Polytone Mini Brute I - Year of Production?

[Wezza]

Hi all,

I'm trying to learn more about an amp I've been given - I know it's a Polytone Mini Brute I serial PL-23158 but looking to find out a possible year it was made? (Apologies for the sideways pictures, I'm not much of a computer person and couldn't get them right! It also seems I've added them twice but can't work out how to delete half of them!)

Thanks in advance!

[Bob_Ross]

Nothing authoritative from me, but fwiw that amp has all the telltale indications of a Polytone from either just before, or just after the MiniBrute I own, which is from 1980.
I realize that doesn't really narrow it down much...could easily be +/- 5 years from that date.
And now that I think about it, I really stopped paying attention to Polytone after approximately 1985, so if that amp is from even later I wouldn't recognize it!
Sorry, I got nothin'.

[EDIT: I just checked, and my MiniBrute from 1980 has a four digit serial number, so I suppose one could conclude that yours with the five digit serial number is more recent...probably?]

[vintagelove]

Hi all,

I'm trying to learn more about an amp I've been given - I know it's a Polytone Mini Brute I serial PL-23158 but looking to find out a possible year it was made? (Apologies for the sideways pictures, I'm not much of a computer person and couldn't get them right! It also seems I've added them twice but can't work out how to delete half of them!)

Thanks in advance!

Hello, I can't give you an exact date, but... this will help.

Polytone circuits roughly come in 4 eras. The early ones, kind of look like other 2x12 etc amps, then the Diamond tolex years, yours is after that, you can tell because it has a midrange eq control, and the newer sonic circuit.

Yours is probably late 80's.

Lastly, the carpet covered ones fall somewhere in that early timeline, but share the same circuit as the Diamond tolex era.

Hope that helps.

[Wezza]

Thanks for your help guys!

[garybaldy]

Both my MBIII and Teeny Brute have the black diamond tolex without the mid control. Was having a mid control deemed an improvement?

[vintagelove]

Both my MBIII and Teeny Brute have the black diamond tolex without the mid control. Was having a mid control deemed an improvement?

Not to knock anybody's amp, and if they like it, great.

I prefer the classic bass/treble eq. Had basically the same amp with and without (s15b), so a pretty fair comparison.

[garybaldy]

Not to knock anybody's amp, and if they like it, great.

I prefer the classic bass/treble eq. Had basically the same amp with and without (s15b), so a pretty fair comparison.

I'm perfectly happy with just the treble and bass controls. My old AC30s were the same and before that, amps with just a tone control. I've never been able to compare mine with other Polytones other than I once borrowed a MB II with the sonic circuit when I first started using a double bass. I didn't get on with it at all.