Conference napalm::guitar

    Hi there!
    	I received a call from a friend who just picked up a "Mitchell" 
    Pro 60/100 head. He went on to tell me all about this "Mesa MK1" clone 
    from it's all wood cabinet and wicker grille to it's supposed history 
    of ex-Mesa engineers leaving Mesa to start Mitchell. Has anyone in 
    notesland heard of these amps? I remember a long time ago (late 1970's 
    maybe) reading ads for Mitchell amps in GP magazine, but that was so 
    long ago I can't be sure. 
    
    OK all you amp historians...   what's the deal behind Mitchell?
     
    Many thanks in advance,
    			   Fred
    
    
    P.S. Mr. Moderator, please feel free to move this note if you would like 
         to combine it with another note.

    I remember Mitchell, but that business about ex-Mesa engineers doesn't
    ring any bells.  They were one of a number of high-priced Boogie-like
    amps that came out in the late seventies and died out.  They also made
    some transistor amps, I remember Alan Starr had one for a while, maybe
    he could comment.
    
    						Brian

A fellow axe player had one back in the early 80s...  it was a pretty
cool little set up,, the amp was a 50w combo with a 12" speaker, 
reverb, master vol, bass/mid/treble/presence controls, 
along with a nice little extension 12"  cab to go along with it.. 
All finsihed in naturual wood, (Oak I beleive) the both had a cloth 
grills, not wicker...
 
the only customizing my buddy did  to the amp and cab
was to load them with 100w EVMs..  

amp had some good distorion, as well as a  decent clean sound..  The big 
down fall of the rig was lack of channel switching capabilities.
so he didn't keep em too long.,.

Nice little portable setup though...

    
>    OK all you amp historians...   what's the deal behind Mitchell?
 

	Mitchell attempted to get into the MKI market back in the late 70's
and as a matter of fact there use to be a Mitchell dealer in Manachester,NH
on Elm street. I remember playing through a 4 6l6 Mitchell.....with 1 12...

	They were built like a tank,but suffered in the distortion/sustain
mode if you ask me. They actually used the 6 band MXR Eq pedal electronics
as a front end for one of the two inputs and it really hurt the tone of the 
amp. The amps can be modified to sound better......You see them around used
for $200 to 300 for the tube flavor....

							Rick

    Along the "rarebird" amps line ...
    
    Long ago, back in the recesses of time, when I was still in high school,
    a friend of mine had an "Oliver" guitar amp. It was a cab that was 
    about 4ft high. When you hit a toggle switch in the back of the cab
    the amp head (with trace-elliot-like glowing green displays) slowly rose 
    out of the top of the cab. Easily impressed at the time, I thought this 
    was the coolest thing. I have never seen another of these beasts since.
    Anyone else ever seen one of these amps???
    
    /Billy_K

    Hi Bill!
    	I have a friend of mine in NYC that still uses his Oliver bass
    rig. Another of those stories where an engineer from Ampeg started
    Oliver. Nice sounding amp if I remember correctly and the 2x15"
    cabinet was very lightweight too!
    
    Have a GREAT day!
    	Fred

    
    	When I was in high school, one of the drummers I jammed with picked
    up an old Oliver head. Boy, was it cheezy lookin'. All tube, of course. 
    It went thru a phase where it sounded real good though; real Stonsey
    raunch at low volumes. Then the tubes puked out; it went thru fuses
    every few tunes and you could actually see the blue light from the arc 
    coming out of the back. You couldn't stand on a concrete floor & play
    thru it without getting zapped. We used to laugh about it then.
    Probably lucky we didn't set my parent's basement on fire... 
    
    
    Brad

As I was thinking about this stuff, I remember, geez, musta been back in 
75 or 76,, I was in a 5 piece band, the rythm guitar player had an
ORANGE head;  used it to drive a Traynor 8 x 10 cab....   It's hard to 
remember how it was,,, he was pretty scary on guitar anyway,,,, 
dude had hands like bear paws, used to break low "e"s bending em,
and he used 10s (yoikes)....  He did things to a Les Paul Deluxe that 
by any standards were criminal...

but I recall the Orange head was ultra heavy...  musta wieghed over 75 
pounds...    The volume control was iconed by a fist...

     Anyone ever hear of Steelphon amps?? I picked up a Steelphon "Pioneer"
     head the other day. I've never heard/seen one of these before. It has
     2 channels (norm/vib), reverb, vibrato, brt switches, and a funky switch
     called "Bend" which doesn't work, plus 12AX7 preamp tubes and 4-EL84
     power tubes (all new). I think it's a class A amp like a Vox. I'm not
     sure, but I hope so. Cranked up, it sounds more like a Vox than a Fender,
     and certainly not as loud as my 50W Fender. I figure it's probably about
     30W.

     Neal
     

    Hey, I'd *still* be impressed if the head rose up outta the cabinet!
    
    Drew Zingg from Steely Dan was using a couple "Matchless" combos with
    what looked like a plexiglass logo on the front that was lit up from
    behind. I never heard of them (truly surprising given Brian Rost's 
    input in here). About the size of a twin...
    
    Info?
    
    Edd

    Edd mon, where you been?  There's a whole Matchless topic

    Um, uh, well, gee, like...
    
    2506   DREGS::BLICKSTEIN   21-APR-1992    16  Matchless Amplification
    
    Edd (the second D is for "duh...")

    RE: .5, .10
    
    Yeah, it was pretty cool at the time to sit around getting messed up at
    rehearsal, shut off the lights and watch the glowing green head rise
    outta the cab... I remember that the amp actually sounded pretty cool 
    as well (it was a bitch to carry, though...)
    
    /Billy_K

    The downfall of the Oliver is when the motor that raises the head
    breaks down.  I know a woman in Cambridge who has an amp like that, she
    has to pull the head out and prop it up.
    
    Ya gotta wonder who thought that one up...
    
    							Brian

re: .14

>    Ya gotta wonder who thought that one up...
    
Waddya expect?  That was back when we all "just said yes".  :-)

-Hal

    
>    Ya gotta wonder who thought that one up...
    
    
    I don't know, but I bet he's doing set design for Jay Leno...
    
    

>    Ya gotta wonder who thought that one up...
    
    My guess is Ampeg fans.  It only seems like an electro-mechanical 
    "extension" (so to speak) of the Portaflex design.
    
>Waddya expect?  That was back when we all "just said yes".  :-)
    
    Bwahahaha!  ("What does he mean, Daddy?")

    Dave
    

    > No built in smoke pots?
    
    Marshall Majors had the lock on that feature...
    
    Edd

    >> No built in smoke pots?
    >
    >Marshall Majors had the lock on that feature...
    >
    >Edd
    
    And BB-Kittyhawks... :-)
    

    I used to own an amp that was made by SG systems. I haven't heard
    an amp since that could produce such incredible feedback! This thing
    pumped 100 watts driven into 2 Altec speakers. It also had a built
    in phase shifter (which didn't work). Haven't seen one of these around
    since I got rid of mine......
    
    
    Mike

     I wanted to find a schematic for my Steelphon Pioneer head so I called
     the guys at Groove Tubes and they were stumped, They said they never
     heard of Steelphon amps. Oh well.
     	Even without a schematic, I finally got the whole thing working.
     It's the weirdest amp I've ever worked on. There are six pcb's with
     tube sockets mounted on them. The tubes protrude holes in the top of
     the chassis. The filter caps are made by Ducati. (don't they make
     motorcycles?). I think this thing may be European.
     	The reverb and tremolo are like most I've heard, but there's a "Bend"
     switch for the nastiest distortion that would make even Robbie Krieger
     jealous. It has one nifty feature that Fender should have incorporated
     long ago; a reverb on/off switch for the Normal channel. The power cord
     is detachable, and there's a funky six position integral voltage-selector/
     fuse-holder on the front panel. It's louder than I originally perceived,
     and, after looking at it closely, I believe it's a class AB amp. It sounds
     different than the 6L6 amps I'm used to though. probably cuz of the EL84s.
     I think I'll keep it for shites and grins, like playing on 11.

     Neal

re: .21

   Yes, Ducati is an Italian motorcycle company.  (Make great products, too!)

   -- Sam

    I'd DIE to have a Duke!!!
    
    jc (who'll take a Desmo SS900!!)

>       <<< Note 2840.23 by KDX200::COOPER "There's a moon in the sky!" >>>
>                             -< Red, of course... >-

   Is there any other color for an Italian vehicle?  :-)

   -- Sam

    I was talking to my son about old vintage amps, stuff that I used to
    play or lust after in my high school days. Got me to searching this
    notesfile........I found most of the semi-obscure names like Sunn, Traynor,
    Laney....
    
    but no KUSTOM
    
    I memory serves these were a tall stack (>5') and the cabinets were
    covered in a "roll & tuck" padded sparkle naugehyde. The speaker grille
    had twin chromed air port holes midway up the cabinet... one on each
    side.
    
    Jack's Drum shop which used to be on Boyston St., Boston Mass in the
    early '70's used to be a Kustom dealer.
    
    Can anybody provide some history on Kustom and what happened to them?
    
    
    Thx,
    
    Jonathan  

    The Kustom "Tuck and roll" amps were a complete line of solid state
    amps from a 1x12" combo through larger "piggyback" designs.  Love that
    blue sparkle...
    
    I once co-owned one with a 2x12 bottom.  My first band also had a
    Kustom PA system.
    
    I believe Kustom went belly-up several years ago.  Someone bought 
    the name, and I remember seeing a few adds for a new line of Kustom 
    amps about two years ago.  Haven't seen anything recently, though.
    
    If you like the classic Kustom look, there's a small company building
    amps based on that styling.  I forget the name, but they are in the most
    recent Elderly Instruments electric instrument catalog.
    
    Jim

    I just bought a new Kustom amp. It is a little bitty thing ... 20 watts
    and and 8 inch speaker. Good for practice or jamming with acoustics (i
    use it with a Fender Jazz Bass). No roll and pleating like the old 200
    I used to use in the 70s though. I don't know if it's really the same
    company, or if they just bought the name. Somebody is making a line of
    roll and pleated amps again ... I played through one at the "toy store"
    the other day while bass shopping. I didn't amaze me enough to take
    note of the name or model, however.
    
    I saw a Kustom 200 head used the other day for $250. I bought an SWR
    Electric Blue instead, for $190. Less power but much better tone.
    
    Theo

    
    
    The old Kustom stuff was *TOUGH*!  Not exactly my cup of tea for guitar
    tone, but it was way up there on the loud and clean scale.  For some
    reason I once owned a Casino head/Kustom 3-15 cab bass amp.  Talk about
    LOUD. 
    
    Forget about tube distortion, though.
    
    Kevin
    
    

    I owned one of the monster Kustom amps....
    
    Black Tuck and roll....
    100 Watts
    2 channel....
    Vibrato....
    2 15" drivers and a 15" horn....
    and about 6' tall. 
    
    This and a Ratt Distortion pedal and the neighbors were shutting their
    windows....This thing was loud !
    
    What an Amp !

    My father-in-law still has a Kustom - complete with silver tucks
    medicated...  I think he uses that cab for his bass rig...
    
    jc

    
    
    6 foot tall....I could get buried in the bugger when I died! 8)
    
    
    						Ian

    The company currently doing tuck-and-roll style Kustom re-issues is
    called "Krossroads".  Get it?
    
    /rick