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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Advice on standel amp?

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surfguitarkid Joined: Feb 18, 2012 Posts: 10	Posted on Feb 18 2012 12:49 PM I have been watching an auction for a standel bass head, wondering how something like this would sound for surf. They are known for clean tones, and this one has 100 watts. Anyone have experience with these for surf? I have a sixties fender reverb unit, so the lack of reverb wouldn't be a problem. Any help is appreciated. Top
elreydlp Joined: Sep 04, 2009 Posts: 1800 Temecula, CA	Posted on Feb 18 2012 01:36 PM Tube or solid state. I've played through both, and either should work fine. With the Outboard tank, you should get a great Surf tone. Top
CrispyGoodness Joined: Apr 06, 2009 Posts: 565 North Cackalacky	Posted on Feb 18 2012 04:00 PM The solid states ones are absolutely clean; great for steel guitar and country pickin'. For surf you might want something a little more aggressive, but maybe not. The Tube ones have a very distinct sound, hard to describe. Ever hear anything by Joe Maphis? He was a Standel guy; so was Speedy West, who played a Telecaster through his, and certainly doesn't sound like a Tele going through any other amp. Do you know if the innards are okay? Both Tube and Solid State Standels can have little module boxes that contain key electronic innards for the amps. If one of the modules go bad, it can be a real bear trying to find a replacement, although I hear there are now people that have figured out how to rebuild the little things. --Crispy Top
krupanut Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 492 Austin Texas	Posted on Feb 18 2012 05:00 PM Jimmy Bryant played tele Speedy played steel. I have a 100 watt solid state 69 Standell and it Does pretty well for surf. It's not Showman and you can't Get the nice warm tube tones but they are very clean and suprisingly nice sounding for solid state amps. Tube Standels are freaking awesome sounding! Rare and priced accordingly. — The Thunderchiefs Top
eddiekatcher Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 2778 Atlanta, GA	Posted on Feb 18 2012 09:59 PM I have a super clean 1965 Standel Studio XX model with 4-10's. It has a good tremolo, LOUSY reverb, mediocre power, and inadequate tone controls. Other than that, it's pretty interesting. Beware of the solid state ones and their tremolo circuit. Like Fender's in the blackface models that used the lamp and photo resistor circuit, Standel used this type circuit as well but the tremolo is always on unless there is a footswitch plugged in AND turned off. Where this is headed is that almost all of them were played for ages with the bulb blinking away inside the epoxy sealed "Red Module." And most of the bulbs burned out and now...... no tremolo. This is an easy fix if you can locate a good Red Module. They are almost completely non existent. Pretty much all the different amp stages are epoxy sealed in the plastic boxes making those circuits impossible to service as well. I bought my amp on ebay and you guessed it, the tremolo didn't work. I down loaded the schematic for the Red Module off the Standell website but elected not to try and build one. Then later on I saw one listed for sale on ebay from a guy in New Jersey who had done amp service in the '60s and had two NOS ones for sale. I bought them both and used one in my amp. The other issue is that all of them were built with a lot of stacked pots. I'd hate to try to find some of those. These amps are super smooth sounding but lack that bite that Fenders have. If you dig the lead guitar sounds on the Lovin' Spoonful, Young Rascals and We Five records then a Standel solid state amp might be what you want. But neither my Standel or my Epiphone amps are in the same universe with any of the Fenders I have. In their own rights, they are cool but........... eddie k — Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps? Top
surfguitarkid Joined: Feb 18, 2012 Posts: 10	Posted on Feb 24 2012 10:40 AM Thanks for all the input guys! It ends today, so we'll see what happens. I think I may try for it. Turns out it is half tube, half solid state. Top
surfguitarkid Joined: Feb 18, 2012 Posts: 10	Posted on Feb 24 2012 04:56 PM Bummer, I forgot to bid on it! Top

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