Kubic "Blonde Box" 35-Watt 2x12" Guitar Amp Half Stack (with video!)

Super-cool-thing-alert!

Here's a 1-of-1, custom-made amplifier which was born and raised in Chicago. Built on the platform of tweed and blonde Fender amps of the 1950s and early-1960s, the Kubic amp is a 35-watt 2x12" half stack that, no, we will not be splitting up. This amp uses quality-yet-lightweight pine construction by an experienced luthier, and is painted blonde like an old Tele. You can carry both the head and cabinet in one hand each without issue. The cabinet has, in addition to a standard handle on top, heavy duty handles on either side for when you wanna split up moving duties between you and a friend.

The head uses a pair of ECC83 (UK designation for 12AX7) tubes, and a pair of 6L6s in the power stage with solid state rectifier. This is a single channel amp with 2 inputs, bass and treble tone controls with bright switch, and a single volume knob. Premium components throughout, with expensive capacitors and resistors, Allen Amplification transformers (TP40D power, TO35MT output).

The speaker cabinet is a semi-open back design with a 2x12" diagonal configuration. It uses a Jensen MOD 12-50 up top and an Eminence Red Coat Governor on bottom. Very different speakers with polar opposite characteristics, making for a great deal of variety when mic'd up. We also highly (highly) recommend recording the back of the cabinet, as we've found it to make for a ridiculously full sound.

We've currently got some vintage "big bottle" 6L6s in this amp -- a Sylvania and a HUGE RCA tube which very, very barely fits. There's probably a quarter inch of clearance between the RCA tube and the head cabinet. You have to PULL THE CHASSIS OUT OF THE CABINET to remove and/or insert this tube. We'll be shipping this with a pair of smaller TAD-branded 6L6s but will be including the vintage tubes in the box, as we found this particular pair to increase the clean headroom of the amp while also balancing it out a bit tonally.

Depending on the instrument you have plugged into it, this amp starts getting into "drive" territory at about 5-6, and then goes into full grind by the time you've got the gain whacked all the way up. It has a very tight, aggressive, hyper-focused sound at higher gain which is decidedly more "modern" than the vintage Fenders which inspired it, but you can definitely get Blonde Bassman / Tweed Pro sounds out of this thing with some tone stack fiddling.

We've found it to be a more-than-capable bass guitar amplifier as well. Keep the gain down in the 3-4 range, mic up the Eminence speaker, and let it roll. Classic recorded bass tones are achievable with this amplifier.

This amp has definitely seen some gigs, as is evidenced by dings, dents, smudges and smears throughout the head and speaker cabinet. There's some paint loss on the face of the head around the seams. It's still in very good condition and is operationally perfect. Check out the video to hear it with a PJ bass and a vintage Firebird in the context of a full band.

We offer a 15-day nearly-unconditional return policy on everything in our shop. Don't like it? This is not a problem. Send it back. It doesn't work? This is not a problem. Send it back. Did YOU break it? That's your problem.

This amp will ship lovingly packed (two boxes) and fully insured within one (1) business day of your order. Local pickup in Chicago is fine, masked, and encouraged -- just message us beforehand to work it out. We cannot ship this amplifier internationally.

Please ask us any and all questions you may have. We are here to help.