ON HOLD - Rickenbacker Transonic TS200 Head and Model 200 4x12" Cabinet 1968

No Sales Tax For Customers Outside Of California.

Here we have a rarity - a full Rickenbacker Transonic 200 series stack with the ultra rare 4x12" cabinet.

Shipping options are limited for an amp like this.  A service like uShip can handle it, but the cost is unknown to me.  I can deliver in Northern California, and can arrange to meet buyers within 4 to 5 hour's drive from our location in Chico, CA.  Also, occasional opportunities arise for direct truck shipment via the van I and several other West Coast guitar dealers use to get our inventory to guitar shows in the Pacific Northwest, the San Francisco area, the Los Angeles area, Dallas, and Nashville.  The van will travel from here to Nashville mid-march, so if you're interested, a meeting could be arranged along the drive through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and the rest of the way to Nashville.

These multi-channel amps have a wild set of features!  Controls: Volume, Treble, Bass controls and Hollow, Mellow and Pierce switches on each channel; Tremolo Speed and Depth, Reverb, and Fuzz-Tortion on Custom channel.

This example is in great shape and runs nicely.  Included is the original speaker cart.  The wheels on the cart aren't in great shape - this isn't something you'll be scooting around with ease unless you find some new wheels to insert into the stand's tubing.  

Bob Rissi designed the amps, determined to make them sound closer to a tube amp than other solid state designs of the time.  As quoted by Vintage Guitar Magazine, Rissi said: "“I wanted to make these solidstate amps sound more like tube amps. I put the transistor circuitry in similar to the way a tube amp is made. They were not direct-coupled, like most solidstate amps of the time, but were capacitively and non-direct coupled, so the circuit worked the way a tube amp circuit works. That’s where the warmth and the tone came from, and that’s why so many big groups liked them. They were well-made, too. Every so often I have to work on one, and there usually isn’t much wrong with them other than needing a filter cap or something. The parts we used in those amps were real high-quality, usually Motorola or RCA, and we used Schumacher transformers.”

Steppenwolf, whose guitars comprised a 381, a Combo 800 and a 4001, also used Transonics on stage and for TV shows (Music Bag in 1969). Led Zeppelin used them on their first american tour in 1969, Jimmy Page being backed by two of them. The Jeff Beck Group had also Transonics on their 1968 US tour.

While these amplifiers' trapezoidal shape, tutti frutti colors, varnished woods, and high technology made at first a thrilling impression, it is clear the elective affinity with these young Brits didn't last very long. Pictures of the Jeff Beck Group 1969 US tour show a wall of Kustoms - yes, other solid-state amplifiers with off-the-wall enclosures - and Led Zeppelin simply left their amplifiers behind on their trip back to England. By the way, these very Transonics were picked up by a certain Tom Petersson (of Cheap Trick) who refurbished them, changing the power amplifier and the speakers - he still played them until recently.

Their panel featured a bunch of controls and plugs, the whole nine yards: volume, treble, bass, reverb, tremolo, fuzz, volume pedal jack, fuzz pedal jack, Rick-O-Gain output, various switches (pierce, hollow, mellow...) and lights, and even a VU-meter (temperature indicator!) Cabinets usually featured 4x12", 1x15"+2x12" or 2x15" Altec Lansing speakers. A castor-mounted cradle allowed to tilt the amplifier back and forth, allowing the musician to adjust the speaker position, a bit like those Vox AC-50 cabinets.

The Transonic 200 was a stack giving 350 Watts (peak power). The Rick-O-Gain option allowed to plug a power amp and another cabinet, delivering up to 700 Watts. A possible setup was to mount the second cabinet upside down on top of the first, forming a truncated lozenge, the two heads being hung on the sides of the top cabinet - looking like the arms of a headless robot from a 30's sci-fi flick. The bass version could be augmented to a total of three cabinets, which was ok if you had an army of roadies...

While most transistor amplifiers are put down, usually for good reasons, nobody complains about the solid state Rickenbacker sound.

The world was not ready, however, for such monsters. Production a stopped after only two or three years and a few hundred specimens.

• Case/Cover?: No
• Watts: 350
• Date: 1976
• Where is Date Noted?: Speakers
• Speaker 1 Brand: Altec 417B
• Speaker 1 Size: 12"
• Speaker Code: 391732
• Speaker 1 Cone: Reconed in 1976
• Speaker 2 Brand: Altec 417B
• Speaker 2 Size: 12"
• Speaker Code:391732
• Speaker 2 Cone: Reconed in 1976
• Speaker 3 Brand: Altec 417B
• Speaker 3 Size: 12"
• Speaker Code: 391732
• Speaker 3 Cone: Reconed in 1976
• Speaker 4 Brand: Altec 417B
• Speaker 4 Size: 12"
• Speaker Code: 391732
• Speaker 4 Cone: Reconed in 1976
• Extension Speaker Out? 
  
• Reverb or other effects?: 
• Pedal: Not included
• Tolex/Tweed: Original
• Grille: Original
• Knobs: Original
• Handle: Original
• Power Cord: Original
• Notes: 

Shipping policy:

We will hand this amp over to a service like uShip, with the buyer responsible to arrange the shipment. We can also arrange shipping to some locations, as noted above. Message us for our shipping availability, which is only available when there is a guitar show on the schedule.