Supro amps

badlydrawnbanjo · September 2014

Anyone tried a new Supro amp?

The 1624T looks an interesting proposition at £899 for an American made amp.

http://suprousa.com/amplifiers/dual-tone/

lustycourtier · September 2014

Im looking forward to trying one. I do think Ill seriously consider buying one

ICBM · September 2014

I wonder how that correlates to the original price, even adjusted for inflation...

£900 sounds like a lot for a reissue of a pretty cheap amp, to me.

mrn1989 · September 2014

ICBM said:

I wonder how that correlates to the original price, even adjusted for inflation...

£900 sounds like a lot for a reissue of a pretty cheap amp, to me.

Agree, thats alot

ThePrettyDamned · September 2014

Uses different valves? Kinda cool looking thing.

capo4th · September 2014

I think they are quite overpriced and trading on an old name

Deijavoo · September 2014

I thought the Coronado one sounded awesome, wouldn't spend that though.

jpfamps · September 2014

ICBM said:

I wonder how that correlates to the original price, even adjusted for inflation...

£900 sounds like a lot for a reissue of a pretty cheap amp, to me.

Looking back in the old catalogs Supro Amps weren't much cheaper than Fender amps.

In the mid 60's a 1 x 12" S6524 17W amp with tremolo was $149, cf with a Fender Deluxe Reverb $249. A fairer comparison may be between the non-reverb version of the Deluxe, but this had gone out of production on the catalog I have (1968). A non-reverb Princeton was $114, $60 less than the reverb version ($174), so I'm guessing that a non-reverb Deluxe would have been about $190, ie about 30% more than the Supro.

Supro used very inefficient tag strip hand wiring, which would have been more labourious than Fender's eyelet board construction.

The new Supros will conform to modern safety standard, and should be better built than the originals.

Bruce Zinky who is involved in this project has an excellent track record in designing guitar amps.

Regardless, it's interesting that most of the comments about these amps is that they are overpriced without anyone having tried one, or investigated the quality of construction.......

I think that these are a good addition to the guitar amp firmament.

xchrisv · September 2014

I thought they sounded good, if maybe a touch dark. They look amazing - imagine a wall of 'em!

Demo from 19:00 onwards:

ICBM · September 2014

Possibly I should not have assumed the build quality is going to be like either the originals or like a typical 'reissue'...

I have to say I'm also puzzled by the choice of such non-standard power valves - especially with a non-standard pin layout. (And one which is likely to cause damage if someone is tempted to try substituting EL84s). The claim of 24W output seems a tad optimistic given that they have very similar ratings to EL84s as well.

impmann · October 2014

Nice demo Chris... but why is it that so many amps go 'flubby' on the bottom end when you crank them? These are no exception - they sound really nice as they start to break up and then the low end just falls to pieces just as the top end starts getting nice. You can hear it in the final track (where the boost is engaged) where it ceases to be a clear tone, and starts becoming a mess... Its not a nice overdrive - and I hear it a lot, especially these days, and then folks start using terms like "garagey" or "earthy". No, its the point that the speaker is no longer delivering the sound of the guitar properly...

A Vox AC30 when cranked gets smoother - the bottom end is still there, and carried in a non-flubby way. Ditto a proper 60s Fender Deluxe (assuming you are playing a Fender guitar ;-) ). And then you listen to a proper Marshall (pre JCM900) and they sound magnificent when they roar - even the little ones.

The original Supros had a particular overdrive too - and I'm not hearing it in these clips. I imported one from the US a few years back, and when you cranked it, it went quite fizzy but in a good way. You could tell why Mr Page rated them so highly as it was a compressed and focussed sound when recorded. Yes, you could get it to flub - but that was flat out with a Gibson. These clips sound very nice - and I see what you mean about 'dark' but I quite like that - but I'm not convinced that they sound like the original amps.

Bargains can still be found in the US - and therefore, if I was looking for a Supro amp I'd still look for a vintage one... such as:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Supro-1600R-SUPREME-hand-wired-original-Tube-Combo-Vintage-USA-JVGuitars-/201130680835?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ed452a203

or

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1966-Supro-Trojan-S6616-1x12-Tube-Guitar-Amplifier-Combo-Vintage-Valco-Amp-/111467789756?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19f3ff7dbc

or

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-National-Supro-Twin-12-Tube-6L6-Amplifier-Valco-2-X-12-/131307397410?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e9287e122

lustycourtier · October 2014

capo4th said:

I think they are quite overpriced and trading on an old name

For a USA built amp?!?

57Deluxe · October 2014

...at least they hold dear to the originals inasmuch as they would have been damned fizzy and flubby and goes without saying, somewhat fragile in their 60s construction. Bit disappointed by them to be honest.

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