Arc Guitar amp very old


Hi people, well im going straight to the point.

Today i went to a pawn shop on my city , and i found this amp, all i can remember about is that the brand was "Arc" the model was something like System-28 or T-28. I think it had 2 10" speakers. Well, i started to test it. IMHO, i thought it had a WONDERFUL tone.

It had a very creamy sound. it had both clean and overdrive channel.
What im confused about was that above the knobs it had written on the amp "Stereo Tube Guitar amplifier". I asked "How many and what tubes does it have?" and the guy from the shop said "Thats not a tube amp, its solid state" And then i was like "WTF , it says in here Tube amplifier" but he insisted it was solid state. To me, it had a very tube like sound. and it had written on it "Guitar Tube amplifier" I looked at the back of amp and there was this black thing covering everything so i couldn't see anything. (The guy from the store was a very grumpy old man, he barely let me test it)

The amp looked very very old, i've been googling and all i've found is that ARC is a 70's Guitar amplifier brand from Canada. but nothing else.

I am really considering that amp, since here in my city Jalisco (im from Mexico, therefore my BAD english) EVERYTHING and i mean everything is very expensive. Just think about it, a Marshall MG15CDR its about $230 dlls ($2800 pesos).

The 2nd option is a new Crate Palomino V16 15 watts amp for $3950 pesos ($300 dlls) Im really interested on it.

The strange old amp i saw today was 2300 pesos (176 dlls)
So what do you guys think. Should i go for the old strange amp (it said it was 60 watts) or for the twice expensive but new Crate palomino V16.

I would also really appreciate any info bout this strange old amp.
lemming16
You will get better responses if you go to a guitar/amp website and ask your questions.This is a home audio site.You might get some responses here as there are a lot of musicians that post here.Good luck.
If it is totally enclosed, it seems unlikely that it has power output tubes - they get hot and require ventilation for cooling, and access so you can change them out.