Roland Bolt-60

[laurie]

Braces installed. Screws and epoxy.
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[Pepe]

That should definitely do it!

[laurie]

Back brace covered with recycled levant tolex from a beaten up 1980's Marshall cabinet. Not a perfect match, but not bad.
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[laurie]

Finished. All seems to be working.

There is no way this could compete with the Fenders and Marshalls of the time, so I can see why it was dropped by Roland.

However... Clean sound is great. Quite usable. Overdrive is "ok".

Bought cheaply (or free, with a lot of repair work), it is worth having. It is quite compact, so it might become my new workshop amp replacing my little Roland Cube SS amp.
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[laurie]

FYI - accurate service manual (and owners manual) are here: https://www.synthxl.com/roland-bolt-60/

[Pepe]

Cool! I really like the way of the effect loop with its three options. I wonder why they didn't move the footswitch jacks for overdrive and reverb on the back of the amp. These look a bit strange on the front.

[laurie]

The whole thing is strange ... nothing like the competing amps of the time.

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Interesting, I have never seen this amp series. When have they been made?

This one decodes to 1981. This is the only series of tube amps ever made by Roland - the Bolt-30, Bolt-60 and Bolt-100. Made from 1979 to 1984.

The phase splitter and output stage are identical to the AA864 Fender Vibrolux, minus the adjustable bias.

WEll you learn something every day.

There are PLENTY of BOLT 30s here in used shops and they had caught my eye, mostly due to the rugged look and of course BOSS factor. THey seem like sturdy gig amps.

[laurie]

There are PLENTY of BOLT 30s here in used shops and they had caught my eye, mostly due to the rugged look and of course BOSS factor. THey seem like sturdy gig amps.

They are pretty nice. I suspect anything you find might need a lot of work though... it is possible that no one thinks to recap a Roland amp, and you will be dealing with 45 year old tube amp capacitors? If it has been maintained, then it would likely be a great deal!

[visserman]

Cool! I really like the way of the effect loop with its three options. I wonder why they didn't move the footswitch jacks for overdrive and reverb on the back of the amp. These look a bit strange on the front.

I noticed that too, but I like it: Access straight away, nothing to turn over, you see where you need to be since you face the front more than the back.

Great to have a smaller tube amp Laurie.
I have a reverb unit from the same period, similar colour and even the knobs look a bit similar.

I think it is great that you do these repairs, the amps are worth it, even though the quality is not in line as with older Marshalls or Fenders. Still it is great too have something different.