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Garen Classic Basse

France is famous for many things but unfortunately not for its guitar amplifiers. There are currently less than a handfull of guitar amplifier manufacturers in France and only some of them really are manufacturing and not merely assembling kits. Likewise, only a handfull of confidential manufacturers emerged in the 60's and 70's. Garen, Stimer, Stevens or RV are some of them and seem to be closely related, judging by the remaining amplifiers that one can encouter in the corners of dusty rehearsing rooms.

Like its national contemporaries, this Garen Classic Basse is not let down by its looks but by its design. The overall construction isn't roadworthy and even though the components' quality is good, the sound it produces is one-dimensional. It shares the separate power amp and preamp topology of the Farfisa F40 in this page. A pair of EL34 in a cathode bias configuration provide the power. Three channels offer independant input and volume for guitar, bass and "instrument" (organ), and a global two band eq helps shape the tone of the amplifier which by nature is farily dark. A nice tremolo (named vibrato) effect is available for the guitar input but it induces strong thumps in the Garen labelled 12 inch speaker.

Despite an uninspiring tone, this particular amp is in an outstanding shape for its age and therefore constitutes a fantastic collector's piece.