London City Pro Tube FT-50

I am very sorry to hear that this amp has so poor reliability. This box really doesnot need to be dumped at all.
In fact I opened one completely and found /corrected the following errors and now it it's fine sturdy amp, not any trouble whatsoever anymore!!, and very forgiving when oversteering.
1) The main board: Some parts (grey capacitors were not well soldered, I could move a few pins through and fro through the solder pads.
2) Same for the jacks at the back, I could move them through the solderings. b) bad connection of the link throughs across the jacks.
I replaced all the jacks for gold-plated ones.
3) Replaced input jack, although function was allright. Just in case of- with 2) in mind!

You certainly need to have a lot of skills to do this. If you like come to Zaandam in Holland with your pro=tube and I'll show you how to do the job. A perfect amp like this does not deserve to be used as a trash-bin.
avwijngaarden@wxs.nl

I own a LC pro tube FT 100, a second hand because I traded my basspack for this awesome tube amp.
Price new probably ??? 800.
This amp gives me versatility to play clean and warm and also to make a whole lotta noise, because it has 2 channels,boost and xtra boost option and footswitch. It has also an option to play on 50 watts by 2 EC83 tubes and 100 watts by 4 tubes.
I was used to play loud, but this is a killer amp, what power and stunning sound. I play also fender twin reverb and Vox AC 30. This LC is quit smaller, but has more power in my opinion.

Good for blues, rock and powerrock. The amp stay very clean at high volume. The boost channel is rough distorted. I played it with a jazzmaster (p90 pickups), thinline fender and a strat. Al sounded great and had their own identity.
I tried to play full trottle, but in my studio I could handle the loudness on 100 watts.

The tubes have not been replaced yet but it is not necessary. A look inside the amp shows clean work by the manufacturers (in Scottland) and a nice celestion spreaker.

No comment because of no experience

I only play this LC a short while, but it is really great. In my experience it sounds a bit like a crossover between mesa boogie and marshal jtm. I love the power and the cleannes of sound. What I hate is the weight, but a good tube amp with travo's is allways heavy.

I found my review on this amp was still online since 2000.
Bad news.... Last week the amp broke down after nine years of rock'n'roll.
I wont have it repaired; now it's time for something else...

This amp was built somewhere in te 1990's. It was once reviewed in 'gitarist', a Dutch guitar player magazine. I think this series was built by a Scottish company (don't remember the name) as they tried to bring the name London City back to live. I don't beleive it really worked because I hardly see or hear these amps.
They also built a 100 watt version, with 4 power tubes.
I choose mine (the 50 watt version) because I was planning to use it at home. The store I bought it had a whole bunch of them. I think they were dumped at a low price somewhere. I had to try several, because they were not all working properly.
The amp has 2 channels with seperate eq controls. An effects loop. Built in reverb. Pentode/Triode switch. Two extra boost modes on te lead channel. A 3 way footswitch (which never worked). A stand-by switch. A celestion speaker. Sounds very promising, doesn't it?

I play strat's mainly.
I play in a bluesband as a lead guitarist.
After using this amp at home for a while I decided to try it out in a band situation, instead of my Marshall JMP-1 stack.
I turned up the amp loud and set it on triode to bring down the overall volume. I was surprised by the sound of the clean channel. It breaks up at high volume levels in a nice way. The amp is very 'punchy', which is not always nice.
The overdrive channel sounds good also. I only use the standard overdrive and not the boost options (they sound too compressed). It could use some more in the low end. I had to use an alternative footswitch as the original one never worked. It gives a loud 'plop' when you switch the channels. I turn up the pre volume of the boost channel to about 6. Using the volume on my guitar you can vary from country sounds to rock sounds. For solo playing i throw in my Vox overdive pedal. My guitar really sings by then.
More overall volume can be thrown in by setting the amp to pentode.
Again I cannot play louder than 9, because above that setting the amp clips. I experienced that in a gig lately. I thought it was breaking down.
So overall the amp sounds good, and its nice to have seperate eq controles for both channels. But i have to play it loud!

As I said before, the 3-way footswitch sucks! It never worked. Also a replacement didn't work, and the cable is much too short.
I now use a single footswitch connected though the alternative jack at the back of the amp.
The amp did not really break down yet, but scared the shit out of me when I turned it too loud. I once opened the amp section trying to find out why the footswitch did't work. It didn't make me happy. All the jacks are soldered direct on the mainboard. Impossible to replace. I think servicing the amp won't be easy.

I don't even know the name of the company that built the amp.
I dont think I have any warranty other than the goodwill of my local music store that sold the amp to me.

I've been playing guitar since 27 years.
My other gear is a JMP-1 and a 80*80 watts Marshall valvestate poweramp, run through 2 2*12 inch homebuilt cabinets.
If my London City was stolen or lost I think it won't be easy to find another one (still running properly), and I would try something else (like Peavey Classic?)
I chose this one because of the price, 900 guilders, for a 2 channel tube amp!
It's always nice to own an amp that's not for sale in any store.
I hope it won't let me down too soon.

The London City Pro Tube FT-50 is a 50 Watt Tube Combo with one 12" speaker. I Bought it new in 1995. The main features: 2 channels (clean and overdrive; 3 footswitchable boost settings), reverb, penthode/triode switch, Eff/loop, extended speaker output.

This amp has enough power for a gig in a small club without having to mike it up. I can get a wide range from clean to heavy overdriven sounds out of it, exactly what I need for my style of playing (mostly rock).

I do not use any switch on the amp! I change the sound just by using the volume control on my guitar.

My mostly used guitar is a Gibson LP Studio. For some songs I use a Fender Strat or a Tele. I use the volume control on my guitar for setting the amount of distortion (in the rhythm guitar parts). This works fine with the Gibson (the Strat however gives poor sound with the guitar volume control down). The overdrive channel gives an actual clean sound when I have my guitar's volume control down, because with this amp you can go seamless from clean to overdrive. This is unlike other amps that always overdrive.
The amp includes an extra switchable built-in boost functionality (solid state technology). I personally didn't like them and therefore don't use them. The overdrive sound is very good, the guitar's characeristics are still in there. Although I could use more bass. I had to solve this by using an additional 2 x 12" Marshall speaker cabinet.
Of course the clean channel distorts on (very) high volumes, when the power tubes (EL34) are having a hard time. I'm trying to avoid this situation (for my own good).
The preamp's distortion on the overdrive channel may result in enough sustain for playing a lead solo. However, this requires having the preamp control on "10" and for some kind of reason I don't go further than "6" and use my Boss DS-1 for playing lead. Otherwise I can't get no volume boost needed for playing lead.
The only other effect pedal I use is a chorus.
Note: the reverb is hardly hearable when playing with other musicians

Once I had to run for a backup amp just in front of a gig. Problem: the speaker output jack was short-circuitting when when the speaker cable was plugged in. I almost killed the power tubes and the transformer while tring to get it right. Here it comes: this problem still persist because I can't change the speaker connector because it's hermeticly connected to the main board.
The amps foot switch (some kind of TTL-technology with a very tiny cord with an RJ-connector) broke down after a few months. It sucked anyway, because the amp "muted" while depressing a switch. Perhaps the manufacturer had foreseen this, because the amp featured an additional jack input for a simple on/off footswith that you can build yourself. This way I can still switch channels.
For some kind of reason the extra boost functionality doesn't work anymore. I didn't use it anyway.

I've never had this amp repaired, but I think I will, within a short time. (replacing speaker connector, I can't do it myself) The music shop is gone, I hope the importer is still there.

I play the guitar since 1980, I use this amp since 1995 because I wanted to have a tube amp after using solid state amps in the early years (Roland, Fender). I bought this amp after having it compared with a Fender Twin Reverb (same prize at that time). I've chosen it because of the overdrive sounds that were very poor on the Fender. I think my next amp will be a Marshall top + 4x12 cabinet. (I like to show off but it requires a few guilders more...)