Sound City PA 200 PLUS

[Kreken]

Does anyone own one of these and use it for bass? How do they sound? WIll they work well stock, or do they need to be modded to sound good? Any info on preamp tubes?

There's very little info on these amps floating around. It has four KT-88's in the power section, and it has six channels with volume, bass and treble and also a master volume.

I'd appreciate any help here, as I have been offered one of these in a trade, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Just interested to hear what people think.

Thanks!

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by Kreken

Does anyone own one of these and use it for bass? How do they sound? WIll they work well stock, or do they need to be modded to sound good? Any info on preamp tubes?

There's very little info on these amps floating around. It has four KT-88's in the power section, and it has six channels with volume, bass and treble and also a master volume.

I'd appreciate any help here, as I have been offered one of these in a trade, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Just interested to hear what people think.

Thanks!

They are very good amps indeed, the expert on them round here is
our Mr Foxen, he will set you straight.
Although you can plug straight in, I like to use an Ampeg SVT IIP pre amp with this sort of thing, another thing that is very simple but works great is the old Yamaha NE1 mini 1 band semi parametric EQ, but loads of things like sans amp ETC should get you loads of great tone from one of these quite Hiwatt DR 201 sound alike power stages.
The wiring is not quite as neat as a Hiwatt but Sound City 200's certainly do the business end of things sound wise.
The pre amp tubes are all 12ax7's stock, some people have made some amazing mods to the pre amp of these type of old PA amps in fact here is an interesting departure with a Simms PA 100 moded to a high gain guitar Amp:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=r...&v=5wrxOMWdSVA

[Kreken]

Bassmec,

thank you so much for responding! That helps a lot! I do own a Jule Monique tube preamp, which I guess might be a killer front end to the PA 200+. Do you still plug into the input of one of the channels, or do you somehow plug straight into the power section?

Thanks!

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by Kreken

Bassmec,

thank you so much for responding! That helps a lot! I do own a Jule Monique tube preamp, which I guess might be a killer front end to the PA 200+. Do you still plug into the input of one of the channels, or do you somehow plug straight into the power section?

Thanks!

You could just plug straight into a mic input or you could go straight into the power amp. With the Monique as a pre I think you will be very sorted for seriously superior all tube sound.

[Mr. Foxen]

Sound City PA heads work fine for bass, kind of limited EQ, and no front end drive, but that is fine for bass, I have a SC200 PA, but I also have a Hiwatt equivalent, so it doesn't really get a look in. It will do fine, especially if you pedal it. With loads of channels, you can run effects in parallel and such, options. Chances are they'll need an overhaul, and you can have some preamp channels modded during that, cascade a couple for drive and suchlike. My SC200 PA is probably going to be converted into a dedicated bass head, not so precious about the PAs.

[Kreken]

Thank you both for your help! Any idea on aprox. sales value of a decent PA 200 PLUS? How is the preamp section set up? Separate valves for each channel? I read somewhere there were eight(?) 12AX7's in there? Does it have an active EQ, such as other Mark IV SC amps?

Mr. Foxen, care to share some of your plans for that PA-into-bass-head convertion?

[Mr. Foxen]

Originally Posted by Kreken

Thank you both for your help! Any idea on aprox. sales value of a decent PA 200 PLUS? How is the preamp section set up? Separate valves for each channel? I read somewhere there were eight(?) 12AX7's in there? Does it have an active EQ, such as other Mark IV SC amps?

Mr. Foxen, care to share some of your plans for that PA-into-bass-head convertion?

Generally a PA200+ is worth more in parts than complete, so when they sell, its kind of unpredictable. It is 8 preamp valves, one is an 81 for the PI, might be one more in ones with reverb, EQ is not the same as the mark 4 guitar/bass heads.

For the conversion, my plan is to tinker with other heads until I know what I want out of it, but it is entirely possible someone will pay me to have it made into a Hiwatt homage, in which case that will happen.

[Kreken]

Thank you, good sir! The fellow who owns the PA 200 PLUS, also has a SC L120. Which amp sounds better stock to you, and which one has the most potential in terms of mods? Does the PA 200 PLUS beat the L120 when it comes to sheer volume?

Thanks!

[Mr. Foxen]

L120 working right has a ton more eq, so you can eq in loads of mids, which is loads louder than the difference 80w makes. But if you have a cab than can deal, the 200 will give you more low end. Also, loads of eq means the L120 doesn't have 'a sound', it has a whole bunch of tones to be had, and some of them are bad, especially for people who eq by eye and assume all tone stacks are like the barely functional Fender/Marshall ones. Can't go as far wrong on on passive 200, but you are stuck in that limited range. Since both amps are on the same chassis, and have great transformers that can power loads of preamp valves, you can basically make either into pretty much anything, so as long as the basic output valve configuration is right, about equal potential.

[Kreken]

Thank you once again! I'm leaning towards the PA 200 PLUS, I think. Mostly because I can plug my Jule Monique preamp into the effect return on that one. I'll report back as soon as I have tried them. Does any one of them have an advantage when it comes to getting gritty? You wrote that the PA 200+ has no front end drive. Can you get that with the L120? And what about power tube saturation?

[Mr. Foxen]

If you turn stuff up loud enough, you get power tube saturation. With high powered amps like the 120 and the 200, kin of hard to do that. You can stick an ECC83 in the PI slot to make either of them get dirty in the preamp though.

[Kirk Bryant]

I think Julie said in the Monique thread that his girl can be driven into overdrive. I know I love to "overdrive" my girl every chance I get. haha

[Kreken]

Great news!! I am getting both the SC L120 and PA 200 PLUS in the trade I'm about to make. I am probably going to have to replace a lot of the valves, especially the power valves. Any recommendations on what to get? I've heard a lot of good things about Winged C, but they seem to be a bit hard to come by at the moment. Preamp valve suggestions are also welcome! Thanks!

[Mr. Foxen]

Get the valves in there tested, I've had lots of sound citys come through my hands and most of the valves are OK. I use Shuguang EL34b power valves, they take high voltages in amps like Laneys that I deal with, Sound City aren't so hard on them, but there isn't a downside to them, so I use them in everything. I've got Shuguang GE KT88-98 in one amps, but am waiting to try the set of Shug GEKT88 I have sat here.

For preamp valves, kind of a taste call, I ahve so many, but you'll probably only need to replace a few, some positions matter less than others, check the schematic, don't need fancy valves running the fx loop for example.