POLYTONE TAURUS II

All pots have been cleaned and this baby is running clean.

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 125 watt solid-state circuitry, 15" speaker, (2) two channels with foot-switcher, on-board reverb, pre-amp out, effects loop, ext speaker 1/4" out, headphone out, removable casters, cover, etc. Look close at pics. The Taurus 2 is no longer made however is most comparable to the Mini-Brute 5. Here is site link:    Weighs about 45lbs, 21.5" wide, 21" tall with casters, 13" deep.

For those of you who don't know about Polytone Amps, here is brief history. This California based company has produced solid state amps for over 40 years. Although Polytone is a smaller company that did almost no marketing, their products actually gained cult-like popularity worldwide with Jazz musicians and especially accordion players. As far as I can tell, they were able to achieve enough success to stay in business for decades by word-of-mouth alone. I thought that to be very impressive in itself!

Many of the amps were considered multi-purpose and are in use by guitarists, bassists, keyboard players and others (the company founder was a famous accordion player). Rarely were amps ever designated for a particular instrument but because the amps could handle demanding low tones, they often became known as bass amps and became desired by string bass players in Jazz because they paired well with early pick-ups. They  also gained some following as practice amps for rock and blues players that wanted to hear every note/mistake thus improving playing chops. Perhaps they found some application in the studio as well for those players. These solid-state amps were popular for their clean articulate voice but certainly not one that would distort or crunch easily (hence the Jazz connection rather than rock). The electronic features  and channels were considered highly advanced in their day. The new amps were also quite expensive. Probably another reason why they never became widely known.