At a time when increasing numbers of musicians are playing several different types of instruments (guitars, bass, keyboards and electronic percussion) the case for owning just one amp which can handle any instrument gets stronger by the month.

Of the amps currently on the U.K. market, just one make, the Alligator series from the Musician's Direct Supply Co. claims to be able to cater for anything and everything - and their latest introduction, a 60 watt rated transistorised combo, the Alligator 60 could, if it lives up to the promise of previous excellent quality Alligator products, be just what today's player needs.

The Alligator 60 is a pretty unusual combo visual1y, although it sticks strongly to design and cosmetic ideas which have characterised Alligator products since their launch several years ago. Most amps, for example, use black vinyl covering - not Alligator, who employ a heavy duty dark green plasticised cloth of a high quality.

From both a woodworking and an electronic point of view, the Alligator is particularly well made. It's fitted with sturdy plastic corner protectors, a good quality carrying strap and so on. It certainly looks capable of taking all life can dishout to an amp on the road - plus a bit more besides!

The speaker in the '60' is a specially developed 12" Fane unit (protected by an very sturdy metal grille cover) and the combo's Alligator feature of a side porting, which not only increases the acoustic handling potential of the speaker, but (happily) also provides a handy storage space for the (captive) mains lead.

Accessibility of the Alligator's extensive facilities is, sensibly, easy - with everything mounted on the silk-screen printed green on silver front panel - complete with the renowned Alligator logo of the grinning reptile, contentedly tapping its claws/fingers in time to your beat. This latest Alligator combo features a very handy (metal) 'sound shaper' switch, which enables you to pre-set the Alligator's basic tonality to suit the type of instrument you happen to be playing through it. Three positions offer 'keyboard', 'bass' and 'guitar', although there are no golden rules here, and you both can and should choose whichever suits your desired sound the best. Following this setting switch comes an array of facilities commencing with a socket for a footswitch which can switch-in the amp's 'Boost' facility when desired. A metal 'flick switch' governs 'Boost' on or off, and this is matched to a variable 'Boost' level control, which lets you choose the amount of 'Boost' you are going to have on tap - if desired.

Twin jack inputs come next (high and low sensitivity) but these are a far cry from the inputs on most amps in that, should the need arise, you can put two instruments through this combo, in which case the Alligator's circuitry automatically sums the input load, so that both instruments are equally balanced - a feature which we rated as being especially practical for 'real life' use on the road, where amp failures and subsequently the need to share amps is all too familiar part of life.

After the Alligator's input sockets comes a line of rotary controls providing pre-amp gain, low, mid and high pots, a master volume control, 'standby' switch, mains on/off, a D.I. 'out' socket and a jack output for headphones - who could ask for more?

'ITs' review team sampled the Alligator with instruments ranging from Roland synths through a Tokai Jazz bass, Gibson SG and so on and we can certainly bear out the maker's claim that this small combo will comfortably handle anything from that range of test gear and, no doubt, beyond. In fact the Alligator 60 is quite astonishing in its ability to cope with so many different signals. Guitar overload is of a pretty high quality (substantially warmer than that on the smaller Alligator 30 combo), keyboards remain crystal clear at all but 'over-the- top' volume settings and even bass guitars sound clean and alive - all instruments benefiting from the Alligator's wide-ranging tone control stage. Of course, overdrive the Alligator and it will distort to some degree (especially on bass - there are limits to small combos, you know!) but the Alligator 60 is undoubtedly the ideal midpower amp for multi-instrumentalists, as a 'spare' (when everything else packs up!) and a welcome addition to this maker's highly regarded range.

RRP £195

More details from the Musician's Direct Supply Co. at (Contact Details).