Jeff R Posted March 28, 2011 Posted March 28, 2011 I picked this up from a local antique shop and even though I hate shipping amps, one of you guys can possibly use it more than me before I consign it locally. 1966 Guild Thunderbird 1x12/1x8 combo. I assume it's somewhere between 30 and 50 watts - it has a pair of 7591s in the power section. Two channels, one with a strong tremelo and reverb. The guitar signal feeds the 12 and the reverb runs through the 8. Both channels have a three-way blade switch similar to the "bright" tone control on an old Fender combo. The rest of the tube compliment is six 12AX7s and a 6BM8 that I'm told is tied to the reverb circuit. The 12, which I assume is the original Jensen, and the power transformer's EIA codes date to IIRC 40-something'th week of '65, so let's just say a '66 to be safe. The 8 is a replacement Celestion. The amp was recently serviced by a local tech, tubes are good and the amp sounds strong. I have the factory footswitch that has on/off buttons for the reverb and trem. Reverb is decent - not as rich as an old Fender unless you open up the amp - and the trem is sickenly thick with the intensity control dimed. It has a master volume. The amp is very Fender'ey in sound. It has big clean headroom compared to mid-wattage Fender combos and it likes pedals out front. The Look factor: This is one of the funkiest retro looking amps I've ever seen. Reminds me of my Grandma's old window unit air conditioner from back when I was a child. For being 45 years old, it's pretty clean. Grille cloth intact with no tears. I've been monitoring eBay and other sources and these amps are somewhat hard to find. Not a lot of information on the Web. Two Thunderbirds, however, are on eBay right now and IIRC they are both priced in the $800s. I'll sell this one for $675 shipped and insured in the CONUS.
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