When I first purchased this 1960s vintage Vadis 250R amp, I had assumed it was the 'combo' version of the Vadis 601, an amp head that is amongst my favourites of all time. However, it is quite different in many ways, and almost certainly pre-dates the 601. My estimate is a production date in the early 1960s, in Sydney Australia.

While the 601 uses EL34s in the output, this amp uses a pair of 6L6GC valves, which would give around 25 watts output with the valve rectifier and the cathode bias (which many people incorrectly refer to as 'Class A'!). Just like the 601, the amp sounds fantastic. It fell silent just after we received it (another dubious private sale!), and the culprit was a faulty output transformer, which we have had rewound to the original specifications to bring the amp back to good working condition with the tone it originally had.

The speaker (original) is a single Sydney-made MSP Hi-Flux 12PQ15 Alnico 12" unit, which sounds glorious.

The reverb is a long-tank spring unit, while the tremolo is my favourite type, which oscillates the output valve bias, which is much more organic and touch-sensitive than the more common amplitude modulation type. The all-up result of all these vintage goodies in a hard-wired point-to-point valve amp? Tone!

I'm in no hurry to sell this amp, as I'm enjoying gigging it from time to time! It has cost me a small fortune (as many of the 'perfect condition' private sale amps seem to be!) getting it brought back to proper operating specs (yes, a leading Melbourne amp tech did all the work), but it has been worth it. This is a very, very usable and giggable amp, that is surprisingly light and easy to carry.

Dimensions are 57cm(W) x 65cm(H) x 25cm(D), and it weighs 16.5 kg.

Sold to Tony

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