Airline 9010

The date code is nowhere to be found, but it's an early to mid-60s Valco-made combo. These Valco-made amps, whether it's Airline, Supro, Gretsch, Oahu, or whatever have got to be the best-kept secret in music. For under $300, you can get an AMAZING amp. This is one of them. It has four inputs: high and low bass, guitar and accordion, 35 watts through two 12" speakers (probably shoulda had Jensens, but mine doesn't), and the sweetest tremolo you've ever heard. There's a footswitch jack, too, but that's long gone. Two 6l6 power tubes, four 12ax7 preamp tubes and a 5y4 (I think) rectifier.) Plenty of oomph for small gigs, at least, and it breaks up beautifully, responding perfectly to the picking hand. About the only thing I wish it had was reverb, but with the Dan-echo pedal, I don't care anymore.

It's the same amp as the Gretsch 6159 Super Bass, but it makes a GREAT guitar amp for blues, rockabilly, country, or a Link Wray kinda trash. I mean, I can't say enough for this amp, especially since I got it CHEAP. It's quiet, twangs good, rings good and raunches good. What more could you want. OK, there's no reverb, and a master volume would be nice to maybe coax a little more distortion out from time to time. I pretty much just dime everything and let it wail. I wish it went to 11.

Well, I hope so, but Valco's long gone. Point to point wiring's real simple and it looks easy to work on. Wish I had a schematic, though. No problems so far.

Gone.

Been playing 15 years, and I own a Gretsch and a Tele. Both sound better through this amp than any other I've tried. I wouldn't buy another 9010 (since I already have one), but I'm already thinking about getting another Valco-made amp... maybe one of those little ones.