50's/60's amps

[RayL]

In the late '60s when bands were buying bigger and bigger stacks by Marshall and Selmer and Sound City, a lot of the London session guitarists, who by contrast needed something small and reliable, used Wallace. These were essentially hand-built 1x12" combos made by a guy in Soho Street, the short road that links Soho Square with Oxford Street. I haven't seen a Wallace in years, but they were made to last.

Ray L

[dusty fretz]

Ted Wallace actually introduced his first guitar amps way back in 1938, beating more illustrious counterparts such as Leo Fender, Tom Jennings and Jim Marshall by a pretty fair margin. Before ceasing manufacture around 40 years later, Ted had built everything from small combos up to 200W heads that were literally a two-man lift! His amps were renowned for low noise, great tone, high build quality, ultra-reliability and clean, distortion-free performance, the latter becoming decidedly unfashionable in the late sixties! However, these attributes made Wallace amps very popular with session players, especially bassists, and users included Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Eric Ford.

Wallace also offered equally indestructible speaker cabs, including an early 4x12 example - a format subsequently made famous by Marshall. Ted was one of the first to venture into the powerful PA field, with artists such as Elton John, Jethro Tull and Procul Harum putting his systems to good use.

Many Wallace amps are still doing the business in studios and are highly rated by those 'in the know', but this UK brand is virtually unknown to the majority of players, dealers etc., which amounts to an almost criminal lack of much-deserved recognition. Examples don't come up for sale very often these days and relevant info is even scarcer. In fact the feature published in the June 2006 issue of Guitarist magazine was the first in-depth article to appear - I was effectively writing my own research material!

[des mcneill]

Paul Day,- Now there's a name I remember. Perchance the same Paul Day who wrote the "Burns" book?
Des.

[dusty fretz]

Guilty as charged, Des. But I've done a few more since then - they've all helped to keep the family fed when trying to earn a living from something that's not regarded as a 'proper' job in the UK, i.e. music! Unfortunately, the current state of the industry seems to suggest that this derogatory attitude is now true!

[des mcneill]

Great book Paul,really love it and is very relevant to me,I still have an "Artist" bass and"Vibra Artist" guitar from early sixties. So as not to go off thread your book also covers the Burns amps of the period.
Good to meet you on the site.

Des.

[dusty fretz]

Thanks for your kind comments Des. I too have a Vibra Artist, bought in '63, sold in '65 and re-acquired 43 years later, courtesy of eBay! However, I agree about returning this thread to its rightful theme, so perhaps the guitar discussion could be continued elsewhere. Talking of Burns combos, I bought a Double 12 in 1965 and remember it as being a great amp, although examples tried in more recent years have been disappointing. There we are, back on track!

[George Geddes]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Alan Tarney used a Wallace amp...

George

[Mikey]

My first proper amp and not a bare chassis and separate speaker jobby from National Wireless Supplies was a 30 watt Grampian Vibromajor. It was finished in two tone blue and grey if I remember rightly. It didn't have reverb but it did have a great tremelo channel with speed and depth controls - great for "Blue Turns to Grey". I always wanted one of the Futurama amps to match my Futurama III guitar.

[Bill Bowley]

Thanks for your kind comments Des. I too have a Vibra Artist, bought in '63, sold in '65 and re-acquired 43 years later, courtesy of eBay! However, I agree about returning this thread to its rightful theme, so perhaps the guitar discussion could be continued elsewhere. Talking of Burns combos, I bought a Double 12 in 1965 and remember it as being a great amp, although examples tried in more recent years have been disappointing. There we are, back on track!

Paul,

What speakers came OEM with the Double 12? I know the ones that came with the Orbit 3 I had were very flimsy when compared to Celestions (may have been Fane branded as Burns?), indeed the 'paper' cones that the mag windings were on were where the fire started - I always meant to replace them with Celestions or whatever but never got around to it before I 'sold on' the amp.

[dusty fretz]

Hi Bill,
Fane did indeed supply the two 12-inchers for the Double 12, suitably re-badged via 'Burns Super Orbital' labels. They sounded fine at the time, but many surviving Burns combos have been re-speakered over the years, which certainly suggests longevity problems.