Here's an incredibly original BA17 Guitar and Bass amplifier, made by Moody in Sydney, Australia, in 1964 (a transformer has a date code of September '64 - see the 'more pictures' link below).

This amp has had a LOT of expensive restoration work carried out since it was sold to us privately as an amp supposedly in great condition. The output measured just 4 watts, and the amp was extremely unstable, leading to a horrible distortion that sounded like a torn cone in the speaker. A rewound output transformer and much work by Melbourne amp guru Ross Giles (this man knows Moody amps better than anyone else I know!) has resulted in a really nice, toneful, expressive amp.

The vintage Moody 17-watt combo displayes the blonde tolex and dark brown grille cloth typical of Moody amps at the time, and is complete right down to the gold-anodised Chevron (V) and Moody badge, plus the rare white "M" knobs, which become brittle with age and have broken off most vintage Moodies 40-something years later.

Even the white leather carrying handle is still intact and in great condition.

The amp runs a pair of 6BQ5s in the output - 6BQ5 is essentially the US designation for the European EL-84. Preamp is a 12AX7 (twin triode) and a 6BL8 (triode-pentode), and the rectifier is a 6CA4.

The amp would not that usable for bass, unless you are looking for a genuine vfintage overdriven bass sound for the studio, but like many vintage 'bass' amps (effectively guitar amps devoid of 'extras' such as reverb and tremolo), this thing sounds fantastic for guitar! There are three inputs, which all have differing gain and tone. These three inputs were often for guitar, bass and accordion (!), or lead, rhythm and bass.

The tone is all blues distortion, but it does that very well. If you're looking for a clean amp, this ain't it! Low power and valve rectifier feeding into the original vintage alnico Rola 12U50 12" speaker (one of my favourite speaker models) add up to lots of 'squishy' blues distortion. The sealed back enclosure gives a nice bassy type of response, giving the amp quite a different tonal character to the myriad of EL-84 open-back combo amps on the market at present.

The amp could be used for lower-volume gigging, but is a superb amp for a home recording studio. Throw away your distortion pedals and 'modelling' pods and find out what real valve distortion is all about!

The amp measures 61cm(W) x 61cm(H) x 26cm(D), and weighs 20kg.

Sold to Shane

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