In my last gear post, I told you about my very first guitar which I bought in the early 1980s. That guitar is long gone, but oddly enough the cheap plastic transistorized amp I bought with it from Consumer's Distributing is still in my possession.
The amplifier itself has absolutely no make or model designation printed on it anywhere. I assume it's a Harmony, because the power cord that came with it is imprinted with the Harmony logo. The cord can be detached and the amplifier can run on 6 batteries which I think are "C' batteries. Does anything even use C batteries anymore? Okay okay, maybe a couple of things but lets keep it clean here.
Back to the amplifier. I can't remember how many watts it actually puts out, but I'd think 3 to 5 watts maximum - and transistor watts at that. A half watt tube amp could blow this baby right out of the water and throw it into a tree.
The amp features a bright and normal input as well as a volume and tone control. It also offers a 1/4 inch headphone jack. I decided to open it up for the first time and noticed it has a 5w 4 ohm speaker. There are a handful of other small components mounted on a PCB and that's it - pure catalogue-store, grade-z amp!
Why did I keep this cheap plastic thing? Well it never took up much room. More importantly, it's incredibly light. The speaker magnet probably weighs close to a pound, and the rest of the amp probably weighs in at less than half that. It's a model of simplicity. The plastic doesn't exactly have the resonance of a nice speaker cabinet but the thing sounds pretty woolly when it's cranked up. One thing I love about it is that it's SO underpowered, it precludes the need of having a distortion or overdrive pedal to switch from clean to dirty. So with all due respect to Jimmy Page, here's an example of what this amp can do on it's own with absolutely no effects whatsoever.
For more gear related postings go here.
Posts
I HAVE ONE OF THESE LITTLE GUYS.HAVE TO USE BATTERIES.CANNOT FIND AN ADAPTER ANYWHERE FOR IT. IT'S A "HARMONY POWER PAL"
ReplyDeleteI have the same little amp.Mine says HARMONY POWER PAL on it. Can't find a power adapter for it anywhere so I run it on 6 -C batteries.
ReplyDeleteCool. Wonder how many other folks kept this little guy through the years.
ReplyDeleteI have one of these too. Bought it in the late 80's (?) at a yard sale for $2 dollars! Along the bottom of the face plate my amp has: HARMONY 4050A. I still use it occasionally with a cheap crappy plastic mic to record vocals on certain projects. Sounds great.
ReplyDeletehow much plz
ReplyDeleteYes got one about to remove 30yrs of dust then going to get some batteries and try it out. Will let you know if it still works 😁
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Let us know.
ReplyDeleteGreat little 5 watt amp. Can shoot out some surpising bass, but when cranked, it gets a little crazy. Low volume is surpsingly good
ReplyDeleteto have at a desk when you don't want to bother anybody. Fred
Maaaaan...just bought 1 for my old soul rocker son with no adapter but can't the on/off switch for his guitar. Got 6 new batteries in it. Plugged in at microphone but not getting no action. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, perhaps the batteries aren't in the right way. Also try both the normal and bright inputs. If you put anything in the headphone input you won't hear any sounds out of the speaker.
ReplyDeleteDusting mine off after years of displaying on a shelf. Needed a small amp for the occasion. The plastic housing rattled so opened it up and padded with foam and its great for a small venue where a clean sound is all I need.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! Great idea about padding the housing - I can see that making the amp a lot more useable.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! Great idea about padding the housing - I can see that making the amp a lot more useable.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! Great idea about padding the housing - I can see that making the amp a lot more useable.
ReplyDeleteWas also sold in the UK as Encore 4050A- Encore are a UK brand. Bought it off eBay. Might try the foam trick.
ReplyDelete