what can you tell me about AIMS AMPS?

[dontfeartheringo]

I am hunting for info on the web about these amps. Here's a thread I started over at Gearslutz and thought I would also start here, in case you fine folks had some thoughts:

I can hardly find anything on the web about them, and I would love to start a wikipedia page about these kick ass tube guitar/bass amps.

I bought this one for $80 on Craigslist recently:



That's the Personalized Eclipsor guitar head. It has two channels, reverb and tremolo and is all tube.

Here is everything I have been able to find out:

There's been a discussion of them at Electrical.com in the tech room forum.

They were briefly mentioned and reviewed on Harmony Central.

And there was a discussion of them at Ampage.

Here are the rumors I have heard, which I would love for someone to confirm or deny:

Aims was based out of Phoenix, AZ. (T/F?)

Aims was founded by two engineers who left Fender in the early '70s. (T/F?)

The basic layout of the Eclipsor is essentially a blackface/pre-CBS Fender amp. (T/F?)

The build quality on the Aims amps was so high and their appearance so utilitarian that they failed to sell in high enough numbers to turn a sufficient profit, so the company went out of business before the Carter administration. (T/F?)

I cannot yet provide schematics, but I am searching for them.

Bueller? Anyone?

[thompsongs]

they do look cool as hell.
sorry, never heard of them, so not much help.
i hope someone can chime in with some better answers.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I've seen one or two but never heard them and don't know anything of their origins. I must say that their look has lots in common with 70's era Garnet amps. For some reason I always assumed they were rebranded Garnets.

[dontfeartheringo]

Found a little more info on the vintageamps.com board:

I know that the company was started by a few dissillusioned Fender techs when CBS bought fender but exactly "HOW" close are the AIMS "twin reverbs" to a real fender twin? Anybody know?

seems like it might be a small step towards confirming the "disillusioned amp techs" theory.

[dontfeartheringo]

even more from that source:

AIMS -> Arizona Instrument and Music Supply (pretty sure, definitely Arizona). So these were made in the west don't have much collector value, but do have tons of headroom as you say. Again, not much information out there, I don't know why.

seems like it might be a small step towards confirming the "disillusioned amp techs in Phoenix" theory.

more:

The AIMS Dual Twelve looks like it is basically an SFTR type circuit with TMB tone stack/ brite switch/ reverb on both channels, a pair of 6550's, and a primitive PSU--one cap feeding all the preamp and PI tubes! I haven't traced the circuit yet but I suspect it will have most or all Fender values. It's a pretty clean sound but not all that loud for a pair of 6550's; that may be d/t fixed-fixed bias a la Ampeg and Mesa and/or the alnico speakers.

There isn't much info out there on AIMS, but from what I pieced together, they were former Fender employees who basically made Fender circuits with some upgrades in the late 70's.

Mine is still with the amp tech, but I am so looking forward to getting it back- the word is that they have amazing clean tones and tons of head room.

in-depth discussion of fixing the trem circuit here, which may illuminate what's going on in the guts of the thing.

and finally, some red meat info here:

I just ran across my old AIMS (American Int'l Music Sales) amp brochure last night and thought I'd do a search to see if there were any discussions about them. What is really interesting is that according to the brochure, each of the 2 guitar amps they made (the VTG105 @ 105 watts rms & the VTG120 with 120 watts rms) used (2)6550s, four 7025s, and two 12AT7s with solid-state rectifiers. The pic of the rectifier board looks like it's ptp. Their P.A. systems were even tube-powered!

[dontfeartheringo]

So, I got my "Personalized Eclipsor" recapped and fixed the pins on some of the preamp tubes going into the PCB and it sounds AMAZING.

However, the tremolo is not working. My tech says he's not keen on cracking that without a schematic.

Anyone?

It's the VTG-120, I think- oddly, there's no model number on it.

[adadan]

I've worked on a couple of those, but I think the only actual schematic I have is for the PA head, which has reverb but no tremolo.

From what I've heard, the "Fender employees moved to Arizona to start the company" thing is accurate, and the amplifiers were made in the USA, but the guitars were imported from Japan.

The amps are definitely in the blackface Fender ballpark but with 6550 outputs.