1960s Akai M8 Modified 5w Tube Amp/Preamp Head

This thing is outrageous! Mr. Winfield Holt of Orator Amplification modified this cool old Japanese tube Akai M8 tape deck into a Swiss Army Knife unit fit for studio and recording use. It can serve as a 5w guitar or instrument tube amp, for starters (as in the video) but it can also be used as just a preamp as well by yanking the EL84 power tube for silent running.

It's got two channels -- the top one's input (in the "silver" part of the amp's faceplate) is generally suited more to microphone use and the bottom input (in the "black" part) is suited to guitar or instrument input. The "spkr" jack really is for hooking to guitar cabinet and the "stereo/mono" switch is actually the on/off switch.

The left and right knobs ("volume" and "tone") are supposedly simply volume knobs for each channel but, as you can see in the amp demo, tweaking them does things to the sound of the other channel. The middle knob is for balance between the channels. The VU meter only works on the "guitar amp" (black section) channel.

Anyhow, this device is a riot. It's given me some of the most fun, full-throttle, lower-volume guitar tones I've heard out of an amp in a long time. I really enjoy it. 

Drawbacks, though? Well, as it's not cased at the moment, it would be dangerous to operate this as a "roaming guitar amp" as the wiring is all exposed. It would be perfectly at home on a shelf in a studio or home situation, however, where it's not going to get damaged or have unruly people stick their fingers into it while it's running.

It would, however, be easy enough for someone to make a housing for it if that was desirable. I think the winning placement would be for sedate studio use, though. Its quirks and tones are definitely a lot more suited for that environment.