Where did I get it?
I picked this amp up at my local Music Go Round after being drawn to its funky faceplate and vibe it gave off. I'm also a little more biased towards Custom Kraft gear being as it was the name of the instruments sold by St Louis Music Co back in the day. They were asking $150 so I traded them an Ibanez Ergodyne that I had done a lot of work on and $30. I wasn't too happy about giving the $30 as I figured the bass would be enough but I shelled it out because the sound of the amp was quite nice.
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| 3 input jacks, two "high" and one "low" |
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| Tube tremolo and spring reverb. Missing both doorstop foot switches |
About
The amp is a branded version of the Supro S6622 "Corsica" amplifier that they offered in the late 1960s. These amps were built by Valco in Chicago, Illinois and apparently have a reputation for lush tremolo and all around good sounds. As I've been doing my research on this amp I've found a lot of references to Jimmy Page using one at some point in time which I guess might be why people seek these kinds of amps out. Since it was branded under a local music store name, I figure it was mostly overlooked by their computer system and so I obtained it for a very fair price. This amp had the "Daisy" doorstop footswitches to toggle the tremolo and reverb and you can read my write up on those right at this link here. I need to acquire some new switches as I currently don't have any and so both the tremolo and reverb are "always on" but I turn the intensity down and its unnoticeable.
Its great for recording at about 5-10 watts and I can really push it to get some nice, natural overdrive without blowing down my house.
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| Catalog scan Image Source I paid TODAY what the amp retailed for in 1966, not bad |
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| Schematic Image Source |
Tone
The amp is voiced very brightly, so much so that when I use my Stratocaster I tend to put the bass knob at 12 o'clock and the treble around 10 o'clock and then I still roll my tone knobs off a little bit. It sounds super clean with my PRS SE's humbuckers and I can only imagine that some vintage humbuckers would purr when played through this amp. I prefer to use a TC Electronics Spark mini booster pedal to push the signal from my single coil pickups for a thicker tone and this amp takes it like a champ. The tremolo is in a nice sweet spot and I can get a lot of cool sounds from a subtle vibe to some more intense sounds. I evidently have a sweet spot for a real spring reverb as this is my second amplifier that I've owned with one and they just make me attempt to play Miserlou.
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| Someone added a 3 prong switch as well as new EHX tubes |
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| Jensen C12-R 12" speaker made in early November 1966 Codes are: 220644 _____ 550-29, C12-R, C7373-4 |
Conclusion
Overall I've been more and more impressed with this amp and happy with my purchase. It doesn't weigh a whole lot and the groovy look is definitely a head-turner but the most important part is how good it sounds.
This is my sound demo of the amplifier and its effects
Value
Hard to pinpoint but I'll attach some sources in the format of [sold/unsold/unknown] - Brand $price
I am not affiliated with any of these sites
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