Colby Amplification El Pico AC88 Head and 1×12 Cabinet – 16 Watt Monster!

Here we have the Colby Amplification El Pico from renowned amp builder Mitch Colby. Don’t let the small size fool you, the El Pico delivers rich harmonic overdrive, punchy mids, and the lively touch response players love in classic tube amps.

It’s incredibly dynamic, cleaning up beautifully with your guitar’s volume and roaring when pushed. Single-coils sparkle with chime and clarity, while humbuckers produce thick, singing sustain that’s perfect for blues and classic rock.

Like all Colby amps, the El Pico is thoughtfully voiced and built with premium components for outstanding tone and reliability. A fantastic boutique combo that captures vintage character in a compact, inspiring package.

SPECS

Head (AC88):

Tubes: EZ81/6CA4 rectifier, two EL84 and ECC83/12AX7 in power amp, two ECC83/12AX7 in preamp

Power into 4 or 16 ohms: 16 watts clean, 25 watts fully overdriven

Power into 8 ohms: 14 watts clean, 23 watts fully overdriven

Two Channels (voiced differently) each with Level control and 3-way Bright switch

Shared Treble, Middle and Bass Controls

PPIMV (Post Phase Inverter Master Volume) with ON/OFF switch

Cascade switch (puts the channels)

Line out with Level control and “Full Response/Compensated” Tone switch

Fuses: Mains fuse (in the IEC connector) is T2A, 2 Amp Slo Blo, HT Fuse is T0.5A (500mA) Slo Blo

1×12 Extension Cabinet (AC112)

Pine cabinet with 3/8” plywood baffle. Celestion G12M-25 Greenback speaker

About Colby Amplification:

My life with amps began when I started playing guitar in 1965 at the age of 12. Not much later, I played with bands and gigged. Soon after, I began fixing my own amplifiers. In 1978 I worked for a short time at Electro Harmonix testing pedals before they were shipped out from the NYC factory. I was hired by Unicord in 1980 (which later became Korg USA) and rose through the ranks from product specialist to Executive VP. For much of the 32 years with the company I was in charge of the distribution of Marshall amps for the US market. In 1992 Korg acquired VOX and I took responsibility for resurrecting the VOX brand.  When VOX once again became successful, the reins were taken over by Korg Japan and a team of dedicated professionals at VOX UK.

In 2010 when I left Korg USA, I started my own amplifier company. After introducing a couple of wish-list Colby amp designs, I acquired the Park brand and for ten years resurrected Park by building the high quality hand-wired classic amps which were originally built by Marshall in their UK factory. After a couple of years, I introduced a few new and updated Park amplifier designs which have become staples of the brand. Park was sold to Hiwatt in 2022.

In 2019, along with Perry Margouleff and Jimmy Page, I recreated the amp that Jimmy used on Led Zeppelin 1. This exacting recreation finally offered guitar players the sounds that Jimmy used to changed music in 1969. That’s because Jimmy had hidden the amp and it’s secrets for 50 years. 😉

It’s now 2023 and I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. The newest addition to the Colby arsenal is ELPICO®, a newly resurrected amplifier brand. There are a number of very cool things about ELPICO that inspired me to recreate this obscure British brand. One reason is it’s unusual circuit design. Paul McCartney is known for using one as a teenager and as it turns out, he still has his Elpico AC55 to this day. Also, and more significantly, the Elpico AC55 was the amp that Dave Davies of The Kinks used in 1964 to record “You Really Got Me”, one of the very first British recordings of distorted guitar. Go to the ELPICO page for more info on the Colby ELPICO, which is a head version of the newly recreated AC55.

For an in hand description please call 747.388.2929