120 valve watts!

[markstuk]

My last experience with a Sound City 200 Watt Head was watching it blow up whilst our keyboard player was sitting on it .. This was 1979 though.. Laugh, I nearly stopped breathing :-) And there was this nice Punkette I met that night, but that, as they say, is a different story :-)

[Adrenochrome]

Short answer:
With enough loudspeaker(s) of high enough sensitivity then it will be enough.

[Phil Starr]

[quote name='umph' post='993473' date='Oct 19 2010, 01:25 PM']The transformers are heavily overrated they are partridge afterall!

You'll get 50w from a PAIR of el34's not each one unless your running them with 800v on the plate and 300 on the screens which the soundcity isn't.[/quote]
100W at that voltage according to the mullard data I have here, though I bow to your knowledge of how they are set up in the Sound City. I just remember what I measured into a dummy load because it surprised me so much at the time. This was in 1973 so they may have made changes since then.

The transformers will give less current when they are warm. What is more important is whether you can get replacements. I have had to replace the output transformer on one of these long ago and no amp is completely bomb proof. I don't repair valve stuff any more so I've no idea about current availability but if parts are a problem then it is worth knowing before you part with any cash. I'm hoping someone can say it's no problem (unless it is) so this guy can make a good choice.

Still it is nice to look at an old friend. All those lovely valves...

[umph]

[quote name='Phil Starr' post='993618' date='Oct 19 2010, 02:57 PM']100W at that voltage according to the mullard data I have here, though I bow to your knowledge of how they are set up in the Sound City. I just remember what I measured into a dummy load because it surprised me so much at the time. This was in 1973 so they may have made changes since then.

The transformers will give less current when they are warm. What is more important is whether you can get replacements. I have had to replace the output transformer on one of these long ago and no amp is completely bomb proof. I don't repair valve stuff any more so I've no idea about current availability but if parts are a problem then it is worth knowing before you part with any cash. I'm hoping someone can say it's no problem (unless it is) so this guy can make a good choice.

Still it is nice to look at an old friend. All those lovely valves...[/quote]
they're normally ran at 500v in UL which is 25w a piece. They definatly do more than the rated wattage though. absolutely great amps.

Normally it's a case of a rewind if one goes since replacement ones of the same spec are hard to come by and expensive. Rewinds aren't to expensive and they shouldn't go unless you do something stupid like constantly turning the amp on without a load

[ShergoldSnickers]

Oh well I suppose I may as well wheel out my Sound City 120 story. Again.

Recipe: One large home made cabinet containing an 18" speaker. One Sound City 120. On the floor. One pint of lager on the cab. Add some loud bass notes and the pint glass starts to migrate. Wait for a few seconds and then look. You'll see the pint glass teetering on the edge and then empty it's contents into the ventilation grill on top of the amp. Try to look particularly alarmed and surprised by the cloud of steam and the strange farty noise, and then unplug your bass very quickly. Remove the shards of shattered valve glass and the valve bases, rinse the amp down, wait to dry and insert new set of valves. Do not look surprised when everything works as expected. Which it did. It just laughed at me when I switched it back on. Bullet proof.