Lectrolab Re-Issue R600C

I ordered this amp from Jim Benedict in October 10,2006 with tremelo,reverb and power attenuator options.It was to be a 2-el84 tube rectified version of the original plus the features I just mentioned.I ordered it without speaker and without cabinet tolex/finish as I was going to supply my own speaker and finish the cabinet myself.Jim seemed very nice over the phone and concerns that I had reguarding quality were put to rest as he seemed like a decent and knowledgable guy.He explained that some past customers complained about quality issues such as plastic input jacks.He also explained that he utilized those over grounding issues and I was fine with that.What the hell,for $504 I wasn't going to complain about plastic jacks or a bad finish as I was going to finish the amp myself and switch out any parts I so chose.I was getting exactly what I wanted,an el84-equipted/tube rectified/cathode biased amp with a great reputaion with tremelo and reverb in a pine box hand wired no less for $504!!!All I had to do was finish the cab and supply the nice Red Fang I had just splurged for...Finally a great amp *within* my budget that does and was EVERYTHING I wanted it to be!

Ok Mr Benedict here goes ....

JIM,how can I rate the amp that you never sent me??????????????????????
You never so much as responded to my MULTIPLE emails OR my LETTER,all written mind you in the most diplomatic of fashions,free of scorn and complaint...without demands,pressure or judgement.I've been SO much more than patient and polite to you JIM.I know you had problems,join the club Jim.At least step up to the plate and admit that you screwed up and that you'll at least try to fix this mess of yours.NOPE, you didn't so much as even acknowledge me ...NO TOKEN EFFORT OF ANY KIND FROM YOU AT ALL....NOTHING!!!!

I heard bad things about these amps *after* I had foolishly sent him a money order for $504 bucks.EVEN STILL I was willing to fix it myself because I was still excited to recieve an amp,working correctly or not,that offered the exact features I wanted.Yeah,right.

Ok Jim,I'm righteous to put a number on you here seeing as you ripped me off.Even still I left the dialogue OPEN with absolute understanding of your situation and civility.Jim opted for the path of *no* resistance because though there wasn't any resistance from me at all.Nice ...

OK,here's the kicker.Although I've never cried poor mouth,I'm going to break with that just once here...I had to sell stuff off to pay for that amp Jim,namely my Tophat Vibratrem.I didn't have to make room amongst my Matchless and Victoria amps because I never owned them!I'm not an accountant who collects toys like Harleys and vintage amps.I'm a musician and a technician Jim.I'm an *afford one good amp* kinda guy,ya know???Basically you REALLY screwed me here.The other people who purchased from you and recieved a broken amp or nothing at all opted to push you into releasing the money they paid you,not me though.In the letter I sent you I told you that I'd *still* go with the amp since YOU MUST STILL HAVE THE PARTS AT LEAST.I civilly requested that you simply reply and acknowledge so that we could work together on this.Thanks so much Mr Benedict for the lesson.

This amp was made by JB Amps, a small shop in Michigan. It is equipped with a forgettable Tremelo, Reverb that doesn't get enough signal to do much of anything, and a 'Power Brake' that cuts output for practice situations. Two EL84's with ample power for most situations, although not much in the way of versatility.

The amplifier itself is fairly low-noise, not a lot of hiss through the 12" Italian Jensen reissue. I tried a number of instruments through it, with the most pleasing combination being an acoustic Jumbo Bass. Not much character using Fenders, not so bad with P-90's, quasi-Vox tone with a brittle presence. Poorly-functioning features limit flexibility.

I would not depend on this amp, mainly because it had problems out of the box with one of the preamp tubes, causing low output. I haven't seen many amps that arrived with a burnt-out tube, but this one did. Some features also were not very well developed, I believe the reverb was a modern addition onto the old design. It would take a lot of practice hours before I trusted it not to fail in some way or another. Maker states these were made to 1950's specs, which isn't always a good thing in the reliability department.

Very friendly and seemingly knowledgable builder, bent over backwards to try and make improvements to the amp. Ultimately mine was sent back for refund, as maker was unable to make it work as advertised. Unfortunately it appears that JB Amps must have gone under within weeks of initial shipments, I did not receive a refund and lines of communication disappeared. Lost my money to a failed enterprise. Stated warranty of two years, but company has to survive that long for it to mean anything. Probably easy for any tech worth his salt to work on.

I've been playing 32 years and have a number of vintage amps, a Blackface Deluxe Reverb being my amp of choice. If this were stolen (which it was in a way), I wouldn't sweat it. There are lots of other medium-priced amps that work dependably out of the box. I would compare it to something along the likes of a Vox Cambridge. Except that the Rev & Trem actually work/sound OK on the Vox.

purchased on eBay. I originally purchased the 400 model, but through conversations with the builder decided this model would suit my needs better. So I switched to the 600 and added reverb and tremelo, foot switch operated. I was told it would ship by the end of the next week, it took 51 days from the end of the auction for it to arrive. It was horribly packed. It was falling apart, with screws that came loose lying in the bottom of the box. They were supposed to hold the chassis in the cabinet, yet they were only about 3/8" long and tiny. The cabinet was a joke. It looked like a 9th grade shop project from a class of kids with 'special needs'. No offense to you 9th graders out there in SonicLand. Well, I didn't buy it to look at it, and I do have screwdrivers and screws, so I took it in the music room to see what it was all about ~~~

An amp like this will last forever, trust me. 'Cause you will NEVER want to play it. It was absolutely horrible. Not a clean sound to be had at all. The reverb didn't really work, but it did give the awful sound of the amp a 'different' awful sound, so I guess you could say it functioned. It hust didn't sound anything like reverb that I have heard in 44 years of playing electric. The tremelo on the slowest speed just raced, totally unusable

Like I said, it should last forever. And you'll also have a supply of tiny little screws on hand at all times - COOL !

I was actually able to get my money back from a rather indignant seller/builder. Unfortunately, as I have been in touch with many others who ordered these what seemed to good to be true amps, I lucky. There are a lot of guys out there who returned amps for a refund and got nothing. Now their attempts to reach the seller are going unanswered. Worse yet, there are even more people who sent tha $ and have waited months and gotten nothing at all, just a runaround.

I didn't expect the world, just a simple little tube amp. I did get to meet a bunch of nice guys online, all linked together by having dealt with someone who appears to be a thief. I wish them all well in their pursuit of their stolen hard earned money.

The main features of this amp are Junior High shop class build quaility and a con artist builder. Single channel, single volume, single tone, footswitchable reverb and tremolo(he didn't include footswitch I paid for), 1/2 power switch. 1x12" cabinet with one thin coat of watered down paint and back panels that stick out 3/16" from being flush.

Sounds like what it is. A poorly laid out and poorly built piece of crap. Hard for me to tell exactly how it would sound by itself as the internal speaker doesn't function without a speaker plugged into the extention speaker jack. Neat trick. My extention cab is a 4x10" Bogner loaded with Kendrick speakers. It's not the extention cabs fault that this thing sounds like poo. I understand what "good" sounding cheap-o amps sound like having spent alot of time with Supros and Gretsch amps. They are voiced funky but still have a charming responsiveness and personallity to them. This amp has neither charm nor personality to it.

This amp was defective out of the box (see sound description). Builder said he would refund but has now won't return phone calls or emails. The circuit looks to be build from the cheapest Radio Shack parts and the layout is just a freakin' mess. Truely horrible. I wouldn't trust this amp to not burn my house down.

This is the worst part. Jim Benedict will give you a lecture on build quality and sonics and how his family has been in the buisness of supplying millitary grade electronics for years and post an ebay ad comparing this amp to Matchless and Victoria and the like. I was not expecting Matchless quality for $500 but I was expecting a functioning amp. Not what I got. Also didn't get the footswitch I paid for. Jim claimed he would refund my money by sending out a money order for my purchase price along with return shipping. That would be the right thing to do. It has now been over three weeks and no money order. Jim is not answering his phone and not returning emails. He has privatized his Ebay feedback so you can't read peoples feedback statements, just the negative/neutral/positive rating. Surprize surprize, he has two negatives this week along with a neutral from someone who luckily canceled their transaction after Jim tried to increase the delivery time from 4 weeks to 6 weeks (I coresponded with this other member before Jim shut his account down). At least this means this con artist won't be able to sell on ebay any more.

I've been playing for 20 plus years and doing tube amp repairs for my self for 8 years and for hire for 4 years. I know amps and how to judge build and component quality. My other amps are a 1964 Princeton Reverb, a blackfaced 1980 Deluxe Reverb, a Budda Twinmaster, and a Allied Radio Knight tube PA head I converted to a tweed bassman. I was looking for an amp that would do that funky Valco thing but with new manufacture quality/reliability without having to build it myself. This amp is not it. And Jim Benedict is a slimey character unless he crawls out of his hole and stands behind the piece of crap he put out into the world.

This is a brand new and updated version of an original Lectrolab amp. 20 watts, point to point wired, all-tube design (2 EL84's, 2 12AX7's, 1 12AT7, 1 5AR4/G) with a 12" Jensen speaker. There are controls for volume, tone and reverb, plus three inputs (low to high)and a speaker output. There are other configurations and an optional extension speaker available. That's it! Pure and simple tube tone. I play mostly Blues and Roots style music and this amp is used mainly for recording. If I was going to gig with it, I would probably opt for the extension speaker cab because the amp might not be loud enough for some situations. The cabinet is OK, but I'd be extra careful if I was gigging with it due to the less than heavy duty construction.

The main feature of this amp is pure tube tone and here it delivers in spades. Harmonically rich and musical tones abound, and you can get a wide variety of sounds with only the volume and tone controls on your guitar. The reverb is weak. If I was going to get another Lectrolab, I'd probably skip the reverb option and use a pedal because this thing loves pedals! A good boost or overdrive will push this baby into sonic bliss, and it responds well to wah's, delays, phasers, and whatever else you might throw at it. It can get a bit noisy with effects and/or single coil pickups. I'm using a Nashville Tele and a Tele Special, plus a Kay Catalina (for slide) and all sound great. Did I mention that this is a killer amp for slide? I love the sounds, but I'll deduct one point for the noise.

The point to point wiring on this amp insures reliability, and the quality of the work combined with the basic simplicity lead me to believe that I can depend on it. When I got the amp, however, there were a couple of loose screws which required me to remove the chassis to tighten. Either they weren't tightened properly or they became loose during shipping. The latter is more likely as the packing was not that great. Fortunately, everything worked. I expect to have to change out tubes down the road, but replacements should be fairly easy to find.

Jim seems to be a very knowledgeable and friendly guy. There was, however, a much longer wait time for the amp than originally promised. There were legitimate delays due to some build issues and higher than expected demand for the amps, and to his credit, Jim tried to keep me informed of the progess. There is a 2 year guarantee on the amp, but I doubt I'll need it.

I've been playing rock, blues and R&B for over thirty years, mostly in small to meduim clubs and venues. I also own a Carr Rambler amp that is my main amp for gigging (great amp) and a Roland Blues Cube (one of the best solid state amps I've ever heard). Other guitars include a Reverend Slingshot with P-90's, a Daion Savage, a Harmony Stratotone and a Galveston Resonator. I bought this amp on a whim, and the price was certainly right. While it is pretty well made and has a great tone, it doesn't hold a candle to the Carr in terms of sonics and workmanship. Not that I would expect it to, considering the Carr cost 5 times as much. Overall, a nifty little amp that I would purchase again and an outstanding value.