I have a EL34 style Solarus Head I got at a thrift shop repair center for $50. (8/10/69 Transitional obviously 40 watt in a head) I sent it off to a Techs for recapping and tubing and testing BEFORE considering plugging it in. Very glad I did as some things were wrong with the amp and 600 volt caps were to be installed in the power section etc anyway. Everything works. Tremelo, Reverb, pilot light, All lableling, all the things that are broken or otherwise malfunctioning on many amps I read about. I only need knobs as a few are the wrong ones, and the tube chart was missing. I even recently came into possession of an old Scott stereo amp with 2 - 7199's in it and they test good. Spare PI tubes.
I played my first gig last night and it was sweet. Maybe the KT88/6550 amps are harsh for guitar but this EL 34 40 watter was very nice and responded well with my 2 x 12 cabinet. My Epiphone ES335 Dot was howlin very nicely.
