FLYNN AMPS - Gallery

First up is a beautiful pair of Vox AC30's belonging to Bryan Adams. We were asked to refurbish the amps while Bryan took a break from his massive touring schedule. As expected the amps were in a very sorry state and required speaker reconing, new valves, pot replacements as well as the general service requirements a gigging amp needs. If you look closely at the picture you can see that 'V1' has one of its speakers missing as we were reconing it when the photos were taken. Bryan uses two of our Classic OC44 boosters as part of his current rig. Tweet
		Here's a near identical pair of 1960's Fender amps. It's easy to see why many people are confused with the vintage Fender amp range. The Bandmaster and the Tremolux differ in only a few details (the Tremolux has a valve rectifier for example) and as you can see from the circuit board they have pretty much the same layout and components.


These pictures show a recent refurbishment of a Laney VC30 that has literally been round the world. We stripped the old tolex off, reglued and nailed the cab together again, filled the holes and sanded it all smooth before recovering it in our beautiful off white snakeskin tolex with contrasting red.

	It's not everyday that you'll get a chance to see one of Vox's finest amplifiers. This AC15 required a complete overhaul to bring it back to life again. Around 75% of the pre-amp capacitors had complete or partial short circuits across them and we were left with no option but to replace them with Sprague 'Orange drops'. This amp has had one owner since new and had been repaired only once since it was purchased in the early 60's. The tone from this amp is truly beyond description and is the reason why almost every pro studio in the world has one in their inventory.

	A very rare and beautiful sounding Marshall built Park 25w amp made in the early 1970's. Not super high quality but still a class amp in it's own way. Check those cool blue control knobs. It was important to cordinate your colours in the 70's!
These amps were dropped into the workshop by Jon Fratelli for recovering in a saucy red snakeskin for his new project The Codeine Velvet Club. It was a very weird job ripping the tolex off a brand new amp but it was also strangely enjoyable too! On top is one of a pair of 15w amps we custom built for Jon in the same covering. Below is Jon's Flynn 284 head used for the USA concert tour.
	This John Jorgenson custom signature Matchless amp was brought to us by.....John Jorgenson! He swung past the workshop during his recent tour and picked up one of our Hawk boosters and left us his amp for some vital refurbing. It was a real thrill to stand beside John as he put the Hawk through it's paces. The Celestion driver had given up the ghost and needed reconed. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but this was no ordinary G12. John had worked closely with Celestion several years ago and had designed the driver to suit his taste so it took a bit of research to find the correct spec again.

	This beauty is a Watkins Westminster made by British amp pioneer Charlie Watkins. This amp sounded very strange when it came to us and after close inspection we found resistors and capacitors that had drifted out of original specification. We replaced the faulty components with new ones of the correct value and type using carbon composition resistors where possible. The amp was transformed back to it's former glory and sounded really snarly when the volume was wound up. Not surprising as this amp is almost identical circuit wise to the famous Marshall 18w combo that appeared years later.
Another Watkins product that has a cult following is the Copycat. This very early valve model came down to us after many years of use without servicing. Again we found many components had drifted beyond specification and after replacement the unit really came to life. This unit attracted a lot of attention when we had it and it's no surprise when you look at the picture. It's a design classic.

This is the guts of a Matchless DC30 custom made by Phil Jamison for Simple Minds guitarist Charlie Burchill. The Matchless point to point system looks wild but it makes for one of the best sounding amps on the market. This is one of three that Charlie uses in his live setup and was just needing a few minor tweaks to get it ready for the Simple Minds tour with the Blue Nile.

	The Marshall 1930 'Popular' model is a very rare little combo indeed. Featuring two 10" speakers and two ECL86 valves in the output stage they really have a sound all of their own. This one was part of the Flynn Amps collection and we thought it would be nice to show it off here.
This is how PA gear was in the late sixties. 50 watts of mono valve power to drive your dual concentric speakers. These Sound City PA heads were very popular before the transistor power amps of the late 70's became the standard. Volume, bass & treble are all you get. No balanced inputs, no PFL, no meters, no digital effects. Still sounds great though and has a beautiful rawness when pushed to the limit.
	A very special old Marshall this time, a JTM 45 which was made in 1967 and features the block 'JTM' logo that was used for that year only. All original, with one carefull owner but it came to us minus one vital component. The wooden box! It had been used for many years as an accordian amp and the owner had discarded the box for some reason or other in favour of two small wooden runners.

	And here is the finished amp, reboxed, revalved, serviced and looking like a vintage Marshall should. A real classic. We took some shots of the JTM45 with an early 70's 50 watt small box Superlead (on top). We always look forward to testing amps like these. It's hard work but I suppose somebody's got to do it!
Under all this dirt is a Vox AC4 untouched by human hands since it was manufactured in the 1960's. The mains transformer had grown a beard and the valves looked painted but it was just needing a small repair to the EF86 circuit and a good thorough service to get this little guy singing again. It goes to show that there is nothing to beat real hand wired valve amps for reliability and value for money. After 40 years use, one repair. How many Chinese made cheapo amps would you go through in 40 years?

	Yet more Matchless goodies from Simple Minds. This one is a Thunderchief 200 bass head custom built by Phil Jamison himself. It's the usual Matchless chaos inside and the usual Matchless quality sound. It arrived straight from the Matchless factory with two damaged KT88 output valves.

	We built this custom rack unit for a customer recently to his own specification and dimensions. The rack is built from real solid 18mm baltic birch ply, all finger-jointed for extra strength. The construction method was just like building a standard speaker cab with an additional compartment at the bottom for cable management and storage. No speakers or back panel of course!

	Here we have one of our own 2x12 standard cabs and a lovely late 60's 50watt Fender Bassman head. We were asked to build the cab in 15mm Baltic birch ply and cover it with black levant tolex. The panels are finger jointed for strength then we radius the front & rear edges to 1/2" and the sides to 3/4" to give the cab the classic look. The grill cloth specified was Marshall 'Salt & Pepper' and with the large white piping it really looked like a vintage rig when it was finished. We fitted two 8ohm Celestion Vintage 30's, wired the cab for 4ohms and the job was complete. Contact sales for more information on our custom cabs.


BEFORE This Marshall vintage 4x12 required a new grill cloth after many years of abuse from the owners jealous cat.	AFTER The replacement vintage cloth really looked beautiful on the cab.It's amazing to see how bleached the original was in comparison

Flynn Amps, 7-11 Otago Lane North, Kelvinbridge, Glasgow, Scotland, G12 8PH, 0141-334-6494, info@flynnamps.co.uk