# The Canadian Made Amp Thread



## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Here is an old one that some of you may remember. Tagus

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...ps-pedals-Tagus-Formula-II-W0QQAdIdZ271515907


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

That is an awesome looking amp!

I've got an old Canadian Amp that I had been left unused in a basement. Got it fixed up, and it sounds beautiful. It's two 12ax7 two 6v6. 

It's made by Aztech Engineering, and I've never found anyone who knows by whom or why this thing was built. I think someone said Aztech was making stuff for Traynor back in the day, or perhaps they were associated it Lidovox, but I dunno.

Here are some pics:


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

I'll bet not too many of you have a Barlen amp. It's sort of a hot rodded Princeton Reverb with a 12" speaker. Made in Saskatchewan.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

Len was the amp tech at L&M in Saskatoon some years ago, haven't seen him for awhile, but I've seen the Barlen before.


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## Fane (Aug 23, 2008)

That Barlen looks like a great little amp, I wouldn't mind something Fendery like that. 

A buddy of mine had an old Garnet stack with Tweeters that I'm sure many of you have all heard of - sounded great with a couple of pedals pushing it, but the built in distortion circuit was worse than a JC-120.


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

Deleted....


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

Clean Channel said:


> That is an awesome looking amp!
> 
> I've got an old Canadian Amp that I had been left unused in a basement. Got it fixed up, and it sounds beautiful. It's two 12ax7 two 6v6.
> 
> ...


wow... awesome looking amp defintely NOT built by traynor the pine in the cab is a dead giveaway 
traynor used birch plywood for durability except for 1979 80 when bad things happened everywhere 

It does look like an acordion amp !! 

p


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

Clean Channel said:


> That is an awesome looking amp!
> 
> I've got an old Canadian Amp that I had been left unused in a basement. Got it fixed up, and it sounds beautiful. It's two 12ax7 two 6v6.
> 
> ...


wow... awesome looking amp no traynor association that I know of ...

heres what I know ...
GBX was started by a guy who now works for Yorkville ... GBX was funded by the american AHEAD CORPORATION 

Lidovox was a private label TRAYNOR PRODUCT built for a Toronto accordion dealer 
Conservatory was a private label Traynor brand ... mostly guitar mates built for The Royal Conservatory MUSIC SCHOOLS

Traynor Built Mixing consoles for Cerwin Vega in exchange for raw drivers for their high end cabinets 

Signet amps were built in Hamilton ontario, the one I have is a vibro champ clone 

pineco amps were built in Montreal by Paul Pinchuk a 70's distributor 

Garnet built a lot of cool amps in winnipeg including a ton of private label stuff easily identified by the characteristic Garnet sloped chassis 
best products being the legendary HERZOG and Deputy amps (marshall clone ..) 

Lawrence Sykes of Sound sensations had column speakers with sykes logos on them, they looked like Traynors but JL told me Traynor never built them for them 


and the best canadiana amp question of all time .... 
Why the heck did you build every amp with a .001 bright switch or bright cap ?
"everyone wanted to get overdrive out of the amp like Domenic Trioano so thats what we did " 



p


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

Thanks for all the great info P!

Dunno if this link has ever been mentioned on this forum before, but hearing you shoot off names like that made me think back to it. I came across this website a while back when I was trying to dig up info on the amp pictured above: http://www.fenderbronco.com/id14.html


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## boyon00 (Mar 12, 2010)

parkhead said:


> wow... awesome looking amp no traynor association that I know of ...
> 
> heres what I know ...
> GBX was started by a guy who now works for Yorkville ... GBX was funded by the american AHEAD CORPORATION
> ...


saw Mainline at my high school in 1970,they sat in lawn chairs except the drummer,and the backline was 20 GBX amps that kinda roared a bit.....just a little.....great concert.


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## SuperFlyinMonke (Jul 27, 2009)

I have a couple Peters amps, hand-made in Winnipeg by James Peters. He's on here once in a while. Great guy and great products.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

*A few vintage Canadian amps hat have passed through my hands*

Garnet Head (very early Rebel I think)









Traynors


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Here's a half dozen older Canadians. One Arc, two Traynors and three Garnet made amps. Not too sure what logo two of the 'Garnet's carried. For 30+ year old amps they all sound good. I found out tho that if you plug an old hollow bodied Kent into the Astro Vocal and plug that into the taller 'Garnet' feedback is a bitch if you're too close.


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