Supro 1697R Galaxy Head & 1797 1x12 Cab

Supro 1697R Galaxy Head & 1797 1x12 Cab

Guitar Interactive star rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

MSRP Head £1299 Cab £499

PROS

2 Awesome Channels with Supro’s gorgeous Clean and Drive tones.

Lightweight, small and portable for a rig like this.

Tons of headroom.

CONS

None.

SPECS

Channel-switching, all-tube design

Amp Wattage: 50 Watts Class AB

Cab Speaker: 12” Eminence CV75

Black Leatherette Tolex with Suede Accent

The Galaxy is a 50-watt channel-switching tube amp, designed to deliver more clean tone and more tube overdrive than any Supro ever made. The Galaxy amplifier combines the cleanest Supro preamp channel from the pedal-friendly Keeley model, with a Zinky-designed overdrive channel that has more than enough gain to seamlessly transition from the edge of breakup into complex tube saturation and sustain—without sacrificing dynamics or losing tonal balance at stage volume. Sam Bell reviews Supro's 1697R Galaxy Head & 1797 1x12 Cab.

Supro has re-established themselves as one of the leading amplifiers manufactures in the world at the moment. Bringing their impressive history and heritage to new artists and music styles. I have the pleasure of taking a look at Supro’s Galaxy head and matching 1797 1x12 cab. Let’s first take a look at each component.

Galaxy Head:

This head isn’t quite lunch box size, but it is smaller than the average head unit. Its slim design and classic Supro design (Black Leatherette Tolex with a stylish Suede Accent) make this amp head look classy. Despite its size, the head sports a whopping 50 Watts of power to two unique channels. Everything in this amp is valve driven, down to the FX Loop and a lush 6 spring, Spring Reverb.

The main unique selling point of this amp head is that it showcases 2 very unique channels. The clean channel is based on the Supro Keely Custom amp, a super clean amp, with natural compression and tons of headroom. The 2nd Channel is a super smooth overdrive powered by multi cascaded tube stages. This channel offering tons of sustain and gain with no fizz. On lower gain settings we get a nice tubey bluesy break up, on higher settings we can get hard rock/shredding lead tones with no sacrifices. If you want even more push/gain then there is a boost function that works for both channels, this helps compress the signal even more for satisfying sustain and bluesy break up on the clean channel. The reverb is also assignable to either channel, with the option of a dwell control on the back of the unit for the 2nd channel.

1797 1x12 Cab

The Galaxy head is matched with an equally stylish and compact, semi open back 1x12 cab. The cab continues the Galaxy Head’s Black Leatherette Tolex finish, its super lightweight and the sound it produces is direct yet full. According to Supro’s website, this cab is modelled on Jimmy Pages own late 50’s modified Supro Coronado combo that he used on Led Zeppelin 1. The speaker is an Eminence CV75, the sound that comes from this speaker and cabinet combination could be described as a warm/fat sounding Vintage 30.

Sounds, Playability, Value and Market

As mentioned the sounds from this amp cover a wide range of styles authentically, the clean is to die for and the drive channel makes you pull lots of rock faces. Its super versatile, a perfect pedal platform. It’s no wonder so many top Guitar players are using Supro in all kinds of live and recording situations. The size and lightness of the units are also very attractive for the touring/gigging musician, its big enough to mean business on stage but small and light enough for relatively easy load in and load outs. This is a higher end boutique style amp, so the price is on the slightly expensive side, but this is a professional level amp, I feel this amp would be in the right hands with semi pro and professional players playing regular gigs in a variety of styles. If you’re in the market for a versatile, giggable amp with killer tone, definitely give the Galaxy and its 1797 1x12 cab a look!