Quote from: teemuk on April 16, 2007, 09:12:15 AM...
1971...
- Heathkit: Kit amplifiers TA-17, TA-16, TA-27. http://www.ntw.net/~w0ui/family_webpage/pix/music/heathkit/heath_ta17_2.jpg Any idea of designers?
Hey howdy. Cool page.
Just wanted to point out that I built a Heathkit 2 X 12" 50 watt SS combo amp in High School Shop class in 1968.
Previously I had been using a Heathkit mono Hi-Fi tube amp of perhaps 15-20 watts in a plywood box with a 12" Lafayette speaker.
The Late sixties Heathkit combo (I think the following year after I built mine there was also a 1 X 12" combo version too in the catalog) I built has 2 Jensen Special Design (blue AlNiCo) drivers and a long spring accutronics reverb tank included in the kit.
The amp also had "tremolo" (vibrato actually) with controls for speed and depth.
When I initially fired it up the reverb wasn't working (traced to a cold solder joint I had made on a ground tab on the chassis).
Once working correctly I was disappointed in the sound. It was kind of a cheap midrangey sound. I thought it must have been the speakers but no, it was just the beginnings of my education about transistor based guitar amplifiers.
Every few years I'd again try another SS amp (Baldwins with colored slide switches, Legends with cane speaker cloths in nice looking wood cabinets, Early Crates, etc).
I finally sold off my last Blackface Fender Showman head and got a Hughs&Kettner 1X12 combo, which sounded pretty good, but both it and the Randell RG80 still had that tell-tale SS junction "hiss" in the background that used to bug me.
Today (though I have a Boogie Mark I reissue), I mostly use a Roland Cube 40X in the Funk band I currently play in. Works very well and sounds great!
In the car trunk I usually keep a Starcaster 25R (same as a rebadged Fender Frontline 25R) for a spare. Sounds like an old Princeton-Reverb!
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