Curious about my 50 Cal+

[Kronos]

Hi all, first post here. I wish I had known about this place sooner, there seems to be a lot of great information here. Anyway, I'm curious about the 50 Cal+ that I own, hopefully some of you can give me some info on it (if there is any to give). I've never known another person who'd even played one (weird, I know) so it's really interesting to see all the posts about it.

I'm guessing I bought it in '96, from the Hollywood store. It was the only one left at the time, I think I paid around $750 for it. I actually stopped playing around 2000 and haven't touched it since but I'm playing again so I'll be replacing all the tubes for a fresh start. Although the first step is to buy a new guitar, lol. It's in really good condition, I'm just missing the Lead knob (which I didn't even notice until tonight...i have no idea when I lost it). The inspection card and red caution tag are still attached to the power cord as a matter of fact. I'll clean it up and take a few pics, it's red leather.

I'm just wondering if there's anything interesting about this era of 50 Cals in particular. I actually can't wait to start playing again because I never came close to exploring its possibilities at the time, I was pretty much a metalhead. Thanks for your help

Almost forgot, does anyone have links to soundclips of the amp in action? I'd love to hear what it can really do while I get it ready.

 

[Kronos]

Maybe just a friendly hello?

 

[plumptone]

Hi Kronos, and welcome to the board. I used to own a .50 caliber + head. I got mine in 1992, and bought a 2x12 road ready cab to go with it. I sold it in 1998. I'm sorry I did, because I'm playing bigger rooms again now. Without a doubt it was a VERY powerful, but quite toneful amp. I had been using a Studio .22 at the time, and it just wasn't putting out enough sound for the gigs we were playing then. The 50+ was great for what it was. I got the head because I thought it would make transportation easy - when playing smaller rooms, I'd run the head into my studio .22 speaker cab, and it worked fine. For bigger venues I'd lug the 2x12 out to the gig.

I can't remember if there was anything particulary unique about the amp. It didn't have the same break-up as the Studio .22, but then again, it ran on a completely different compliment of tubes. I do remember that on mine the presence control had absolutely zero effect. I never missed it to be quite honest, and never got that fixed the entire time I owned it.

I would definitely try to get your hands on a replacement for that missing knob, and if you've never retubed, it probably wouln't hurt to get that done either.

I don't have any sound clips, but I do remember mine could get killer AC/DC sounds and very tasty Billy Gibbons sounds as well. Enjoy!

 

[Kronos]

Thanks for the response, plumptone. It seems I forgot to mention I have the combo, sorry about that.

I also seem to remember that my presence control had very little affect on the sound.

I definitely plan to re-tube as soon as I get a new guitar.