Sound City 50 Watt Plus

great sounding,powerful,little 50 watts tube head from England. Features? How about a couple of KILLER sounds!

this amp can offer some of the most brutal distortion I have heard. Plug in a simple booster and turn the amp high,and it will shatter the house. Very 'macho' distortion!

point to point wired,very high quality parts. But,like all old amps,you should change the filter caps to minimize noise.

50+ head made early seventies...Features are few but I think less is best as long as they work!No tone sucking stuff here...Treb , bass , mid , & vol.Active too!The amp is voiced well...so no need for other stuff.Boost on back inceases gain. Normal and Brilliant channels with low and high inputs that can be cross patched...9 on features becuase it has all I need!also...the bias is sensitive and the amp responds when tweeked...when closed the amp is much lower in volume and cleaner...when opened the grids are hot! amp sizzles and it's loud!

Really shines on sound...British all the way! Breaks up at 7 and arrives at 10 ! Works well with stomp boxes !Tried a 69 stock strat and a Les Paul style Washburn Eagle...loved it with both! Compares with Hiwatt and Marshall...others have covered sound on this reveiw and I am in agreement...10 all the way.The hum issue...on my amp (which is completely stock and mint) is not like others have described...hum is minimal.Volume is what you would expect from 50 watts of EL34 Brit power...loud but does not blow you head off!

Built like a tank...have not had it long though.based on what I see when examing the wiring and components I will guess it is road worthy.

Gone long ago.

As good as it gets for brit amps ! Maybe the best value out there...prices are heading upwards...so now is the time to pick one up! I have played professonally for over 30 years...rock , blues & jazz.Owned over 50 tube amps!A bandmate of mine manys years ago played through these and had a killer tone...glad I finally got one!This amp is great for rock and blues rock ! If it dissappeared...I would have another in a heartbeat!

My Sound City LB50 was built around 1972. The common layout for amp builders "in the day" was to accomodate you with a bright and normal channel. It was up to you which channel to use or you can blend them together. When this head is tweaked right, you have to crank it to get a real classic Marshall tone. More on this in the next column. The head has four inputs (two each channel) and common treble, mid, bass, and presence, just like the old Marshall Super Leads.

When you crank this thing up, it sounds a little different than a tweed Fender Bassman or Marshall JTM45, 1987, or 1959 Super Lead. I looked into why and found out that the tone circuit is not the simple one found in the first 5F6A Bassman....it is actually active!!!!! To me, it makes the mids sound "kinda' funny", but that's because I've been so accustomed to tweed and blackface circuits. I play all styles and this amp excels with pedals. I tweak the idle on the power tubes a little lower and I back off the bass control to get the required headroom to run with pedals. A Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Boss DS1, or Crowther Hot Cake sound cool with the amp midway to overdrive. I like it! The worse thing about this head design is the hum generated by the inefficient ground. I think the ground around that funky active tone circuit is what's doing it.

I just recapped this thing and moved the ground around and it got rid of some of the hum, but it is still borderline annoying. Each tube has a bias control on it and the layout is reliable, even though the ground noise is to me, a true design defect. I'll figure it out soon....if any techs out there have a solution, please e-mail me!

Dallas WHO?

I run a recording studio and about 8 years ago, a guy ran out of money, so he gave me this head. When I learned about tube amps, I pulled it out of the closet and restored it.....it's a cool piece. I need one red colored knob, and it will be back to stock. If there are typos, please forgive me! I'm in a hurry right now....

I purchased first my Sound City 20 years ago in November 1982. The model is a Sound City 50 Plus. My 50 Plus was built in 1973. For all Sound City users it is well needless to say that the Amp is very versatile. That is practically an understatement. I find the boost switch on the back of the amp to be some what of a provocation. This booster switch turns the Sound City into a communicater between God and the world and your guitar. Its natural clean sound is vintage in character. That means that the guitars sound warm and well authoritated in each different type of music that I use it for. I have had, since the amps acquisition a master volume control and effects loop put in. With that I am able to add certain effects for reverb,chorus and distortion. I have the amp matched with a Sound City 4x12", 120 watt speaker box with Sound City named, but probably (Eminence or Celestion)speakers in it. Unfortunately the Mullard tubes are also no longer being built, so that when I had to have the old tubes replaced, my guitar techician selected AEG tubes (EL34)from the AEG Company in Germany. The volume of the Sound City suits me perfectly.

In our band I use off and on several different vintage guitars, for example a Flying V 82"(Custom Shop), Les Paul Custom 82", the Les Paul has Dimarzio PAF and Dual Sound pickups, the V has its original Gibson. Out side of that I use an Explorer 68-70", a Epiphone Sheraton 82", a Ibanez ST 1500 78" Double Neck 12/6, (all with original pickups, an Ibanez 74" with Ultra Sonic (bridge) and Schaller Golden 50's (neck) and a Gibson 68" (Firebird V non reverse) but with active pickups. I find the sustain, the natural reverb sound and the balance of the Sound City to be Well Tempered. By this I mean that the Sound City sounds alive at all volume levels and not destructive like other guitar amps. In my band we play Rock/ Funk/ R & B/ Fusion/ Jazz. Be it live or in the studio, the Sound City 50 Plus gives my guitars the right sound every time.

In the past 20 years I have used the Sound Citys on several different performances, outside in the rain, in the cold, and also where the first act of the evening accidentually nocked over beer in the insides of the amp, also on occaisions there was red wine or coca-cola. (This is stupid but it's also part of Rock and Roll). Never the less the Sound City still carried on with doing what comes natural, that means it kept on supplying me and my guitars and the band and the audience with great sound.

Since Dallas-Arbiter is no longer in business and the Sound Cities are no longer in production the best solution to a repair or overhaul or even a customizing need is to simply find a good guitar technician.

After 20 years of using Sound City Amplifyers and I am taking about no one but 4, (2x Sound City L-150), 1x Sound City Concord and the amp in question the SC 50 Plus, my only comment is this: Four Sound City Amps are much too less for me. When my band becomes more established you can beleave me, I will aquire MANY more Sound Cities to tighten up my guitar sound. They are so warm in sound character that they are almost human.

This might be the best sounding amp I have ever played, let along owned. It has two channels, bright and normal, three tone knobs and a bright switch on the back. It isn't the absolute loudest amp I've ever played, but it is comparable to a 50 watt Marshall JCM 800. Nice all tube construction. I am happy with what it does, but people looking for lots of effects won't be happy at all.

I play guitars with humbuckers, and usually only in the treble position. There is a bit of 'white noise' when the amp is in lower volumes, but none at high volume. Down at low volume, it is pretty clean, but at full volume it gets extremely crunchy. Even the mutes are thick, which is hard to believe for such an old amp, and no pedal. If you use this giging, you better like distortion! I mean really like distortion! If you jump the channels at middle volumes you get the 'punk' sound, and at full volume it sounds very 'metal'. I'm into this style, so I am very happy.

I use this as my main amp. and I don't bring a backup with me, but I have a few different amps at home. Besides from typical tube and fuse changes,I haven't done anything to it. It seems reliable, so don't jinx me!

I think they went out of business before I was even born?

I truly love this amp. It could be a bit louder, but I really like its simplicity and size (it is small and light). I would recommend it to anyone at the price I paid, but I see Sound City stuff usually garnishing higher prices. I have played through a bunch of amps, and this is the first amp I have ever enjoyed playing without any pedals, it has enough crunch to satsfy me.