Alamo Fury 2566 115 Combo

This is an update to my earlier post from 2005. 1 12ax7 pre-amp tube and 2 7868 power amp tubes with a 15 inch speaker. 20-30 watts @8 ohms. 3 inputs and a 110 volt outlet in back plus Bass,Treble and Volume. I give it a 7 for features because while having few featurs it's great for my style. I use it to play blues jams. Late 60s or early 70s bass/guitar amp. Also the inputs can be used to chain it to another amp if desired. I think I bought it for $90.00 in the early 90s.

I use it with my Yamaha SBG 200 with a Tom Anderson red H3 in the bridge and a Gibson P-94R in the neck. Sounds great. Noisy with the P-94 but it's a fat single coil. yeilds a very nice powerful overdriven sound. I changed the speaker out a long time ago. I just recently found an old Conn organ speaker by Cletron and after recovering it in red tolex and white grillcloth it sounds bad-***! I just took it to a local blues jam in Tarzana Ca. and I played it with Vol. on 3-4 and it sounded great. I also replaced the panals front and back from the original pressboard to 1/2 inch ply. The back panal is now only a 3/4 panal so I can hear myself(even from behind) as the sound is now more ambient.

As I said before I had this amp in the navy and we played all over Europe and the Med. Turkey, Crete, Baharain in the Middle east Etc. with no back up not even back up tubes. I just had it recapped by Blackie Pagano here in Los Angeles and it sounds like new. Tubes in it are at least 2 years old still sound great. It's a 3/4 ton pick-up truck of an amp!

Alamo is gone but any good tube repair guy should be able to fix it.
Blackie Pagano fixed it with a very reasonable recap job. Blackie rocks. Look him up. http://www.tubesville.com/

I've been playing since I was 8 years old. I'm 45 so that's a "holy crap!" kinda number. I love the fact that I have learned so much about tone from this wonderful and inexpensive amp. If it were stolan I would hunt down the SOB who took it and ...I'd be mad. I would get something else but now it's so much a part of me I like it better than more expensive amps. I'll keep this for a while. Tone vibe and feel it's all here. Cannot compare it to another amp it is unique in tone. Don't keep it stock! Modify it it and make it your own. The stock CTS speaker is Poop! The pressboard panals front and back are Poop! A recap cost me $100.00 and I'm in L.A. 7868 tubes are now being made available by Electro-Harmonix and they sound great. Wish it had reverb. Maybe I'll get a pedal.With the original purchase and $100.00 recap job and tubes speaker, red tolex and grillcloth plus glue, screws and 3 days putting everything together. It's less than $500.00 for a great sounding tube amp with balls and looks great too. I can't complain.

This is the Fury Bass Amp by Alamo. It sports the black Tolex and silver black front grill covering. And 3 inputs ,one say bass the other guitar and the middle in empty. Volume Bass and Treble is all it has for controls. So it has the appearance of a cheap solid state amp. But mine is all tubes, including the rectifier.
They put the old style amps into these new cabs at the end of 68 but then by the middle of 69 made the rest with solid state rectifiers and then by late 70's kept the same cap colors but made them all solid state. A down fall for Alamo. Make sure you have the one with all the tubes or, the one's all tubes with just the solid state rectifier. Those 7868 power tubes is not that hard to find. And also the 7199 styled like a 12AX7 is out there.
You can find these tubes( 7868 & 7199's) in old tube radios and black and white T.V's. If you turn on an old Tv and it works,look for these tubes. ebay will have them too,but they can be pricey and you might buy bad ones.. A good source is from a guy who goes by the the name of "stratbasturd ( 1977). Trust me, this man knows his classic tubes and grantees his tubes with a money back.
They are great tubes. These power tubes last longer then a lot of power tubes and a 7199 can last a life time!
The amp on it's own is not versatile. It's not a great base amp unless you play low. In that sense it's very good for a base player that wants to figure out tunes from a CD without disturbing the house hold or neighbors. The practice tone for a base is sweet. But loud..well it can sound like Jack Bruce playing through his Marshall's all turned up to the max lol. You get the picture...really distorted. But if you have a good speaker like the one that was in my it's not a buzzy fart type of distortion.
It's kinda pleasant if your old like me and remember old school base sounds.
If you replace the caps the noise goes away. You can still use the old 2 plug style too. Just listen for the ground noise and put the plug in reverse. Electric was a little different in the 60thes.
Now moving on to sound quality, here is the big surprise with this amp.

If you jump a smaller guitar amp like a 18 to 30 watter in this thing, you will have incredible lows and highs with the two amps. I have an Alamo Monclair 25 watt amp. I plug channel 2 on the low input to the middle input on the Fury and then plug the Guitar into the Monclair on channel 2's high input. This is a great set up. It is loud enough to gig with and is at a volume that club owners really love. You get all the tone of a big sound rig but at a very attractive volume. A good drummer should be able to play with you without pounding the hell of the drum set. Everybody can be heard. Good singers love my set up. They don't have to yell and I can turn up for solos and notch it down for chords. These Alamo class A amps response well to a guitars volume. Not like those high powered channel switch amps that make your volume sound more like an on and off switch. You old school people know what I am talking about and you kid's will not know the difference until you play a real classic class A amp or even an old classic AB amp for that matter.
This set up can do it all. Metal too with the right pedal. ( Imagine heavy metal at a tolerable volume!) I play classic Sabbath with this set up as well as any 50's or 60's rock and blues.

Well you can read my reviews on the Alamo Monclair about tubes. You have to learn how to hear your tubes. Like a classic car tells you when it needs some thing. When I was a kid Fender amps which were all tubes were called " Reliable "...so what does that tell ya?
Reliability with a tube amp is really base on your ears. * is a rating for any tube amp...your ears should make the other 2 points.

Well...you know the story of the Alamo...same here.

I have been playing over 40 years+. As a kid I never wanted an Alamo because people called them cheap. They were no Fenders. But hey as a kid how was I to know any better? Now much older and years of experience and understanding, Alamo's are a great amp, that is there higher watt ones 18 watts or higher could keep up with most Fenders. Alamo used a lot of great ideas in their technology that people still use today even. If you buy one that's beat up a good tech can fix it.
So use the Fury as a jumper amp with any 18 to 30 watt amp and you will dig it. Try to use what I am using it's great.

This is a very simple vintage amp- 12axy preamp, 2 7868 power tubes, and minmal controls (volume, treble, bass). Not even a standby switch. None of this is bad, mind you. The fewer toys, the less electrical noise to spoil the tone. I really enjoy these basic amps.

The sound quality rating depends on your taste. When paired with my Ibanez 335 copy, it produces the most beautiful, thick, natural sounds. Imagine a classic Fender Deluxe with a tighter bottom end. For clean or slightly gritty blues sounds this amp is amazing! It doesn't have the sparkling Fender sound, but a very unique depth and warmth that you absolutely have to try out.

The down side is that this amp really doesn't want to be pushed into overdrive. Again, it will give a lovely, slightly-overdriven blues sound, but it definitely won't venture into rock or metal territory on its own (hence the 9 instead of a 10). Still, a good pedal takes care of this. The amp works very well with my Bad Monkey overdrive pedal to give classic rock sounds and the tight bottom end allows for some very brutal metal attack when pushed hard through a good distortion pedal (I like my Danelectro Fab Tone with the gain and the bass dialed way up).

In sum, buy this amp for a really outstanding clean tone that really stands out amoung Fenders and their many clones. Do not get one to replace your Marshall.

PS- I should probably mention that my amp has a solid state rectifier and a three prong outlet, so it is much quieter than some of the earlier versions reviewed on this site.

Mine is a 1974- over thirty years later everything works just as it should. Although it looks a bit cheap, it really appears to have been built well. I have no complaints at all.

As an added bonus, Electro Harmonix has just re-released the hard-to-find 7868 power tubes, which should make maintenance a lot easier. Hopefully this will also help resale value as well.

No company = no support

I have been playing for about a decade and have taken every chance to try out any number of amps in music stores, pawn shops, and friends' houses. So far this is my favorite. I love the warm, thick sound that it gets with my Ibanez semi-hollow body as well as the balanced mids and subtle growl that I get with my DeArmond S-73.

In addition to their distinctive sounds, these amps are real bargains. Where else can you get a vintage, hand-wired, US made amp for under $150???

If you play blues or jazz, buy one immediately. If you play anything else, buy one and then buy some decent effects pedals.

This amp is likely a 67 model judging by the date code on the speaker. Vintage Guitar had an article on these amps and mine fits the description of the late 60s version of this amp - 3 inputs, 30w rms output, 15" Jensen, volume, treble and bass controls. Pretty basic, but it gets the job done. I've played guitar now for 41 years and have developed styles ranging from jazz to fairly heavy rock. The amp is versatile enough to handle all the styles I currently play. When I first got the amp (a gift from my uncle), it looked awful. It had sat around for years collection dust and rust and I was almost afraid to plug it in. When I did, I was pleasantly surprised. It was so quiet I didn't realize it even worked until I put a signal through it. I realized one of the power tubes was fried, so I bought a new 7868 at the Tube Depot here in Memphis and that really warmed it up and added a ton of headroom. However, the amp really seemed to break up too early to consider using it as a gigging amp. That's because it came stock with a Jensen C15PS, a decent guitar speaker for rock, but its known for early break up. I installed an Eminence 15" Redcoat Big Ben and man what a difference! My clean sound is good at very impressive volumes and at 6 and above, the break up is very reminiscent of early Fender Tweed amps or mid 60s Marshalls. It sounds GREAT with guitar. However, this amp was supposedly designed as a bass amp. I can only imagine what a bass would sound like through this amp with that Jensen that came stock in it - terrible. I'll have to deduct a point becuase of that. Also, if I was just rating this as a guitar amp head, I would give it a ten. But this is a combo and I have to rate it as a combo. Let me start by saying that the head section is great for guitar. However, the leads for the speaker are routed directly from the output transformer to the speaker and are soldered to the speaker. The amp and speaker sections are separated by a permanently mounted baffle with a hole drilled in it for the speaker wires to run through. The rectifier tube is so tall that it almost touches the baffle. Sooooooo, in order to service the rectifer tube, the speaker would have to be unsoldered and the amp completely removed from the cabinet. Very poor thinking. The amp wasn't designed to be easily serviced. Keep in mind I love this amp, but whoever designed that part of it just didn't care.

I'm playing a Gibson ES-137 Custom and a Tele primarily. The Gibson humbuckers really bring this thing alive. I played this past Saturday and took 2 amps, the Alamo and a 2X12 boutique amp that I normally play through. We play everything from Blood, Sweat and Tears to ZZ Top to The Doobies, Michael Buble', Wes Montgomery, the Beatles - not your usual variety band. I mic'd this amp with a Shure SM57 and ran the two amps in stereo on the PA Board. Before the night was over, I realized that the Alamo with the 15" Eminence was where my tone was coming from. The clean sound was warm with plenty of old fashioned tube sag (the 5U4GB Rectifier tube had a lot to do with that). The place where we were playing is large - seats about 180 with a large dance floor. The amp was too loud to turn it up past 2 and half on the volume. I left both tone controls all the way up; that seems to be where they belong on this particular amp. Of course, I was running it through the PA system, but it had plenty of stage volume. Our bass player is using a 400w head with a 4X10 cab and he had it up at a pretty respectable volume. I had to use an Ibanez TS9 for my distortion because the amp was too loud to crank it up to that point, but the distortion on this thing is unbelievable when I crank it. I attribute the volume, at least to a large extent, to the 15" eminence. If you have one of these amps, replace that speaker with the Big Ben and thank me later; it really makes that much of a difference. On the next gig, I'll be using this and bring one of my other amps as a backup. I came close to selling this on eBay, but I'm glad I kept it. It was a gift in my case, but you can pick these up for about $200 on eBay if you watch. I have a '66 Fender Vibrolux reverb and this amp simply sounds better in my opinion. That goes to show that an amps real worth isn't contigent on the price you pay.

This thing had sat up for years and still works great. Even the filter caps checked out fine; transformers aren't problematic, all the controls cleaned up and aren't scratchy, the cabinet is rock solid. Of course, its a tube amp and subject to needing maintenance, but other than that it seems very reliable. I'll have to give it 10 in that category.

Alamo has been out of business for decades, but I'm sure they would have been friendly folks 'cause they're from Texas. How long is the warranty? Loooooonnnnnnnng expired.

I own a Dumble clone that an amp tech friend of mine built from a schematic he somehow dug up, a genuine '66 Fender Vibrolux Reverb, a Peavey Special 112 combo and this amp rates with, if not above, the best of them. If it were lost or stolen, I'd look for another on eBay and snag that joker! I've owned Fender Bassmans (black and silver face), Fender Vibroluxes (black and silver), Fender Twins, Marshall Plexis, Gibsons, Silvertone, and like I said: this one easily rates with those in terms of tone and volume. I wish it had a nice reverb, but there again this was SUPPOSED to be a bass amp. I use an effects board anyway, so it really has all I need. The nice thing about these is that, although vintage, they haven't become collector's items yet so you can still get them pretty cheap. I'm going to look for another one - maybe a combo with a reverb, and use them in stereo. This is defintely one of the best values out there and I've been through enough amps to know. Feel free to contact me if you're thinking about purchasing one and have any questions.

Basic Vol, Treb, Bass

Phenomenal sound. I used to use this w/a hollow body 3 pickup Framus.

Dependable

Too old for any dealings w/Alamo

I've been playing guitar since '66. This was the first "real" amp I ever owned, I got it around 1971. It was so loud it would make the whole house shake. I used this amp for quite a few years and it kind of fell apart over time and I was to young and unknowledgable to repair it. Everybody else always wanted to use this amp for it's sound, even the people w/bigger and more expensive equipment. Just found another one on e-bay and bought it although from the pics I think there are no tubes in it. I'll have to find some 7868's. This is a "great amp".

Alamo Fury with (2) 7868 PWR tubes and a single 12AX7 PRE amp tube.
Late 60's or Eary 70's Blackface looking Bas Or Guitar amp with 3 inputs for Bass and Guitar. Vol Bass and Treble for features but it sounds best with everything on 10. Not a feature packed amp at all.It does have a 110 volt output on the back panal which is great for plugging in my Korg Pandora's Box processor.

I started out using this as a 1x15 combo and changed the speaker to a 200 watt EVM15L. Very loud but the closed back configuration made it hard to hear onstage. I pulled the amp out and made a seperate head out of it and ran it thru a Crate 1x12 wood cab with an Eminence Legend V12 speaker and changed all the tubes to Electro Harmonics from the Tubestore. WOW! What a difference. Nice loud singing tone. It use to have a loud hum but it is all but gone. It's there but once you start playing forget it. The sound is in your face. Dist sounds crunchy but I also use a Korg PX4 processor and it really warms up the digital effects and translates the dynamics of the modelling into usefull soulful tones. The Korg needs the tubes of the Alamo so it doesn't sound sterile and the Alamo needs the Korg 'cause it has no effects at all. They sound great together. It sounds very clean with new tubes and speaker. Starts to distort around 6 or 7.

It is a tank. It has fallen out of a truck and still sounded good. The tubes I changed out were the original RCA's and they sounded decent until this past year. When I was in the navy it was my only amp and we played all over Europe and even in the gulf and it never let me down. I didn't even know where to get tubes for it 'till I found the Tubestore. They are the best by the way. Changed all the tubes for $73.00 and got the tubes in 2 days. I should be good for another 10-20 yrs minimum. No rattles from the tubes or anything either. Sounds better than my 50 watt Peavey Classic head.

Exsqueeze me?Baking Powder? You're on your own Bubba. Anyone who worked on this is either dead or retired.It's a pretty simple circuit so it shouldn't be hard to find a tech that can troubleshoot it. Maybe get someone to put a standby switch in it.

Been playing over 35 years. Since I was a kid. I love it 'cause it's a tube amp you can modify if you want and don't have to worry about changing an expensive blackface to get what you want out of it. It's a tank. Would I buy it again? yes but I wouldn't pay a lot for it. I think any price under $150.00 would be reasonable and a lot of fun to go with it. 7868 tubes are expensive. $50.00 from the Tubstore plus shipping. I also own a 50 watt classic head with a 2x12 SPKR cab loaded with Celestion 60 watt Silver Series and I used to run it in stereo with the Alamo. Sounded awsome. Once I find a cool 15 inch Jensen for it I will redo the original Cabinet. Marshall red tolex with white grill cloth (strawberry milkshake baby!) and change the back panal to half closed back config.I play mostly blues and rock with a Yamaha SBG 200 with S. Duncan bridge alnico Custom 5 and a Gibson P-94 R single coil in the neck.

Basic amplifier with Treble, Bass & Volume controls. Three inputs with one labeled Bass. Approximately 20-watts RMS output. The rectifier is solid-state as is the first preamp section. After that, a 12AX7 drives the pair of push-pull 7868 tubes. 7868 tubes are getting somewhat harder to find, but shows up on eBay every week. It would not be difficult to change to 6L6 tubes with a new bias resistor.

Using a JB Player with humbucker, the amp sounds dark even with a Sylvania 7025 (12AX7) that is a lively tube. Amp plays clean unless cranked and only provides mild distortion at full volume. It is that this amp is not poor sounding, just not a stellar perfomer. A distortion petal is needed with this amp for strong distortion. At clean volume levels, it is not a Fender 'clean' sound and lacks some chime. Removing the fiberglass insulation in the sealed speaker cabinet brightens the rather dark sounding amp to more lively sonics. A vintage Jensen C15N would outperform the CTS 15" speaker. Thus, the CTS is holding back some better sonics. The Bass control has a large range and effects the Treble control if set more than a '5' setting. I never need bass beyond 1/2 setting anyways, however a bass guitar may find the Bass control extended range handy. The electrolytic caps were changed and the amp still has some hum (not a large amount). Swapping polarity at the power outlet does little, thus a new power cord with a ground removes most hum at full volume. At 20-watts output, the volume is only suitable for smaller clubs.

Although this amp works, the electrolytic caps were replaced & one was leaking. After replacement, the hum was better controlled. This amp has tiny Fender Champ size power transformer. For 20-watts I am sure it is overloaded, but had not failed to date.

The manufacture is long gone, but the circuit is simple that any good tech could repair this amp.

The amp is not really worth more than $150 in good condition, but $150 does not buy much in a tube amp these days. (The amp is hybrid with a transistor preamp). So, if you can get this amp for a good price it is a good starter amp for your kid, but weighs 40 lbs. If you have a Jensen C15N for this Alamo, better yet.

Pretty simple-volume, bass, treble, but that's a plus in my opinion; less knobs to fool around with.

This amp sounds good to me. It is quiet with no hum, but it starts to break up well at about 5 or 6. I need some new tubes though, as I get a little squeal, but that should be easy to fix. Overall, a pleasing sound and a very loud amp if you crank it.

So far so good. It's a simple amp so even if there are problems it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

No support here-they don't make amps anymore.

This is a cool amp. Been playing a few years and have tested a lot of amps. This one is good for the price-it's no fender twin reverb, but I didn't pay for one of those. It works well enough.

Probably make in the early 70s as it has a transistor pre-amp unlike the earlier all tube models made in 1966.

I got this amp for free. It was outside of a pawn shop with a sign on it saying "Free Amp". I pulled over and put it in my car so I can't complain about the price. The only thing I have to do is replace the on/off indicator bulb for about $100 to have it working as it did when it was new.

Essentially no features other than volume,treble and bass controls which I don't consider "features" but rather the most basic of essentials.

Amazingly quiet after all of those years. Almost no hum whatsoever but that obviously does not mean this is what you will get.

With the transistor pre-amp, the sound is OK but does not give any special vintage tube tone with the one exception being if you crank it up all the way and get some distortion out of the 7868 power tubes. But it is not always suitable to have turned up that loud.

This amp is yet another practice amp and won't be used in any heavy duty situations or long sessions of recording. So it will probably last

Company no longer makes amps....no support. I don't care though as I could easily fix it myself.

Seeing I got it for free as the pawn shop was giving it away I would care almost zero if it was gone ( I have too cheap amps that I got for free or almost free as it is.)

But seeing that it was made in Texas I will bump up my rating by 1 over what I would if it was made outside of Texas.

Basic amp, as stated before: Tube Combo with 1-15" Jensen, single channel.

I use a cheap Strat copy with a humbucker in the bridge position. Amp sounds good for bluesy stuff. Amp was nosy, but that got fixed with a new capacitor. With a better guitar, i think the amp would sound very good.

I have not used it outside the home. I really just got it running. When I got it at a garage sale (for $4.80!!), it had some tubes missing. I was able to locate two new power tubes (7868) for $25 each. That got it going, but it hummed really bad (OK if you're in B-flat, I guess). I replaced the capacitor for $30 & that took care of the humming problem. Works OK now, but it has an intermittent problem that I still need to fix. When first turned on, it plays but it sounds like it's only working on one tube- distorted with not much power. Then, after a few hits, it works well. I don't know if there's a cold solder joint, dirty tube pin, or bad tube. Any suggestions? Anybody with a schematic? I feel it has life beyond its current 35 years if I can get this problem solved.

I'm mainly a bass player, since 1970. I like to write songs & record at home. Usually I run through a Roland GT-3 into the tape deck, but would like to get this amp running cleran enough to record with.

A simple, simple amp, old single ended circuit, no reverb, no over-drive, just tone and volume, made in Texas in 1966. It has two 7868 power tubes which are something between EL84's and 6L6's, it seems to put out about 25 watts. It's louder than a Blues Jr, or a Delux and has a raunchy tone similar to old tweeds but creamier. It's strong enough to carry it in just about any club. Has a 15" rigid cone speaker.

When I found the amp, had set for three years, I thought, what a great rhythm amp, clean and punchy, but could get no distortion out of it. It has a 9188 preamp driver which apart from being rare and very expensive, is weak. I remember reasing an article on this www about how to bypass a preamp in simple circuits, by taking the middle volume pin's wire and using it as an imput. I did this and connected my Peavey Rockmaster and what a difference. I like it better than tweeds I've had, it's smoother and quieter, and cheaper. I play Strats and Teles and even with SC pickups it is an extreemly quiet amp.

The advantage of a simple circuit is that of owning a VW Beetle; simple. Anyone in the world who knows electronics could repair this one, but those 7868 power tubes, where can I find those in East Whapipi? I truly believe it has the original tubes and speaker, a 15" Jensen.

The company only makes guitars now, still based in San Antonio Texas.

I have been playing for 40 years, Blues, R&B, Rock, I have owned 50 or 60 amps. Dollar for Dollar you cant beat this one.