Sound City Mk IV Custom Built

Features are covered in detail already, although I don't know if people realise you can use the 'slave' output for bridging out into the second channel. Just like an old Plexi, run them together and you can balance the two for a great all around sound. Don't know what one previous reviewer was thinking when he said this amp was not as loud as a 50 watt Marshall. May have some issues because this thing is so loud it makes your teeth hurt. It has all the features you need for a nice pilot tone, add pedals and you're in business.

Well, not a Marshall! Class A operation, runs white hot and you could temper steel on it. Clean, clean and grunt! Takes pedals like a dream, EVERY overdrive I tested with it so far has sounded great. I settled on a Visual Sound Jeckyl/Hyde and it sounds just VICIOUS through it! Has that really complex 'voxey' kind of clanky sound to it, really direct sounding and doesn't 'sag' like a Marshall or Fender amp. I like that, it gets the T Rex sound spot on. Vintage Rock sounds great through this, Sweet, Free, Faces, it's all in there. Just really nice sounding with all guitars. Love the amp, got it on ebay recently from a very honest seller. No tubes, had to load them myself which wasn't cheap but for the $299 he charged for it you can't go wrong. Had best results running it through an old Red Bear straight cab with older 35 watt Celestions in it. Sounds like they're in pain, I like that too!! Seriously, I have so many amps and am finding the old cliche 'they don't make them like they used to' to be oh so true. It's one noisy amp, any class A amp is like that but it's worth it for the tonal complexity that spills out of it!! Just a wonderful sounding rock amp, brutally loud and just makes you want to play!! Seriously, if you find one in running condition buy it, you won't regret it for a minute. If Rock is your thing and you want a vintage amp at a reasonable price here you go, the point to point construction makes it easy to service and diagnos if any problem occurs. Those Partridge tranny's are sweet as well, heard they last forever and for being a 45 year old amp I believe it!!

Never gig without a backup, you know what will happen if you do! Regular servicing should keep you in regular contact with the authorities, you can hear this amp for a long way off.

Non existant. Long gone but a schematic is available in Aspen Pittmans tube amp book, and every musician who uses tube amps needs to buy that book!! YOU GO ASPEN! THE MAN!

I am lucky enough to have a basement full of guitar stuff. Been playing since High School and am 45. Fenders, Marshalls, boutiques in the collection. Currently this is my favorite Rock and Roll amp hands down. Just has an unusual sonic imprint that you can't get anywhere else. As stated before, if you find one don't hesitate to buy it. You won't be let down with the sound, I smile every time I play through it.

Perhaps this amps best feature is that it's nearly "featureless". Just simple good clean power. No master volume or reverb. Got this amp as a gift from an old (and now deceased) musician friend of mine named Brian Fedesna. Boy did he love Hiwatts,Orange,Matamp & Sound City amps/cabinets.

Sound quality is very good. This amp sounds great as is. I have been using an older ProCo Rat distortion in front of it and the raw powerful sound is great as well. Overall this amp takes to effects pedals better than most that I've owned.

Have had this amp for almost 10 years and haven't had but slight problems (bad cable, which was replaced). Because of it's age I would likely always bring a back up.

not valid

I currently own an older Orange Overdrive(black)100 watt head. A late '60s Sound City 2-12" cabinet( looks and weighs like a 4-12"), a Marshall 4-10" cabinet.
Have been playing for over 30 years and I always go back to good basic tube power. Would prefer to run effects seperately and not have them incorporated into amp. Had a Vox Valvetronics for about two years and recently sold it.
Would love to get another Sound City Head.

*** update ***
Since my earlier post I have stumbled onto a website that has made all the difference for this amp: http://vintageamps.com/PlexiPalaceUBBcgi/ultimatebb.cgi
There I learned everything I needed to know to restore this amp. Much of the noise and poor sound quality was caused by failing components. After I did a complete recap this amp really came alive and it sounds great! Since these amps are point to point wired they are fairly simple to work on. The amp is dead quiet now and running perfectly. It's clear to me now that the tech I brought this amp to earlier either had no idea what he was doing or just didn't care. If you want to get the most out of these beasts check the site out! The people on the board are very cool and very helpful!

I have no idea of the year the amp was build, but it must be around 70's. It has seven jacks on the front: two normal and two attenuated inputs for normal and bright. Two slave outputs which I have never dared to use (don't know what it is they do exactly) and there is a jack input (or output?) with has an obscure symbol that might mean headphone output. I also read something on this page about bridgeable input??? What does that mean?
It has the normal volume, bright volume, low, mid, high and presence controls and a power and standby switch. I gave it a master volumecontrol myself (on the back, which isn't very convenient, I'm thinking about doing something with a stereo push/pull volume control). six power tubes (EL 34), I removed two of them, to decrease power. That way I can turn the amp louder, which improves the sound.
Effect loops on the back, impedance selector, the sensitivity switch is removed. I build it into another head, a smaller one (51cm wide). Probably this killed any vintage value it had, but I won't sell it ever in my life, so what the heck. It doesn't have a crunch channel or anything, just clean and loud, but all you need with this amp is an Ibanez tubescreamer and you have a sound to die for!

I use the amp with two celestion sidewinders (150W each). My main guitar is a Gibson ES-330 with humbuckers. I also have a telecaster.
I play all kinds of music, pop, jazz, country, bluesrock and I never have any trouble getting the sound thatI need from the amp. In fact the settings on the amp are always the same, I just turn it on and use some effects to modify the sound. For effects I mainly use an Ibanez TS10 tubescreamer and an Ibanez programmable delay. At the moment I'm experimenting with the Award JD Sessionmaster.
The only trouble I have with the amplifier is that is gets a bit noisy when I turn up the mids. This doesn't bother me however, since I turn the mid to zero. I had all the pre-amp capacitors replaced, but it didn't help.
Probably the best thing about this amplifier is that it's loud and clean. You can get a good distortion from any amp if you try hard enough, it's the clean sounds that are the problem. I used to have a Fender Super 60 (all tube) combo. The Sound City is much more direct, with a lot of push, body and tone. In fact, the only thing I know of that comes close are Koch amplifiers, which cost a fortune. I Love it!

When I bought it it was noisy as hell, it crackled, hummed, you name it. Nevertheless it sounded so great that I decided to fix it up. It never gave me any trouble eversince. In fact it accidently dropped on a concrete floot the other day - nothing the matter! Build like a tank. I do use a backup, because it's old and you never know when it will break down.

No customer support.

I simply love this amp. I have never seen another one and I would die if it would break or got stolen. Even thought it's old and it has no fancy features whatsoever I have never seen (except for the Koch)a modern amp that came even close.

I would like to contact anyone who has an amp like this one, I'd really like to know more about it.

Mine was made in 1970. Before i bought this amp, i was owner of differnet amps like Orange OR120, Marshall MKII Masterlead, Marshall JCM 900, Laney Klipp...
Well forget all these great names . SOUNDCITY means variebility, means power , means great fantastic sound...
but just with the soundcity cab.
you really need a good 4x12 with celestion 30 speakers to let this baby growl..

I use a Gibson Studio and a Fender Tele with a Seymour Duncan Little 59 Pickup..SOUNDS GREAT

Hey it's 30 Years old.. well but instead of that.. build like a tank

there's no customer anymore

Unsure of the year on this one but I know it dates to the early 70's - Very clean amp and heavy for a head. This is basically a one channel amp with bright inputs and bridgeable inputs - 2 outputs which has an ohm selector which brings it no limitation of what kind of cab you can use. It also incorporates a reverb effects send/return and the basic eq bass mid treb and presence. 6 ouput tubes which are electroharmonix and mullard. This amp defines headroom with clean and tube pushed tight distortion (brown sound). This amp has a extreme vintage sound as well as the power to play anywhere - place a distortion or fuzz pedal in front and the way the geranium transistors act with the tubes is amazing. I sold my mesa 50w rectoverb to aquire this amp and I don't miss the mesa at all. The moment I plugged and played this amp I was immediately impressed by the picking/striking power of life that was breathed into my ax. This was the tone I had been looking for that mesa fell short of. and I held that mesa as the holy grail of modern amps. But this 30 year old amp took my heart away. The sounds that I have made with this have ranged from vox style"beatles" to metallica ride the lightning and some jazzy tones without the distortion on. I been playing through fulltone fuzz pedals/wah. This is more power and more tone than I had bargained for for 400.00. I am truly amazed. The nice thing about amp is it starts you off at a good tone and with one channel and 4 band eq - you have all the versatillity you need. I no longer spend hours fking with my sound - I turn on and it is there. I spend more time playing. I am rating a nine because of the absense of a line out - it has jacks marked as slave but I am not sure what they do. It has everything else I need. and not too much of the bs that causes you to keep screwing with your sound.

I play thourgh a 71 orange strat. (59 fender copy) Sound is Jimmi Hendrix at woodstock - I can drop the mids and get an awesome grungy grunt sound prefect for power riffs. Very big colosal sound. When you turn it on though it is a tiny bit noisy sounds like a fan is on. but once you crank it a little it sounds so clean and quiet. I always ran a rocktron hush - This amp for some reason has controllable feedback. The feedback has been musical - I havn't needed to place a hush in the chain - It is not needed - Just a good pedal and your in business. Which makes this quieter than My old mesa - no annoying spikes or deathly clank noises that make everyone cringe - just musical tube power that sings to your ears. Rating a 10 - because it kicks ass.

Built like a tank. Seems great and reliable. hey it is 30 years old and still around and cranking fine.

Well I think they are long out of business - Although this is general point to point circuitry - Very servicable by anyone.

This is a cheaper plexi sound. If your looking to make a statement look into an old marshall pexi / hiwatt / orange or matamp. This amp has become my sound - It felt like something was missing prior to buying this. Great value great tone.

I'm not all that sure as to the history of this amp. The other reviewers seem to know much more about this than I do. Judging by the information given by one of the other reviews I think mine is a 1972 model. It has 4 inputs (normal and attenuated inputs for normal and brilliant channels), 2 slave outputs, a headphone jack (errr.. why?) and reverb in/out. There's no channel switching facility and the reverb in/out doesn't work as an effects loop.

It's rated at 120W, but I'm not sure it's really all that loud. I also own a Marshall JCM800 50W 2x12 combo and it's not _that_ much louder. So maybe that's one for the mathematicians among us - 120 Sound City Watts = 50 Marshall Watts. The front panel controls are normal volume, brilliant volume, bass, middle, treble and presence. The EQ controls have to be the most active of any amp I've ever used. I'm not sure, but it sounds as though they don't only attenuate frequencies but actually cut and boost. Very powerful and enable you to get a wide variety of tones from the amp.

Believe it or not, I actually use this as a practice amp! It's loud, but not uncontrolably so and so long as you role the bass back a bit it won't vibrate the windows out of their frames :-)

Features I'd like to see added - channel switching and a proper effects loop. But I can live without them for practicing. Not exactly the most feature laden amp I've ever used (I don't think Line 6 or Johnson have anything to worry about) but good none the less.

This amp is a bit of a one trick pony - it does loud and clean and nothing else. But oooooh the clean tone that it puts out! I use it with a Fender Stratocaster '94 American Standard fitted with Kinman AVn-T pickups and this baby just sings. I was able to pick up a matching Sound City 4x12 cabinet about 2 years after I bought the amp and they seem to complement each other perfectly. The powerful EQ and choice of normal or brilliant channels allow for an incredible breadth of tones from dark mellow jazz through chiming 'indie' to a country picking sound that would cut through concrete. I find the tone inspirational and my Marshall JCM800 (a recognised classic tone itself) sounds sterile by comparison.

One major drawback is how noisy it is. I don't think these amps were ever concieved with the idea of recording in mind. It's easily the noisiest amp I've ever used but, hell, I think that's part of its charm! Once you start playing you can't really hear the noise (which sounds like mains hum) so I guess that's the solution!

I've never played this amp loud enough to hear if it distorts at high volume, but I doubt it. I get the impression it was never designed for that kind of playing. I had the amp serviced by a local engineer last year and he told me that it's possible to convert these amps to HiWatts quite easily if you want a bit of overdrive at reasonable levels.

I'm not a gigging musician, so reliability isn't an issue. I've never had a problem with it (unlike my JCM800 - but that's another story) so for a 30 year old bit of gear I think that's good going.

Sound City are no more.

I bought this amp for #10 off a mate because it wasn't working properly. It cost me #80 for the 4x12 cabinet and another #160 to get it properly serviced and all the valves replaced. So #250 all in. Not bad for an amp with so much tone and character. I recently thought of trading it in for a Line 6 Flextone II for the extra versatility, but in the end I couldn't sacrifice the gorgeous tone for the sake of all the amp models in the world. It truly is an inspirational sound unlike any I've ever come across and I'd rather have its one sound than the Flextone's hundreds (besides I've got a POD too :-)

If it was nicked I'd take my hat off to the theif cause it weighs a tone! I probably wouldn't replace it but I'd write many sad, sad tunes about the good ol' days when we made beautiful music together. And those tunes would be all the poorer for not having the Sound City's tone stamped on them.

I'm not sure what year this amp was made but I know it's old. I bought this amp head used about twenty years ago for $200 at a MusicMan store. I was 15 and it was my first tube amp. I put money down on a used 50w Marshall head and was very excited the day I went to pick it up. I was devastated when I found out the music store had sold it out from under me the day before. Seeing how disappointed I was, the guy at the store knocked $100 off this so I bought it. This amp has 2 channels, bright and normal that each have normal, attenuated & slave input jacks (6 total). The controls are: separate volumes for each channel, bass, middle, treble & presence. On the back are voltage and impedence selectors, reverb in & out (which are capped on mine), a ground switch, 2 fuse holders, 2 loud speaker outputs and a sensitivity switch. It also has a master volume on the back that didn't originally come on the amp. I picked up a matching Sound City 4X12 cabinet used for $150 about 6 months later at another music store. I'ts funny that I have a matched set since I have almost never seen Sound City gear. In the 24 years I have been playing, I have only run into Sound City gear a few times.

This is a very clean, loud amp. It is capable of some good overdriven sound but only at extreme volume. I used this amp to play out a lot with my band as a kid. I would turn the volume up to six and all the tone controls up 80%. I would then turn the speaker cabinet around so it was facing the wall and drop a folded blanket between the speakers and the wall. By adjusting the angle the cab was turned to the wall, I could adjust my volume with the rest of the group. This amp would otherwise be way too loud and drown out everyone else. This amp would produce very deep, bassy, powerful distortion that you could feel in you chest. The Dimarzio pickups in my Ibanez Destroyer helped. Unfortunately it only produces this tone at completely unusable volume levels. The preamp circuit sucks and really doesn't produce any distortion at all. When I turn up the amp and turn down the master volume it gets a very shitty, gritty type of distorted sound to it. Like I said, the master volume was a add on and the amp was not designed with this in mind. I still occasionally use the amp but
I go through a Digitech Valve FX first to get the tone I want. The Mark IV is also very noisy. It is old and produces a lot of hum. I am usually able to reduce it by switching the ground switch.

It has been a pretty reliable amp. I have brought it in for servicing, but just to have it re-tubed and biased. It cost a fortune. This amp has 4 preamp tubes, 1 rectifier tube & 6 power tubes. I also had it looked at to see if the hum could be reduced but it came still as noisy as ever. I found a schematic for the amp in The Tube Amp Book Vol 3 by Aspen Pittman.

N/A, They were out of business long before I got the amp.

It's been a dependable amp. VERY, VERY LOUD. You will need effects with this one to get some crunch unless you are willing to give up your hearing for a few days of power chord fun. Your neighbors will hate you. If you crank it up I suggest you do it in a basement. Otherwise you will probably be heard a few miles away.

i own two of these, each a different vintage. one was made in 1971 or '72, the other in 1974. the circuits are slightly different, but the
main controls are similar.

the '72 has both the headphone jack (don't try this at home...) and
the reverb in/out jacks. probably one of the earliest mass produced
amps with an active effects loop. the later model lacks both.

the 'sensitivity switch' circuit is different on the two amps, but
the effect is similar on both. this switch simply increases the
value of the cathode resistor on the pre-PI gain stage, sublty
changing the frequency rolloff. most noticable at higher volumes.

as these amps (when set up as designed) are louder than hell, unless
you're playing outdoor gigs, expect to use a pedal to hear any distortion. real nice, bright, punchy clean tone up to ear-bleed volume levels.

when i picked up the '74, it had the original mullard el-34's in it.
it was also biased colder than norseman's boot. power output was down
to about 50W, but this thing screamed. i tried biasing down the '72
(with NOS sylvania tubes), but they wouldn't cut it. if you can stuff in some good mullards, you can bias these down to get excellent tone
at reasonable volume levels.

clean, loud, clean, and loud. if you're a townsend fan and can't
afford a vintage hiwatt, these are the ticket. as these amps are
30 years old, expect some hum if they have never been serviced.
if you _do_ decide to fix one, the multi-cap electrolytics are
gonna cost you to replace.

unlike most musical instrument amplifiers, these units have _active_
tone control circuitry - that is the bass, treb, and mid controls
both cut _and_ boost the selected frequencies. active tone controls
are sweet, but carry an annoying side effect. there is a constant
voltage present in the tone circuits, so twiddling knobs is going to
make "scratching" noises. noone makes a good, noiseless pot.

overall, unless you have a tech tweak the amp, the sound capibilities
are pretty much limited to _clean_ and LOUD.

built like a tank. once set up and working properly, these are
trouble-free amps. easy to repair, if need be.

i have yet to see an amp with a 30 year warranty. these are fairly
easy to fix, and shouldn't cost more than any other p-p wired tube
head to service.

not only do i already own two, but i'm patiently awaiting delivery
of a 100-R model, same tube complement, but with internal reverb.

i'm constantly on the lookout for the 50W models, as these crank.

it all depends on the sound you're looking for - a modern, high-gain
buzz machine these are not. but they put out copious amounts of clean,
punchy sound gauranteed to annoy everyone in a 200m radius.

These amps are as rare as Hens Teeth knowadays & can be very pricey when & if you find one . I believe that this one was Built in 1969* Built out of a London Music Shop that bore the same name "SOUND CITY" My father & my Uncle both remember it well i am told .Funnily enough i did some checking around & discovered that the guy who worked at "SoundCity" Designing these amps "they were made by custom order only!" he later left the employ of SoundCity" feeling there were a few things that the company wouldnt let him do to the AMPS that he felt was lacking & so after building SoundCity" he took his idea's & started up & designed what are now Famously known as the HI-WATT Brand of amps that we see today. He apparently built all the amps to Military standard , i read that many of the tubes & materials were proven extremely hardy as they were stripped straight out of the SERVO'S of MIG- Fighters that had been refurbished or decommissioned. I can testify to this hardiness it looks as some ppl whove seen my SoundCity" have noted "nearly brand new!!" . This is a single channel Master volume type amp featuring <Pre-amp Volume - Master Vol - Treble - Middle - Bass & Prescence > It has a whopping! 7 variety's of inputs ...two for Brilliant that are layed out as <Input , Slave & Attenuated input in the brilliant scale> & then the same for NORMAL <Input - atten - slave> & finally an input all on its own & ive never yet figured this out ...it has a symbol of what looks like either a Telephone reciever or headphones next to it ..most baffling i shall ask my amp tech to verify what it is.Finishing up the front panel you have a MAINS Switch & a STANDBY" located next to eachother with a nice big old round RED Light that comes on Under which reads "Dallas Arbiter London England" . BACK PANEL: Features Two LOUDSPKR Outs ... & TWO Reverb Ports one IN" the other OUT" an OHM selector for 4'ohm's , 8'ohm's & 16'ohm's ...& a SENSITIVITY SELECTOR SWITCH < Up or down for 1 or 2> A serial number plate & a Fuse situation & thats about it for the back panel . Theres a nice pill box grill on the rear & above the Tubes that allows allot of Air Circulation so this amp doesnt run hot at all! .The only feature i wish this AMP had was perhaps a second channel but at the end of the day i bought single channel cause i really didnt care about a second channel i do all my settings & stuff via the stomp boxes ..& run my basic crunchy clean sound from the Pre-amp Stage setting on the amp itself. This is my everything amp ..recording , touring , gigging you name it! this baby rules my world. I can honestly say that at 120 watts !!! this amp is one of the loudest & cleanest ive yet to hear ..its WAYYYY loud with the Pre-AMP Stage Dimed! & the MASTER on 5!...on that setting we are talking a change in body chemistry, this baby pushes a mountain of SONIC AIR! ..you feel it go right through you, its LOUD! When i tried it in the Shop where i bought it the guy was closing & i was riffing out & he just turned the Volume right up! ..I wound up blowing a FUSE box off the wall .. & My girlfirnd who was parked 1000 mtrs down a busy mainroad testified afterwards that she heard this guitar & saw all these Shopkeepers pouring out onto the street! they thought it was some AUTO-CRASH! .."was that you ..?" she asked ..heh* ..So if you ask is it loud ..?well i think ive answered that one.

Im using an Ovation Solidbody Electric with Radiophonic Pickups I use a variety of settings <for more info see my post for OVATION "Breadwinner" in the guitars submissions> The whole set up im running is real Vintage 60's Buzzsaw rock'n'roll The guitar is a 69* as is the AMP! . Im running the SoundCity Head through a MARSHALL 1960A JCM900 Slant cab 300 watter , 75watt spkrs so its got a very Pete Townsendy "WHO" British Rock Vibe to it & real skanky too if i crank the PRE-AMP stage all the way. It can be very slightly noisy when i first switch it on ..just a little white noise but it generaly clears immediately the minute i turn up the volume . Its not a noisy amp just OLD! & Matured Its got this bell like tone to it ..its soooo clean on the clean settings just "MOUNTAIN WATER CRYSTAL" Clear..& Loud!!!! . What can i say this AMP is beautiful its got the best 60's early 70's Rock vibes about it ive heard . I usually as i say just set my Distortion boxes for my dirtier sounds & leave the preamp stage cranked <Thats my clean crunchy sound!> & its all nuthin but milk & honey. I get so much variety from just playing with the prescence Knob i dont need to touch anything else ..i set the treb & bass & Mid all at about 4 - 5 ..& totally DIME out the Prescence & Voila! im at Woodstock! .. Killer sounds, far better than HI-WATT's vibe im afraid & i believe many would concur with that , who have a SOUNDCITY!

I can depend on this amp.. havent had any trouble with it .Its 30yrs old, Built to Military standards with parts from Russian MIGS! what more do you want ..? No backup here required ..instructions "Drop from 30,ooo feet ..watch it bounce & then gig it!

These guys were out of buisiness not long into the next decade. I get my techy to fix it if anything goes awry, done like a dogs dinner.

Been playing for 11 yrs ..Guitar that is . Own loads of other gear , Drums , Sitar , Bass , More Guitars ... Leslie spkrs thats sort of thing, i like Vintage gear its got the sounds my ears want to know about, yknow ..? If lost or stolen sleepless nights would ensue ..thereafter i would as with my other beloved gear ..scour the earth for adequate replacement & an exact replica!. I just love the Englishness of this amp just the low down skanky history behind it ..its rarity, its purity, its levity & it's gravity!!! ..its sounds are unique , in your face , clean , crunchy, beats the hell out of me why they went under as a company!!! THe most beautiful & enchanting amp ive owned yet! love it ,love it, love it! ...thats all she wrote