NAD - This Brute lost the fight

Securb

One of Jerry's Kids
Someone gifted me this Polytone Brute that needs a lot of work. These things were the go-to amp in the Jazz world a while back. It will be a fun project to bring it back to life.

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Holy crap. Has that thing been underwater?

You are not kidding about Polytone stuff. It was the go-to amp for bebop and straight ahead jazz guitarists for many years. If you can get it working, it should sound terrific.
 
Holy crap. Has that thing been underwater?

You are not kidding about Polytone stuff. It was the go-to amp for bebop and straight ahead jazz guitarists for many years. If you can get it working, it should sound terrific.

Yeah, it is in rough shape. If I can get it running, I have a gem. If not, I have been looking for a 1x12 cab, and this will be it. I will put a lunch box amp on it, which will become my amp for the living room. I am taking the Fender Excelsior out of there, so the cat doesn't destroy it.
 
honestly, i think the reason those polytones were so popular is they are small enough the nyc jazz cats could bring it in a taxi, and still get a loud enough clean tone. they sound ok, but there are plenty of better sounding amps. they were super popular though
 
honestly, i think the reason those polytones were so popular is they are small enough the nyc jazz cats could bring it in a taxi, and still get a loud enough clean tone. they sound ok, but there are plenty of better sounding amps. they were super popular though

You couldn't swing a dead cat in Boston without hitting one back in the day, especially around Berklee. Their allure I think was, as you said they were super loud and portable but also had lots of clean headroom and they didn't break the bank.
 
Yeah, they were tiny and light compared to tube amps in the 70s, and didn't sound as terrible as most SS designs. Any guitarist I had talked to who played jazz in clubs back then would have rather had a Twin or Deluxe, but that was impossible on public transit.
 
90w from what I understand.
Wow. I had an old Ross 1x12 closed back combo. 80 very loud watts to my 15 year old ears.
That thing would sound killer with an MT-2 in front.

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Wow. I had an old Ross 1x12 closed back combo. 80 very loud watts to my 15 year old ears.
That thing would sound killer with an MT-2 in front.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

That is the thing about traditional jazz amps. Lots of clean headroom and they make for a great pedal platform in most cases. If you put a stomp in front of a jazz amp you really heard the stomp.
 
That is the thing about traditional jazz amps. Lots of clean headroom and they make for a great pedal platform in most cases. If you put a stomp in front of a jazz amp you really heard the stomp.
That Ross had a pre-gain that got very nasty when cranked.

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Looks like I am going to scrap this project. I thought in the worst-case scenario, if I could not get it running, I would have a cool 1x12 cab. The speaker is a 15, not a 12. I have tons of 12s but no spare 15s. A new 15 would be around $150 or more, depending on what I used. This amp working used is around $350. The juice is not worth the squeeze, it is going in the trash.
 
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