The "What? There's no Standel Club?" Club

Looked high and low, I could swear there was a Standel Club here somewhere... but no. Oh well, here's mine:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/WRCz/standel.jpg

Frankly, I think it's been pretty thoroughly reworked with 2 6V6s and 3 12AX7s... but with that 15" Eminence, it doesn't do anything but sound great. (And yes, I'll probably have to rethink the groovy grillecloth before I gig again. :roll:)

Next!

Well, I'm feeling pretty darned special...

Fearnot, Fearnot... there are others like you!

I have one of the '60s solid state Standels, the ones with the circuit "modules". It's a Model C15R I Custom XV. I got it for $30 at a garage sale! Yeah!:smile:

Manufactured 1968 50 watts Solid State
Two Channels
Channel 1: Volume Treble Bass Contour
Channel 2: Volume Treble Bass Reverb Speed Intensity
Two button footswitch for reverb and tremelo
Speaker: Standel SS15 System Designed Transducer 15" 8 Ohm with 4 lb alnico magnet

Here's part of my old review on Harmony Central. All still true...:
This amp is incredibly clean sounding: in fact I could not get it to distort noticeably at all, even when turned up to the max with a humbucker-equipped Gibson plugged in. It would be excellent for country guitar or pedal steel.

I've used it with a '66 Tele set up for country, '66 Jaguar with flatwounds, '82 Strat, new Flying V, Dano 6 string bass, and an ancient Guild hollowbody jazz box with the same result: you only hear the sound of the guitar. This amp is from another era; in a sense it has no tone, which is great if you've got a great sounding guitar: the Tele and the Guild sound amazing, for example. The Flying V pretty much has one sound: it's just a roar from the high output pickups, and well, that's what you hear!

The reverb is very deep and surfy, kind of like an old Ampeg or an outboard Fender or Premier reverb unit. The tremelo is also deep and weird: you can play in rhythm with it, and it can sound like a backwards guitar effect, again kind of like an old Ampeg or Thomas Organ Vox. Very cool.

I've used it for bass and the 15" speaker makes it great for that, though maybe a little under-powered: 50 solid state watts is or course not like 50 tube watts...

I don't know if many people know that the Standel name has been relaunched: http://www.standelamps.com/

Their two flagship products are the 25L15 "Vintage Plus":

http://www.standelamps.com/vintage_plus/25l15/images/s25l15_hires.jpg

... a point-to-point tube amp using a pair of 807 power tubes for 25W. My favourite part of the Vintage Plus series is that they use the legendary JBL D-130 (15") speakers. This amp lists for over $3,000. Can you say boutique?

It's big brother:

http://www.standelamps.com/vintage_plus/100ul15/images/100ul15_hires.jpg

The 100UL15 gets 100W from four 6L6WC power tubes.

The groovy grill cloth is the icing on the cake!

Not bragging but here's one to drool over. It's the only picture I have loaded at the moment.
#1034 built for Lee Buck in Nov. 54
Rarest amp I ever owned. Not the best sounding though. Sold it in 03. Sure wish i still had it they sell for a years wages now.
I've had a couple of the early 60's models. A 1x12 Artist with a P12Q which sounded Ok and a 1x15 Custom that was just too glassy sounding to my ears.

I've been looking for years for an old (early to mid 50's) Standel, have yet to find one in my price range, they are the "holy grail" for fingerstyle players.

This in a '68 Atrist. It is about to be upgraded to Imperial specs. two 12's great clean sound and reverb.

Winnie

I'm fixin' to build a 25L15 type of one based on the schematic that Ted Weber was planning to release as a kit.

Y'know, I've been out searching for information on my Standel (up top there) and still can't find any. In fact, the only picture Google can find of that model on the whole darned internet is mine.

Weeeeird...?

Yo, Winnie!

:lol:

Did you ever mod your Standel? I have the same thing, however the reverb is WAY over the top most of the time...the little micro-pot on the circuitboard doesn't do much, and there is no tremolo. Find a way around the little potted jewel-boxes?

Take care,

Bill

I wish I had a picture to post of my first "big & impressive looking" amp, which was a transistor Standel. Bought used around 1972. Loud & piercing, lacking in bass bigtime. One speaker, I guess it was a 12". Large & heavy. Used it for about three years as a teen.

I afterwards always thought that this was a crap brand based on my experience, until I saw a Wes Montgomery BBC video where he uses a Standel. Superb sound by Wes with it. Obviously some of them were good.

(And yes, I'll probably have to rethink the groovy grillecloth before I gig again. :roll:)

Next!

Serious envy here.

A little bit of groovy never hurt nobody:roll:

Mine:
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k314/customxke/IMG_20120227_232848.jpg

Nice... is that a 12" in there? Tubes or SS?

My baby. So loud, so clean. Pair of eminence 12's. I think it's 120 watts, and it means it!

BTW,
Module replacements are available. Can't remember from who though. Maybe the new Standel Co.?

...if not the modules themselves, at least the 'secret' circuit diagram. I have heard tell the new company is very friendly, although I personally have not had direct contact with them...

Yup, plus there are at least two guys who know them very well, former employees? That are still servicing them. I was not going to buy mine if it couldn't be repaired, but one is in nashville and one in Cali. Finally as I heard the new company will offer all they have as far as schematics.

Just saying.... I'm a tube amp guy through and through. This one gets that sound. I turned up the verb a little and cranked the tremolo and play a few CCR licks... I knew I was going to be mine. It has these gain switches and and contour switches for each channel, they're both very subtle but nice. Takes pedals lovely. If you find one of these solid state models on the cheap... Buy buy buy. It came with stock with caster feet and weighs less than 45 lbs and is louder than a twin reverb. It's open backed too. I want to plug in a lap steel but I'm scared I'll like it too much. I plugged my baritone ukulele into it with a Dearmond pickup, quite a lot of character. These eminence speakers are schwing.

Another one for me.....25L15:


158045



158046

Well this morning I wasn't feeling well and couldn't sleep so I finally looked inside my 2x12 200 watt solid state combo. It looks like I got one that has never had any module resin over parts of the circuit. This means its actually serviceable. It has never acted up though both trem and reverb work.

159231



159232



159233

My friend Lee Jeffreiss, former steel player for Big Sandy and the Fly Rite Boys, for some time had been preaching to me about Standel transistor amplifiers and how good they sound for the vintage style steel guitar that we both like to play. He claimed that a transistor Standel would sound more "tube-like" than my Twin Reverb. I had my doubts.

So when this 1969 Standel Artist 2x12 showed up on Craigslist for $150 I had to go take a look. When I got there the amp was in good condition, had the original drivers so I took the plunge.
http://www.gretsch-talk.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=1201&pictureid=10206

Well Lee was right. The amp sounded fabulous with my 1958 Fender steel guitar. The tone has a much different contour than a typical mid-scooped Fender. The midrange in particular is very sweet, but there is still plenty of top end and bass. A lot of amps, like my Twin Reverb, allow you to get 1000 different sounds and 990 of them are un-useable. This is an example of an amp with a single distinctive sound, that you can tweak slightly for more bass or top end, but even at extreme settings it still sounds good. I also like the way it fattens up my single coil guitars, particularly my Telecasters.

There were some minor issues with the amp, mainly it needed some tuning up so I took the chassis to my tech who rebuilt the power supply and replaced some caps. While he had the guts I decided to address the biggest problem, which is the weight and bulkiness. These amps were made from very heavy particle board and the amp, with it's trolley, weighed a ton. It pretty much took a crane to lift it in and out of the car. So I built new lightweight cabinets out of pine for the speakers and one for the chassis. I covered them in blond tolex and re-used the metal grille from the original amp. I was a bit reluctant to hack up a vintage amp, but the transistor Standels are not in huge demand and this one is going to be my number 1 player. Everything is reversible anyway so I went for it. Here is a shot of the finished amp. It is now nicely portable and sounds great for steel and guitar. It takes an overdrive pedal extremely well and I can replicate some David Lindley tones very closely.
http://www.gretsch-talk.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=1201&pictureid=10207