65amps Royal Albert

- 50 watts
- Two KT-77 power tubes (will also run EL34's with a bias )
- Two 12AX7 preamp tubes
- Tube rectified (one GZ34)
- 50/35 watt switch
- Boost (footswitchable)
- Smooth switch
- Defeatable midrange knob
- Point to point wired

UTILIZATION

One input, no master volume. Plug in and rock. It's a very simple amp in that regard. There are a few bells and whistles to mess around with, but not that many. You can defeat the midrange knob by turning it all the way to the left. I have never found that particularly useful. There's an "almost half power" switch (from 50 to 35 watts) that allows you to get the power tubes cooking at around 9:00 rather than 12:00. The Smooth switch smoothes out the power tube distortion. The Boost switch adds a little more volume and appreciably more low end.

SOUNDS

65 Amps seems to be on a mission to create great classic rock amps. That's exactly what this amp is; a great classic rock amp. You can turn everything to noon and get a fantastic tone out of the gate. It's hard to get a bad sound out of it. At noon on the volume setting you have just a small amount of distortion. Go any higher and you can get significantly more breaking up. Regardless how far up the master volume is, the amp remains touch responsive. This is an extremely impressive sounding amp. It has a very nice amount of compression and openness as well as a stellar voicing.

OVERALL OPINION

I honestly did not know what to expect when I agreed to take this amp on trade. All I knew was I did not care for the look of the amp at all. A lot of people do, so I guess it's just me. When I first plugged it in my immediate react was, "Nice!" As I cranked the master my reaction was, "Very nice!"

I am not sure why you would want the Boost to be footswitchable since the change is so drastic to the sound (both in bass and volume) I can't imagine someone using it as a typical volume boost. The Smooth switch does not seem to do very much. I guess they are nice features to have, anyways.

The amp sounds very musical and well balanced. I found myself keeping the amp at noon and using a pedal to get more gain. It takes any overdrive pedal I had thrown at it really well, probably better than any other amp I have come across. It sounds beautiful and full while still cutting through the mix. It is a very smooth sounding amp, but not dark. If you are looking for a smooth classic rock sound, you can't go wrong with this one.