Anyone here heard of Sheriff Amps?
Moderators: pompeiisneaks, Colossal
Anyone here heard of Sheriff Amps?
I've run across a 50w Sheriff amp head in Hawaii. Best guess it is from the late 70s or early 80s. Has anyone here heard of this builder? I think they originated here in Hawaii. Looking for any information that I can about them. I'll post a few pics soon.
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Bryan
Bryan
Re: Anyone here heard of Sheriff Amps?
Here are the pics. It is a weird case and obviously was well thought out at some point. It has a very nice chassis and faceplate. I have found NOTHING on the internet about the builder or amp brand but I'd love to know.
I have sorted out the main problems with the amp and it sounds VERY nice and VERY loud. Kind of a HIWATT/Marshall kind of thing. Very clean on the channel jack, but if you plug into the drive jack, you get an extra stage or two. I have not reverse engineered much other than to sort out a faulty center tap heater circuit trimpot which had gone bad and was creating a bunch of hum.
The presence control has been modified to control an internal reverb SS circuit - back right board - which drove an internal tank (coiled extra wires) or external with a couple of extra jacks. It has a buffered send/return circuit also that works fine. The reverb circuit is not working and I might just rip it out and make the presence control work again.
I was going to gut this sucker and make a different amp out of it but it sounds so good I may have to leave as is. I feel it may be the last of its species and who am I to exterminate it......
[img
832]http://www.sonicmojo.com/sheriff/sheriff1.jpg[/img]
[img
708]http://www.sonicmojo.com/sheriff/sheriff2.jpg[/img]
I have sorted out the main problems with the amp and it sounds VERY nice and VERY loud. Kind of a HIWATT/Marshall kind of thing. Very clean on the channel jack, but if you plug into the drive jack, you get an extra stage or two. I have not reverse engineered much other than to sort out a faulty center tap heater circuit trimpot which had gone bad and was creating a bunch of hum.
The presence control has been modified to control an internal reverb SS circuit - back right board - which drove an internal tank (coiled extra wires) or external with a couple of extra jacks. It has a buffered send/return circuit also that works fine. The reverb circuit is not working and I might just rip it out and make the presence control work again.
I was going to gut this sucker and make a different amp out of it but it sounds so good I may have to leave as is. I feel it may be the last of its species and who am I to exterminate it......
[img
832]http://www.sonicmojo.com/sheriff/sheriff1.jpg[/img][img
708]http://www.sonicmojo.com/sheriff/sheriff2.jpg[/img]---------
Bryan
Bryan
Re: Anyone here heard of Sheriff Amps?
Looks very similar to the Roost circuit board or Funkshun, the latter had a preamp boost jack from a footswitch
Re: Anyone here heard of Sheriff Amps?
I fixed up a workable negative feedback/presence circuit into it again. I had bought it for parts to gut and make into something else because I liked the chassis but I gave it back to the original owner since I wanted to leave it intact. Good amp karma, I'm thinking. Apparently in Hawaii these were a great amp to have back in the early 80s.
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Bryan
Bryan