We will not give you a number for your amplifier today. Not because the question is unanswerable, but because answering it honestly needs sold-price data, and our first collection run could not get it. Every model card in this catalogue carries the same field: value not collected, no figures invented. What we can give you is the method, the factors that actually move a price, and a clear statement of what we know and what we do not.
Why there are no price ranges on this site yet
Sold prices are the only correct input, and both obvious sources blocked the run on 14 October 2026: the Reverb price-guide endpoint returned a human-verification challenge, and eBay's sold-and-completed search returned an error page. Blue Book of Guitar Values publishes models and years openly but keeps prices inside its paid edition — the open pages contain no figures at all. Under our own rules we did not fill the gap with remembered or estimated numbers. That is also why we do not put product markup with a price on model pages: somebody else's asking price is not your market.
What we do have is the structure: 18 makers, 269 model cards with years, specifications and safety notes, an era framework for every brand, and a value hub organised by class.
The five things that move a price
- Class. Blackface and silverface Fender, Plexi-era Marshall, the JCM 800 2203, the AC30, Ampeg SVT and B-15, the Peavey 5150, the Boogie Mark series — the classes listed on our value hub. Class sets the range; everything else moves within it.
- Originality of the key nodes. Transformers, speakers and capacitors. A replaced output transformer or a non-original speaker is the most common discount of all, and it is exactly what component codes reveal.
- Condition and service history. A recent capacitor job by a competent technician, documented, is usually a plus; unexplained work and a missing back panel are not. If in doubt, have the amplifier checked by a technician before you price it.
- Position within the class. bygonetones.com makes the point for Marshall: the most collectable gear runs from the beginning of production to the end of the basketweave period in mid-1971, and within a family the older instruments are generally the more collectable.
- Provenance. The same source gives the illustration: an amplifier can command a vastly higher price when it can be tied to a famous player, and that kind of claim demands rock-solid provenance. Treat any provenance claim without paperwork as a story.
The method, in four steps
- Identify the model. Class, line, wattage and era. Reissues are separate models from the vintage amplifiers they copy, and they are catalogued separately here.
- Establish the year or era. Dating and valuation are the same job: an unproven year is a discount, and a year that fits two eras is not a year. Use the decoder and the method page.
- Use sold prices only. Closed sales rather than asking prices — as one long-running guide puts it, people list their dream values all the time. Record the date of every snapshot, because the market moves.
- Adjust for state and originality. Originality first, then condition, then extras. A period-correct cabinet is worth having; a mismatched one is worth a conversation about the price.
What "not collected" means for you
It means that where a model card carries no figures, we genuinely have none, and that we will not paraphrase somebody else's estimate as though it were data. Where a source does give a number we quote it with the source and its context: the bygonetones illustration above is about the effect of provenance, not a market range for any model. When we do publish sold-price aggregates they will carry the number of lots, the collection date and the currency — those fields already exist in our data, waiting for the collection run described in our price-context notes.
What this means in practice
The strongest price factor you actually control is documentation of the date and of the originality of the key parts. Photograph the codes, keep the service receipts, and describe the amplifier as it is: an honestly described silverface with a replaced speaker sells, while a mystery-year amplifier with a story does not, because the buyer has to price in the risk. Start from the value hub for the class, confirm the era with the codes, and check any number you are given against closed sales in the same condition. That is the method we would use on our own amplifier.