Boutique Tube Guitar amp by Bennett Music Labs, 23 years old and sounds great!

Here is a Bennett Music Labs "ARCO" (stands for ARt deCO) 30 guitar amplifier. This was built when my shop was located at the 199 Edsel Dr Rossville GA address, and dated 12/24/2000 Christmas Eve.

I only built 4 of these in total and at least 2 of them say "AD-30" instead of ARCO 30. I had some guy who didn't like the name "ARCO" and he kinda made a big fuss about it in front of some customers and honestly he insulted me quite a bit.. so I changed it to AD30 which made it sound more like a Vox model.

Each one of them were built all by hand in every phase of the build. this one is serial number 0002 and the tube chart is signed and dated by me.

At that time period, Robert Hudson of Blues Pearl amps fame, was doing the hand wired boards and making the amps chassis function for me.. and any Blues Pearl amp collectors can identify the dry gray eyelet board used by Hudson easily. the only thing I will say about Mr. Hudson is, for all his other faults ..he was a genius at building a wonderful sounding tube amp. the guitar world is poorer for not having heard more of his work. I hope someone learned his secrets, because very few amps inspire like his.

this amp is roughly 28 watts when dimed and is a class AB1 single channel all tube design with Reverb and Tremolo, it does come with a footswitch to kill the reverb and tremolo.

Think of it as a single channel Deluxe Reverb in an Art Deco " BML designed wrap around custom built cabinet".

The control panel has hi and low gain inputs, Volume, Treble, Bass, Reverb, Speed, Depth, a power switch and a power indicator lamp.

the chassis is hand bent aluminum with welded corners-, the transformers were factory Fender replacements of that time period.

the cabinet is made from White Pine with dovetailed corners and a Russian Baltic Birch face and back plates and the cabinet was covered in Green Bronco vinyl by Kayline . the grill cloth was reproduction "Orange amps" cloth.

the one 12" Speaker baffle board is of a specially made "sandwich design" so that the grill can not make any noises against the cabinet edges. the speaker grill cloth is held at the very edges of the cabinets cutout on both side of the speaker baffle. there is and never will be any vibration or "buzz" from the cloth, even at high volume . I only mention this as some folks have expressed concerns to that effect, likely due to have owned one of the Vintage Gretsch Cowboy amps with a similar design.

the cabinet is roughly the same dimensions as a Twin Reverb at: 26Wide X 20Tall X 10.5Deep

and the entire amp weighs only 35 lbs. cabinet and chassis with speaker. which makes this a very lightweight all tube amp.

the amp sounds great dimed or clean and it reacts just like a blackface Deluxe Reverb

Hot humbuckers can be a bit too much for it though. if you plan to use those, I would recommend changing the first tube to a 12AU7 for a bit more headroom.

the amp has a readily available "6106 Bendix slow turn on Rectifier tube" instead of a standby switch. it takes 50 seconds to be ready to play after turning on the power switch. sure I can install a standby and a normal rectifier. and I'm happy to accommodate a buyer should they wish it..

Also, since the original listing date, I have added a vintage style "Fender Reverb Tank wiring kit" as the cheap Hosa wires someone installed were allowing RF interference. (see last 3 photos) as well as cleaned up the labeling on the back panel.

if your interested, Feel free to contact me and I'm happy to answer any questions. IF you need more video I'm happy to provide.

I can tell you, that to hand build this same amp today, would cost $2695. Plus tax and shipping. and take me several months to do.

so this amp IS a bargain for someone that wants a reliable great sounding all tube amp with Tremolo and Reverb. that is built like a tank.