Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Aug 12, 2022 19:12:31 GMT -6
This was also the era when FMIC was heavily into drugs and thought red knobs and rat fur -- not just ANY rat fur, but silver-gray rat fur -- would be the Next Big Thing for guitar amps. They were partially right: early models of the Princeton Chorus and others, though dressed in sedate black Tolex, had red knobs, and this killed sales, which revived when the company simply replaced the knobs with standard Basic Black... yet to this day you'll find sellers claiming top prices for their "red-knob version."
In 1985, Fender bought the Sunn Amplifiers factory in Tualatin (Oregon) and moved operations to Lake Oswego (Oregon) and made maybe a dozen different Fender models there. You can spot them for their "Made in USA" badging but even more easily from "LO-" serial numbers. This operation straggled along until 2002.
These amps get very little respect -- which of course translates to low prices. So far as I can determine, all were solid-state, and most were rather loud, with some interesting features along the way.
To kick this off, here's three that appeared almost simultaneously at Goodwill stores across the nation.
The M-80 was a chunky little beast. Really, when you see an amp at the shop (or anywhere for that matter), you should check the back label. In this instance, you'd see it draws 300
watts -- put that together with the model name and you'd be correct in guessing its output is rated at 80 Wrms.
And, yes, I needed to bid on this because the rat fur looks oddly clean, particularly considering age.
As if the decor weren't awful enough, here is the H.O.T. -- but wait, it gets worse... the promo tagline for it is "I'M EASY! Turn me on. Find out Why!"
Again: let's just blame the cocaine, my dudes.
A nice plain Princeton Chorus.
In 1985, Fender bought the Sunn Amplifiers factory in Tualatin (Oregon) and moved operations to Lake Oswego (Oregon) and made maybe a dozen different Fender models there. You can spot them for their "Made in USA" badging but even more easily from "LO-" serial numbers. This operation straggled along until 2002.
These amps get very little respect -- which of course translates to low prices. So far as I can determine, all were solid-state, and most were rather loud, with some interesting features along the way.
To kick this off, here's three that appeared almost simultaneously at Goodwill stores across the nation.
The M-80 was a chunky little beast. Really, when you see an amp at the shop (or anywhere for that matter), you should check the back label. In this instance, you'd see it draws 300
watts -- put that together with the model name and you'd be correct in guessing its output is rated at 80 Wrms.And, yes, I needed to bid on this because the rat fur looks oddly clean, particularly considering age.
As if the decor weren't awful enough, here is the H.O.T. -- but wait, it gets worse... the promo tagline for it is "I'M EASY! Turn me on. Find out Why!"
Again: let's just blame the cocaine, my dudes.
A nice plain Princeton Chorus.
Eventually I will amend the root post with an actual (if evolving) list of known "LO-" models.
I'm going to have to split this off to a new thread, "The Lake Oswego Story" or something.
For $65 all-in, I chose to gamble. It just arrived but I haven't plugged it in yet - not sure if I'm afraid it'll explode, or afraid I'll love it.
