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Old 26th Jul 2017, 5:31 pm   #21
stevehertz
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

If they're still being made then they're still being made.

I'd never heard of Wilsic though, but I found this interesting web page: http://www.chambonino.com/work/miscguitar/misc4.html
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Old 26th Jul 2017, 6:11 pm   #22
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Simms-Watts I know these have been mentioned above but was there a connection with EMI?

Two more
Impact
Elpico - some bloke from Liverpool used to play through one.

I still have some HH gear, amps, cabs, tape echo etc just never use it now.

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Old 26th Jul 2017, 6:25 pm   #23
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

I should have remembered Impact. The first band I was in, the vocalist had an Impact PA. As I recall, the columns were of a 'different' shape somehow?
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Old 26th Jul 2017, 6:26 pm   #24
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Two more:

Wharfedale - made PA columns
Torque
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Old 26th Jul 2017, 6:52 pm   #25
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

How about Trace Elliot

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Old 26th Jul 2017, 7:51 pm   #26
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Trace Elliot products are still shown on Thomann so they must still be around and I believe wharfedale are still around as wharfedale pro who still make speakers and amplification.
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Old 26th Jul 2017, 7:57 pm   #27
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

One of the things is that many of the 'vintage' names in musicians sound equipment are still used by some company or other. The offerings of today bear little or no resemblance to the character or quality of yesteryear but the name sells the product. As a professional fixer of amplifiers and keyboards, I'd much rather see a 1970s Orange amplifier than a 2010s Orange amplifier. For example. Other makes of amplification equipment are available.

Cynical, me?
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Old 26th Jul 2017, 8:00 pm   #28
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Found a couple more, Johnson and Triumph. The Triumph looks to be an early transistor amp, maybe rival to the HH.

Also an early Orange ad which hopefully is the 'proper' Orange!
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Old 26th Jul 2017, 9:18 pm   #29
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Orange, that shop in the advert were the 'proper' Orange. They took my 1963 Gibson 335 off me for the shocking price of £125 in 1970, worth 3 times that even back then, about £10k now !

Triumph, a firm with that name made stuff for Vox in the 60's, I wonder if it was the same company?

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Old 26th Jul 2017, 9:53 pm   #30
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Referring to post #12, which mentions Bird products. The firm (Sydney S. Bird & Co., IIRC) diversified into Car radio & Stereo in the late 70s or early 80s, but may have still produced other items. I believe they ceased trading sometime around 1990, or maybe earlier.
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Old 27th Jul 2017, 8:06 pm   #31
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the company Hohner, which still makes musical instruments of all sorts, made a few guitar amps. Not too sure that they were truly a British company, though. They were sold by Bell Musical Instruments of Surbiton, along with Watkins and Bird amps. I have a Bell catalogue with these and there are Watkins amps with "Watkins" and "WEM" badges listed. Wem was of course "Watkins Electronic Music". They also listed the wonderful Watkins Copicat at £38.10.0.
Bell also had an "exclusive to Bell customers" Mercury guitar amplifier for 11½gns. No idea who actually made it...
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Old 27th Jul 2017, 8:43 pm   #32
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Quote:
Originally Posted by mole42uk View Post
One of the things is that many of the 'vintage' names in musicians sound equipment are still used by some company or other. The offerings of today bear little or no resemblance to the character or quality of yesteryear but the name sells the product. As a professional fixer of amplifiers and keyboards, I'd much rather see a 1970s Orange amplifier than a 2010s Orange amplifier. For example. Other makes of amplification equipment are available.

Cynical, me?
Even Jim Marshall did it - about 10 or so years back you could buy an Indian made 15watt solid state Park amp which he'd had made there as an experiment. They were good little amps and later rebranded under the Marshall name.
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Old 27th Jul 2017, 8:50 pm   #33
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Originally Posted by ITAM805 View Post
Orange, that shop in the advert were the 'proper' Orange. They took my 1963 Gibson 335 off me for the shocking price of £125 in 1970, worth 3 times that even back then, about £10k now !

Triumph, a firm with that name made stuff for Vox in the 60's, I wonder if it was the same company?
Well in that case you will be happy to know I bought a used 1960 Gibson 335 off a music store over here in NZ for about the same price (125 UK pounds) using a trade in around 1973. They wanted nice shiny guitar to sell and not the tatty old thing in the case!! Still have it and it has the original PAF pickups.

Wonder who made all those 15 watt valve guitar amps you saw advertised in Practical Wireless and Electronics back in the late 60's. I have a Philips brand one out in the shed but it did not usually say who made them.
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Old 27th Jul 2017, 8:52 pm   #34
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

The Hohner amps were designated "Orgaphon" - I wonder if they could have been of German origin? The outputs were quoted as being European power ratings so I wonder if that could be the case?
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Old 27th Jul 2017, 9:05 pm   #35
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Simms Watts started as a private company and was indeed bought out by EMI Sound and Vision.

Torque amplifiers. Yep, I remember them, a chap called Jim Edgeworth, Edgeworth Electronics up Darlington Way.

Hohner amplifiers are German.

For British amplifiers, Ashdown are still going strong, as are Laney, Vox and Marshall.
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Old 27th Jul 2017, 11:45 pm   #36
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Dynacord, not sure if these are still going,
Jennings, remember as a teenager seeing a guitar combo, looked like an ac30, well it would!
Also saw an act with a Davoli pa system, upright thing with a tape echo in the centre of it, just thought it looked 'fab'.
Maine, Rokk, Session, Hartley Thompson, Redmere soloist are a few guitar amps I can recall off the top.
Vamp-power, saw these an Canns on Chapel Walk in Sheffield,
My first guitar amp, ' Audition' , dad bought from Woolworths, Federesque styling.
See if I can dig some more up,
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Old 27th Jul 2017, 11:51 pm   #37
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

I have a Northcourt Thirty amplifier based on two EL34s in PP, but is a PA amp as opposed to a musical amp. Line up GZ34, EF86, ECC83 EL34, EL34.
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Old 28th Jul 2017, 7:40 am   #38
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I have a Northcourt Thirty amplifier based on two EL34s in PP, but is a PA amp as opposed to a musical amp. Line up GZ34, EF86, ECC83 EL34, EL34.
Alan.
Most PA amps are used for musical purposes anyway, either 100% of the time or at some point during their lifespan. PA simply means public address, covering a multiple of uses from union bosses addressing members' meetings (talking) to amplification of 'Led Zepplin' in a sports arena.
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Old 28th Jul 2017, 7:57 am   #39
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

Just to add a few more that I don't think have been listed
Northcourt
RSC
Stern Clyde
Heathkit.
All of these, like Linear, used the basic Mullard circuits known as the 3-3 5-10 and 5-20.
The first digit defines the number of valves and the second the wattage.
And some supplier improved transformers such as Parmico and Partridge for a few extra shillings. The early Linear amps were supplied with TV coax input sockets.
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Old 28th Jul 2017, 12:37 pm   #40
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Default Re: Bygone musical amplification manufacturers

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Just to add a few more that I don't think have been listed
Northcourt
RSC
Stern Clyde.
I think RSC were associated with Linear; certainly they shared the same address in Armley, Leeds. RSC stood for "Radio Supply Co." (confusingly "of Manchester") and a lot of their stuff was sold as kits (I should know, I bought an RSC A11 kit back when I was a schoolboy wanting to be Hank Marvin). I don't recall them being available in an enclosure, with or without speaker(s). Both Linear and RSC amplifiers were advertised in "Practical Wireless" way back in the day.

I thought I remembered the company as Sterne-Clyne, but I may be wrong.

Quote:
Heathkit.
All of these, like Linear, used the basic Mullard circuits known as the 3-3 5-10 and 5-20.
The first digit defines the number of valves and the second the wattage.
And some supplier improved transformers such as Parmico and Partridge for a few extra shillings. The early Linear amps were supplied with TV coax input sockets.
I don't doubt that these were based on Mullard circuits; it would certainly be the sensible way to go. I didn't know that the circuit numbers signified valves/wattage - you live and learn! A lot were ultra-linear circuits with Baxandall tone controls, which isn't necessarily needed for a guitar amplifier. I would suggest that they were originally designed for Hi-Fi, but with the ubiquity of the electric guitar in music of the time, the manufacturers took advantage and sold them as guitar amplifiers.

I think the transformer manufacturer was spelled "Parmeko", but again, I could be wrong.

It is true that the inputs to Linear/RSC amps were co-axial TV-type sockets. I suppose they were cheap and weren't supposed to be plugged and re-plugged, so would be fine.

My RSC A11 now resides in an enclosure with a Fane 12" speaker and has been rebuilt and modified. I also bought a Linear TP1 tremolo-preamp which has now been incorporated into the amp. Oddly, the TP1 had phono input, output and footswitch connectors, no TV coaxes! To amplify (pun intended) the relationship between Linear and RSC, the knobs on the A11 and TP1 were the same.

Just to cross a "t" and dot an "i", Vox also produced budget amplifiers under the name of Domino.

Colin.
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