Park Life - 70's Park Amplifiers

tele69

Howdy guys - I've recently acquired a 79' Park  50 MV 2X12" Combo - Basically a JMP50 Combo in disguise - made by the Marshall guys. It sounds really great so really happy. Information online is pretty thin on the ground though. I like to learn about my gear and wondered if anyone might know of a Park forum etc . I wonder how many were made and such.
Thanks for reading! :-)

Ossyrocks

I've had a few old Parks. I've never found a dedicated forum, mostly people natter about these amps on vintage Marshall forums. 

tele69

Cheers Ossy - thanks

PeteC

Great to see someone else into Parks !!  I had 2 100W Rockheads (Model 1210)  in the early 80s which like an idiot I sold.   A bit later in life I got into building amps and made a replica of the 1210 and also of an early Park 50 watter. 
These are great amps and much under-rated/unloved.  However there are a few people in the know who rave about them and some serious collectors. Mitch Colby managed to acquire the brand name and rights and is re-making Parks in the US - but mostly they are a different beast ( though good )   The 1210 Rockhead is still one of my absolute favourite amps of all time.   Many years ago when I was building my clone and chatting on one of the forums about it, Steve Grindrod who designed the amp popped up and gave me a few tips.  Here are a couple of pics if they are of interest.  The Marshall forums sometimes have good info on Parks.  The Marshall Book is probably the best source fo reliable info ( as well as the schematics ! ) 
cheers
Pete 

Ddigger

This man might know

@Bygone_Tones

easyrazors

I have a Park 1210 (rockhead) also, but as I'm in a small flat with all glass at the front I'm a bit worried about putting the windows out, heheh. Can do it all at low volume, which is great, but just itching to whack it up

PeteC

easyrazors said:

I have a Park 1210 (rockhead) also, but as I'm in a small flat with all glass at the front I'm a bit worried about putting the windows out, heheh. Can do it all at low volume, which is great, but just itching to whack it up

 Don't ever let it go....but if you ever do, please let me know first !!   Cranked up full these things are monstrous.  Its a slightly different beast to the Marshalls as it has a different Phase inverter circuit ( for the master volume ) and doesn't have a cathode follower tone circuit.
Some say its less warm than the Marshalls because of that ( which might be somewhat true ).  Even so, it was the first serious amp to feature switchable cascaded inputs via the rather funky "in-line" foot switch that came with it

Tele69 - please post some pics of the 50 watter if you can. If you get time to take some gut shots of the board and layout I would be very interested in seeing those. Enjoy that amp !!! 
cheers
Pete 

tele69

Hi Pete, and thanks for that guys. I’ve attached a link to my amp. Seems relatively intact. I’ve noticed a lot of amps this era have green turret boards yet mine is cream. Not sure why. Great little amp. Instant Angus in a box. Speaker changed out. Currently in Stoneham Amps for a service... and requires very little Martin tells me
cheers
Gaz
https://imgur.com/gallery/DlcGCAo?s=sms

PeteC

Fantastic Gaz.  Made my day seeing that amp !  Looks in great condition.  

tele69

Its not bad apart from the the grill cloth being painted for some strange reason - a trip to Marshall for the baffle board i think - cheers Pete

ICBM

If anyone's interested there are a Park 100W head and a matching 4x12" in Strung Out Guitars in Glasgow. Or at least, they were matching before some twit replaced the Park logo on the cabinet with a Marshall one...

They actually came from two different customers, a week apart - remarkable, since I haven't seen one of either for about twenty years. I've been trying to find an original Park logo for the cab, but no luck so far.

(To be fair, the cab did come in with a Marshall head.)

tele69

ICBM - fyi ;-)

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/3YUAAOSwRBFdwAIr/s-l400.jpg

ICBM

tele69 said:

ICBM - fyi ;-)

It's not an original by the look of it, but I'll forward that on to the shop, thanks!

tele69

No it’s not. It’s repot. Thought it might be worth a look. No worries 

Bygone_Tones

ICBM said:

If anyone's interested there are a Park 100W head and a matching 4x12" in Strung Out Guitars in Glasgow. Or at least, they were matching before some twit replaced the Park logo on the cabinet with a Marshall one...

They actually came from two different customers, a week apart - remarkable, since I haven't seen one of either for about twenty years. I've been trying to find an original Park logo for the cab, but no luck so far.

(To be fair, the cab did come in with a Marshall head.)

Some interesting stuff for sale there at sensible prices. bookmarked. Bit odd how they have combined that Park cab with a 73 marshall head when the matching park head is there?

Matt_McG

I have a 1967 Park but know very little about it. Sounds great, but I have nowhere to play it. Some time, I will get it together to sell it and get a small combo instead.

Matt_McG

Mine is a 50 watt, but the logo is a replacement, not original. 

ICBM

Bygone_Tones said:

Bit odd how they have combined that Park cab with a 73 marshall head when the matching park head is there? 

It’s because the Park cab and the Marshall head belong to the same customer, but I agree. They’ve priced them separately so it makes no sense!

prowla

There used to be a saying about Park:- spell it backwards...

57Deluxe

one of the best promotional videos for a Park...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1OYzH0Teo8

Dominic

That is a great demo of the sound and feedback harmonics but it does make me realise that I can only take about one minute of that generic  minor Blues Rock before I'm very bored...................it really has become so cliche dated.....I would have thought that was wonderful 25 years ago . How things move on eh ?