Sound City 50 Plus

a great 50 watts vintage amp with a sound to die for. Very powerful equalizer,offers drastic changes in the sounds

crank it up and the distortion will kick ***. I take out it's negative feedback loop (just one resistor) for even more EL34 mayhem. Incredible.

built to last,point to point hand wired!

Not a lot of features, as the amps of that time didn't have channel-switching, effect-loops etc. I had some mods done since I bought it and now it has all I need since I play with an AB-setup. Don't know which year it was made. I was hoping to find the reverb version, with the chime this wonderful little box produce, I don't miss it at all. I play mainly rock with some jazzy, funky and latin elements thrown in. We also have acoustic instruments in the band (cello, sax) therefore the amp has to be able to cover a dynamic range from very quite to really loud. As of now I don't know, how it will sound in the band context, but I couldn't wait to write a review since I just picked it up from the amp tech and it sound fantastic. I have no doubt it will sound good with the band.

From the beginning the amp sounded good but it was unusable for the kind of music we make. Massive NOISE! You could easily hear the amps idle-hum through a closed door. Punk-Rock could have handled the buzz the amp made but quite passages in a ballad? forget it! I asked several amp techs and they basically all said the same: You won't get rid of the noise because its inherent in the design of the active tone control.
Now some of you may think this is a sacrilege and I was quarreling with it for some time but I decided to do it anyway: The amp was modded to a design quite similar to a Superlead Marshall. So now I have passive tone control and a presence control in the back where the sensitivity-switch used to be. As I said, I just picked it up this afternoon and the only way I could force myself away from it was by writing about it. I just plugged in my strat with Rio Grande PUs directly into brilliant (cab is a semi open 2x12 with 2 evm12). I just couldn't believe the kind Tone this thing pours out. Seriously, I could not stop playing. Maybe I'm very excited because I just picked it up. We'll see how I feel in a month or so. I just can't imagine any 3k-boutique amp sounding any better, different maybe but not better. When it comes to sound descriptions, I often read: "Notes bloom". That is exactly what is happening: A chord seems to have a "lifespan" with adolescence, maturity and old-age before it slowly fades: simply wonderful! You may thing I am a little weird but I sat there for a long time just playing slow chords letting each not ring. Turn the volume up, and hit the strings a little harder and this delicate butterfly becomes a savage beast. Pure Rock n roll. And you can control it all from the vol-pot on the guitar. I don't miss the active control at all. I don't need features or varieties in sound. There is one great Tone and the rest is up to the guitar and the man playing.

don't know yet. I'm afraid the old mullard el34s that contribute a lot to the sweet sound will die some day.

The company is long gone...

I've been playing for about 25 years but I took a long break before I started playing again 5 or 6 years ago. Lost or stolen I would do the same thing again, buy a sound city and do the mod. I love the simplicity about it. I also have a Koch Powertone Head. It's a $2500 head and it's great for the features and the effects loop and all that. But there ssems to be connection between simplicity in design and Tone. I also have a THD Univalve that I enjoy playing but not for clean. I use in the AB-setup for the overdrive sounds.

compared to your basic four-holer marshall, the sound city 50+ is actually quite feature-rich. It has a 'sensitivity' switch on the back, which seems to lower the power a bit. mine has reverb (but it doesn't work - so i can't comment on it).

but the main 'feature,' would be the dennis cornell-designed 'active' tone controls. rather than simply being a simple eq section, each tone pot (low, mid, high) is actually a gain control. while this takes getting used to, if you dime the lows and mids (and turn off the high) and plug in a humbucking guitar - preferably a thick-necked les paul - stand back: you'll get some of the sweetest, most violin-like overdrive/distortion this side of a brian may overdub session.

great tone. i run mine through a 2x12 closed-back reeves cabinet, loaded with their 'vintage purple' fane clones.

when i keep the tone controls at halfway and plug in my telecaster, i get chimey cleans all day long. when i dime the lows and mids (and turn off the highs), my r7 les paul roars like a 50w small-box marshall. in other words, it's actually pretty versatile.

and contrary to most reports, mine isn't too noisy, either! though, i must say, apart from the non-functioning reverb, the amp is in near-immaculate condition.

can't really say yet. so far, in a studio-only situation, it's been great. still... it's a 35-year-old amp, so i'm going to try to be careful.

n/a. dallas-arbiter is long-gone.

though they are climbing in price, sound city amps are a great buy in vintage, hand-wired tube gear. get 'em while you can. they sure as heck aren't making any more.

i paid a little too much for mine ($800), but it looks brand-new, and is totally clean inside.

Mine is evidently a "Mk 4 Custom Built" model, which dates it to... um... about 1973, I think. I love the fact that it has one attenuated and one non-attenuated 1/4" guitar jack input for either of the two channels (Normal and Bright, non-switchable), because you can run your guitar signal through one channel and into the other. Either channel has a dedicated volume control, so with a patch lead you can mix the two channels to your heart's content. The active Bass/Middle/High EQ controls add to the tonal versatility, and in my opinion it's exceptional.

I was surprised how much difference the sensitivity switch on the back made; the hum is noticeably less on the low-sensitivity setting ("1", I think) than on the high one, but, apart from the hum/hiss, the tone is too clean for my tastes on the low setting. (I like the dirtier side of the Townshend tone. Coldplay are the Devil's bodysnatcher minions.) It's nothing a good stompbox can't fix, and anyway, on the high-sensitivity setting I can drive the amp into nice, organic overdrive territory. Actually the amp is capable of more plain valve distortion than I like, but it's never been a problem finding the right balance for my taste.

The idea of using the voltage selector as a variac to facilitate overdrive at lower volumes sounds great, but I have never been able to try it. Anyway it sounds a bit hazardous as well to my ears. I would've been distraught if I'd blown up the amp!

I wish the amp had a master volume control, but in connection with overdrive the master may not be as important on a 50w model as on a 100w or higher-output model. In my bedroom, I've always had the amp volume up high and the guitar very low, but this has limited the amount of distortion I've been able to get out of any of my distortion pedals, etc. Gigging, of course, I would need a lot more of the 50w output, and I would have my guitar turned up much higher, but again I would only have limited control of the output from some of my pedals.

There is no effects loop, either, but this is a vintage amp after all. It's not really relevant anyway; with its hum/hiss, mine is probably not the right amp to use with a lot of pedals. Anyway I don't like the idea or experience of effects loops very much, because I don't want the effects I use to bypass the pre-amp harmonics. I want the whole signal to go through the whole amp, i.e. both pre-amp and power stages. This amp can handle a limited number of pedals well enough for performance, but I wouldn't be comfortable using it with pedals that didn't have true bypass. As far as the hum/hiss goes, you need all the help you can get.

There is no headphone jack but I've never really missed that.

I don't know whether I would have preferred to have reverb. I've never tried it. In any case I got the amp for its raw Hiwattesque Townshend grunt. It seems a shame to me to hide what for me is the irresistibly brash tone of an amp like this in reverb. Anyway, if you're using as much reverb as The Edge, you are probably The Edge himself and/or useless at guitar.

I have never had an amp with a presence control. Although I would quite like one, I don't know whether it would have helped me much. The amp has enough versatility without it in my opinion.

I will give the amp an eight for features because it doesn't have everything I'd like but what it does have is great. It's as much a reflection of my taste as of what I consider to be in many ways a great, great amp.

I've been using this to play rock with a Gibson SG Special with P90 pickups. Whatever I played, I doubt I would ever even dream of using it for anything much other than edgy rock, indie or punk. You're not going to get a rectifier or extreme Marshall tone out of it without a lot of extra equipment, either, so don't look for one. What you do get, from about 7 up on either volume pot, is what has always struck me as wonderfully fluid distortion with a distinctly British bite (though different from that of any Marshall). Given the right guitar, it is a great amp for fans (such as I) of the Townshend tone of the late '60's and very early '70's. (He used the odd Sound City L100 himself, albeit disguised as a Hiwatt sometimes.)

I have tried using a Boss LS-2 Line Selector as an A/B pedal to switch between the two channels; it works well enough technically, but I find the tone of the Normal channel on its own too dull, whilst the Bright channel on its own is too trebly and thin for my taste. Combine the two, with their separate volume controls, and (shared EQ notwithstanding) the world is your tonal oyster. I've had no trouble dialling in a great British tone with firm mids and bright highs, and the amp is capable of far more bass than I've ever needed. The active nature of the EQ controls also makes for increased versatility. I have found there is a world of difference between 6 1/2 and 7 on the bass, for instance. Combine this amp with a tonally versatile guitar and you should have no trouble finding a decent British tone.

Having said that, I've only tried it with a Gibson SG Junior and my Special. (I love P90's.) I did love the tone with both, however. I wouldn't fancy using it with humbuckers, but I think it ought to go well with any decent guitar with single-coil pickups. After all, the Hiwatts Dave Gilmour has always favoured for use with his bright Fender (predominantly Strat) tone are not a million miles away from these Sound City amps in technical or historical terms.

The tone, then, can be great and even second to none in my opinion. The problem is that the hum/hiss of the amp really can be intimidating. It's more pronounced on some settings than on others, but it's always there, and the EQ controls have an effect on it, with the result that I've rarely taken the treble past about 8, for instance, because usually I haven't been able to stomach the hiss. Of course, you don't really notice it when you're playing all over it, but I really wish it weren't there. It's definitely not something I would like to hear run through a P.A. in a gigging environment. (Maybe a 100w or higher-output model would cope better.) The hum/hiss means I wouldn't feel comfortable recording with this amp.

Also, mine does sometimes pick up radio transmissions (and transfer them to the speakers), which is really awkward in a city like London (my hometown) where there are pirate stations everywhere. Again, you don't really notice it when you're playing all over it, but it's something else I would not want to hear run through a P.A. and it means I would feel all the less comfortable recording with this amp.

I will give the amp 7 in this category because the tone and distortion can be magnificent in my opinion but really suffer owing to the hum/hiss and the radio reception.

I've never gigged with this amp. I wouldn't fancy doing so without a backup. Let's face it, I wouldn't fancy doing so at all, really, in spite of the amp's many great qualities. That's why I'm selling it. On the other hand, I wouldn't feel comfortable gigging with any valve (or even solid-state) amp unless I had a backup of some sort.

This amp has never broken down on me, although it did need a service when I got it, to rid it of some crackle. It's in pretty decent condition for an amp of more than 30 years. Everything other than the feet (and valves!) is original as far as I can tell. There's really no problem with the bodywork that couldn't be improved cosmetically with a bit of a clean-up anyway. These things were, as everyone else points out as well, built to last.

I can't give it a 10, because it's a valve amp and they're inherently less reliable than most solid-state gear, but I figure it's got to be one of the more reliable valve amps its age.

Dallas Arbiter have long since gone to meet their maker.

I have been playing for over 15 years, off and on, but I haven't got through many amps. The tone of this one can really be as good as anything I've heard, but the hum/hiss and radio reception can be real passion-killers! As I'm selling mine, I'm looking for a replacement, but I won't be getting another 50 Plus. I might consider a 100w or higher-output model, but I would want a master volume control and I'd be hoping against hope that the damn thing wasn't going to hiss like a wounded snake or pick up random radio signals. My amp of choice would be something like a Hiwatt DR103, and tonally the Sound City amps come pretty darn close, but my experience with this one means I will always be a bit more wary of vintage amps in the future.

What do I know, though? It worked for Pete Townshend.

1968/9 Sound City 50 Plus with four inputs, normal vol., brilliant vol., bass, mid, treble, indicator light, standby, and on/off switch.
2 x EL34 and 3 x 12ax7 and 1 x 12at7 tubes. This amp has no effects of course and sounds absolutley awesome like a Marshall plexi, and
yes I have a '68 100 watt plexi to compare it too. The sound city is
loud and sounds great.

This amp will make any guitar sound better but Les Pauls, strats, 335s about anything will sound good and strong through this amp.
The dynamics are huge and the eq is very versitile due to the active
tone circuit. It may make it a little harder to "dial in" the sweet
spot but there is more tonal variation than a Marshall or a Traynor from the same period. Sound City amps are known for there "loud buzz' and this one is no different although when the amp is in good working order i.e. fresh caps, tubes, and resistors all working well
the buzz is not too bad and shouldn't effect the overall tone.

they are built well and very reliable once the proper maintenance has
been done.

Dallas Arbiter is long gone, find a qualified tube amp tech that knows the ins and outs of Sound City amps.

I own a decent collection of amps and have been playing semi-professionally for nearly 30 years. If you love good tube amps than
you need one of these in your collection if you can find one. They have a great look, great tone, and they can be found for far less money than a comparable Marshall or Orange amp from the same period. They are rock n'roll machines! Make sure that you have it
serviced so that it will perform to its optimum level. An amp this old needs caps, tubes, new resistors and sometimes other parts as well. Once they are properly serviced they will reward you with years of killer tone.

I believe this is a 1974. 4 inputs normal and brilliant, brilliant volume and normal volume, treble, bass, middle, sensitivity switch, ground switch, voltage selector and ohms selector. 50 watts, loud loud loud. Not too versatile, very clean and very loud, crank it up for some hard agressive British Clean. It does exactly what I want it to. Uses two El-34's, three 12ax7's and one 12at7.

Using an epiphone g-400, a fender mexi strat, and a fender american deluxe tele. Playing heavy blues and hard rock. Sounds great with all. Strat and tele sound big and full. SG sounds full and makes the amp naturally distort at slightly lower volume. It is very clean and then you turn it all the way up and tunr the mids and highs up and it starts screaming. Absolutely awesome. SOunds good for bass as well. Really raunchy and nasty. It is running through a sound city 6x10 cabinet wich is rated for 180 watts, so the speakers arent being touched as far as power handling goes. All power tube saturation, the best distortion ever. Put a ts-9 tube screamer in front or a Boss Blues drive and it gets mean. Really tight clean puchy sound, even when overdriven.

No problems, havent owned it too long, never has broken down. Always use a back up amp, its silly not to. Its thity years old. There is a fender bassman and a fender super six onstage with it, all backing eachother up.

SOund city is gone, get a good amp guy, luckily I know a guy that was involved with ampeg back when were just starting, he knows his stuff.

Awesome amp, pairs well with my fender stuff. Good contrast, sound good with all guitars. I really love it, Zero complaints. If it got stolen I would try to get on in a second. Or a Hiwatt, I really want one of those, but this sound city is awesome what a gem.

My Sound City 50 Plus "MK IV Custom Built" was made in about 1970, by Dallas Arbiter in England. These little-known amps were the precursors of the famous Hiwatt amps. The controls are similar to the non-master volume Hiwatts or Marshalls of the day: two channels, "normal" and "brilliant," with a high and low gain input for each channel. Like a Marshall, the channels can be bridged with a patch cord and each has its own volume control. The bass, middle, and treble controls are active and allow a surprising amount of tonal variation. A really cool feature of this amp is a voltage selector on the back. This control was intended to adapt the amp to different voltages in Europe/North America for touring, but it can also be used as a variac when set for say, 245 volts and plugged into a 115 volt outlet. You can crank it and get all that sweet power tube saturation at a lower volume. There is also a sensativity switch that cuts the power in half. The Sound City has 2 EL-34 power tubes, 3 12XA7 preamp, and one rectifier tube. It also has original, highly sought after Partridge transformers, the same as in vintage Hiwatts, which give it that massive tone.

I've been playing for 10 years and I play everything from hard rock, funk, and jazz, to metal and grind. The "nice" amps I've owned are a 100 watt Marshall plexi re-issue, a '64 blackface Fender twin reverb, '65 super reverb, and a soldano, and honestly, the Sound City holds its own with any of them. This amp isn't laden with tone-sucking switches and knobs like some of the more modern amps and so the signal from your guitar is clear and powerful. With vintage 30 speakers, it's louder than my twin. It has that magical aggressive "British" tube saturation, like a plexi or a Hiwatt, where your playing notes are felt more than just being heard. It sounds basically like a Hiwatt only with less clean headroom. At half volume it sounds solid and chimey in the normal channel and bright and spanky in the brilliant channel. Higher volumes give some of the sweetest, rawest, sounds I've ever heard. Those of you who have played an old british amp at full volume know what I mean. It's like distortion that is still clear and dynamic and full of balls. Great for rock. Plug in a good overdrive, and you get the ultimate lead tone. I actually prefer the sound from my valve-tone overdrive in front of my cranked Sound City for rock lead than anything I could get out of my Soldano. (The Soldando, by the way, was disingned to have a clean, non-distorting power section with lots of preamp gain, like a mesa. Not much dynamics). The sound city is truly a rare, un-noticed treasure.

I opened up the amp as soon as I got it and I found nothing but super high-quality military-grade point-to-point wiring. No plastic circuit boards like soldano or plexi re-issue, only well organized, heavy duty components that were hand-soldered back in 1970. I've owned my Sound City for 4 years and gigged and traveled with it and it has never had a problem and I don't expect it to, besides normal tube replacement, although this is of course standard for any tube amp.

Sound City went out of business in 1975.

If this amp was lost or stolen I would defenitely buy another because they're so cheap. It's amazing to me how such a great amp could cost only $450 when the Parteridge transformers alone can go for a few hunderd. I'm constantly slapping myself for buying my other amps instead of doing more research and finding this little-known treasure first. If this company had marketed itself and endorsed rock stars the way Marshall did, I could see it costing $1,000+. I actually found in a photo I have of Jimi Hendrix that he's playing through a sound city! I have also heard that he used one in recording Axis Bold As Love. Not that this really matters, though, but I found it interesting. The bottom line is that I'm buying a second Sound City 50 plus now as a backup now before the price goes up further. Note that not all sound city's are created equal. The 50 plus is the one to go for, not the harsh-sounding 120 watt model (unless you like that).

Ok not much here but it has the one thing I partally expected from teh reviews here TONE! And that it has.
All Tube Point to point I think a '72.
It is also Loud!
Only has one set of tone controls. :(

Ok well for my ears it is a TEN...
Using a PRS custom 24 stock pickups and sweet switch. and a hotrodded les Paul copy I put in SD's and coil splitting. with a Bigsby :)
it sounds wonderful with both.
Two inputs So I bought a morley AB switch so now I can switch channels :)
And it is really nice set up that way mostly play with few pedals, a Dnao Tuna melt and a Boss reverb. Since it doesn't have either.
The sound is so good it doesn't need much in teh way of overdrive, it kicks by itself, I play teh PRS turned down and just up its Volume when I want to distort.

Hey it is all tumbe...
And tubes melt down...
I carry a little GK 250 with me. haven't had to use it yet.

The company doesn't exist.

Off an on Geeeze mumble mumble years.
Used '60's twins and Bandmasters. AC 30's etc.
Couldn't afford one of them at the time.
Tone brothers and sisters!
It is very solid, I am looking for another amp like a Valvetech, or something. Not because I don't like this one but due to its rareity.
Wish list ...
Master volume, Separte tonecontrols, Prescence control... (Not really needed).
If it where stolen I would try to get it back.
I bought it due to reviews of it here.

I received my Sound City 50 Plus new in 1971. It came with a Sound City six 10" speaker cabinet that I still use today. I have never seen another. Both are in mint condition. I play in stereo, left side The City, right side my 1978 Marshall 100 watt lead. I use a stereo DOD rack delay and ping pong left to right with just a hint of delay. Sounds mint. I run my City on about 7 bridging both channels and then run it through a Tom Sholz Power Soak to nuke some of the volume. It also gets rid of a lot of the trade mark Sound City hum. I think this is the loudest 50 watt amp ever made. It always makes me think of the early pony cars that were rated at 250 hp but actually had 350 hp to keep the insurance cost in the USA down.

My main guitar is a 1971 Gibson Les Paul Custom, Black Beauty Fretless wonder that I factory ordered. I also have a Gibson Explorer that is fun, but it's kind of unbalance. When you let go of it, the neck dives towards the floor. I had lots of guitars over the years, but trust me, buy an old Les Paul and forget about the other ones. These ones almost play by themselves. The other guitar player in my band says that when he tries my guitar, it feels like he is driving an old Caddy. Heavy and smooth.
I don't mess with my tone set-up much. I just try to get the best sound without effects, then use different effect pedals to get different sounds. If you have a poor set up sound, then pedals just enhance the poorness.

I have been using this amp for over 30 years. Nothing has ever happened to it. I think it has had every type of drink that was trendy at the time dumped onto the chassis, from Singapore Slings to Long Island Ice Teas, she just keeps on rocking. I just had it retubed for the first time. As the original Mullards are no longer available, I installed a matched set of Electro Harmonics that I bought on line from THE TUBE STORE. I also replaced the pre amp tubes. There are 4. Don't make the mistake of using all of the same tubes here. The one between the power tubes is not a 12AX7.

I also replaced all of my 10" speakers. Here's something I was not aware of. A local amp master told me to try using different types of speakers in the box. I bought Jensens from Antique Electronics on line. Very happy with these guys. What I did was put two 50watt Mods at the bottom, for the middle two I used a couple of there 35 watt Classics and at the top I used 2 of the Mod 35 watters. The guy said that all of the biggies are doing this now. Man it sounds awesome. Now I have speakers that all do different jobs running out of one amp. To wire six, sixteen ohm speakers so that you end up with a sixteen ohm cabinet, you must wire them in series/parallel.

None.

Just your Rock and Roll buddies doing this kinda' stuff.

I've been rocking for over 35 years I'm afraid to say. My Sound City has been a great amp and companion, but it has more sentimental meaning to me than anything. I doubt if I could ever find another like this one, as it was given to me as a promotional item from the store where my band use to get all of their gear in the early '70's. If it got lost or ripped off I would probably replace it with the re issued Marshall Stack. I had one many years ago and sold it when everybody was downsizing to smaller amps because of that crap DISCO that came in. It was the "RAP" of yesteryear as far as I'm concerned. I'll never forgive John Travolta or the BEE GEES as long as I live. Totally wrecked the live band thing for about 8 years and mad me sell my giant Marshall. STUPID STUPID STUPID!!! Those puppies rocked and looked the part like no other!! And still do. Do yourself a favour. If you really wanna' rock. Save up your cash and go buy one of these. Ever seen a pair of bell bottom pants blow in the speaker wind. You will if you get one!!
Been there, Done that!! See ya' on stage!!
KEEP ROCKING!! THEY'LL NEVER TAKE US ALIVE!!

Sound city amps got their name from the Sound City shop in London. Opened in the early 60ies, they were the biggest guitar shop in England. At their workshop Arbeiter (the owner) designed the Fuzz Face and Sound city amps. I guess mine is from 71-72 because of the Dallas-Arbiter tag on the back. Arbiter was taken over by Dallas Musical Instruments in 71. The Sound City amp was taken out of production by 76.
The amp has lots of nice tone. Very warm yet crystal clear. I play in a Pink Floyd coverband and it's perfect for that clean 70ies sound.
Normal/bright channel. 3 tone knobs and volum. Sometimes I wish there was a pressence knob as well, but it's really not a problem. The sensitivity switch on the back works like a turbo unit. At low you can turn the speaker way up and keep that clean sound. At high you get at slightly distortet signal at 7. I you want to feel what it's like to be seriously punched in the face, just turn up the volum and put you face infront. You'll bleed. I love this amp. I use it all the time and wouldn't trade it or sell for a million.

I use a 57 reisue (Japan) Fender Strat and a standard reissue Fender Tele. The Strat is a perfect match. I have the vintage pickups on mine to push the amp a little more in tone. With the mexican pics or EMG active pics you don't do justice to this wonderful amp.
At high sens it's a little noisy. Sounds like a radio out of tune. I crank the trebble and middle, but keep the bass at 4. The volum is ALWAYS at 12 (!).
This amp is best at clean intup. If you colour your sound with lots of stombox EQ you do serious damage to the sound. Just use the EQ on the amp. My fav set up is my Strat through a MXR Dynacomp=Big Muff=Electric Mistress. Killer!
The problem with no presence feature come about when I use a Telecaster witch is a little sloppy in it's self and needs to be cleaned up a bit in the tone.

I bought mine used and it needed new tubes and a good clean up. Other than that it's very solid and can handle a good beating.

I would say this is the most valuable amp I own just in sheer affection. I love it. It looks very cool to and is often referred to as the poorman's Hiwatt. I think it stands up to Hiwatt easily.

I have owned this amp for many years. Late 70's. Traded a little, tiny, fender combo to the original owner whom had owned it for 10 years. Couple of different channels but I use the normal channel. I crank all the tone controls and stand out of the way of the speaker for fear of losing what little hearing I have left. I wish it had a master volume control but it really breaks up nicely at higher volumes making it a not too missed item. I have never done anything besides pull the tubes and shake all the rust out of the chassis. Vacuumed the tube holes out. Put it back together with the original tubes and marveled, and still do, at its' guts and tone.

I use an original 1959 Danelectro DC single P/U guitar. I have to stand a long way away from the amp and can not push it because of the intense reverb. Awesome for really clean blues. Then I have a 1976 Gibson ES-325 with mini humbuckers that make this amp sound like my Matchless for 3 grand less. I also use an American made strat with absolutely no complaints. I run my am in stereo with a Tech 21 trademark 60. Give it a touch of delay and let 'em rip. Blues/rock/latin/whatever. It just plain sounds wonderful. Did I say it is really loud?

It started sounding a little weak. That's when I got the bright idea to clean all the rust from the chassis. It seemed like a logical thing to do. It sounded like a brand new amp when reassembled. Now I do that every 12 months. I may change the tubes, someday, but really have no reason to yet. I better knock wood.

N/A

What can I say. I will buy any and all that anyone wants to sale. E-mail me at treadstone71@accessatlanta.com for cash for your 50 plus,50R and 120's.

This amp was made in the late sixties I suspect. It's wired point to point but not in the linear fashion like Hiwatts. Never the less, it is very simple inside. It has two bridgable channels, normal and brite and standard three pot eq. It has some of the best tone I have ever heard. It doesn't distort until you hit 7 or so on the volume because there is not master. I was going to install a master and actually ordered a kit to do it from Torres Engineering but then I just tried using my tube driver pedal which has 12AX7 in it and it sounds so damn good, I don't think it's necessary now. You can play with the knobs all you want because every sound is good. The tube arrangement is excellent. It came with old Siemens tubes which I have heard of but have never seen. I took them out though to save them and put in a couple of tesla users. The tube setup is as follows: 2 EL34 power tubes, 3 12AX7 preamp tubes, and I 12AT7 inverter. When I bought it, there was a fourth 12Ax7 being used for a phase inverter and it sounded BAD!!! Check yours now! If it is a 12AX7, replace it and you will be happy. I gaurantee it. Groove Tubes reccommends using their 7025 preamp tube. It is a direct replacement for the 12AX7 but is made in Europe and most closely resembles the specs of the original tubes. I think I believe them in this case.

There are some interesting features on this amp that I have never seen on other amps. It has switchable outputs for 4,8,16 ohms and it has a voltage selector that is truly radical. It has four settings: 105,115,220 and one other I forget. World tours were taken into consideration when this built. It also has a sensitivity swith on the back and a ground switch. The sensitivity swich makes a huge difference. It seems to cut the power by almost 50 percent. If the switch is set to high, there is the "Sound City Buzz" that everyone is talking about but on low, it is really quiet. I am thinking of messing around with some grounding options to see if I can get rid of it as it is of the 60 cycle variety.

I play an SG and ES 340 through this amp and it's a match made in heaven. I play maximum R&B style blues. I play loud and raunchy. This amp has guts. Massive power in the low range. It makes a 4x12 sing. I mean really sing. It is a very throaty marshall sound that makes you want to strike A major chords all damn day. The feedback is sweet and magical. The amp is very responsive and works with you and your style. The damn thing is alive I tell you! The fact is, you can't make this amp sound bad. You could easily use this for a bass amp. The mid range is thick and pleasant, not flat sounding and the treble is very smooth and round that sounds great turned all the way up. This is the only amp that I have done this with. You cut your power significantly by holding back on the tone controls. For what I play and the Gibsons I use, you would probably want to run it with the tone controls at 10. A far cry from the Carvin X60 that I own which sounds shrill and glassy and you have to fiddle with to get any palatable sound out of.

This amp has some quirks. There is an abnormally loud buzz on the high sensitivity setting that I have heard many people report. This could be old capacitors or just funky wiring. It really doesn't bother me too much though. Other than that, after 30 years this thing is going strong. Many other amps have come and gone in that time. The only ones left from that era were the ones that were built to last forever if maintained. This thing will take care of you as long as you take care of it. The head itself is heavy due to the partridge trannys and big caps. The box is rock solid too. One thing, old english electronics tend to corrode over the years so it would be worth examining them and replacing any funky wiring.

Sound City is long gone.

I would buy this amp again in a heartbeat. I am looking for another.

I think my amp is a '72. I bought it dead mint in 2000 for $250. Not a feature loaded amp. Don't let the low score in this category fool you. This amp kicks ass. Has the only feature any amp really needs...Tone! This is your standard 4 input amp with normal and bright channels (non switchable). The only feature that it could use is a presence control, but I really don't miss it.

I own several cool amps including two 70's 100 watt Hiwatts, Marshall JTM45 and Plexi reissues, A Fender '59 Bassman reissue with a Hoffman point to point wired Bassman circut board and a tube rectifier, a Fender Prosonic head with matching Tonemaster cab, an Orange OR80, and several others. I play mostly American Fenders and Hamer USA's. For pedals I use mostly Fulltone, Visual Sound, Electro Harmonix, and Klon.

The Sound City 50 Plus is a real low cost gem! I think of it as sort of a poor man's Hiwatt. It has a hint of Hiwatt vibe (the 50 Plus uses Partridge transformers like the Hiwatt) and a bit of Marshall RAWK! The more you turn the 50 Plus up the better it sounds. If you like agressive Brit clean, this is a great amp. Put a Fulldrive 2 in front of this thing and stand back. Also, the Budda Phatman tube overdrive sounds great with this amp. I found that the Phatman didn't sound so hot with other amps I have, but it seemed like it was made for this amp. However, any good overdrive will sound awesome with this amp.

If you're a guitarist on a budget, get a Fender Bassman head for your clean and a Sound City 50 Plus with an overdrive in front of it for your dirty channel and a/b the two. You will have classic American and Brit tones for not a lot of cash. No the 50 Plus is not a JTM45 or a 50 watt Plexi, but when was the last time you saw one of those amps for around $150 to $300? This is the best British amp in it's price range PERIOD! Compared to other amps in this price range this amp gets a 10 for sound quality. Compared to other amps in say the $500 to $1500 range it's an 8

Seems well made. I havent had any problems with it. It's old so I wouldn't use it without some type of back up as a general rule. However, If I didn't have a backup, I wouldn't be too concerned as long as I had a good tech check it out.

Dallas Arbiter had beed dead for quite some time. Get a good tech.

When I think about the fact that I paid only $250 for this amp in totally mint condition I get very happy. Never have I been able to get so much sound and playability for so little dough. If it were lost or stolen I would buy another if I could find one. I doubt I would be able to find one in the shape that mine is in.

My amps are early year. I have (3) 50+ heads linked together and bridged. They stuff quite a bit of sound into a pair of 'city 412 cabinets. The first one I bought in a pawn shop years ago for $35. The store owner told me to "beware" as it may have peanutbutter inside it. Not so. It was, and still is, the loudest one I have. After that , I slowly started my collection. Now, I play in a poured concrete wine cellar with an array of pedals and wouldn't trade a thing.

I have several axes. Some of which I made and some store bought. My favorite is a late 80's Japanese Kramer that I paid $125 ( best money I ever spent). It rocks best with this equipment. I mix the pedals at low level to acheive the cranked-up sound and then use the amps as slaves. As the volume increases, so does the sound. And like wise, the hum appears to dissapate. It's a nice set up.

Unfortunately, the age of these amps prohibits me from attending gigs with them. I'm nervous that to replace them might be impossible. And, these are real history that my kids may care about.

I've just recently learned that Sound City once had an array of gear. I thought they were strictly amp people. This dosen't change my love for the critters, just my knowledge. If you can find a head for reasonable money, buy it. They're so "no frills" that what you want is what you get.

The amp dates early 70s. I bought in 1976 used because I could not afford a Marshall at the time. This amp has two channels, which I would recommend that you blend together with a y-cable. The tones controls are bass, middle and treble. There is a sensitivity switch on the rear panel which pushes the output tubes a little harder. I converted the sensitivity toggle to a foot switch. 4-8-16 ohm switch. These amps were the precursors to HiWatt. 50 conservatively rated watts and louder than most of us can bear to stand over any length of time. 2 EL34 and I believe 5 12ax7s. Marshalls only have 3 12AX7s

I use a Les Paul Custom with a DeMarzio super distortion in the bridge position. The amp is great for anything from Jethro Tull to Gin Blossems. I continue to be particularly impressed with the sustain you can achieve. All you have to do is turn all the controls all the way up with the exception of the bass control. I use two power brakes, one a Sholtz and the other an old Altair through two 2X12 marshall cabinets loaded with 16 ohm vintage 30s. Each brake adds its own distinct character and tone to each cabinet.

Have not had a problem with it since I purchased it used in 1976. My initial ignorance with regard to tube replacement caused my only problems with the amp. I keep a regular stock of Groove Tube EL34s. I request the tube hardness between 3-4 as this gives killer sustain(1, being the most distorted and 10 the cleanest).

None. The company went belly up years ago. But if you get one in good condition you won't care or need service.

This is a killer amp to use for rock and Holdsworth fusion tones. A little hard to get clean but who cares. I have 4 other amps, preamps for clean tones. I have been playing for 24 years and haven't found an amp that can totally replace it. I own a 1987x as a backup. The only thing I have thought about adding is an effects loop. You can find these amps if you search the used musical gear websites. I would highly recommend the purchase. I still buy used ones when I can find them in good shape.