Rock Amplifier Company Petros I

For a 20.00$ amp this thing has a buttload of stuff. External Speaker,line out,head phone,foot switch.

This is my at home practice amp and with Treble booster ran into it the little thing sings.

PRS copy with high out put ceramic magnet PUPS.

It is a great little head phone practice amp.
It has a distortion mini toggle but it is broken.

Honestly with a pedal in front of it, in my case a germanium booster, it f***ing rocks! Great old rock and blues tone!

Hate the battery power though. It takes 8 D cells...which is fine,but they tend to fall out.

out of business

I've been playing a long time and I've had bunches of equipment. This is just plain FUN!

The shit eating grin factor is a 10.

i'm a blues harp player of 35 years.i came across this amp through a friend.for the harp player that wants a fat dirty sound sort of j giels ish this is the amp. though made for guitar it's the harp players that will enjoy it's incredible response. in my opinion this should have been built for blues harmonica. sounds best with a hohner blues harp and a shure green bullit. i love it.and it's durable.can beat it up and it keeps on going.if your a harp player and u find one of these buy it.it'll blow u away.if u have any info on this amp please e-mail me.i would consider buying a second one for backup. thanks,dan

Help!!!
Need schematic or photos of circuit board for Rock Amplifier, Petros I.
I received one of these that was fried. There is a resistor that is so cooked that I can't read the color code.
The company appears to be out of business. A schematic or a close up picture of the board would be greatly appreicated.
I would pay you for your time.
email me at; styme2112@yahoo.com
Thanks in advance!
David

Help!!!
Need schematic or photos of circuit board for Rock Amplifier, Petros I.
I received one of these that was fried. There is a resistor that is so cooked that I can't read the color code.
The company appears to be out of business. A schematic or a close up picture of the board would be greatly appreicated.
I would pay you for your time.
email me at; styme2112@yahoo.com
Thanks in advance!
David

Someone had got into this amp and had the speaker wires backwards.
No wonder it fried!

None that I know of

Cline Amplifiers/repair, mods, restoration

Found this in Las Vegas in 1982, chose it over the pignose at the time.
Can be battery powered, 1 channel with overdrive by either toggle or footswitch jack Headphone jack,Line out, Instrument level out, ext speaker. 1 input,
ACC input jack for 12vdc input for power. 1 volume, 1 tone. Back removable to get to battery/speaker compartment. I believe the 150 watts refers to power consumption on AC, not 150 watts output. Wish it had an effects loop, and better tone - I think it is pretty bland.

Pretty bland as I said earlier, distortion affects the volume, no master vol to control this. Used with Electra Flying V with Carvin, Seymour Duncan, and stock pickups. Clean but bland on battery power.

Would not take it to a gig because of lack of versatility - solid state works just fine, the switch on the back for overdrive broke, replaced it myself with no problems.

No support found, just sticker saying Pomona, CA. Cool logo for the time though.

Not as good as my Peavy or Rockman, but ok to test new effects or just an extra amp around. Should have gone with the Pignose - used one on a recording couple of years earlier :0

Playing since 1978, have Peavey Classic, Stage 65, original Rockman 100. Dixon SG copy, Kramer strat copy and Franken strat built from parts.

I bought this amps new in 1978. My amp does not have reverb and has a ten inch 8 ohm speaker. I have played acoustic/electric music, punk and original hardcore through this amp. care for it. I bought this amp because I got tired of carrying a 150 watt tube head and a cabinet with 2 twelves in it.

I have played my Les Paul Deluxe (1969 left-handed goldtop through this amp, awesome. Played in clubs and recorded with it in the studio. I like the distortion, some people don't care for it. Very loud for a small amp. I now play a custom lefty with 2 Dimarrzio super distortion PUs with a blend pot and a split for the bridge. Sounds great. The circuit board is hand-soldered, it is not a printed circuit. You have to pay beaucoup bucks todays for that today and your amp has to be custom-made.

Never ever have had a problem and it's been banged around quite a bit. I am still using it gigs. At bigger gigs we just mike it and it'd all good.

N/A

This amp is a champ, works hard and never fails. Too bad the company is not around still.

My Rock amp is made out of wood, with a wicker front. I got this amp 20 years ago as my first amp, it was used then and it must be from the 70's, it has everything you need including reverb. It is small, maybe a 10" speaker in there? 1 Channel, line out, speaker out, footswitch jack.

Honestly, it kicks for a 60's garage sound and not bad clean. It is extremely loud for a little amp.

Knock on wood (itself), has not failed me.

I wish I knew more about the company and history of the amp.

Real cool little loud practice / recording amp.

Rock Amp - the only information on this damn thing is a plate that states 150 watts (ya, sure) and a town - "made in Pomona California". It is solid state & weighs about 15 pounds and is the size of 2 loaves of bread. It has one channel (one input). I found it stored in an old room at church. The worship team guy bought it used many years ago at a sidewalk sale for $35, and determined it wouldn't work for praise music in church - not enough guts he told me. I believe it is a 70's or 80's vintage. Features - reverb, bass and treble, distortion, and a knob that is labeled ISC which dials up the intensity of the distortion. Too much ISC will cause this thing to make so much additional noise that it becomes unusable.

The reverb is somewhat cheesy so it doesn't get used more than just a touch. The clean sound reminds me of an old Silvertone from the late 50's. Not bad! The treasure becomes apparent when the distortion is engaged. This little baby really wails. I have used it at the last half dozen gigs I've had. It has not failed tofill out the sound of a 60's rock band. Most venues have been small, although the last one was in the balklroom of an Indian Casino in Minnesota - a room that seats 3,000 people, and the guys in the band asked me to turn it down. It has all the power haht I need.

Has not failed me yet.

I can't find this manufacturer on the web. I suspect that have bit the schnitzel.

Have played since 1963. Own assorted Fender, Gibson, Squire, Rogue, Alvarez, Mesa Boogie, Peavy, Behringer, Gibson. Roland. The part I like about this amp is that it weighs in at 15#. I can carry my guitar in one hand and this amp in the other! I would like to find out more about this amp or the Rock Amp Co. if you know their history. Email me, no?

Since it seems there are two versions of the Petros I, here's another review for the battery-powered version. Don't know what year this was made, but I'd guess it was no later than the early 1980's. Possibly made during the 1970's. Battery version takes 8 D batteries (12V power consumption - you could probably operate this amp with a car battery, no joke). Single volume and tone knobs - amp is powered on when input jack is plugged into. Back panel has outputs (headphone/ext speaker/line out/instrument level), footswitch, input, and "acc" (power input jack?). There's also a toggle switch for overdrive. It's about as loud as a Pignose amp. Lots of output options for such a novelty amp.

Bought this amp on eBay because it was cheap and it looked funky. Output is probably around 3 watts; it's more than enough if you live in an apartment. The best way to describe the tone of this amp is "gritchy". It's noisy - sort of wheezy, especially with the overdrive on. Unfortunately, no way to blame it on line noise. It uses batteries, remember? I'll give it a 6 because the sonic qualities exhibited by this amp more closely resemble a cheap old tube combo than a battery powered solid state amp.

This amp arrived in very grimy condition. Construction is about half the size of a tweed Champ, with fake brown leather tolex, metal corners, and sturdy handle. Cleaned right up with some 409 and warm, damp cloth. Lower back panel is missing, but that just makes the battery banks easier to access. Speaking of which - apparently there was a battery leak inside the amp decades ago. After cleaning the amp out and inspecting the circuit (components held to the board with generous amount of silicone), I threw fresh batteries in, and it powered right up. It's a strange little amp, but the builders did a fine job as it still works perfectly after experiencing several years of severe neglect. I'm going to order a set of rechargeable batteries for it (or maybe just buy a car battery).

I think if this thing ever had a warranty, it expired while Carter was in office. The only info I found on this amp was here at the HC amp database, so I added what info I could.

Bought it for $24 on eBay, with a $25 shipping fee. I picked this amp because I like the novelty of battery powered amps, and this one looked cool and had a fair amount of features. I didn't expect it to work, but it does - while it doesn't sound great, it sounds ok (think garage rock) and is alot of fun to play through. It's very loud for it's size, and is very portable. I'm sure that it's tone can be tweaked through speaker and component upgrades, but it's cool for what it is. If I saw another for sale, I'd buy it. A very nice alternative to a Pignose. After I won the eBay auction (I was the only bidder - go figure), I had buyer's remorse ("Why did I buy that piece of junk?!?") but it's turned out to be a very, very fun amp that sounds alot better than any cheap solid state $70 practice amp.

All the features that have already been listed in this post. BUT..... nobody mentioned that it can be BATTERY powered??? Do I have and oddball version of the Petros I??? Darn thing takes 8 "D" batteries and does a great job of holding on for 4 hours on them.

Using multiple guitars with it, and all do just fine. I agree with the others on the distortion, it is really bad. I did a diagnostic on the board and I believe the distortion wont take the power level its fed and all the units are going to have bad distortion.

No prob's yet !!! For $5 from a thrift store I think it's a great deal.

?????????? you find them.....email it to me

Really good practice amp, and because it's battery powered it's great for dragging to parties and jam sessions.

I'm not real sure when this thing was made but I would like to know. Even though it was used the thing is in mint condition with all the original parts. It's solid state with a volume, reverb, distortion, bass, and treble knobs. Has a line out jack. Is compadible with a foot switch. 150 watts. The problem that I have is the distortion kinda sux. This amp does pretty well for what it is.

I mainly use a Fender Strat with stock pickups with this amp and will occasionally use a Schecter Omen with EMG's. The Fender does better with this amp for some reason even though I find it to be a bit too "Twangy" sometimes. I mostly play old metallica and classic stuff like Zep, Floyd, and Cream. The clean channel is pretty good but the distortion is virtually non existant. I would call it more fuzzy than anything. At high volume I have found that clarity is an issue. I have tried setting the amp differently as well as the tone controls on my guitars and nothing seems to help this problem. Although I must say that I can get some pretty warm and sweet sounding tones with the volume about half way on the clean channell.

I've had this thing for around a month and a half now and have had no problems. It was in new condition when I got it so I don't think it was used much by the previous owner. It seems to hold up very well. I just wouldn't gig with it because I don't care for the sounds.

Never have. I don't even think they are still in business.

I've been playing for about two and a half years now and have played on at least 2 dozen amps. My main amp is a Marshall half stack with the avt50 head. Compared to the other amps I have played on and compared to a Marshall this thing is a pile of dog crap. But hey for $3 bucks what more can you ask for. Hell it was probably the best $3 my old man ever spent. It serves it's purpose as a decent practice amp and a beginner would have a blast with the high output and low cost. If it were lost I don't think I could even find another one. I plan on giving this one to my little brother since he just started playing. Because like I said it is a good practice amp and would be great for a beginner.