1953 Montgomery Wards 35 JDR 8211 Wards Airline/Danelectro Commando

This amp was given to me 36 years ago by a lap steel slide/Fender Custom Triple Neck console steel player. He bought it to play large USO Dance halls back in 1953. The amp is built very close to the Wards Airliners and Dano Commando amps with the four 6V6 power tubes and I believe an early version of them. It is in great shape for a 66 year old amp. The instrument inputs are separate up on the top of the amp and connected to the amp by a coaxial lead. It has 1 channel for guitar inputs and, mic and accordion inputs for the second channel. Each set of inputs has their own volume control. There is a master treble and bass control. The tremolo is foot switched controlled and has tremolo speed and intensity controls. There is a sensitivity (gain) control on the bottom chassis that controls the preamp output to the power amp input. The rectifier tube is a 5Y3GT. The preamp tube is a 12AX7. The phase inverter tube is a 6SN7. The tremolo drive tube is a 6SJ7. The power tubes are four cathode biased 6V6s. It has the 15 inch ALNICO speaker that it left the factory with. The amp is all point to point wiring. This amp has spent the last 36 years in my studio. I powered it thru a variac transformer set to 110 volts. A little below its rated voltage but it still sounded great. I did it this way to try and keep it all original and it seems to have worked. All I have changed is a few bad tubes, the handle that fell apart, installed a 3 prong plug, and removed the death cap. I will send the remains of the original handle and cord with it. This amp has deep bass and a great sound. It has that classic tremolo that just does not end. This is a chance to own a very rare amp.