Dating pignose amplifiers

- went to Murray 1954 Stradivarius Special Aussie-built valve low-wattage combo with 1x8 inch Rola. The smaller brother to the 1x12 version, with the same tolex, grille etc!

- went to Martin 1958 Maton Mastersound 15-watt EL-84 amp - How cool is this! Sounds great too, and complete with its original white-cone MSP speaker!

Both of these are full-on pro gear from good guys who know a thing or two about tone. Any amp Gerald Weber breathes on is spectacularly good.

The best live harp tone I have ever heard came out of a Victoria amp.

Previous long-term owner fitted 2x10" Celestions in place of the original 3x8" drivers. - went to Shane 1959 Goldentone 30-40 watt 2x12 combo (EL-34) - as amazing old Goldie, built before they settled on their eventual family of amps using 6DQ5 and 6DQ6 output valves.

This uses a pair of EL-34s (and an EF-86 pre-amp) to give some really great Aussie-flavoured British tone.

I tried tweaking it and finally gave up on it, selling it to a buddy. They generally do not need to be mic’ed to be heard. The tweed 4x10 Fender Bassman from the Fifties is the prime example of a good large harp amp, but these are expensive.

One of my favorite medium harp amps is actually a kit from Weber: The 5F2H is an exceptional harp amp using a single KT66 power tube (a relative to the 6L6) and my favorite harp speaker, the Weber 10A125-0. The Fender reissue ’59 Bassman amp can also be made to sound quite good.