Rarities, Oddities, and One-Offs

SL 300+ Slave

• 1.1:  SL 300+ Front View
• 1.2:  SL 300+ Chassis Top View
• 1.3:  SL 300+ Chassis Interior View
• 2.1:  SL 300+ Front View w/ Plastic Cover
• 2.2:  SL 300+ Front View w/o Plastic Cover
• 2.3:  SL 300+ Rear View w/ Rear Panel
• 2.4:  SL 300+ Rear View w/o Rear Panel
• 2.5:  SL 300+ Chassis Front Exterior View
• 2.6:  SL 300+ Chassis Top Exterior View
• 2.7:  SL 300+ Chassis Rear Exterior View
• 2.8:  SL 300+ Output Tube Closeup View
• 2.9:  SL 300+ Chassis Interior View
• 2.10: SL 300+ Chassis Interior Front View

Sound City X188

• 1.1:  X188 Partial Front View
• 1.2:  X188 Control View
• 1.3:  X188 Output Tubes
• 1.4:  X188 Preamp Tubes
• 1.5:  X188 Transformer
• 1.6:  X188 Chassis Interior View
• 1.7:  X188 Serial Number Label

Impact by Status Model 1017, 120-Watt Amp

• 1.1:  Impact by Status 1017 Front View
• 1.2:  Impact by Status 1017 Rear View, w/o Rear Panel
• 1.3:  Impact by Status 1017 Chassis Front View
• 1.4:  Impact by Status 1017 Chassis Interior View

100-Watt German Sound City Head(?)

• 1.1:  German Sound City 100-Watt Head Front View
• 1.2:  German Sound City 100-Watt Head Rear View
• 1.3:  German Sound City 100-Watt Head Chassis Extrior Front View
• 1.4:  German Sound City 100-Watt Head Chassis Interior View

Concord Head

• 1.1:  Concord Head Front View
• 1.2:  Concord Head Exterior Chassis Rear View
• 1.3:  Concord Head Interior Chassis Rear View

"sound city" Solid-State Combos (by Vermona)

• 1.  "sound city guitar amplifier" Solid-State Combo Amp
• 2.  "sound city sc120" Solid-State Combo Amp
  Note: Please do not send photos of these Vermona-built amps! Please do not ask for schematics of these amps!

Customized Sound City 120 and Custom-Built 2x12 Cab
This link shows some very clever one-off cosmetic work on a Sound City 120 Mark 4, which is matched quite well with a custom-built 2x12 cab.

100 PA Mark 3 (Modified)

• 1.1:  100 PA Mark 3 Front View
• 1.2:  100 PA Mark 3 Partial Left-Front View
• 1.3:  100 PA Mark 3 Partial Right-Front View
• 1.4:  100 PA Mark 3 Rear View

1.1: SL 300+ Front View
~200-plus watts from, presumably, four KT88s, late Dallas Arbiter era, black "basketweave" Tolex, silver vein, silver metal trim, and small embossed silver-on-black plastic logo badge. "SL" stands for "slave," which means this is a power amp with no tone controls and only one volume control. Same amp case and chassis used for 200 Plus. I'd say this thing is stupidly rare as I've only heard of two people who have them.   Photos Home Page

1.2: SL 300+ Chassis Top View
Looks very much like (if not identical to) the chassis used for the L/B200 Mark 3 and 200 Plus Mark 4. Note the Partridge transformers and (possibly) Partridge choke.   Photos Home Page

2.1: SL 300+ Front View w/ Plastic Cover
~200-plus watts from, presumably, four KT88s, DMI era, black "basketweave" Tolex, silver vein, silver metal trim. This example is ridiculously clean as you'll see in the photos to follow! If it's been used at all, it doesn't show it one bit; it even has its original plastic cover!   Photos Home Page

2.2: SL 300+ Front View w/o Plastic Cover
A pristine machine!   Photos Home Page

2.5: SL 300+ Chassis Front Exterior View
Although no schematic is available to verify this, the two tubes shown here are probably one ECC83 (12AX7) for the Volume control and another ECC83 or an ECC81 (12AT7) for the phase inverter circuitry.   Photos Home Page

2.8: SL 300+ Output Tube Closeup View
Four Svetlana 6550s, I think. The original tubes would probably have been four General Electric Company (GEC) or Genelex KT88s. Note also the Dallas Music Industries (DMI) serial number label, which dates this amp from ~1974 to ~1978.   Photos Home Page

1.1: Sound City X188 Amplifier, Partial Front View
First of all, please accept my apologies for these X188 photos. I greatly appreciated having received these photos, and because beggars can't be choosers, I gratefully offer them here; however, some of them are either blurry or limited in scope. This said, not much is known about the X188 model, but here is what little I do know.

The X188 was a Dallas Music Industries(DMI)-era amplifier that appears to have used the same chassis layout and transformers as the DMI-era Bass 150 head. According to one DMI price list brochure I have, the X188 was classified by DMI as a "bass amp", although this is strange because this means DMI offered three bass heads that each used four KT88s: the X188, the Bass 150, and the B200 Plus. Perhaps DMI felt the three preamps differed enough to justify such a marketing scheme. At any rate, the X188 offered tone controls similar to the Bass 150 and the L150. The example shown here appears to be very clean.   Photos Home Page

1.1: Impact by Status Model 1017, Front View
This amp definitely falls into the category of rarity and is shown here because Dallas Arbiter owned Impact Amplification during the 70s. (Current thinking is that DA purchased Impact in 1972 or 1973.) The Impact factory was in London. For more information about the Impact line, go here. This Impact amp is essentially a Sound City 120 (Mark 4) head, with a different cosmetic treatment on the front. (My thanks to Sixten for setting me straight about this product!)    Photos Home Page

1.1: German Sound City 100-Watt Head Front View
So one story about this amp appears to go... in the 70s there was an unofficial German "company," per se, called Sound City. Some people there got together and produced amps by themselves for themselves and for other musicians in the DDR (Eastern Germany) where foreign equipment import was forbidden (remember the Cold War?).

So, this amp might be a German Sound City and, therefore, has no similarities at all to the products of Dallas Arbiter, et al. It seems these amps were Marshall copies, handmade in very small quantities.

I've also been told that the "real" German Sound City stuff was solid-state and had red logos (see "sound city guitar amplifier" and "sound city sc120" below), but I've been unable to verify this. If you might know anything, either way, please contact me.   Photos Home Page

1.2: Sound City Concord Head Exterior Chassis Rear View
Note the possibly replaced transformer on the left.   Photos Home Page

1.1: Sound City 100 PA Mark 3 Front View
~100 watts from four EL34s. Here is a real oddity, which, according to its owner, has received extensive after-market custom work. Note the brass screws and the anodized Aluminum front panel with its etched lettering. Also note the square (Marshall-style) indicator lamp, rough-Black Tolex, black (instead of chrome) handle ends, plastic corners, different knobs, and gold vein.   Photos Home Page

1.2: Sound City 100 PA Mark 3 Partial Left-Front View
Slightly closer detail of this unusual head.   Photos Home Page

1.3: Sound City 100 PA Mark 3 Partial Right-Front View
Note the "Custom Build" instead of the more common "Custom Built."   Photos Home Page

1.4: Sound City 100 PA Mark 3 Rear View
If you didn't know what its front panel looked like, you might think this was a standard Sound City head's rear panel, except for the IEC power-cable receptacle and what appears to be a DIN connector between the power selector and the serial number plate. Both of these items were part of the custom work done to this head.   Photos Home Page

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