For a small chunk of terra firma in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Great Britain has turned out more than its share of noteworthy guitar amplifiers. Pro touring and recording guitarist Peter Stroud unearthed one unusual example.

Many an American guitarist besotted with the glamor of vintage British amps has indulged in downtime shopping for undiscovered gems while playing the British Isles. It’s been decades since great bargains were to be found in Marshall, Vox, or Hiwatt creations, but the amps of Sound City, Selmer, Laney, Watkins, WEM, Domino, Kelley, Bird, Dallas, and others still generate excitement, and a great tone-per-pound ratio.

Roost amps of the early ’70s to mid ’80s were less-often seen on the western side of the pond, but generally well-respected by British guitarists, and this one put a smile on the face of Stroud, who in addition to his band, Big Hat, and stints with Don Henley, Sarah McLachlan, and Pete Droge, is best known as guitarist and music director with Sheryl Crow. In addition to being a first-call musician, Stroud was a co-founder of the boutique maker 65amps. Following a longstanding passion for British classics, in particular, he found a lot to love in this Roost head.

“I bought it 15 or 20 years ago from a Roost collector and player I met over there,” Stroud tells VG. “I restored the power supply to protect the transformers because it suffered from hum and flabby low-end due to aged and dried [electrolytic] capacitors.”

A model SR22 (later known as the SR100), it’s a stout 100-watt design with four EL34 output tubes in the great British tradition.

“I have not been able to pinpoint the exact year of build, but I’m thinking it’s fairly early, from around ’74 to ’76,” Stroud said. “It’s labeled on the back, ‘Type: AP,’ which meant ‘All Purpose.’ It certainly fits that bill, making a great bass amp, and I am sure it would’ve served well for keyboards back in the day.”

Guitar is where it really shines, though, and with gusto.

“It’s exceptional, with a different sound and response compared to a Marshall or Hiwatt. It has a very effective and dynamic tone stack, with plenty of preamp gain that produces a different character versus using lower preamp-gain levels and pushing the power stage harder. It’s the typical four Bright and Normal inputs of the day, both useful individually or for [connecting with a jumper cable].

“And it is loud! I only use it with a power attenuator and two tubes pulled. The transformers are very stout, producing strong, tight low-end, tighter and more pronounced than a Marshall, but not as hard-sounding as the Hiwatt DR103 (VG, August ’12). It’s well-built and, after the cap job, feels bulletproof. I’ve used it on a couple of gigs, pushing it pretty hard.”

Roost Enterprises was founded by Brian Roost and Ron Bailey in 1972, in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, to build amps in the style of Hiwatt and Sound City. While the majority of guitarists today might consider Marshall the end-all of Brit-rock stacks of the ’70s, many players of the era were looking for an even louder, punchier performance – something these brands excelled at. And as Stroud points out, Roost amps excelled in the volume department. By the ’70s, Sound City amps were also manufactured in Southend-on-Sea, and there’s speculation that the proximity might have led to an overlap of personnel, though there’s little recorded history to verify that.

The styling of Roost amps was clearly designed to appeal to the Hiwatt and Sound City markets, given the business-like black covering, white piping, and black-and-white block “Roost” logo on the rectangular front badge. Control panels reflected the key features, with individual Volume controls for the Normal and Brilliant channels, shared Bass, Middle, Treble, and Presence, and Master Volume – a feature many amps had adopted by this time.

Inside, the circuits were also closer to the templates of those makers than to Marshall. While the earliest Roost builds used tag strips, the company moved on to printed circuit board (PCB) construction by the time this SR22 was built. Marshall, Hiwatt, Sound City, and others were also using PCBs by the mid ’70s, so it was considered standard practice rather than some downgrading of effort, and Roost amps were still filled with quality components, all hand-wired to the traces of these boards.

From the company’s start through when this SR22 was made, Roost was using the acclaimed Partridge transformers also used by Hiwatt and Sound City. Circa 1978, Roost switched to Drake transformers, which also appeared in many Marshall amps. The chassis was sturdy stuff, too; made from folded steel, it was punched to allow for the six EL34s of the 150-watt bass amp, and extra preamp-tube holes to enable the reverb that was added to some models.

Most estimates indicate Roost made only around 300 amplifiers between its inception and 1978. Partway through that run, Brian Roost left the company. In ’79, it was bought by Futuristic Aids Limited (FAL), a company based in Leeds that made budget solid-state amplifiers, and manufacturing was moved north.

In 2017, Soundlite Equipment revived the Roost brand in West Yorkshire, initially making speaker cabinets but with the intent of reintroducing tube amps made to the original designs. Inquiries as to status received no replies as of this writing.

This article originally appeared in VG’s January 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.