Selmer® Selmer Zodiac 50w Truevoice
- Sold
These things are quite rare in the USA but if you are familiar with the immortal guitar riff from The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" then you have heard one of these amps.
Back in England in the ‘60s, Vox had all the glory and Selmer took second place, leaving poor old Watkins (aka WEM) in third. Selmer started selling amps for the UK market before Vox ever did, but they lacked The Shadows and The Beatles as high-profile users. Ironically, both those groups initially used Selmers, but abandoned them for Vox on the point of finding fame; Vox were very good at giving free gear to the next set of pop icons.
During the skiffle craze in the late ‘50s Selmer were having trouble sourcing suitable amplification for the guitars they were distributing and so they started to make their own – and the Truevoice amps were born. The first real Selmer brand amps, which were done out in maroon and cream tolex (the blood and custard models) ran from ’58 to ’61. Then came the two-tone blue and grey amps in ’62 and ’63, moving to the infamous crocodile skin models from ’63 to ’65. In 1965 Semer amps were made in all black with grill cloth reminiscent of the Vox amps. At the same time they introduced a budget range of amps under the Futurama name (40 years before the cartoon). If you are interested in more Selmer history, click on this link.
All these amps are collectible and playable and, properly maintained, will sound every bit as good if not better than their Vox cousins. They have plenty of treble bite and, like an AC30, have to be ridden hard to get the most out of them. No hiding behind a wall of input tube overdrive with these beauties.
There has been a Selmer amp in the Ludlow Guitars family since 1977 and we still have it. That one is not for sale but we usually have one or two of these special Brit all-tube, handwired amps from the early/mid '60s and we are always interested in acquiring more.
This is the one you want. An original croc skin 'selectatone' amp which we believe is from 1964.
The speakers have been replaced with Celestion Greenbacks and the back panels are not original. The rest of the amp is good though. It has just been serviced by the top amp repair guy in New York and everything works as it should. This is a two channel amp with tone and volume on channle one and the very useful selectatone feature on channle two which enables you to go back and forward between preset tones at just the touch of a button (the wonders of modern technology). There is deep throbbing tremolo on channel two which can be engaged with the footswitch. The tremolo is tube operated and the tube is mounted onto the front panel which has a small cut-out just for this (you can see it in the picture). When the tremolo is engaged the tremolo tube, which glows blue/green, pulses with the change in volume.
This is a Brit rated 50w which means more like 70w in actual use. So this thing can get quite loud, like a Twin, but with a very different voice. The amp has plenty of top end (you can dial it out but you can never ad it back in later) and starts to sing as you get the volume towards half way.
Sale Price: $2 200.00
Freight cost (contiguous USA): $50.00
Reference #: 2040
Out of stock.
Call or email us for an in-hand description of this item. 212 353 1775
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