Alamo Embassy 2563 Combo

Free (got if from my Dad when I was about 12)

This amp has about 5 features: 1 Volume Knob, 1 Tone Knob, Tremolo Speed Knob, Tremolo Intensity Knob, and a remote footswitch for Tremolo on/off. I can?t find the footswitch right now, but I am sure I have it somewhere. My amp has a Philco 36 1678 7 - 10 inch speaker.
I don?t know a lot about electronics, but looking at the guts of this amp, it looks like the preamp is transistor, and the output amp is tubes.
The main circuit board of the amp is stamped Feb 19, 1975.

This is the only tube amp I own. I jack into it direct, no effects, using either a Gibson Les Paul Standard double cutaway (2003), or a Gibson ?76 Explorer Reissue (2005).
This amp does not do heavy metal, but I can really get some Angus Young AC/DC style rock sounds from it. (I can?t play his licks, but the tone is there!) I have to run the tone knob at about 3 because any higher than that, it really gets a painful harsh trebly sound to it. Sometimes I run the Tone higher on the amp, and turn down the tone on the guitar end. The Explorer sounds grittier, I think because the pickups are hotter.
I recently rediscovered this amp when my parents moved. It was tucked away in their basement. Truthfully, when I first got the amp as a kid, I didn?t like it because a) it wasn?t a Marshall, and b) it did not have distortion. Now, after 24 years of playing guitar, I really appreciate this amp. It does have distortion, you just have to turn it up past 4! But when I was a kid, I did?t turn it up because I sucked and I didn?t want people to hear me. Now, I still suck but I don?t care! It sounds great! You can?t really hide your mistakes with this amp, the distortion is not muddy. Everything does not blend together, you can hear the pick hitting the string. The amp says 55 watts on it, but it does not sound very loud. It can get loud, but the sweet spot is right about 5 or 6 on the volume knob, and I can tolerate the volume. The tremolo can really mess you up if it is too present. I keep it down around 1/4 intensity setting with a 1/2 speed setting. That way, you can only really notice the tremolo if you let a note or chord linger.

It has not seen a lot of use, but it has been bounced around, left in a barn, left in a basement, etc for quite some time. It still works. It is probably even a little more reliable than I am.
I don?t do any gigging, but I suspect you would have to get the amp in the sweet spot, then mic it. It is not very loud.
I have never had to fix this amp.

I don?t think the company exists any more. The unit looks so simple, I think I could fix it myself, plus know a couple people who could fix it for me.

I really like the mello distortion. This amp is really fun to plug into and get jiggy. It is pretty good for playing rock n roll or blues. There is really no crystal clean sound to this amp, except at maybe volume 1. It starts breaking up at 2 and gets grittier as you increase the volume. The fuzzyness could be due to OLD tubes, or the speaker.
I like to flail away at Black Sabbath tunes and Early Ozzy stuff, so I need to use a different setup with really wild gain for that.
Pentatonics and Blues riffs are a joy with this unit.

Alamo DID make all solid state amps. This one is all solid state, probably built in 1979 (speaker code = late '78 speaker). It is by far the best transistor amp I've played (actually removed the head to be sure there weren't any tubes in there; had to remove it anyway to replace the filter caps). One trick pony; starts to break up at about 4, but has a real crisp & beutifully well-defined distortion. 1 channel. Excellent tremelo. Very basic, but would like a speaker out jack (I'll probably add one, the 10" speaker in it seems to handle the gain, but this is a bit more gain than I'm used to in a 1x10" amp. The 3 rating is NOT a bad thing, the amp is what it is.

So far have used a Gretsch Duo Jet (filteron P.U.'s) & an old Silvertone 1457 (2 lipstick P.U.'s). Works well w/ both, I haven't tried single coils, but based on what it does for the Silvertone, I really want to try a tele w/it. It still has a bit more hum than I'd want at high volume, but given the sound it gives I'd be a fool to complain.

Only had it 3 months, but it's 25 years old & had never seen a soldering iron before I got to it, so I'm not worried.

Alamo went away in about 1982, but this is a real basic set up so I should be O.K. w/any work it might need. BY THE WAY, I know this is a wast of print, but if anybody has a schematic for an all solid state embassy, e-mail me!!!! (dargoon2@sbcglobal.net)

I've been playing 35 years, mostly acoustic lately. Also have a Risson 1250 pro-verb, Ampeg B-15 & Guild Thunderbass. Got this for my kid, we may be in for a fight. The only amp I've ever owned that sounded better was a Vox Super Beetle, but it was only slightly better, you needed a gym for it & it still cost me most of the hearing from my left ear!!. I got this on e-bay w/out knowing it was solid state, but after 5 minutes with it I didn't care, it sounds that good. There's probably a reason I've never read a bad review on Alamo's. It's too bad they're gone, so I'll definitely keep my eyes open for 1 or 2 more.