With this first day of spring is an opportunity to purchase a rare and unique JMI Vox amplifier, the UL715.
This was purchased from Gary Hahlbeck of North Coast Music fame. He owned the head since the 1990s, having acquired it from a gentleman in Germany at the time.
The head was gone through several years ago by Gary's tech before I acquired it and everything works fine. I believe the electrolytic capacitors were replaced but otherwise everything else is original including the original reverb unit with its Sonotone 2T crystal phono cartridges.
Two things to note wrt originality:
- The head had another handle installed prior to Gary's ownership but has been reverted back to an original JMI handle. Despite holes for the new handle mounting, they are quite difficult to see and do not detract from the amp's appearance in any way.
- the IEC mains inlet was also installed prior to Gary's ownership. I presume an original Amphenol jack could be sourced and retrofitted here if desired.
The serial plate is labeled as a '710T' which is how some 715s were designated, at least as far as serial plates go. Be assured that the amp is a 715 through-and-through.
Gary's North Coast Music business (NCM) built impeccable replicas of the Vox cabinets, including this speaker cabinet. I believe he was the only business licensed by Korg Vox to build Vox replica cabinets, FWIW.
The NCM speaker cabinet is loaded with a pair of original Celestion 7442 10" speakers (date codes '27FB' = June 27, 1969) in amazing condition, which is what it would have come with new back in '66.
Gary even went as far as creating a stencil for the "G-R" (Gla-Rev cabinet manufacturers) marking as seen in original JMI era cabinets!
Of course, Gary also reproduced the various JMI trolley stands for a little while and this trolley here is also one of his recreations. The UL715 (and UL730) stands are fairly unique and hard-to-come by, original or reissue.
Gary is slowly winding down NCM so trying to find another 715 cabinet and trolley would be fairly difficult at this point as I don't believe there was a lot of demand for them as the amps were always fairly rare.
The amp includes a footswitch which is wired and functions exactly like the original.
The great thing about the 715 is that it's about as close as one can get to the holy grail of UL series Vox hybrid amps: the UL730, no doubt due to its association with the Beatles during their Sgt. Pepper period. Of course, there's only maybe a few dozen UL730s left (some sources claim 26) and when they do sell, they are commanding a premium. (Jim Elyea states there approximately 100 UL715s were built, which is not a whole lot more. How many exist today?)
Another great thing about the 715 is that due to it using only a pair of EL84s for its power amp (15 watts), it's likely better suited to a home studio environment where it can be turned up a little more and be slightly more tolerable than a quad of EL84s (30 watts) with the UL730 would be.
Free shipping to the lower 48 US only. Item will be packed professionally.
Don't let this one slip away!