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A lot is written about how good expensive heritage valve amps are but just to show that getting a good sound doesn't have to be expensive, a little Sound City trannie amp was used at the Surrey Shads Club last Friday for all the the lead work by all of the players and the sound was amazing.

Several players and audience commented independently on the sound.

I bought this amp in '87 for £30 (about £65 in today's money) and gave it to John Boulden some time ago who has since been looking for something bigger to suit larger venues but hasn't found anything to match the sound. The only modification to the amp itself is the addition of a Gemini 3 box in line.

Getting a good sound doesn't have to cost a lot - having said that, I would like a TVS3!

I was impressed with the sounds wafting across a street in Plymouth today so stopped to listen. The guy was a street musician, sitting on an ancient small transistor amp with his CIJ strat playing through a very beat up looking Korg Toneworks, a Boss EQ unit (whose contols looked battered and had long since lost their button knobs) and his vintage Shads sounds were spot on. I kept looking closely to see what else he was using but that was it! Expensive equipment? I don't think so, which rather makes the point quite dramatically.

TVS3!

I saw "THE" unit in action last night!

ESE Echomatic IV owned by Mark Burton, what a sound.

The idea was mooted of a tape delay with a micro processor
driven front end to do the head / speed / level switching to save
all the fiddling about!

Now that would be a nice unit!

Amanda

Among my, (rather over large), collection of guitar amplifiers I have an old Sound City SC30, a Peavey Backstage 40 and a Peavey Bandit 65. These solid state amps all have very good clean sounds and also work well with multi effects pedals. They may lack the character of a good valve amp and are a disaster if you're looking for overdriven distortion, but they're light in weight and work quite well with Shadows material.

Henry