Selmer Treble n Bass Amps

impmann

OK... I've had several of these old beasties from croc-covered things to the silver-front SVs. They used to be cheap as chips and my experiences with them were probably based on them being cheap, badly looked after and a bit worn out...

I have GAS for one at the moment - especially the MkII with a blue n black grille.

Those that own or maintain them... are they actually any good? Or are my memories of them being a bit 'average' correct...

Sassafras

They seem to be more sought after these days. As I remember it, they do a nice, powerful clean sound.

ESBlonde

They were good sounding basic valve amps and reasonably reliable, they never looked modern when they were new so beside the competition never shone. But many a nice tone eminated from a T&B.

ESchap

My experience is that they are reasonably well made using pretty much the same components / transformers that Marshall were using at the time.  They tend to have preamp circuits that are a bit polite and no cathode follower, so you need to push them to get levels of drive.  They can very easily be modified however to give decent levels of drive, vary NFB etc.  and they take pedals well.

If not already done, most older ones do need an overhaul and that can get expensive if a lot of components have drifted, a mains cap job could end up a decent percentage again of the purchase price.  Ones I've had all had shot bias circuit components, probably because they were set up hot by Selmer and then many years of people using them with knackered power valves.

uncledick

We had one as a spare in a previous band. Your description of 'average' is spot-on. Unless you get one as a gift and are able to fix it up, there are a lot better amps for the sort of money you're talking about.

ICBM

The earlier ones have more character - they're essentially a Blonde Bassman copy with EL34s and a few other minor changes - but by the time of the tall metal-front ones they'd become a bit dull. They are quite a good platform for mods though, you can convert them back to the earlier-type circuits quite easily.

One big problem is as ESchap says, the bias circuit is poorly designed and they usually run far too hot, so the power valves are often knackered, which doesn't help them sound good. The standby switch arrangement is also a problem, it doesn't actually turn the valves off!

I would generally avoid the reverb ones - or at least don't count on using it - the reverb is a terrible lash-up.