Sound City 'Concord' - anyone ever play one?

11/2/1999 11:06 PM

pumpstein

Sound City 'Concord' - anyone ever play one? A buddy brought over 2 of these Sound City combo amps last night...a blonde and a black...apparently they were only made between '67 - '72.     Brief description: 2xEL34 (one had new Teslas, the other had Mullards, + both had 5 Brimar ECC83's in the preamps. 2 12" speakers, either Fane or Goodman's...didn't confirm which. Partridge transformers; the OPT was about the size of a Pro Rev's. The amp panel is one of the ugliest I've seen...very 1969 "let's all go to the moon" kind of design...the vol, treb and bass controls use faders instead of pots (ooh...it really *is* the space age).     My take on these amps was that they are potentially really cool, but either they were in mild disrepair (I didn't troubleshoot anything) or the preamp is simply a waste of tubes - just really lousy design. No schematic was visable nor do I possess one, so I have no idea what the story is there. All the ingredients are in place for a really great sounding amp, but both examples sounded pretty mediocre...tons of spank, but very trebly and with no real poop, and no real volume. My DR clone killed them both, volume-wise. Tone-wise, it was no contest in favore of the Fender circuit. Actually, the best sound we dialed up on the Concords was on the channel that had a failing bass control. This was part of why I don't readily accept that these amps are dogs.     Anyone have any experience with this amp? I'd love to have my suspision confirmed...which is that the amps just need a tune-up and could be made to sound really cool.     FYI: the black one was purchased for $250 and the blonde for $450, and just last night before coming over, the current owner rec'd an offer of $650 on the blonde. *SOMEBODY* obviously has some kind of jones for this particular amp, to offer that kind of cash.     There is hidden mojo here...I can smell it.     Thanks,   - P