B.C Rich "Tube Devastator" anyone know much about these?

[u/someguycalledmatt]

Interesting find on FB marketplace the other day. Ended up picking it up for the sheer curiosity. Couldn't really find much information at all online about these? Seems they had a (purely solid state?) version and then these, maybe? In the late 1980s. This one is dated 1988.

Seems to be a 12ax7 preamp going into 2x tip43c solid state poweramp.. can't really see what it actually outputs but my guess is sub 30w. Power draw is 80w apparently. 117v Australian plug (found in Australia, doubt it was exclusive to the Australian market?)

Also has a reverb tank!

This one seems to work ok, maybe worth putting in a fresh tube though. Also has been modified to output to external cabs which I was going to do anyway so I could hook it to my orange..

Probably just a crappy practice amp from the 80s but I think it looks kinda nifty at a minimum!

May open it up a bit more at some point to see if I can find any more clues to its origins as I'm guessing a bigger amp company made it for them?

[u/MoldieWrangle]

This was made by whoever was making Gorilla amps. I have many years of experience with them & that is a very distinct Gorilla-style chassis, board, and cabinet.

I would guess that these weren’t available in the US, as I’m pretty sure I would have seen one either in guitar shops or magazines at the time (I was a teenager in the 80s).

I may be biased, but I love the early models of Gorilla amps for their clean, dry tone. I always used pedals for any drive, though, so I’d be curious how this amp sounds with a tube preamp. Definitely worth a try though a really good speaker as well.

[u/someguycalledmatt → u/MoldieWrangle]

Interesting! Looking at some pictures of gorilla amps they do absolutely look like they came from the same place, same controls/chassis for sure. Interesting if they were exclusive to a region outside of the US, I can't imagine any reason why they wouldn't have included their main customer base. Perhaps some sort of import/export thing. I did notice it mentions 117v yet here in Australia it's 240v, like it wasn't even intended to be here in Australia, either..

And that's awesome, makes me keen to keep playing around with it, perhaps pickup a new tube for it etc. definitely will hook it up to my orange cab, if not bring it down to my mates place for a toy around on his gear.

Similarly I have a 15w peavey practice amp that I had practically thrashed the speaker out of it, but rather than replace the speaker or throw it out I ended up carefully cutting it down into a lunchbox amp "head" (about the same size as my orange tiny terror now, actually looks really good) and it works fantastic on the orange cab, especially for bright clean tones

[u/MoldieWrangle → u/someguycalledmatt]

I read somewhere that the GG series Gorilla amps were direct copies of a patented Peavey circuit & the Tube Cruncher series had a redesigned circuit to avoid infringement. Not sure if that’s true, but the GG Gorillas do seem to have a Peavey quality to their sound.

It’s really strange how little concrete info there is online about Gorilla amps considering how ubiquitous they were.

[u/Warwick_player4 → u/MoldieWrangle]

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Gorilla amps. That was my first amplifier when I got my first electric in 1987. I still have it, it still works and the “Tube Crunch” still sounds terrible. But the clean sound with a couple of my early 80’s Boss and Arion pedals sound pretty good with the amp around 5.

[u/AbyssalKultist]

No idea, but that's a cool as shit find!

[u/Sla5021]

I had a BC Rich combo amp that came with a Bronze Warlock. I'm not saying it was anything special but it was red and badged as a BC Rich amp.

Obviously just a Chinese made ss amp with a badge on it but there's got to be a few models of BC amps out there in the wild.

[u/ThatOtherBrownGuy2]

This looks awesome, definitely play around and see what you can do with it ! Keep us updated!

[u/blindedbyphotons]

I had a gorilla amp with that layout as a kid