Alamo amp a good deal?

[Coffeemutt]

Went to a local pawn shop today and saw an small Alamo tube amp for $99+tax. It is a two-channel with tremolo, which works quite well. It sounds really good, no scratchiness in the pots at all, but has a two prong plug. The front lists 55w as the rating, but I'm sure that's a power consumption figure.

Money's not falling from the sky around my place, so I wanted to check with you guys before picking it up. Just want to make sure that I'll have no trouble getting my money back (or making a little) if I need to sell it.

I'm a tube amp noob, and really respect the opinions of TDPRI members. Thanks in advance for your opinion!

(They also had a Silverface Musicmaster Bass for $225. Pretty good condition, but I didn't play it)

[skeksis]

one of my first tube amps was an Alamo... ended up trading it for something else down the road, but it was a fine little combo. I'd check a couple things: first, check to see if it has a proper power transformer. Some smaller amps skip the PT or even an isolation transformer, and can be pretty dangerous. second (and somewhat related to the first), see what the tube complement is -- if they're common power tubes like EL84/6BQ5 types or 6V6 and preamp 12ax7 types, you're in good shape. Watch out for 50L6 and 35w4, which point to a more-dangerous circuit. probably wouldn't hesitate to negotiate a little bit, but $99 is probably not too bad.

A lot of folks around here enjoy the musicmaster bass, too :-)

[xStonr]

I picked up an Alamo Embassy which is a single channel 5 watter with vibrato. It's a Vibro Champ clone. I got mine off the bay for next to nothing as it was missing some tubes and a speaker. After getting it up and running, it is one fantastic little tube amp. 6AV6 12AX7A 6V6 5Y3GT are the tubes in my amp and are easy to get. I say go for it. The price is right and you may be able to negotiate a lower price.

[Jeffscreamedcorn]

Buy it!