rob roberge's blog

Well, it's a day late...but it's my first guest gear...this time from Lee, who's a member of a Magnatone Amp group i belong to on yahoo...without further delay...here's his review of his Lyric 660 (which is like a Magnatone 260...)...Thanks, Lee:

ID-
Lyric Custom 660; Lyric Electronics; Los Angeles, CA

Tube compliment:
3 - 12AX7
2 - 6CG7 (vibrato)
2 - 6L6GC
1 - 5U4GB

Speakers:
2 - Jensen Special Design (we are sure these are replacements for the original Oxfords) Frame codes: 220610 C12-R C8108

Control layout:
Channel 1- Treble/Bass/Loudness; mellow/normal switch; High gain input/low gain input
Channel 2- High gain input/Low gain input; normal/Bright switch; Loudness/Treble/Bass

Super Vibrato:
Intensity control;
Speed control;
Foot switch jack;
Remote speaker jack

Anti-Hum (polarity) switch;
Standby-on/off switch;
Power on/off switch;
3 amp slo-blo fuse;
power lamp

I have photos in the photos section on the home site-(Labeled "Lyric Custom 660").

She sounds really great. JD (JD is John Davidson, who is one of the 2 techs who work on all of my amps. (JD is in San Antonio; the other is Terry Dobbs in Columbus, IN-Both are true Point-to-point, hand-wired, tube amp Wizards) tried her out with some Oxford speakers & raved about the way they sounded. If the sound was better than it is now, I am not sure I could handle it. The sound is nice & clean up to 50%, but after that she starts to really strut her stuff...as JD says, "...Tone to the bone!". Channel 2 (non-vibrato channel) is a little brighter & louder than #1.

The vibrato is "Wunderbar!!!!"...most excellent!!! Really makes my guitars sound out of tune (due to the pitch shifting properties of the vibrato...LOL). I have plugged in one of my OE30 (335 style Washburn/Oscar Schmidt-Washburn 421/423 HB pickups), my '74 Strat & my Kent 821 - 12 string into it & they all sounded tremendous. The 50+ year old P-90's in my '53 Gold Top sound like they were made for each other.

As far as overall volume, it ain't a Twin Reverb (even a Pro), but it ought to be big enough for most clubs-especially with a good extension speaker cabinet. The 260/260A are both supposed to be rated @ 35 watts, so my guess is this is about the same.

I am very happy with the new addition to my "family".

Lee

# posted by Rob Roberge @ 5:47 PM