What is it about Polytone amps?

**Roberoo** · 03-03-2019, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

There's 2 types of Polytones, those that never worked and those that'll work forever.

So if you find one that works, just enjoy it. I've been enjoying mine for over a decade...

Yep. When I was in my teens my dad sold his Twin (loaded with two JBLs) and bought a Polytone. I was starting to play at the time and loved the Twin. Plugged my guitar into the Polytone and, I will admit I thought it was uninspiring and rather lifeless compared to the Twin. Fate intervened and the thing broke down in a few days and it went back to the music store. Got it back - still sounded uninspiring to me - but it broke down in a few more days. We did that repair circuit one more time and then the damn thing stopped working again. By that point the amp went back to the store. Dad got a full refund and we bought a Roland amp that was a precursor of the JC 120 and it sounded fantastic. I used it as a gigging amp for 20+ years and it never gave me a hint of trouble. Put it in storage for about 8 years. Turned it on and it worked.

I don't get the Polytone thing but recognize it does represent the jazz guitar sound of a certain era.

**Stringswinger** · 03-03-2019, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by Roberoo

Yep. When I was in my teens my dad sold his Twin (loaded with two JBLs) and bought a Polytone. I was starting to play at the time and loved the Twin. Plugged my guitar into the Polytone and, I will admit I thought it was uninspiring and rather lifeless compared to the Twin. Fate intervened and the thing broke down in a few days and it went back to the music store. Got it back - still sounded uninspiring to me - but it broke down in a few more days. We did that repair circuit one more time and then the damn thing stopped working again. By that point the amp went back to the store. Dad got a full refund and we bought a Roland amp that was a precursor of the JC 120 and it sounded fantastic. I used it as a gigging amp for 20+ years and it never gave me a hint of trouble. Put it in storage for about 8 years. Turned it on and it worked.

I don't get the Polytone thing but recognize it does represent the jazz guitar sound of a certain era.

In 1974, I saw Joe Pass play at an upstairs nightclub in NYC. He left with his guitar in one hand and his Polytone in the other. The next day, I put my Twin Reverb (loaded with JBL's) up for sale. The day it sold, I went up to 48th Street and bought a Polytone Mini-Brute (Felt cover). I used that guitar until 1980 without a single problem. I sold it to finance a bigger amp (I joined a rock band and needed something "bigger").

My current Polytone (the 7th Polytone that I have owned and probably the last) is a 2008 Mini-Brain reissue. I have had it since it was new. Never a problem. Of my 7 Polytones, 2 had problems. A bridge rectifier went out on one of them (on a gig! I was lucky and there was a house PA that I was able to finish that gig with). On my last Mini-Brute, I had the reverb fail and the speaker fail.

Polytone's were a great jazz amp back in the day, but we now have better choices (I use my Henriksen and Acoustic Image a lot more than my Polytone these days).

**Greentone** · 03-03-2019, 11:16 PM

I bet there are a bunch of us around 60 years of age who went Polytone after seeing Jim Hall, Herb Ellis, and Joe Pass in the 70s.

Gibson ES 175/Mini Brute.

**rio** · 03-04-2019, 01:13 AM

I wouldn’t really say better choices but different choices. You can approximate a Polytone sound but not replicate it with only another amp, even if on paper it is a superior amp. Personally I rarely gig with mine but I hang on to it and if it broke I’d buy another because that is a unique and iconic sound. Practically it is easier (and preferable) for me to bring a lighter amp to a gig but I wouldn’t say that it’s a “better” amp because Polytone will always have a unique spot in the jazz guitar amp lineup.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

**whiskey02** · 03-04-2019, 12:21 PM

I’ve mentioned several times here a MB I that I was hoping to sell but shipping costs were prohibiting so I figured I’d bring it with me to my new home in OKC. Before leaving Florida I had a few beers with an old duo partner and mentioned my plans and before I could take a sip he said “ Your polytone, I’ll buy it”. I think he has since sent at least five texts saying how much he’s loving it, with his Hofner and Tele. Yeah, there is something about those old Polytones and yes I’m wondering if I made a mistake letting it go lol.

**BigDaddyLoveHandles** · 03-04-2019, 12:42 PM

I wonder if it's possible to reissue them, or are the chips no longer made?

**billy21** · 03-04-2019, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles

I wonder if it's possible to reissue them, or are the chips no longer made?

surely the chips are no longer made.
A nyc based company had the polytone trademark, but it isn’t on amp business

**BigDaddyLoveHandles** · 03-04-2019, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by billy21

surely the chips are no longer made.
A nyc based company had the polytone trademark, but it isn’t on amp business

Why do they own the trademark?

**lawson-stone** · 03-04-2019, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by billy21

surely the chips are no longer made.
A nyc based company had the polytone trademark, but it isn’t on amp business

Forget the name. What about patents? Does anybody own the design? Could someone build a "real Polytone" and just name it something else?

**Stringswinger** · 03-04-2019, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by lawson-stone

Forget the name. What about patents? Does anybody own the design? Could someone build a "real Polytone" and just name it something else?

Lawson, I suspect that if someone had all the intellectual property (the patents are probably all expired at this point) and made Polytone reissues, the cost of doing so would far exceed the profits. Even if they were made in some Asian sweatshop. We are a mostly insignificant part of the amplifier marketplace. And dare I say, today's choices in jazz guitar amplification are probably better than they should be.

If one is looking for a golden business opportunity, reissuing Polytone amps would probably be a poor choice.

**lawson-stone** · 03-04-2019, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by Stringswinger

Lawson, I suspect that if someone had all the intellectual property (the patents are probably all expired at this point) and made Polytone reissues, the cost of doing so would far exceed the profits. Even if they were made in some Asian sweatshop. We are a mostly insignificant part of the amplifier marketplace. And dare I say, today's choices in jazz guitar amplification are probably better than they should be.

If one is looking for a golden business opportunity, reissuing Polytone amps would probably be a poor choice.

I wasn't so much thinking of a business plan as the more abstract question whether the intellectual rights over the circuits and designs themselves are still proprietary and held by someone. Which is not the same as who is allowed to put "Polytone" on their stuff.

I'm just curious whether the amp could legally and literally be reproduced on some level today.

**jorgemg1984** · 03-04-2019, 02:07 PM

I have a Polytone preamp pedal, as others on the forum, with OPA2134, which are not the original chips. It makes the sound more hi-fi, but still a Polytone sound. I think that if you add a good class d power amp and replicate the cab and speakers (someone at Eminence should know how to do the speakers), add a nice digital reverb (sounds better and is way more reliable than tanks, IMO) - and you're done.

**golfus** · 03-04-2019, 02:32 PM

I think it´s easy to almost nail the polytone sound. I have a Roland Keyboard Cube 60 that sounds almost the same. A Laney Keyboard amp with a Eminence Delta Demon that I stuffed with the same material gets even closer. The difference between those and a Polytone might be difficult to achieve in todays technology and economics.

**billy21** · 03-04-2019, 03:49 PM

Originally Posted by lawson-stone

I wasn't so much thinking of a business plan as the more abstract question whether the intellectual rights over the circuits and designs themselves are still proprietary and held by someone. Which is not the same as who is allowed to put "Polytone" on their stuff.

I'm just curious whether the amp could legally and literally be reproduced on some level today.

henriksen 112 (or the bud) and Mambos could be very close a modern replacement, but still sounds different in my opinion.
There’s another interesting model made by Ibanez in the late 90’s called “Wholetone” which was concepted with polytone look in mind, cheap and light.

**jorgemg1984** · 03-04-2019, 03:58 PM

In my experience, neither the Roland Cube Keyboards or the Wholetone come close to a Polytone sound. Henriksen and Mambo, yes.

**billy21** · 03-04-2019, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by golfus

I think it´s easy to almost nail the polytone sound. I have a Roland Keyboard Cube 60 that sounds almost the same. A Laney Keyboard amp with a Eminence Screaming Demon that I stuffed with the same material gets even closer. The difference between those and a Polytone might be difficult to achieve in todays technology and economics.

The old poly has only 2 band eq with 3 knobs with hammond spring reverbs, all modern replacement are multiknobs eq. and digital reverbs.
That’s way you turn on and simply get the polytone sound.
Polytones works the same with Eq positioned to zero.

**billy21** · 03-04-2019, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by jorgemg1984

In my experience, neither the Roland Cube Keyboards or the Wholetone come close to a Polytone sound. Henriksen and Mambo, yes.

of course sound different.
the polytone signal is dirtier then mambo or henriksen, due to a spring reverb vs digital.
Anyhow, close or not, I wouldn’t spend 1200$ to buy a new mambo. I prefer 300$ used polytone and fix all the shitty issues by myself.

**jorgemg1984** · 03-04-2019, 05:01 PM

It's more complex than that... the Wholetone has a DSP limiter to increase headroom, it's the weirdest amp I've played - you can use an overdrive before and it sounds clean. Because of that, the attack gets all messed up. The Roland sounds like a PA, as it should.

I don't think it's just the reverb, the Polytone has more a low-fi quality in general, even if you skip the reverb (which I do). The Mambo is designed in a modern way, lots of clean headroom, and has a different preamp, although similar - and the cab is smaller, which matters. The Henriksen has a completely different preamp, so it has to sound different. The Beta speakers are also different from the Poly OEM.

I can understand what you're saying, a good Polytone is so cheap in the US and it sounds so good... But the Mambo or the Henriksen might be seen as a simpler alternative. In some things I like Mambos more than Polytones, others I like the Polytone more...

**lawson-stone** · 03-04-2019, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by jorgemg1984

It's more complex than that... the Wholetone has a DSP limiter to increase headroom, it's the weirdest amp I've played - you can use an overdrive before and it sounds clean. Because of that, the attack gets all messed up. The Roland sounds like a PA, as it should.

I don't think it's just the reverb, the Polytone has more a low-fi quality in general, even if you skip the reverb (which I do). The Mambo is designed in a modern way, lots of clean headroom, and has a different preamp, although similar - and the cab is smaller, which matters. The Henriksen has a completely different preamp, so it has to sound different. The Beta speakers are also different from the Poly OEM.

I can understand what you're saying, a good Polytone is so cheap in the US and it sounds so good... But the Mambo or the Henriksen might be seen as a simpler alternative. In some things I like Mambos more than Polytones, others I like the Polytone more...

Did the Polytone Pedal ever become available for general sale?

**jorgemg1984** · 03-04-2019, 05:23 PM

Lawson, I don't think so. I don't believe Arnaud's project went through, not sure if jazmus still builds them. I bet Miguel does, here in Portugal, but on a custom order base. Anyway, I mad all the info available online, if anyone wants to do them, it's very easy

**billy21** · 03-04-2019, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by jorgemg1984

It's more complex than that... the Wholetone has a DSP limiter to increase headroom, it's the weirdest amp I've played - you can use an overdrive before and it sounds clean. Because of that, the attack gets all messed up. The Roland sounds like a PA, as it should.

I don't think it's just the reverb, the Polytone has more a low-fi quality in general, even if you skip the reverb (which I do). The Mambo is designed in a modern way, lots of clean headroom, and has a different preamp, although similar - and the cab is smaller, which matters. The Henriksen has a completely different preamp, so it has to sound different. The Beta speakers are also different from the Poly OEM.

I can understand what you're saying, a good Polytone is so cheap in the US and it sounds so good... But the Mambo or the Henriksen might be seen as a simpler alternative. In some things I like Mambos more than Polytones, others I like the Polytone more...

you can bypass the dsp limiter.
I’m just saying for that price you can get the wholetone because i don’t think you can find better amp for 300$.
so henriksen or mambo?
An old 300$ Polytone with Chicago Telephone speaker do the job!

**jorgemg1984** · 03-04-2019, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by billy21

you can bypass the dsp limiter.
I’m just saying for that price you can get the wholetone because i don’t think you can find better amp for 300$.
so henriksen or mambo?
An old 300$ Polytone with Chicago Telephone speaker do the job!

You can't turn off the limiter dsp, as far I know. And I do think you can get better amps for that price, as you say, an old Polytone.

Between Henriksen and Mambo, for me, Mambo. Better eq, core warmer sound, cab dispersion, etc...

**Stringswinger** · 03-04-2019, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by jorgemg1984

You can't turn off the limiter dsp, as far I know. And I do think you can get better amps for that price, as you say, an old Polytone.

Between Henriksen and Mambo, for me, Mambo. Better eq, core warmer sound, cab dispersion, etc...

I have never tried a Mambo (I hear good things about them) but I can say that my new Henriksen Blu is warmer, has a better EQ and a better reverb than the Henriksen's that came before it. I have been using it for most of my gigs since getting it. At this point, my Polytone is purely a backup.

**billy21** · 03-04-2019, 08:53 PM

I’ve found a brief comparison on youtube.

for my taste the modern amps sounds lifeless.
The Baby and Mini sounds almost identical

**jorgemg1984** · 03-04-2019, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by Stringswinger

I have never tried a Mambo (I hear good things about them) but I can say that my new Henriksen Blu is warmer, has a better EQ and a better reverb than the Henriksen's that came before it. I have been using it for most of my gigs since getting it. At this point, my Polytone is purely a backup.

I've heard more reports like that, I have to admit my experience is with older Henriksens. I heavily modded the head I had, and it sounded much better - one day I need to try the ones, but where I am, they're rare. Even so, I highly doubt any Henriksen would replace my Polytone