The Colby Elpico AC55 1×12 Combo: A Hands-On Review

Considering its status as “the classic British amplifier you’ve possibly never heard of,” the Elpico AC55 combo drags some serious history in its wake. Built by Lee Products Co (L-P-Co) as an affordable general-purpose amp/PA and sold largely in British department stores from the late 1940s to ’60s, the AC55 ended up in the hands of many up-and-coming electric guitar players, including 14-year-old future Beatle Paul McCartney. An original Elpico AC55 was also largely responsible for what’s often considered the first distorted guitar in a British rock and roll recording after Dave Davies plugged into one to record his iconic track on the Kinks’ 1964 hit “You Really Got Me.”

For all that, though, it’s still a relatively limited history up against those of the Marshall, Vox, and Hiwatt amps of the ’60s and ’70s. But if anyone can revive the Elpico mystique and propel it into the 21st century in appropriately legendary form, it’s Mitch Colby. Likely the most storied American figure in British amp history, Colby worked as an engineer for Marshall’s American distributor for 32 years, helped revive the Vox brand before it was handed over to Korg, and acquired and manufactured Park amps for about 10 years until 2022, when Hiwatt purchased the brand. In addition, hand-built designs under his own name have been highly respected this past decade or more, and his meticulous re-creation of Jimmy Page’s modified Marshall Super Bass from 1969 — dubbed the Sundragon — has established a new standard for classic-rock tone.

So if there’s anyone who can take an admittedly archaic circuit from the late ’40s or ’50s and make it all it should be in the perfect world where every “catalog-amp” is its best and most tonesome self… Well, you get the picture.