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Sound City B200 Plus

F

failuresXbass

Jul 19, 2006
189
19
SoCal
#1
I may be buying one of these today. The price, while not great is good.

I am buying it from a tech, so he says it has been gone through, new tubes and is running nice.

Any info on these? are they capable of clean volume? I like a little tube grit, but not of the Lemmy variety.

Also, are all sound city amps point to point??

Thanks in advance, just looking for some info before i drag this thing home.
 
#3
link wray said:
They dont distort too much, thanks to the transformers.
Click to expand...

NOT TRUE!!! I have two SC 200+ heads. The active preamp in the MK IV amps are terrible, IMO. The preamp will distort way before the power section and because of the design of the thing, it sounds like crap (again, IMO). The only good reason to buy a 200+ is if it's a MK III, or if you plan on gutting the preamp and installing your own, as I did.
 
#5
failuresXbass said:
I may be buying one of these today. The price, while not great is good.

I am buying it from a tech, so he says it has been gone through, new tubes and is running nice.

Any info on these? are they capable of clean volume? I like a little tube grit, but not of the Lemmy variety.

Also, are all sound city amps point to point??

Thanks in advance, just looking for some info before i drag this thing home.
Click to expand...

Sound City were never considered to be up there with Marshall, Orange, Hiwatt,they were on par with another lesser UK company called Carlsbro.
 
#8
The Mark 3 amps (B200 included) were definitely built with better and more consistent quality compared to the later Mark 4 amps. The noisy active preamp circuit of the Mark 4 series is nothing like the passive preamp of the Mark 3 series.

The Mark 3 B200 is a very clean amp when KT88 power tubes are used, but certainly can get gritty if turned of loud enough. A switch to 6550 power tubes would lower the headroom noticeably.

Some of the Mark 4 heads are very clean and some are not since the circuit varied a whole lot within the Mark 4 period. The Mark 4 amps can be great as if you find a good one, but most of them are noisy dogs. However, the crappy ones can be gutted and modified to have a Hiwatt or Mark III type pre-amp (same thing basically). The Hiwatt conversion is popular in 120w and 200w Mark 4 Sound City amps.
 
#11
Rickenbackerman said:
NOT TRUE!!! I have two SC 200+ heads. The active preamp in the MK IV amps are terrible, IMO. The preamp will distort way before the power section and because of the design of the thing, it sounds like crap (again, IMO). The only good reason to buy a 200+ is if it's a MK III, or if you plan on gutting the preamp and installing your own, as I did.
Click to expand...

This happens if you have the wrong valves in the preamp.
 
#12
BassmanPaul said:
Disagree. Sound City made excellent products some with unique features such as a graphic style tube EQ section with rotary controls. They were the precursor to the likes of Hiwatt.
Click to expand...

I disagree that Sound City was a precursor to Hiwatt. The first Hiwatt amp was built in 1964 and the Hylight Electronics Hiwatt brand was registered in 1966. Hiwatt did not supply amps to Ivor Arbitor's Sound City Store until 1967. Sound City was the first customer to order a large batch of Hiwatt amps, which helped make Hiwatt a much more prolific brand afterward. When the supplier contract ended in early 1968, Arbiter merged with Dallas Music and Sound City continued to sell amps inspired by the Hiwatt design (and built by Dallas) until 1970 when the very different Mark 4 amps came along.

beebassdude said:
i hope i can find a mark III B200+, i guess ill have to just wait until one pops up.
Click to expand...
You will never find one because they don't exist. Any Sound City amp that says 'Plus' on the front panel is Mark 4 era or later. The 200w Mark 3 amps were either the L200 or B200, either of which are great for bass. The only difference between them is some capacitor values.

It is very difficult to find a Mark 3 amp for sale outside of Great Britain since Sound City amps did not have wide distribution until 1972 or so (during Mark 4 era). I've only seen three B200 Mark 3 amps sell online in the USA in recent years.

I wouldn't turn down a good deal on a Mark 4 amp, but a lot of sellers tend to overprice them.
 
#13
AwkwardLoudness said:
You will never find one because they don't exist. Any Sound City amp that says 'Plus' on the front panel is Mark 4 era or later. The 200w Mark 3 amps were either the L200 or B200, either of which are great for bass. The only difference between them is some capacitor values.

It is very difficult to find a Mark 3 amp for sale outside of Great Britain since Sound City amps did not have wide distribution until 1972 or so (during Mark 4 era). I've only seen three B200 Mark 3 amps sell online in the USA in recent years.

I wouldn't turn down a good deal on a Mark 4 amp, but a lot of sellers tend to overprice them.
Click to expand...

ah my bad, i didnt mean the + version, i just wanna try and find a mark III L200 or B200. ill keep my eyes open!
 
#14
AwkwardLoudness said:
I disagree that Sound City was a precursor to Hiwatt. The first Hiwatt amp was built in 1964 and the Hylight Electronics Hiwatt brand was registered in 1966. Hiwatt did not supply amps to Ivor Arbitor's Sound City Store until 1967. Sound City was the first customer to order a large batch of Hiwatt amps, which helped make Hiwatt a much more prolific brand afterward. When the supplier contract ended in early 1968, Arbiter merged with Dallas Music and Sound City continued to sell amps inspired by the Hiwatt design (and built by Dallas) until 1970 when the very different Mark 4 amps came along.


You will never find one because they don't exist. Any Sound City amp that says 'Plus' on the front panel is Mark 4 era or later. The 200w Mark 3 amps were either the L200 or B200, either of which are great for bass. The only difference between them is some capacitor values.

It is very difficult to find a Mark 3 amp for sale outside of Great Britain since Sound City amps did not have wide distribution until 1972 or so (during Mark 4 era). I've only seen three B200 Mark 3 amps sell online in the USA in recent years.

I wouldn't turn down a good deal on a Mark 4 amp, but a lot of sellers tend to overprice them.
Click to expand...

i like the active circuit. You have to know what you're doing with it though.
 
#17
MAMMOTHvolume said:
i like the active circuit. You have to know what you're doing with it though.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I agree. A good Mark 4 amp is a pleasurable unique beast with tones not available on other amps.

It's important to know that each tone control (bass, mid, treble) is sort of like a master volume for each respective frequency broadband. There is no output volume if all three knobs are turned down (counterclockwise) all the way. All three knobs dimed is the way to go for a thick roaring tone. Adjust the pre-amp volume to taste.
 
#18
so bumping this again for more SC gurus, what about the amps post mark IV? the DMI series or the mark V or VI (i thought i saw these mentioned on some other forums). specifically im interested in the Bass 150, seems like my best bet at finding a higher wattage SC without hunting for that 200 or 200+.
 

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