I took delivery of a Radford TT100 hybrid solid-state/valve amp today.

The last amp Radford made, solid state (FETs) inputs, valve output stage with 4x KT88s. Rated at 100w pc.

The price was low enough to tempt me to take a punt on it, sight unseen. The guy who sold it to me claims (!) he tested it and had it working before it was shipped to me, but tbh I daren't turn it on to test it before having it thoroughly checked over.

As you can see it looks very much in, shall we say, original vintage condition. It even has a funky old round-pin 3-prong plug on it. No idea what to do with that. The amp looks like it might have been recovered from a house clearance or something like that.

Sitting in the back are 4 original GEC Gold Lion KT88s, that have probably been in it since it was new! Most likely completely shot, I would guess.

Sadly the arrangements I made to have to shipped to me went horribly wrong - I booked a guy to collect it by hand and deliver it door-to-door by van. This guy then decided to book a courier for the job, without telling me, and pocket the difference as profit. What a scam. So the amp arrived by commercial courier, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid, and who knows how it was treated on the way? I can hear something loose rattling round inside the case. No idea what - best case scenario it's just a loose screw.

This kind of feels like it could be the start of a saga... I won't know until it gets checked over. It'll go off to David Coe at AD Audio for a thorough going over and I will report back after that.

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