i got a call earlier from a guy who wants me to come try out his
earliy 70's sound city 50 plus head. i dont know jack shiot about
these amps and hope one of the old school guys on here could
help me out and tell me about them. he wants $500 for the head.
i dont know if thats even worth it. i just dont know anything
about them at all. can you guys help me out? good deal/bad deal?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

If it's original and all good, deal!

Sound City were more focused PA's. The 50's and 100's were poor mans OR100's, Selmer focused on poor mans Plexi's.

With the pool of vintage Marshall, Orange and Hiwatt amps running dry, people are looking to what was termed lesser brands of the same era. Consequently the price of the things is going up. Some of the 70's gear is staying at a fixed price. The 70's Watkins Dominator's have been £250-£350 a go for about 4 years now.
Get ready for a beast of a amp. There's nothing subtle about em when you've got em working.

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No no and no

Make no bones about it, the SoundCity 50+ is in no way a cheap'o amp.
You'll get a very well thought out amp.
Take a look at the insides here
http://www.chambonino.com/work/soundcity/city1.html

Note the use of shielding plates between the pot's and the board, and the pre and poweramp valves.

Make sure you put a jumper lead from the lower input on the left to the upper input on the right. Turn the volume controls up to max and get in Hendrix heaven. It's essentialy the same amp aside from half power.
Mullard Mustard caps, real point to point wiring.
For $500 if you don't want it, I'll buy it.

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No no and no

im told that its basicly a hiwatt clone.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Nah look at the link.

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No no and no

I remember trying out a Sound City 100 watt stack back in 1970 in a shop in Manchester. They were always considered the poor mans Marshall but I was surprised, this thing blew me away. I used a Gibson SG because I was going for the Mick Abrahams 'Jethro Tull' sound and the sales guy let me crank it up and WOW!! this thing really delivered.
Very smooth but powerful sound, £400 for both amp and guitar, I had no money at the time, I had to let it go. Later I just could not believe I let that deal go.
At least give this amp a try, you might be glad you did.
Nothing like Hi-Watt, Orange or Marshall, I've had them all. A different sound to these.

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For a short time between his Marshall and Hiwatt days Pete Townshend even used Sound City Amps.I don't know if it was an endorsement deal or not but I do have pix somewhere in my archives with him using Sound City in his back line.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

those would be interesting to see.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I'd like to get my hands on a 50w Sound City ...

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

why is that?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

A few of em up on ebay. Non as cheap as £350

http://musical-instruments.shop.ebay.co.uk/Musical-Instruments-/619/i.html?_nkw=sound+city&_catref=1&_dmpt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282

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No no and no

Way Cool I am the proud owner of an old 73 Dallas Arbiter Sound City 50+ head and original cabinet. I also added another cab later. As a teenager my neighbors were routinely harrassed by my way loud renditions of Iron Man and Stairway to Heaven.

The unique thing about the Sound City are the active tone controls. $500.00 for the head is a good deal if everything is working. In a better economy it would sell for much more. Mine went thru years of abuse and two years ago I had some R&R done to it.



The bottom cab is original. Warning it is loud. Will knock pictures off your neighbor's walls loud. It stays amazingly clean at higher volumes but does break up the more you bring up the tone controls. This thing should come with ear plugs. I don't gig with it anymore because I don't play any stadiums....

The reason the eq causes more breakup is because it's before the preamp gain. Just the same on Plexi's and JTM's. So you get control over what area of the eq drives. For instance if you lower the bass theres less of that going into the preamp signal, so it distorts less. It's where the fable about Hendrix putting everything on 10 comes from.
Brilliant bit of amp design.

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No no and no

tdanb

hey killer pic bro.
what do you think a fulltone OCD would sound like in front
of this amp? would i be able to get the sweetness at lower volumes?
if i changed the tubes i would be able to lower the headroom wouldnt i?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Hey Way Cool...
How bout a pic of all of your equipment... It sounds like you must have quite a bit, and seem to be getting more. Come on... give us gear junkies some porn!

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!