Sound City Studio 20 - Head

1960's or 1970's head with 20 watts from two EL84s, Dallas Arbiter-era PA amp probably built for DA by a company called Elpico. Identical to the Elpico AC88 only in a wooden case rather than metal - even has the same PCB.
Versatile - no. It does one thing only - tube rectified EL84 push pull twang. Originally it had three channels, but I have cascaded #1 into #2 for some more gain (it's a flat-response PA - not ideal for guitar, but getting there.....)
Ideal studio/recording, live would need mic and PA. Will drive most cabs, and quite loud through my 4x12.

Any (decent) guitar comes through with sparkling transparency. Suits most styles apart from metal. Shines at raw blues and country twang.
No more noisy than other amps. Breaks up like a pair of EL84 should, and sounds good when going over the edge. Push it too hard and (as expected) it gets a little rough.

Little to go wrong - been caning it now for a couple of years with no problems.

Company long gone, repairs a doddle - like five wires and a handful of components is all.....

Playing 45 years.
Fender Bassman 6G6-A, WEM Dominator Mk.III, Traynot YGL-3.
Stolen - well, cost me ten quid at a boot-fair, so no worries.
Love - simplicity and sound.
Hate - stoopid output impedance selection procedure.

This is a sound City studio 20 head which I picked up at a furniture sale for ??10 and I have not been able to find anything about this product on the internet, which could mean that I am quids in as far as value goes. It is a 60s/early 70s all valve 20 watt head which runs on el84s. It has 3 inputs all with seperate volume controls, one input is for a record player i think. It also has treble and bass controls. No switchable distortion or reverb here, this is the real deal. Considering how I only bought it today I have not had the chance to gig it or use it with a band so I do not know about durability. The cabinet is a 2x10 and has a silver grille covering like the fender amps. I think these may be based on the old fenders. The amp starts breaking up after about halfway on the volume, by which time the walls will be rattling. 20 watts is all I will ever need.

I took it home, plugged it in and switched it on at arms length, expecting a large puff of smoke to emerge and a nasty popping sound. or worse, nothing at all. The light lit up and I waited the usual 10-15 seconds for it to heat up nicely. I plugged in my strat and played an E chord. The sound of this amp is absolutely superb. It has a sparkling clean sound which just echoes a twangy hank marvin (ulp!!) sound. After plugging in my pedals (dunlop wah, boss OD-3 overdive, Behringer tube overdrive, behringer compressor, boss DF-2 distortion/feedbacker, electro harmonix big muff USA, danelectro echo? and started experimenting. the overdrive kicks in the fattest tight sound you will ever hear. like SRV without the dead scratchy sounds. The echoe adds a nice little slapback delay/reverb and the compressor just makes for a superb old-time country tone think Don Rich and Jerry Reed. With the strat obviously the bluesy wide-open overdrive tones are the fattest but the clean sound holds it's own perfectly as well. My strat, incidently, is a korean made lite ash with seymour duncan alnico 2s stock. My telecaster is a nashville deluxe with a duncan hot at the neck. The twang this amp createds when paired with the tele is just unbelieveable. I play mainly Blues and country but also a load of rock/funk/jazz styles as well and this amp deals with all of them perfectly.

i cannot say, i have only had it for 2 hours but all the parts look stock.

n/a

if it were stolen then i would be able to find it easily because it would be the only one of it's kind for sale in the UK. compared to my fender hot rod deluxe it is amazing, much better with pedals. If anyone knows anything about this product, please email me at soltwanger@yahoo.co.uk I would gladly have a chat with you about this amazing amp.