Neptune Rising

Supro goes big on size, 60s styling and vintage sounds with its latest combo release

- Nick Guppy

Supro is one of the world’s oldest musical instrument brands, so it’s been good to see them revived and back on the shelves again with an ever expanding range of original and classic designs. The latest model to be released is the 1685RT Neptune Reverb, a 2x12 combo with reverb and tremolo, decked out in Supro’s 1964 reissue vinyl. This amp was developed by Supro in partnership with SIR (Studio Instrument Rentals), the USA’s largest back line rental company, and is apparently a response to artist requests for a 2x12 Supro with reverb, as an alternative to Fender’s Twin and Vox’s AC30.

The 1685RT is a substantial amp, with a wide-body cabinet housing two of Supro’s British-voiced BD12 drivers, which were developed for the award-winning Black Magick amplifier. Despite the Neptune’s size and weight, there’s just one single carry handle on the top: it’s a high-quality leather affair, but that doesn’t make the amp any lighter – 25kg is a lot of weight to swing on one hand and playing a guitar with an arm or wrist injury is no fun. In fairness to Supro, for pro back line rental use you’d expect the Neptune to be carted around in a flight case with wheels by road crew, where the lack of carry handles would be irrelevant.