete Townshend to walk over and kick in the speaker cones while they were playing. This was undoubtedly either to beat the speaker to the blow-out or ventilate them better! Musicians demanded more and more of their amps - Jimmy Hendrix would pour a can of lighter fluid over his guitar, set fire to it and then turn everything on the amp wide open as a grand finale. The sounds that came out of the speakers as the guitar and pickup burned and melted away certainly added a new dimension to the art of musical expression.

Most of the 12" speakers of the time were rated at 15 watts. This is the reason that Marshall et al used stacks of four or eight in a big box to try to handle the 60 watts the big amps could put out. The musicians began to hassle Leo, who in turn hassled the speaker manufacturers (Jensen/Oxford), and since he was a big customer they did something about the problem. The result was much better speakers.

In the earl 50's, Leo started to use the miniature 7 and 9-pin tubes instead of octals. 12AX7's and
12AT7's replaced 6SC7's and 65L7's. Amps by now had "boost" type bass, treble and mid-range controls.

In 1956, Leo introduced vibrato on some of hio amps and it was an instant hit. Remember
"Wheels" and all that throbbing surf music? When Leo led the way, the other manufacturers had to keep up with him or fold. Thus the features introduced by Fender in the 50's and 60's were pretty well common to all of the major manufacturers with a few exceptions. Companies like Gibson and Epiphone were still betting on class A output circuits, but even they had to introduce reverb and vibrato to compete.

The amp considered by many musicians to be the finest ever made is the 1959 Fender "Bassman" which, oddly enough, had neither reverb nor vibrato. If you are fortunate enough to find one of these, eager buyers will pay you $1300 or so for it!

Jim Marshall had been making amps in England since the early 1960's, his first models being straight knock-offs of the Fender Bassman. He later developed his own designs. Also in England Vox had been making 15, 30 50 and even 100 watt amplifiers since the early 50's. These were the amps used by the Beatles and were immensely popular in England though not seen over here too often. Fender amps were prohibitively expensive in the UK, so Marshall and Vox had a pretty clear field.

In the early 1960's, Fender switched from tweed to "tolex" covering. The units made in the 50's and 60's are referred to as "black face" (actually a black control panel), to distinguish them from the later "silver face" models. During 1964/65, reverb became available on all of the bigger amps and was an instant hit, as had been vibrato. As far as these amps were concerned, the terms vibrato" and "tremolo" were interchangeable. In reality, vibrato uses a change in pitch while tremolo is a change in intensity. Regardless of what the control says, only tremolo is used.

From 1960 to the 80's, the overall quality of Fender amps changed for the worse, as cheaper suppliers were used for many major components. As a result, the sound of the amps suffered. The tone and quality of pre-CBS Fender amps is superior to any made today. For example, the early amps used interleaved windings on the output transformers, a feature dropped on later production.

Other manufacturers tried to keep up with Fender, but only Ampeg (with their bass amps) really succeeded. Models such as the Ampeg SVT with 300 watts into stacks of (8) 12" or (4) 15" speakers were particularly awesome. They are very collectible, and almost any bass player will part with his eye teeth for one of them. Standell also made outstanding amps in the 60's and 70's.

A lot of manufacturers tried to switch to solid-state circuitry in the early and mid 1970's, but the resulting amps were not accepted by musicians and are not really collectible. They were just crummy.

English tube amps of the late 60's and 70's, such as Marshall, Park, Orange, Narb, Hi-Watt, Laney and Selmer are very collectible. The same is true of North American amps of the same period, such as Ampeg, Gibson, Gretsch, Magnatone, Danelectro, Epiphone, Supro and Premier. In the mid 1950's, Fender made a limited number of amps under the name "White", which were sold with lap-top steel guitars. Both guitars and amps are very rare collectors items.

Figure 1 shows the K&F and Gibson EH-150 amps. For a nice colour photo of a 1950s Gibson "Flying V" guitar and a 1946 Fender ,"Dual Professional" amp, see the cover of the 1992 Antique Electronic Supply catalogue.

(To be continued).

Figure 1: Two 1940's Amps - K&F on left and Gibson EH-150 (p-p 6L6's)