Polytone Amps
- Jay EuDaly
- Aug 4, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 26, 2025
Sometime around 1981 my Kustom 100 crapped out on a gig. I'd been using it since 1969 or '70; it was my first amp. I don't remember what I did with it, but I replaced it with a 100-watt Marshall combo.
From the beginning, I had issues with the Marshall. The bottom line is all my issues revolved around the fact that it was a tube amp. I came to the conclusion that I just wasn't a "tube guy."
About 1982 I purchased a Polytone 102. It's a solid state amp with one 12-inch and two 8-inch speakers, 180 watts. I bought it because George Benson used Polytones and a musician I had worked with whose opinion I respected suggested I try one.
I loved it. I began using it on jazz gigs while using the Marshall on rock gigs. Then I began to use the Polytone on pop/rock gigs as well. After a while I just wasn't using the Marshall anymore and traded it to a student for some cash and two Polytone Baby Brutes. I've never regretted getting rid of the Marshall.
The Baby Brutes are 75 watts with one 8-inch speaker. For a period of time when working with Kevin Mahogany I used them both - in stereo.
Several years after that, I bought a Polytone Mini Brute II; 100 watts, 12-inch speaker.
4 Polytone Amps
So at that point I owned the 102, a Mini Brute, and two Baby Brutes. I've gigged with them all but put the most mileage on the 102. I played it pretty much full-time, mostly in clubs, from 1983 to about 1994.
I loved the sound; clean, warm, dark and round. For rock or pop it could be brightened up and it also worked great with pedals.
As with most solid state amps, the distortion sound was so bad it wasn’t usable. Solution? Pedals!
In the roughly ten-plus years that I was playing the Polytone 102 full time it went down on the gig 3 times; once was a blown speaker and twice a transistor crapped out. The reverb also kept going out.
Not a very good track record durability-wise.
My tech wanted to replace the blown speaker with a Peavey Black Widow but I told him,
“No! I love the sound, don’t change anything! Put in the same kind of speaker that was in there before."
He told me that he understood. What he didn't understand was why Polytones sounded so good. He said they used the cheapest, bottom-of-the-line components - that's why they kept breaking down.
He also installed metal speaker covers (see photos above) after it became clear the cheap plastic speaker covers weren’t much protection. I thought the metal ones looked cool.
In the early '90's I discovered the Roland JC-120, and that's been my main amp ever since.
I continued to use the Mini Brute or a Baby Brute for jazz gigs up until a couple of years ago when I bought a Henriksen Bud SIX.
I still have all the Polytones - I have trouble letting go of gear - but I suspect the days of using them are over.
P.S. For the complete story of my amp journey see: Tube or Solid State?
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