Alamo Futura

This amp was most likely made in the late 60thes early 70thes. Because it has the black Face panel. Earlier versions had the silver panel and were all tube. It looks like the size of a Fender Pro reverb but has a narrower cabinet and is black and sports a pepper & salt color grill cloth and the name Logo is in cursive in silver outlined in black slanted like Fender,s Logo. It is lighter in weight then a Fender Pro. This version is part solid state tremolo and part tube reverb. The power tubes are two 7868 tubes with a solid state drive. (7868 tubes were used in old Fisher stereo record players and were famous for being very clean. How many of us here remember that or even owned one? ) It is the same set up as a Fender Pro, reverb minus the presences control and later, master volumes. So no presence or master volumes on these but, it has two channels and four inputs for the lows and highs set up just like the Fender. Channel two is just like Fender controls with reverb and tremolo and channel one just Vol, treble ,bass. This like the early Fender's is a great easy amp. It's just one of those amps that doesn't need a lot of bell and whistles. So yes it is very limited but in a good way. A great one or two trick pony. Very cool sounds based on how you use the controls with or without the reverb.
It has about 35 watts output which is more then enough for most venues and clubs. And the 7868 tubes keep it pretty clean sounding way up the volume without crappy over dive harshness. But it's here where Alamo shines out for being one of the first " Hybrid amp" ever made back then that actually sounds very good.

This Alamo Futura reverb comes with two 12 inch CTS speakers that are almico and sound fine in this thing. It also response well to other speakers if you wish to change them. A good match would be to leave one CTS in and put a 30 to 40 watt 16 ohm ceramic speaker with it. ( The CTS's are 16 ohms in this)
So far it's sound quality is very good with Kimmans pick ups and Fenders noiseless as well as with Fenders humming single coils. Given these pick ups means that humbuckers and P 90's should sound good too even though I haven't tried any of them yet in this Alamo Amp. Now the sound of this amp is incredible if you connect the two channels with a patch chord. It's pretty good on single channel but connecting both channels together--- it's just really great. Just plug your guitar in the first or second channel and fiddle around with patching the high and low inputs together (Now you can use all the controls from channel one and two ) and find the settings you like. Take notes on this because, there are at least 4 great tones based on how you set the controls and type of guitar pickup(s)you use. Those 7868's really sing if you take your time to find settings. Alamo used the 7868s power tubes to drive the amp with the solid state acting as the power output power. Which means even though it's part solid state, the power tubes including the 12ax7 which shares the reverb tone as well are all together driving the majority of the tone. And there is a rectifier tube too which I think also helps the tone too. This amp has the cleans of Steve Miller, SRV, Tom Petty, Early Beatles, Stones, Dire Straits, the Eagles and even The Hollies ,especially the reverb for songs like Long cool Women in a Black dress which Fenders can't even touch! Let's not forget Rockabilly as well as some rock jazz depending on how you set the controls and what delay pedal you use. Of course it goes to say without question it's a great blues amp. Hybrid Amps today use solid state not tubes to push the power out and use 12ax7's as the drive. The difference is a clearer tube tone is produced in the Alamo amp because the power tubes are at the beginning running through the solid state and the later designs of other Hybrid amps produce more over drive and saturation with the solid state as the power souce being pushed through the 12ax7's which many kid's seem to like but, I prefer the clearer tone so I can use my favorite stomp boxes ( which also sound great out of this amp )for versatility then the few settings a modern hybrid amp gives for a drive tone.
So the tone in this amp is great. It is not hard to dial in a good tone plus, the treble sports a pull out control for more treble at lower volumes if you need it. At louder volumes it just doesn't response as well but the amp is a lot more dynamic at maxed out volume and the treble can be brought out by cutting the bass down.
The Reverb which is run in part by a 12ax7 and part solid state can be set way up to bathroom loud hall type madness. Yes, it can have way too much Dick Dale in it. More like surf up in a tsunami when it's turned all the way up. But if you set it at 1 to 2 even 3 it sounds great with just the right touch for a great sound backing reverb tone.
The tremolo is all solid state and can be choppy but it will at lease do the Spaghetti western tone. Mine still has the two prong chord and the ground polarity switch. I plan to keep it this way because it looks like it's new and the amp sounds great. I am from the old school and know how to check it for ground on stage.

When I brought it it has noises and static sounds in it. But a trip to my amp tech solve the problems. I have other Alamo amps. I collect them. Some are near 60 years old that had been recapped and tube changes and have had no trouble at all. Just the minor tube change. And these Alamo's don't need to be bias or have balanced power tubes. For instance you can use two different brands as long as they are the same power tube. That's what is cool about class A amps.
They need less maintenance then the AB type amps. As far as reliability goes...hey this amp is well over 40 years old. Even if I had to have some repairs made to it you have to consider it was still working even though poorly when I got it. It 's all point to point wiring and, that type of wiring holds up better in very long time periods like decades then the modern circuit boards made today which can have problem in 5 years or less!

Well everyone died at the Alamo.....well maybe some one is still alive from this great little old Texas Company but of course are in no position to help.... But any old timer amp techs should be able to understand these amps with no problem.

Well if you can't afford that old Fender amp you wanted...this should suffice nicely for a cost far way below a Fender deluxe or pro reverb.
You can fine this amp still as low as 200 or as high as 500. It is a fine buy in today vintage market. You can't go wrong here, a vintage Alamo amp given a little tender love and care can provide you with another decade or more of live gigging performances of sound and quality and not even break your back transporting it around.
For the most part the Alamo futura reverb model 2567 is a helluva deal.
I been playing for over 40 years and I love this amp as well as my other Alamo amps. If it was stolen from me I would be very upset and report it stolen to the police and try to find it or buy another one. But do what I do...take the serial number down and put it some where safe and open the amp up and write your name on the inside of the chassis panel. ( that's proof enough for the police if the numbers are wiped off) This amp can be compared to higher boutique amps and classic amps. It may not be the top of the line but,it is not that far off the mark of expensive class tone. It still can be found at bargain prices but I don't think that's gonna last too long....To me there is really nothing to hate about it. But I am old school.
If you like playing blues and rock before it got all over driven and distorted with the new modern hybrid amps, then get this Amp. If you like old school silver face Fender tone (That is before CBS messed it up but redid it in the late 60thes)..Get this amp...it's close enough to that tone and way cheaper to buy then a classic Fender or boutique amp. Keep pickin and rockin....

I believe this amp was made in the mid-late 60's. 1-12" Jensen Alnico spkr. 5
AX7's, 2 6V6's and a 5Y3 plus a couple of rectifiers. 4 inputs. 2 clean volume and tone knobs, 1 with volume, reverb and the sweetest tremelo w/ speed and intensity knobs. (Think Pops Staples.) Reverb foot switch jack. Never used it.

I just found this online at: http://www.vintageguitar.com/brands/details.asp?ID=89

"New names in the ?65 combo line included the No. 2567, now called the Futura, with reverb and tremolo. This had eight tubes, four inputs, two channels ? one with reverb and tremolo, volume, tone, 12" speaker, 15 watts, and a price of $199.50." Jim Lansing speaker option quite a bit extra.

Play mostly blues, groove oriented stuff, some lap steel. Great for those tones. Good dirt and as I said gorgeous tremelo.

This amp had problems when I bought it. After replacing capacitors, tubes, etc., it still starts crackling and making a ton of noise whenever, and I end up having to do $100 worth of work to it every time I use it for recording. (fortunatey not that often.)

Amazingly loud for such low wattage, enough for small gigs.

Use with various Strats, old Silvertone hollowbody and vintage Dan Electro Convertible. Moderately quiet until the noise starts. Then cuts in and out. Been repaired several times by several "experts" and after a few months it gets noisey again. Yes, the clean channel distorts great at high volumes:>) but it's very sweet.

This amp has never worked reliably... see above. But I can't part with it because nobody makes a tremelo like this. It's an amplitude variable tremelo like the Magnatone.

n/a since Alamo is long gone.

Playing 35 yrs. Other amp is Semour Duncan 50-40 or something. Great AC 30 sound, and so clean I use it for acoustic gigs. Also Peavy Classic 30

Probably wouldn't seek this out again, but I'm a sucker for old Magnatone's, etc. And it probably compares to that in reliability.

I believe this amp was made in the mid-late 60's. 1-12" Jensen Alnico spkr. 5
AX7's, 2 6V6's and a 5Y3 plus a couple of rectifiers. 4 inputs. 2 clean volume and tone knobs, 1 with volume, reverb and the sweetest tremelo w/ speed and intensity knobs. (Think Pops Staples.) Reverb foot switch jack. Never used it.

Play mostly blues, groove oriented stuff, some lap steel. Great for those tones. Good dirt and as I said gorgeous tremelo.

This amp had problems when I bought it. After replacing capacitors, tubes, etc., it still starts crackling and making a ton of noise whenever, and I end up having to do $100 worth of work to it every time I use it for recording. (fortunatey not that often.)

Amazingly loud for such low wattage, enough for small gigs.

Use with various Strats, old Silvertone hollowbody and vintage Dan Electro Convertible. Moderately quiet until the noise starts. Then cuts in and out. Been repaired several times by several "experts" and after a few months it gets noisey again. Yes, the clean channel distorts great at high volumes:>) but it's very sweet.

This amp has never worked reliably... see above. But I can't part with it because nobody makes a tremelo like this.

n/a since Alamo is long gone.

Playing 35 yrs. Other amp is Semour Duncan 50-40 or something. Great AC 30 sound, and so clean I use it for acoustic gigs. Also Peavy Classic 30

Probably wouldn't seek this out again, but I'm a sucker for old Magnavox's, etc. And it probably compares to that in reliability.

don't know the year exactly 71-74? it has the same controls as the fender deluxe reverb. has a push pull switch on the vibrodo channel. it has 2 12 inch speakers that i had to replace due to i found this amp in the old high school band room and had years of neglect. has 3 tubes. 2 7868's and the standard pre amp tube.

this is a pure blues amplifer. i play many types of guitars, strats tele's and pauls. my 52 tele sounds super fantastic. the les paul custom gives it that super dude tube distortion sound your looking for. on the other hand, if i plug in my boss distortion pedal something wrong happens. it sounds like poo for all my guitars. i like to play heavy metal once in a while. plus its a loud amp yet a little hard to manage like the fender hot rod deville like i previously had.

i recieved it broken. short in the wiring but like i said it was badly neglected. it had a 2 inch whole in one of the speakers. i added two emenince speakers and its much better. i had it professionally fixed so now its a prime amp again.

the company is long gone. luckly its not too hard to work on for me or a pro.

i've been playing for years. i've had a twin reverb, deluxe reverb, and a few solid states. it blows the solid states away but almost hits the fender mark. since it was given to me, i can't complain(i lost the other two amps in a devorce). now that is restored i'm not sure if i want to sell it due to i love playing heavy distorted heavy metal, but i will give it a while. its not that bad of an amp. the fender products just spoiled me:) if you come across one of these and the price is right, get it. its not super but it is fun.

tube amp two 6v6s,solid state rectiffire, two chanels 4 , 2 tone controlls inputs,trem/rev, footswitch,12"cst speaker,about 12watts,this amp has been good for me,have done some tube and cap changes,with different affects on sound.wish it had better tone eq. but some things you just can't get.it dose have a speaker out let jack for ext/speaker.

i have played ,stat's les paul,lotus,fender bullet,tel's thru this amp.start seem best suited for this amp.rick 325 sounds good to,i try to play blues,amp sounds good with brown base ge 6v6s in it.it's clean all the way up till it's dimed.with nos ge6v6gta's in it it breaks up early abuot 5 or 6 on vol.and breaks up all the way till dimed with out much increase in volume.this is not a shread amp ,not a fender or a vox.it dose with a little coasting put out a usable bluse tone,loud enough for you to get a devorice over.i like the way it sounds ,almost a delux sound in clean mod. reverb goes from good to deep hall and then some.tremolo can be slowed way down .it has a wide range of sound's .ccr to kenny wayen sound? any way it aint heavey about 20pounds.and you could do way worst.a seven only because it could have had better tone set up and overdrive chanel would have helped.

i have depened on this baby for years,and will for may years to come.

no way to tell

this amp is not perfect,i'd like to see what it sounds like with silver bell weber installed.i've been try'n to play about 30 years or so,and i have had many amps thru the years.for blues i think you can't go wrong with one of these babys, sence teeds have had such a increase i price over the last 10 years or so. with a little tweaking this amp can make music like any of it's high priced ,over rated counter parts in teed.i buy all i can find.

Versatile? Uh, Alamo was a little amp manufacturer circa mid 60's until early 70's in San Antonio Texas. This particular tube amp has two 6V6 output tubes for a total output power of about 30 wrms. The pos speaker it came with died a long time ago and I replaced it with a 12" celestion in its open-backed cabinet. I also used it for bass, not guitar. This amp is good for one sound only, the sound of a highly over-driven Marshall bass amp at a MUCH lower volume level then the original. Very little low bass, like all other tube amps. But the nastiest mid-range you've ever heard - I can do Tony Iommi lead and Geezer bass (Black Sabbath) with just a bass and a EH Big Muff Pi (american)... Gets loud too, especially when driven by a Bigg Muff. I have used this amp playing bass with bands and also solo loop machine work, all on stage. I have also played it in competition with modern amps and I could still hear it.

Major fuzz bass w/feedback

I have depended on it every time I turned it on for the last 14+ years, but I think I finally belw it abiut 3 months ago - it could have been the filter caps and it could have been the tubes - guess it is time to find out eh?

Yeah right. What company? What is a warranty? You been gone since 1975 right?

Good srevice for the last 14 years including a bunch of loud gigs...