Polytone Mini Brute ii ?

Legionreturns

LGS has one of these come in on px... Had a play with it tonight. For a SS it absolutely melts. It's billed as a "Jazz" amp and looks insanely complicated. Doesn't have a footswitch but tried a bog standard Marshall one whilst we were playing with it which turned on and off whatever gain setting you had on. 

Just wondering if I can pick the brains of tFB amp collective for advice, experience, things to look out for? (And yes, in practice, this probably means just asking @ICBM ; but I thought I'd give others a chance too!) 

Cheers! 

Bridgehouse

Did the designer of the control panel layout have aspirations to work for NASA? 

Legionreturns

Bridgehouse said:

Did the designer of the control panel layout have aspirations to work for NASA? 

It's for Jazz... It's supposed to be complicated. Or something

Legionreturns

Also... Any price indications? 

Bridgehouse

Legionreturns said:

Bridgehouse said:

Did the designer of the control panel layout have aspirations to work for NASA? 

It's for Jazz... It's supposed to be complicated. Or something

Ah right. Random knob placement.

ICBM

I don't think I've ever seen one with that preamp. Looks more complicated than usual!

In general they're extremely reliable - I've only ever worked on a handful of them, and most of those were for blown speakers. Very simple old-school analogue technology, done well.

It looks like it should take a standard two-button/stereo cable footswitch for the overdrive and reverb, but I don't know what "CL-O'Drive <Sw On* Treble Clean <Sw Off* means!

Bridgehouse

Legionreturns said:

Also... Any price indications? 

Presumably:

New:>Used:On* <P&P*off 

Legionreturns

ICBM said:

I don't think I've ever seen one with that preamp. Looks more complicated than usual!

In general they're extremely reliable - I've only ever worked on a handful of them, and most of those were for blown speakers. Very simple old-school analogue technology, done well.

It looks like it should take a standard two-button/stereo cable footswitch for the overdrive and reverb, but I don't know what "CL-O'Drive <Sw On* Treble Clean <Sw Off* means!

It's also got two "on" positions, which don't seem to do anything different. 

Bridgehouse

Legionreturns said:

ICBM said:

I don't think I've ever seen one with that preamp. Looks more complicated than usual!

In general they're extremely reliable - I've only ever worked on a handful of them, and most of those were for blown speakers. Very simple old-school analogue technology, done well.

It looks like it should take a standard two-button/stereo cable footswitch for the overdrive and reverb, but I don't know what "CL-O'Drive <Sw On* Treble Clean <Sw Off* means!

It's also got two "on" positions, which don't seem to do anything different. 

Definitely for Jazz then...

Plectrum

Surely it should have some kind of sleep mode if it's for jazz?

Bridgehouse

On a serious note, is the o/d voiced differently if its predominantly meant for jazz?

Legionreturns

Bridgehouse said:

On a serious note, is the o/d voiced differently if its predominantly meant for jazz?

It's complicated. It wouldn't expect a regular guitarist to understand... 

Bridgehouse

Legionreturns said:

Bridgehouse said:

On a serious note, is the o/d voiced differently if its predominantly meant for jazz?

It's complicated. It wouldn't expect a regular guitarist to understand... 

What about a regular bass player?

Actually, a lot of my bass playing often sounds like Jazz...

Legionreturns

Or... Perhaps a more serious answer; 

It sounded like a bluesy crunch channel but with a lot of depth. There was more variation to the sound by using the two different inputs as well and the OD is staged / rotary rather than being able to fine tune. As in, it clicks up one position at a time. 

It sounded very warm even with a bridge single coil with the tone cranked to the treble side, and got very very dark with the middle position engaged but still held its clarity. Colour me impressed! For a SS it's an absolute...well, brute! 

ICBM

Legionreturns said:

It's also got two "on" positions, which don't seem to do anything different. 

It's a polarity switch combined with the power switch. It won't make any difference in this country because we have proper earthing.

Megii

I have one - will be gigging it shortly as it happens. Lovely clean tones, superb for jazz, but also take pedals in front of the amp very well, and works nicely for fusion type stuff. Not actually that complicated - there's a 3 position tone switch in addition to the usual bass/mids/treble, which I tend to have in the middle for jazz use, but quite good to use the bright setting for more funk/fusion kind of stuff.

Distortion channel probably best avoided - not the best tbh. Also I've found for louder gigs it can get a bit stretched, best for moderate to medium volume pup/club gigs at most I've found i.e. tends to distort at bit on the clean channel if you push the volume up too high. Great amp though!

Maynehead

ICBM said:

I don't think I've ever seen one with that preamp. Looks more complicated than usual!

In general they're extremely reliable - I've only ever worked on a handful of them, and most of those were for blown speakers. Very simple old-school analogue technology, done well.

It looks like it should take a standard two-button/stereo cable footswitch for the overdrive and reverb, but I don't know what "CL-O'Drive <Sw On* Treble Clean <Sw Off* means!

When you combine the “treble” part with the “boost” part underneath, it will suddenly start to make a lot more sense.

Legionreturns

Thanks for that @Megii ...really useful stuff! 

Any idea what I should offer him for it? He's given me first dibs

Megii

Legionreturns said:

Thanks for that @Megii ...really useful stuff! 

Any idea what I should offer him for it? He's given me first dibs

Bit of a tricky one, and I'm not hugely well informed on what they go for these days myself to be honest. I can tell you I bought mine in the mid/late 90s (maybe '96) for £600 new from Ivor Mairants in London. Mine has exactly the same control panel as the one you're looking at, but has a metal speaker grill, so I suspect the one you show was made a year or two earlier.

I'm only guessing really! and I say this very tentatively, but maybe try him at £300 ish? - he might consider that too low, but there are other options these days for nice jazzy-sounding SS amps. Perhaps I'd go to £450 or so if I really wanted the amp, and it is in pretty clean looking nick. But I could well be way off with this, just speculation, so do take with a pinch of salt!

ICBM

I'm pretty sure the last one I saw sell was £349, through the shop I work for. It was the earlier preamp with dual-concentric volume/distortion pots and checkered vinyl, like this one -

https://medias.audiofanzine.com/images/normal/polytone-mini-brute-ii-570647.jpg

I would guess this is worth slightly more given the more sophisticated preamp.

Legionreturns

He's got it labeled at £400 but gave me the usual "that's not the price for you Chris... That's just the public price" ... I hate it when he does that lol