London City DEA 100 MK IV Head

Versatile enough for me! 6 knobs, 4 inputs and 4 outputs. And off course an 230 volts connector. From 1969, pure volume

Great! The Amplifier has got the most purest tone on the planet. Off course it isn't the real thing, no Marshall or so, but the thing rocks like a beast. Because it's so cheap you don't feel bad when you change things in it, like mastervolumes or effects-loops. If you do, you can get a real reliable and pure tone amplifier. Love

Had a broken elco once, but nothing else. But I know it isn't the best constructed thing haha. Not at all... Maybe rebuilt it in the future, replacing the shitty parts and the wooden blocks holding the chassis, but it shure has the woodstock-reliability, yeah!

If you have a time machine... No need for it at all, it isn't a problem

Maybe a little better construction and a feel of savety when you dare to touch the MF. But it rocks, and if you're not scared for a little electricity running trough your body now and then, buy it! People with weak hearts, watch out! hahaha

I don't know when this amp was made, there's no plate that indicate it... probably lost...
Features are similar of a marshall 1959slp head, but you can't expect this DEA100 sounds good too???
I have a ???73 JMP 100w 1959slp and, comparing it, the London city was a children toy.
4 inputs, 2 hi-lo sensitive inputs + 2 bright channels, bass, mid, treble, presence??? no master volume.
I like this simple stuff! It's good for 70's - 80's rock and blues, or for 80???s ??? 90???s rock metal with a good overdrive/distortion pedal.

I bought it almost destroyed: blown power tubes and fuses, died caps, some tears in the tolex, detached transformers from the chassis... A disaster!

Luckly, the amp was equipped with Telefunken ECC83s and the cab contains two pre rola G12H "Heritage" speakers.

Who give me it, says it was built on 1969 and it was stopped for 10 years.

A spring reverb could be 10.

I don't know the original sound of this amp, cause I repaired it and I use good materials (not cheap as the original...), but this amp seems to be a wonderful copy of my Marshall 1959slp.

The marshall is more mid-pronunced and sounds wonderful only when the volume is crancked up to 7.
My London City sounds well also at volume 3, it crunch easiest, have more bass, but isn't dark, or rather has bright better than my JMP.
The presence is very hot, the attack is wonderful (probably due the telefunken nos tubes in the preamp...) and is a heavy rock machine when i plug my ts9 and my les paul in it. Very Hard Rock, from Gary Moore (Soldano) attack in the solos, to the Jimmy Page crunch.
There's no need of "Deep" switches for more bass, it is a beast!

With my ash strat and the ts9, the "SRV" feeling is at the maximum!
Very bright adjusting the presence and the Eq knobs is more, but more effective than the marshalls.

I never heard an amp with more dynamics of this.

Is a true tube amp sounding as a marshall should do.

Ha ha ha, what a joke!!! My DEA100 has been very mistreated before meets me.
When i receive it, I found broken power tubes, a blocked volume knob, detached transformers, detached chassis from the case, broken power cable, blown fuses.. ..without minds to the numerous clips in the box...

Repairing it, I use good caps and some good materials.
Previous reliability was horrible....

I Dismantle it and:

1) Re-do all the poor solders.
2) Change cheap/dead components (first of all, the capacitors)
3) Replace those despicable weak hooks in the transformers (I think it was brass) with 8 strong screws
4) Remove the RIDICOLOUS ANTENNA CABLE FROM THE TRANSFORMER and replace it with good wire.
5) Remove the ridiculous wood piece that keep the chassis attached with the case, replacing with a piece of steel
6) (I don???t know if the original has it, or if it was recently repaired by a monkey, but???) remove the graetz bridge in the rectification stage (usually wired in the batteries power supply???) with good diodes.

I bias 4 new EH EL34 (also if the svetlana SED C was a better choice for this amp), but after 3 months of hard use (volume always at 10) the output transformer gone.

Then I replace it with a Shinrock JMP100 OT and now is sturdy like a tank and I can use it also always with volume at 300.

OK, it's point-to-point handwired, but I don't know why the amp-maker saves few bucks in the material, to make a good project awful.
It seems the modern marshall reissues.

It seems the maker close up in the 1971....

If you find it at low, low price, buy it and remind to apply the same reparations that I do.

If you are not able to repair / mod it, keep you ready to spend a lot of money from a technician.

However, only replacing the caps (with 20 dollars for all) you have a wonderful sound through it, never heard in any amp before!

My personal Dea100 now has no price for it's sound and reliability.

simple.

This is power, I have a original one from `69 + a 4x12 celestion cab.
With my Strat its realy amazing vintage vibe, close the eyes and go where the voodoo chile is waiting......
My Paula sounds like a bulldozer that is chrashing down the house...from page to zakk wylde....
The Prs...no comment...but sometimes I mind to leave my wive for that ;-)
I have some stompboxes from maxon, fulltone, boss, dunlop and roger mayer and its real great just in the front...once I try to overdrive the amp by its own, but the walls were shaking, so I better stoped it...you need no bass or presence but a lot midds and some highs to feel what thats like. great. Also ther was a time I was playing guitar over chanel 1 and singing over ch. 2...it works.
I dont play gigs or studio jobs with that, because I have a Mesa Roadking for that. The London city tower standing in the band practise room forever....

I have changed the tubes 5-7 times, and must repair the elko once.
But toured and giged alot with this amp...and It never leave me.
So when you know where this amp come from and you compare it to the "standarts" we have today....20 points !!

Well, i hear that the company is reborn in 2005.
But Im not interrested and have no need for them !!

I play since 40 years and Im coming from that Hendrix, Aerosmith, Black sabbath school...I have played 25 years as pro with some favorite, great guys out there and had a lot equipment in my hands...the most was fake blenders and just cool, stylish s***, not more.
A musican knows wher the real sounds come from, the soul, heart and fingers thats all !!
The London City is just a true, hard working and good sounding Amp.
But sure you can spend 3000 for a Mars****, but why ??

simple.

This is power, I have a original one from `69 + a 4x12 celestion cab.
With my Strat its realy amazing vintage vibe, close the eyes and go where the voodoo chile is waiting......
My Paula sounds like a bulldozer that is chrashing down the house...from page to zakk wylde....
The Prs...no comment...but sometimes I mind to leave my wive for that ;-)
I have some stompboxes from maxon, fulltone, boss, dunlop and roger mayer and its real great just in the front...once I try to overdrive the amp by its own, but the walls were shaking, so I better stoped it...you need no bass or presence but a lot midds and some highs to feel what thats like. great. Also ther was a time I was playing guitar over chanel 1 and singing over ch. 2...it works.
I dont play gigs or studio jobs with that, because I have a Mesa Roadking for that. The London city tower standing in the band practise room forever....

I have changed the tubes 5-7 times, and must repair the elko once.
But toured and giged alot with this amp...and It never leave me.
So when you know where this amp come from and you compare it to the "standarts" we have today....20 points !!

Well, i hear that the company is reborn in 2005.
But Im not interrested and have no need for them !!

I play since 40 years and Im coming from that Hendrix, Aerosmith, Black sabbath school...I have played 25 years as pro with some favorite, great guys out there and had a lot equipment in my hands...the most was fake blenders and just cool, stylish s***, not more.
A musican knows wher the real sounds come from, the soul, heart and fingers thats all !!
The London City is just a true, hard working and good sounding Amp.
But sure you can spend 3000 for a Mars****, but why ??

1969 2 channel 100 watt full-tube amplifier from holland (where I live) with treb/mid/bass/presence, 4 guitar inputs, 4 cab outputs (2x 8 Ohm, 2x 16 Ohm)... both channels share equalizer.

All I need for my music, butt high gain/jazz people might just think it hasn't got enought features.

I have the amp now for half a year, doing about 2 or 3 shows a month, it always has enough power (what else do you expect from 100 watts valve power). My set-up isn't the way I want it to be, the amp drives a huge Peavey 4x12" cab, with speakers that aren't the best(of course) and 2 aren't original, with nothing written on. I use an Epiphone LP standard and a Vantage hollowbody, but I'm going to buy a Gibson SG. I use a Tubescreamer, but I like the Carl Martin Hot Drive'n Boost more on it. My Dunlop JH-1 Wah is just perfect for the amp, and a danelectro tune-o-matic does nothing for the sound of course

In my band we play pure high voltage rock'n'roll, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Datsuns, The Mooney Suzuki, Deep Purple, El Guapo Stuntteam and lot of blues artists are the keywords to our music(written by us),

I love to crank it up till 10, but most of the time, on stage, I just put it on 5 to keep my band together (we had a few fights about the volume of the beast). Our other guitarist uses a 40 watt fender blues deluxe with one 12" speaker, but that's no competition. then again I like mine better 'cause that fender screams and cries like a skinny pig while mine growls an farks like an oversized harley chopper with t.n.t. in its arse.

But a little too bassy, my settings are:
bass: 4
mid: 4
treble: 7
Presence: 9

and the tubescreamers tone-knob at midnight

Tubes are the problem, I once had problems with the amp, one elco was broken, so I had it replaced together with a weak preamp tube. It is quit a solid construction altough it was made out of cheaper parts than the original marshall design.

A friend of mine has one too, it felt 2 meters down from a stage and it still worked when they hooked it up for thesame show.

The company doesn't exist any more, the amp is from 1969 and half of the parts has once been replaced (all tubes, all elco's, one transformer, 2 knobs and a lot of wiring).

So I never dealt with them, they're dead I guess

Love the thing, I am just 15 but playing since I was 8 or 7 years old, I know what sound I like and this amp just makes me smile whenever thinking about it/playing it/hearing it.

This amp is made in 1969.
I play rock, hard/rock like AC/DC etc....
This amp have 4 channels only clean, but every channel has a different sound.
This amp can't be used in your bedroom, this thing is for the hardwork.
The only thing what is -, It has no distortion channel.
But with a good pedal is this problem fixt.

I use a Epiphone sg. This guitar makes de sound perfect.
The sound is warm.
It has no distortion, but with pedals it sounds perfect.
This thing is my god, it's hot and I like it

it is good voor gig's, because he is going hard. very hard.
When the volume is on 3/4 my bandmates walks away (mad).
This thing is strong and heavy. 25 kg.

I bought it secondhand.
This thing is a 35 year old thing (a oldtimer), but it will be going on for more, more years.
This thing is goddish, if you can buy it, DO IT!!!

My London City was made in 1969 and the London City cab i think it't from 69 to to.
The only thing that is a little odd is that there is no distortion channel but with the right pedals it sounds really great (only a clean channel). It's my first full tube amp and i'm happy with it.
It certainly has enough power to blow you 20 miles away if you turn up the volume.

The sound is really the best there is I think. It sounds really warm, bluesy, and nice if you use the first input. If you use the second it sounds a little bit higher what makes it more suitable for funky stuff.

This amp must be good because it lives already for +/- 35 years.
If it's broken it's easy to fix because there are no printplates in it. only wires.

The manufacturer is like the other one said, maybe dead!

Customer support??

i've been playing for 2 years so i'm not a pro but i definitly know what sound i want and with the London city i have it!

Made in 1970's
1959/bassman copy
Circuit is different in a few aspects. This particular head seems to be assembled as a 50/70W version with 1 pair of EL34's. Input impedance on bright channel was so wrong it was increadibly noisy with nothing connected.
Other minor differences included bassman style bypass caps on the phase invertor, a different bias circuit and... TV coax cable used on the output!!??!?!??!??!!! Not to mention that the choke was wired wrong. I was told that London City amps vary incredibly depending on what parts were being sold cheap or they had spare and the construction seems to agree with this.
Materials are very inferior to Marshalls of the same vintage and workmanship is pretty poor.
That being said, it's a great amp if you want to spend some time taking it down a 1959 road with a bit of care and loving and if you're out to try a couple of mods, you'll be improving the value of the amp.
Same features as a 1959 Marshall but implemented badly.

Stock it sounds OK. A little bassy and that seems to destroy the overdrive capabilities and the handling of even slightly complex chords. The bright channel is just simply too noisy until you chance the input impedance...
With a little tender care it can sound great (10) though... which is a shame...

This one I got relatively cheap after it fried a few components. The story goes that someone got pissed off with their neighbour using it for stacks of feedback in the middle of the night...
Still, looking at the innards, it won't blow up in your face too readily but well made it's not...
The box is made eof chipboard and... wooden blocks and wood screws "secure" the chassis to the case... Cheap???

Um really? 1970's amp?

I'd look around for these if you want to have a Marshall on the cheap AND you're prepared to do a bit of dangerous electronics. Otherwise, the amp really has little value in it's stock condition. Really how a valve amp shouldn't sound...