Selmer Thunderbird Twin 30 212

The Mk1 was made around 63-66 and originally featured a gorgeous imitation croc skin covering. I play melodic indie music varying from jangly to dirty distorted and this is ideal (used by Jack White of the Wite Stripes, Bernard Butler of Suede; and most famously by Hilton Valentine of The Animals on House of the Rising Sun!). This amp has 2 channels, each with high impedence and low impedence inputs. I use an A/B pedal to switch between the two channels; one set slightly higher for a volume boost for picked parts/solos. First channel has push-button "selectortone" switches which are pre-set tones; or you can opt to use the treble & bass controls. The other channel just has bass & treble controls, but it also sounds like it could do with more treble to tap into - my one real criticism of this amp. There is reverb (controls for depth and volume) and tremelo (speed & depth); both of which can be activated from the metal footswitch. That's it; pretty basic, but beautiful in its simplicity. Speakers in the twin 30s are Celestion G12's with alnico magnets; specifically, model T731's in an oyster hammer finish. These are basically identical to the blue alnicos fitted in early Vox AC30s and the sound is unbelievably awesome when pushed. The power rating is only 30 watts, but 30 watts of valve power is really really loud - believe me! I don't have to turn it up more than halfway as it's just way too loud when my band practices. Not overly brimming with features compared to modern amps, but loads for an amp of this vintage. Oh, and it looks absolutely gorgeous - as far as guitar amps go. Silvery croc skin covering, weaved cloth front, gold gothic Selmer logo, the radio-style push-button selectortone controls, and the blinking eye ("futuristic" bluey-green light on the front which flashes in time to the tremolo speed when it's on). Show me an amp which looks better!!

I play a 1989 Gibson ES335 (humbucker pick-ups, semi-acoustic). I get a great range of tones from this amp. This is ideal for indie, and anything old school where you don't need a shedload of distortion. Effects used (from guitar to amp): Morley fuzz wah volume pedal; Mesa V-Twin valve overdrive pedal; Boss BF-2 flanger, and an Art cool A/B switch. Noise-wise, it's pretty quiet. We've just been in a decent studio and the engineer had no complaints at all about background noise - even though I didn't have it on that loud. Clean, it is superb; and the reverb and tremelo are proper lush-sounding with the controls giving lots of variation (and the kitsch "blinking-eye" light for the tremelo is the coolest thing ever on any amp). Crank up the volume and it really sings. The sound breaks up beautifully as it's overdriven. It is absolutely awesome. Great for indie/punk/pop/60's sound. Instant Beatles, Animals, Kinks, Stones - the tones are unbelievable. Unfortunately this is too loud for when we practice - otherwise, I'd have it set like this for 80-90% of the time. This must be why the master volume-gain control was invented (in fact, I had a Selmer Zodiac Twin 50 and I got a master volume control fitted as it was so I could never get that crunch sound out of it). For heavy distortion, just use your pedals. The important thing is the tone/sound, and this is great at low or cranked-up volume.

To date, I've played it weekly, gigged it, and recorded with it for 7/8 months since I first bought it and had it serviced. It hasn't let me down at all. I don't use a back-up when gigging. It's over 40 years old, so that should say something about its build quality and reliability. The point to point hand wiring should make it a lot easier to fix than a modern amp with PCB's, should anything go wrong. If you're lucky enough to get your hands on one of these, you'd be mental to not have it looked at (serviced) yearly as a precaution. How many amps last over 40 years and still sound perfect? This will still be kicking out the jams in 100 years time I'm sure. A yearly service will just give you added confidence/peace of mind.

I'm not sure if the Selmer brand still exists, but I am sure the amp manufacture side died out decades ago. You can easily get diagrams of the internals over the internet/eBay should you need them. As I said, the hand wiring should make it easy to repair as and when the needs arises. People have good memories of these amps in all areas - justifiably; including reliabilty. How are you supposed to mark this out of ten? Can't really be done.

Overall rating, 9. I've been playing for about 25 years in bands ranging from (mostly) indie, to ska to pop to bhangra! No offical Selmer servicing available, lack of treble on channel 2, and lack of some features found on modern amps mean I can't give it a 10 - but who cares when it sounds this good? If nicked, I'd really really want to replace it with another, but I don't think I'd get one for much less than #1500 given prices at the moment (I got it for an absolute bargain), and they're getting more expensive. Thank God most people want AC30's! The rest of the world still don't about Selmers yet, so the prices haven't gone as stupid as they could have done. They are way superior to AC30s, but there were so many more Vox's sold due to brilliant product placement of AC30s with most of the leading British bands of the early 60s. Selmer could just never catch up!