Echolette Showstar S40 – Amplifier Head 50W (1963)

Description

The BMW among guitar amps

This unique 50 Watt amplifier head, powered by two EL34 tubes, bears a lot of similarity with the famous Marshall ‘plexi’ amps… except that it was conceived even earlier! Check out the schematic here. Distinguishing features of the S40 are top-quality German engineering and a fantastic build quality, apparent from the intricately welded steel chassis, and those spectacular fluorescent backlights. That, plus the growl of the two vintage Siemens EL34 tubes, will make this amp the veritable star of every show!

The Showstar S40 features two fully independent channels – a vibrato channel and a normal channel – each with two inputs. Both have their own treble and bass controls, supplemented with a common presence control. The vibrato is footswitchable (no footswitch present). Speaker impedance can be switched between the slightly uncommon values of 5 and 20 Ohms. No problem to connect 4 and 16 Ohm cabinets though; 8 Ohms is unlikely to do any harm either, unless the volume is turned up to the maximum. A faceplate backlight switch is present on the back of the amp.

This Echolette amp is for sale in its present, unrestored condition or optionally, we can service it for you before shipping. As can be seen in the pictures, it is electronically original, except for an occasional capacitor and resistor that seem to have been replaced by previous owners. It is uncertain whether the cabinet is original however. The corner protectors and many screws are certainly period incorrect. Further, the normal channel lacks some treble and needs checking; this also applies to the vibrato depth control. So, the amp makes a nice project that is immediately suitable for live gigging nonetheless; the vibrato channel with the vibrato switched off (or on) is great already! Read more about the amp and the history of Echolette in our previous post…