FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

The Thunder series amps were introduced in 1965 and were Guild’s most popular amplifiers in the mid to late 1960s. These included the Thunder 1 (in three different speaker configurations), the Thunder 1 Reverb, the Thunderbird, the Super Thunderbird, the Thunderstar, the Thunderstar Bass, and the Thunderbass. The Thunder series designs were a departure from what Guild had been doing in the 1950s and early 1960s. The differences were cosmetic as well as in the completely new circuits. The earliest Thunder 1 amps have a cathode biased circuit and a 2-sided chassis that has very little support at the rear of the amp. This allows for more chassis flex when plugging and unplugging a guitar cable into the input jack. The fuse is located inside the chassis which is inconvenient to replace, but these early amps have a trim pot for the tremolo intensity which is an advantage. By 1966, the circuit was fixed bias and the chassis was 3-sided and mounted from the top with machine screws as on Fender amplifiers. This provided better support and less flex. The rear chassis panel also provided a place to mount an external fuse holder as well as a polarity switch. Unfortunately, the tremolo trim pot was removed. The amp shown here is the 10-inch speaker version with 2-sided chassis and tremolo trim pot. 

 
 Power Amp:  Tube; 2 x 6GW8, 12 watts RMS @ 8 ohms

 Preamp:  Tube; 2 x 12AX7

 Rectifier:  Tube; 1 x 6CA4

 Speakers:  1 x 10" CTS ceramic

 Channels:  1; 2 inputs (Normal, High Gain)

 Effects:  Tremolo

 Controls:  Bass, treble, volume, bright switch; tremolo on/off switch, tremolo speed

 Dimensions:  18 1/2 H  x 18 1/2 W x 9 D inches

 Weight:  25 lb