HOT old tube amp found!

mingus2112 · Post by **mingus2112** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:48 pm

My Aunt's mother passed away last month and my Aunt and uncle have the task of cleaning her apartment. My aunt and her sister used to play accordion back in the day. (aparantly her sister got accepted to Juliard in like 1960??) Anyhow. . .my aunt found her and her sister's accordions and is going to give them to me. (score in itself) She also mentioned that she found an old amp with tubes that her sister had for accordion. All she knew about the amp is that she had it before 1960.

She brought it over today and it's in amazingly good condition for an amp that's almost 50 years old! I cracked open the back and could find NO MARKINGS of any kind that indicated who made it, where, or ANYTHING. It has 3 Sylvania 6SL7 preamp tubes, 2 Sylvania 6V6 power tubes, a Sylvania 5Y3 rectifier tube, and a Jensen C12R 12" speaker. I took a chance and fired it up. . .Eureeka! It works perfectly. It sounds really nice. Kind of like a tweed champ. . .only a slightly larger sound. it breaks up really simmilar to a tweed era fender, but has a tone all of it's own. (playing a Strat through it by the way) It also has one of the cleanest, smoothest sounding trems i've heard on an amp before!

Next it was time to date this puppy. The speaker code on the Jensen, 2200735, indicated that this amp was made in the 35th week of 1957. The single digit year could mean 1957 or 1967, but since my aunt remembers it existing before 1960, even if she was a few years off it would be nowhere near 1967.

The electrolytic caps are REALLY old looking, but surprisingly aren't bubbling at all. I'll probably replace them for their proper values and put a 3 prong grounded plug on this puppy.

Here are some pics. . .they're HUGE (i wanted to show them to my amp guy. . .so i left them as high res as could be with my crappy camera) but take the time to check them all out. They're definately HOT!

http://www.faubus.net/hotamp

-James

r0ck1r0ck2 · Post by **r0ck1r0ck2** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:55 pm

that is soo clean and soo fresh!

this is score like crazy...
i love accordian amps.

how many watts?

mingus2112 · Post by **mingus2112** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:29 pm

r0ck1r0ck2 wrote:that is soo clean and soo fresh!

this is score like crazy...
i love accordian amps.

how many watts?

No idea how many watts. It would have to be under 28 watts, though, since 6V6 tubes are rated at like. . .14 watts? I would venture to say this thing is 12 or 15 watts.

This may or may not actually be an accordion amp. Could just be a generic amp that some music store made in their back room to sell with guitars, acordions, etc. Who knows. One thing's for sure. . .this thing sounds pretty killer!

-James

r0ck1r0ck2 · Post by **r0ck1r0ck2** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:33 pm

at 1st it reminded me of a tweed gibson or something then i saw the control panel..

i cannot believe how clean the thing is...i'm still shocked...

no dead mice, no spider webs?

you must have done a good deed or something...
congrats!

mingus2112 · Post by **mingus2112** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:39 pm

r0ck1r0ck2 wrote:at 1st it reminded me of a tweed gibson or something then i saw the control panel..

i cannot believe how clean the thing is...i'm still shocked...

no dead mice, no spider webs?

you must have done a good deed or something...
congrats!

Not even DUST. . .even on the outside! (although i guess my uncle could have dusted the outside off so he didn't ruin the interior of his car bringing it to me) The covering isn't even tweed. . .it's like. . .tolex. . .but not. . .almost like wallpaper! lol. . .

Anyhow. . .that "Gibson" stamp on it would instantly make it worth some coin, but it's a no name i guess! It's not like i'd ever sell the Gibson anyway (i never sell gear!) so that's not a big deal. Being so generic kind of makes it unique. . .so that's cool right?

r0ck1r0ck2 · Post by **r0ck1r0ck2** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:46 pm

FUCK YES THAT MAKES IT KOOL!!!

lo run maybe one of 50
maybe less?
maybe one of a kind?

that's it...
that's ruff..

mingus2112 · Post by **mingus2112** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:51 pm

i almost hate to recap it! part of the awesomeness of it could be the drifting capacitors! we'll see though. . .can always hold onto the old stuff. . .or better yet. . .take readings on all of the caps. . .find out what they've drifted to. . .and replace them with something close instead of the original value!

we'll see!!

-James

Mix413 · Post by **Mix413** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:55 pm

Congratulations.
That is one beautiful amplifier.

mingus2112 · Post by **mingus2112** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:57 pm

John Noll wrote:Congratulations.
That is one beautiful amplifier.

THANK YOU!

Now I need a cover to KEEP it one beautiful amplifier!

r0ck1r0ck2 · Post by **r0ck1r0ck2** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:00 pm

2 words..
pink
grill

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:01 am

that is so damned sweet!

now don't be a dumbass like i was with my tweed Harvard and let it go!

mingus2112 · Post by **mingus2112** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:02 am

RefD wrote:now don't be a dumbass like i was with my tweed Harvard and let it go!

Ask kentothink. . .i don't let ANYTHING go. I still have a solid state 100watt Randall from middle school that sounds like garbage. But I still won't let it go!

-James

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:21 am

mingus2112 wrote:
RefD wrote:now don't be a dumbass like i was with my tweed Harvard and let it go!
Ask kentothink. . .i don't let ANYTHING go. I still have a solid state 100watt Randall from middle school that sounds like garbage. But I still won't let it go!

-James

its true...he has it...among other crappy things (interspersed among amazing gear) that arent worth giving away, but still he cant part with them. man is it gonna suck when he has to move again.
cant wait to hear this thing with a mic on it or something.

now we just need a band. our last singer/songwriter guy we were working with just plain dissappeared

mingus2112 · Post by **mingus2112** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:40 am

kentothink wrote: now we just need a band. our last singer/songwriter guy we were working with just plain dissappeared

He's not kidding. . .the guy actually just stopped existing i think. We got a tight band together. . .tight sound. . .then he said "i'm going to my parents' for thanksgiving" and was never heard from again! Did he move back to Indiana? Did he die in his new apartment in HARLEM? Was he taken to jail for transporting marajuana over state lines? We may never know! So we need a new one! Anyone got any leads on singer songwriters? Gotta make a post in "hookups" or something. Ken, get on that!

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. . .this hot ass tube amp. The more I played with it last night, the more it sounded fender tweed-ish. So damn cool. I never had (or even saw!) an amp with 6SL7 preamp tubes before. It's just plain strange. Fortunately I found them online for around $25 a piece for NOS sylvanias just like are in there!

-James

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:42 am

Yeah. hook us up with a songwriter. we even have a bass player! we're in north NJ by the way.

$25 tubes are always sweet.

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