|
|
|
|
|
| I
sometimes wonder what it is about early Aussie amps that arouses my passions
so much. And then an amp like this comes along that makes it all obvious! It's a very cute Australian made tube guitar amplifier from the late 1950s. It is in extremely good condition - has hardly seen any use and the faux 'snakeskin' tolex is virtually unmarked. Original Rola speaker is in good working condition. Power cable was professionally replaced about ten years ago when the original started perishing. Works perfectly and puts out a chunky 4 or 5 watts thats perfect for practice or in the studio. Valve (tube) configuration is 5Y3GT rectifier with 6BR7 preamp and 6M5 output. The 6M5 is a high-gain pentode, popular in mantle radios in the 1960s and equivalent to an EL80. The 6BR7 is a military-grade ultra-quiet version of the EF86 (with a different pinout). These paired together, with the beaut valve rectification of the 5Y3 gives tone to burn! An incredible-sounding little amp, with the sweetest overdriven tones imaginable. Roly Roper (the guy with the best website by a mile regarding early Aussie guitar amps - click here to view) has just let me know that the serial number (B4708) identifies the amp as a Maton. He wrote "While I don't actually recognise it, I can tell you who built it. The serial number is the clue. It's a Maton. I don't know what model (yet), but by the serial number it comes after the AM3 and before the Series-10." My suspicion is that this may be a VERY early 'Super 6' (later on Maton would have the Super 6 with one 8" speaker, the Hi-Mark 15 with two 8" speakers, and the Tremolux 30 with four 8" speakers - click here to download a PDF file of the four later models). Not long after finding this amp, we got in a 1958 Maton Mastersound 1x12, which is a very similar cabinet design, and has the same tolex covering and grille cloth, and we have also since been contacted by the owner of amp serial B4608 which dates to 1959, so the likely build year of this amp is 1959 or 1960. Why bother with a Fender® Champ® when we have homegrown tone like this? Sold to Martin
|
