Pignose 60 R Studio Reverb 112 Combo

Killer little Solid State that has Boogie tendencies. The 60R was made in late 78-79, the 30/60's were the 1st version w/no reverb and came in combo or head versions. Later, the 150 Crossmix built by Rivera. All of these are a/c solid state amps. Preamp vol., treb-mid-bass, master vol., reverb, 2 inputs, 1 line level out, mono send and return loop, 12" Eminence. Finicky w/effects, due to being s/s. 60w of solid state isnt the same output volume as 60w of tube amp. Still, loud enough. Took it along for many gigs, bands, rehearsals, train rides, car, rooftops, auditoriums.. by itself, miked, line out to the board, etc. No tubes, no batteries.
This little bacon burner has a secret that transforms it into a warm tube-toned monster that sings, sizzles and squeals with tones similar to your favorite soloists. A unique tone that can handle Fusion to Metal. More on this later.
One channel, when set dirty, roll your guitar vol knob way back to clean up. Due to only one channel, no ext. speaker jack and no footswitch, gotta rate 8.

All knobs go clockwise from 7oclock (0) to 5oclock (10). The preamp vol controls the drive, from 7-1 is kinda jazzy fender, then starts to dirty up to a marshall by 2-3. From there, 3 to 5oclock is pure gain. I use the most powerful humbuckers known to us guitar dudes (Duncan Invader, Tom Anderson H3, Bill Lawrence, Gibson Dirty Fingers) love those ceramics! And for this amp, high output p'up makes all the difference in having it perform and REACT like a tube amp. But the tone secret is in the eq and the loop.
Ready?
Ah. Smell that? Grillin up a 20lb Bacon Cheeseburger. Here's the secret recipe for this amps solid state chunk. The treble and Mid gotta be almost dimed, and the Bass has to be around 12 noon (this bass control is too farty). NOW, you must use an EQ of some sort in the loop. Must! (I use a vintage MXR 10 band graphic eq). Use your tone shaping skills to help out bringing up some CLEAR bass and desireable mids and highs. Wow. I thought I had it sounding incredible, then I added BBE after EQ in the loop to get more bottom. Christ on a Bike!! To hell with marshall, or any tube amp! Holy transformation Batman. It's truly unique!I have a friend that his jaw just drops when he hears me play through this thing. Tells his buddies of how great my tone is. Maybe I am the only one that has discovered this? Tube tone with no tubes? Built in the 70's? Nobody cared then, because marshalls were cheap and everywhere. I needed a quieter portable unit for jazz band in High School. This did the trick, and more.
Once I ran line out into my friend's JC120 with a touch of it's chorus,...Dang. It was killer. And that was before the EQ and BBE days! Now it sounds like that on it's own.
With this amp, no tube gremlins. Sounds the same everyday!
Also, it so happens to be super quiet.

This thing has been there for me for 30 years. Cranked it often! On top of being a guitar amp, its been a p.a., seat, doorstop, takes the abuse. Over the past 30 years, been fixed 3 or 4 times (thank you, Richie). Not bad, considering most tube amps have regular stops in the shop. Also try sending YOUR tube amp down the same flight of stairs like THIS little thing did! I turned it on and plugged in right afterwards, no prob.
Tubes? Ain't happenin'!

Howard Chatt is great and knowledgeable cool dude. I call him about 1x every year to ask a dumb question and he is glad to help. He knows me as "the guy from Long Island with the 60R". Back when Pignose didnt seem to be building anything in the early 90's, I'd call him to suggest they reissue this amp with my added 'secrets' incorporated in the design, but to no avail. Then, 10 years later they now make TUBE amps! Figure that one out... I hear they're great amps. Howard, I got the 60R schematic, thank you.

I have been playing for 31 years, since 11. I currently own 2 Pignose 60R Combos (1 in rare Black Tolex), 1 30/60 Head, Hafler/Bogner Triplegiant 7 tube preamp, ART SGX 2000 Express w/x15 controller, Boss GT8 w/Harmonic Converger, Tech 21 XXL, TCElectronics SCF, George Dennis Stereo Chorus/Vol., BBE 462, RJM RG16 multi function Switcher, Carvin 400 and Mesa Boogie Strategy 400 power amps. I have all of these hooked into the RJM unit and I control the whole thing with the GT8. Ive had amps, good bad. There's only 1 marshall I ever liked (was modded by Harry Kolbe). Sounds close to my Pignose! I have a couple dozen guitars. The ones that sound great throught the 60R have high output pickups. The Invader is just the best for metal. The Dirty Fingers makes it sound just like Van Halen. The Tom Anderson is best for fusion. Actives flat out suck, plain hums are good for old time rock, single coils are better in the fender-tone area of the preamp volume settings.
What I love most about the tone is that nobody has this tone! The world is full of marshalls and boogies and fenders. I have them all in ONE. No tubes. The overall investment was the new amp, the used EQ, the used BBE. I really just stumbled into this by purchasing components that filled the neccesity for more chunk (eq, bbe) and gain (Invader). If I had built the amp, it would have dip switches for tone shaping, stereo ins and outs for fx, headphone jack and vol, and ext. speaker jack.
If it were ever stolen, I would tie them to a tree, and eat most of their liver. Then ask where my amp is. Go get it, come back the next week, and eat their regrown liver. On a regular schedule, ya know! So to send the message to ALL other would-be Pignose theives!
Don't try it.
The only way for YOU to know MORE is to get one and hear my secret.

This cool little solid state amp has Volume (preamp), Treble, Mid, Bass, Reverb, and Master knobs. There are 2 inputs, a line out, and an effects loop; all on the front panel. The power switch lights up. There's a 12" no-name speaker. The reverb models came out after the 30/60 (which was the second Pignose amp). The 60 R is exactly the same as the 30/60 (30 watts RMS/ 60 peak), with the addition of reverb, line out, and effects loop. More on that later.

I guess it came out in the late 70's because going to a store and buying an amp is one of the things I wouldn't remember from those days. Let's just call it "back in the good old days" (which is before "back in the day").

Feature-wise it's been really useful to have around. Small, lightweight, and just the right connections. I've used it as a PA, a monitor, a doorstop, a table; and it's the perfect height for a deskside ottoman.

For it's original price with preamp gain at the time, it's a 10. (Why not, it's not costing me anything.)

When this came out it was a big deal because solid state amps of the day had zero warmth. The original small Pignose knocked everyone out with it's honk, and this was just as cool because you could dial in a distortion that didn't sound like a Big Muff.

With all the knobs centered you get a very vanilla, almost jazzy tone. Crank up the preamp it starts getting woolly; all the way up and you're ready to play "Won't Get Fooled Again". It ain't tubes, but it doesn't sound like crap either.

A big part of the Pignose sound is the cabinet. The covering is slightly padded which tones it down quite a bit. The cabinet is only about 10" deep with an open back. If it was a bigger, more resonant cabinet it would probably sound louder and thinner. As it is you can get a sound that will stand up to a loud stereo. Just enough bottom to be convincing in a small room. You can get a decent rhythm sound at low levels, for leads you need to turn up. It'll get loud enough to stand up to a "normal" drummer in a small room. Because of the cabinet, the bigger the room the smaller it sounds.

Using the effects return jack you go directly to a nice clean power section. This is why I've gotten so much use out of this thing for so many years. These days I plug a ToneLab into it and get a lot of interesting sounds in the bedroom. A better speaker would probably do a lot for it, maybe make it a decent recording amp, but I've got more important things to spend money on.

The reverb is very likeable. It starts to sound trashy just as you get into surf music territory, but for a little extra depth it's sweet. It sounds pretty live without the verb.

Well, it's like an old friend now. I've lost count of the number of times I've put this thing into service in a pinch. The pots and other parts are of average/cheap quality, but it's well designed and after all these years it's functionally as good as new. The preamp volume has it's scratchy days when it hasn't been used in a while, but that goes away.

I've never babied this thing, even when it was new (hell, I use it a footstool), but it's still going strong. The cabinet is solid and, besides a few nicks, the covering is intact.

If you find one with broken pots, go ahead and buy it. There's not much behind the front panel so they should be easy enough for anyone to replace.

Now I get a chance to tell one of my favorite stories:
Originally this amp was a 30/60. I bought it new and a month later the reverb models came out. Then about a week after the warranty expired the volume pot suddenly crapped out on me.

I wrote Pignose a letter, trying to convince them that they should still fix it for free and moaning about how I got cheated out of the reverb. Two weeks later I got a box in the mail with the 60 R chassis and a reverb tank. Included was a really nice letter about helping musicians and wanting to make good affordable products so that more people could make music.

I never forgot that and it's always been a part of the sentimental value of this amp. If the guy who wrote it ever reads this I want him to know that this little amp brought music and fun to a lot of people over the years.

The company's probably changed hands a few times since then but I have to put a 10 here just for the feeling of good will I get every time I think of this amp's history.

I think if you see one of these at a garage sale for 40 bucks, just grab it. When I bought it I owned a tweed Twin; my main amp today is a Rivera TBR-1. This Pignose has been so incredibly useful to have around. It's a great little monitor to have around. A good addition to it is the little Korg Ampworks modeling box; those god for less than $50 these days. Together it's a nice little practice setup, maybe even useful for recording.