Ever since Supro was brought back to life by David Koltai and Bruce Zinky, the gear-lover community has loudly praised the line's ability to fill the shoes of the original Supros of the ‘60s. To test the mettle of the newer Supro amps, we’ve been pitting them against their vintage counterparts to see which one comes out on top. This time, we’ve taken the 1650RT Royal Reverb and the vintage mid-‘60s 1650RTA Royal Reverb and thrown them in the ring. Which one wins? Actually, they’re both fantastic amps, but it’s up to you to decide which one suits your sound best.
First, let’s start with the similarities. Both the newer 1650RT and the vintage Royal Reverb are 2x10 combos just dripping with warm, tube-driven Supro tone. The classic tremolo-after-reverb signal chain that set the Supro apart in the ‘60s is used in the new model as well, staying true to the company’s roots.
However, there are a fair amount of build differences between old and new. While the vintage has a nice, even 17 watts of power behind it, the 1650RT has a three-way switchable power scheme based on two different rectifiers. The 35-watt and 45-watt modes use the 5U4 rectifier while the 60-watt uses a silicon rectifier, but both are tube-powered. This gives the new Royal Reverb a whole new range of versatility, giving you more headroom and making it better for a variety of different spaces.
There are a few more key differences between the vintage Royal Reverb and its modern counterpart, like independent bass and treble controls, newly designed Eminence speakers, and a highly reactive tremolo.
To learn more about both the 1650RTA Royal Reverb and the 1650RT amp, and to hear them in action, check out the video above.
Supro