Re: vintage carlsbro amps?

Post by **mynameisjonas** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:53 am

are they any good?
i'm specifically wondering about the 50 and 100 heads. i found a 50 really cheap locally when i was doing a search for vintage laneys. here's what it looks like:

the ones i managed to find when googling all had yellow faceplates and were supposedly late 60s/early 70s, so i'm guessing this might be a later one...?

noirengineer · Post by **noirengineer** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:05 am

they certainly look cool! you can't demo it in local shop or anything?
I'd be interested in how it sounds too.

Post by **zhivago** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:05 pm

the old Laneys from the 70s have a very good reputation, I'd pick it up!

mjet · Post by **mjet** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:01 pm

Carlsbro was making top-shelf stuff at a quality level comparable to Marshall, Laney, Simms-Watts, WEM, Sound City etc in the late 60s and early 70s. I have one from '69 that sounds lovely, although it's now sitting in storage while I try and find a place where I can store it AND play it at realistic volumes. It'll dirty up a bit but not perhaps as much as some Marshalls from the same era, although I'm not as familiar with the 50s. It's definitely worth considering though if the price is right!

chrisjedijane · Post by **chrisjedijane** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:27 am

I have a 70's SS Carlsbro combo and it's killer for guitar and bass. People keep offering to buy it off me

We had an original 50 top in the shop recently, it was super loud and sounded very nice indeed.

Post by **mynameisjonas** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:23 am

noirengineer wrote: they certainly look cool! you can't demo it in local shop or anything?
I'd be interested in how it sounds too.

unfortunately it's not locally as in "locally", more like "in the same country", so i don't have the opportunity try it out.

zhivago wrote: the old Laneys from the 70s have a very good reputation, I'd pick it up!

yeah i'd love to, but alas the laney was about 3 times the price of the carlsbro.

Post by **mynameisjonas** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:32 am

mjet wrote: Carlsbro was making top-shelf stuff at a quality level comparable to Marshall, Laney, Simms-Watts, WEM, Sound City etc in the late 60s and early 70s.

cool, so definitely worth checking out then. i just found another ad for an identical 50 that included a shot of the back... that PT looks like a partridge, doesn't it?

Post by **zhivago** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:50 am

mynameisjonas wrote:
zhivago wrote: the old Laneys from the 70s have a very good reputation, I'd pick it up!
yeah i'd love to, but alas the laney was about 3 times the price of the carlsbro.

ooops, I meant to type "Carlsbro" there!

(but the comment also works for 70s Laneys, I guess!

)

Post by **Orang Goreng** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:57 am

What I recall from my 100W Carlsbro top that looks a lot like the one Mjet posted... it was a very clean amp, that wouldn't overdrive. Also, the reverb behaved funnily. Still have the spring reverb pan (accutronics) from that one, BTW.

Array · Post by **Array** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:21 pm

Not sure about the heads but I have a Carlsboro 4x12 cab and it's great. Lasted me years and I got it second hand and well used 16 years ago.