Vintage Sound Vintage 22sc Head, Brown Ostrich

The Vintage Sound Vintage 22sc is now available as a head!

For years guitar players, both professional and amateur, have praised the coveted Black Face AB763 circuitry found in the mid 60's Deluxe Reverbs as the Holy Grail of tone. However... We often hear the following from many of them:

1) Why 2 channels? I only use the Vibrato/Reverb channel.
2) Wouldn't it be nice if someone offered a smaller "grab and go" version?

Well, Vintage Sound listened and created the Vintage 22sc ("sc" stands for Single Channel) to be offered exclusively here at Humbucker Music!

This is a true Black Face AB763 designed single channel amp housed in a head box as opposed to the Princeton Reverb size cab we use in our combo version. It also features the same Black Face circuitry found in a Black Face Deluxe Reverb style amp, only without the unused Normal channel. They added a Mid range tone pot for better control over your EQ, a Dwell control to the back of the chassis as a second EQ for the Reverb, and a Bright/Dark Switch, so the amp would not be permanently wired in the Bright mode like the original. It also uses the same transformer set as their Vintage 22, (Black Face Deluxe Reverb style) and the same filter cap system.

It's basically a single channel, handwired 65 Deluxe Reverb circuit, only lighter, more portable, and with several notable upgrades. Why pay for a channel you aren't going to use anyway and who needs the extra weight?

And to top it off, Vintage Sound has included all the desired improvements people have made to the Deluxe Reverb circuit over the years!

What are these improvements?

1) One thing you'll notice is the addition of a "MIDDLE" tone control. This, of course, was not on the original Deluxe Reverb. The original Fender circuit actually had a fixed "MIDDLE" that was set permanently at 6.8k. Vintage Sound removed this resistor from the circuit and replaced it with a much more versatile 10k pot. The result is you now have the ability to adjust this frequency range without compromising the original tone. 

2) The original circuit was somewhat bright. Many people used to pull the chassis and clip the bright cap allowing a darker tone from their amp. Others, on the other hand, liked it bright. We've eliminated the hassle by including a "bright cap defeat" switch. Flip it to Bright for the original tone, or flip it to dark to essentially "clip" the bright cap.

3) Also included is a reverb dwell control on the rear of the chassis. Obviously, this too was omitted on the original circuit, but it comes in quite handy for adjusting the amount of decay the reverb has.

4) Another smart alteration is the incorporation of a Diaz based tremolo mod and a newly designed oscillator unique to Vintage Sound Amps. You'll notice the Vibrato has the ability to be slower than stock Fenders. The vibrato being too fast was always a complaint people had with vintage Fender Deluxe amps (and still do to this day). The other advantage this gives is when you turn the dial all the way down, you switch off the vibrato circuit, bypassing it and leaving you with a cleaner, more pure signal. The result is a slightly more present tone, and a bit of a bump in volume. Furthermore, with the older Deluxe Reverbs, you can hear a "ticking" sound with the vibrato. This is caused by several design flaws in the original circuit allowing the LFO signal to leak into the audio path. These issues have been addressed with a Vintage Sound specifically designed photo-cell tremolo, better routing of the wires, superior components, and filtering of the oscillator output.

5) External Bias Points have been added so as to more easily bias the amp when you swap out tubes.  

So, what do you end up with?

A truly amazing sounding Deluxe Reverb channel that's more toneful than an original with nothing modified in a way that disrupts the original tone.

Specifications:
Wattage: 22 watts
Preamp Tubes: 3 x 12AX7, 2 X 12AT7
Power Tubes: 2 x 6V6 (optional 2x6L6)
Rectifier: 1 x 5AR4
Front Controls: Bright/Dark Switch, Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Reverb, Speed, Intensity
Rear Controls: Dwell 
Effects: Tube Driven Spring Reverb, Tube Vibrato
Inputs: 2 Inputs
Auxiliary Input: RCA Footswitch Jack
Extension Speaker Jack: External Speaker Jack
Circuit Construction: All Point-to-Point, Hand-wired
Cabinet Construction: Dove-tail jointed solid pine w/Baltic Birch Plywood baffle and back panels
Pilot Light: Blue Jewel
External Bias Points
Optional Accessories: Two Button Footswitch, Padded Cover