Mystery Amp?Any Guesses?

[greatmagnet]

Hey,

I'm borrowing this from a friend who bought it at a flea market years ago for $25 and will pretty much let me have it if I want it. It's a somewhat low-powered all-tube P.A. head from the 60's and it sounds great as a guitar amp if you crank it all the way up and let the power tubes do their thing. Funny thing is, there is absolutely no brand name anywhere on it whatsoever if there ever was. Maybe inside the chassis there's something, but so far I've found zip. Thought I'd post some pictures and see if anyone has any idea what it is. Maybe it's just something from the Sears Catalog but who knows? It's cool anyhow.

[Scodiddly]

Case looks sort of homemade, but the knobs and the front panel look like a Silvertone. Maybe somebody cut down a combo?

[auralman]

God DAMN look at the size of that transformer!

[MarcoPogo]

***It may be a Valco, Supro or National amp, built in Chicago. Same company, built amps for Sears. The switches are the same as our Supro Taurus.

-M

[greatmagnet]

God DAMN look at the size of that transformer!

I know...it's fucking HUGE, eh?

I just brought it home and plugged it in once...haven't even had a chance to pull the tubes and see what kind they are or any of that fun stuff. Turned up it sounds kinda like early Who to me, tone-wise. Not that it's anything incredible-sounding, but still a good thing to have around.

[andyg666]

that's the new peavy classic 50. they're going WAY retro...

[greatmagnet]

I had it pegged for the new Behringer modelling amp. Shows what I know.

[lee]

is that a suit of armor?

[greatmagnet]

Huh? Oh yeah...THAT. I didn't even think about the background in the shot! At least I'm not naked in the amp reflection or something. It's made of fiberglass...I made it for Halloween a couple years ago and now it's decoration in the living room!

[I'm Painting Again]

the closest i know of is :

http://www.jt30.com/jt30page/silvertone/1483.jpg

silvertone1483 though this isnt one..i think the 1483 has different tube config and another xfrmr..

i think thats intended to be a bass amp..

[monkeyboy]

Everything on it looks like an old silvertone. As previously said it looks like somebody chopped it and turned it into a head. It's possibly a Sears badged silvertone product which happened a lot in that era.

Regardless my bet's are that it's a silvertone amp.

[greatmagnet]

Yeah, I checked out Silvertones up for grabs on eBay and the cosmetics are definitely dead-on. Must be it.

[hammertime]

My guess, too. I once jammed with a guy who had one of those amps. I read somewhere that Billy Gibbons used to use them too for recording.

Yeah, I checked out Silvertones up for grabs on eBay and the cosmetics are definitely dead-on. Must be it.

[Scodiddly]

the closest i know of is :

http://www.jt30.com/jt30page/silvertone/1483.jpg

silvertone1483 though this isnt one..i think the 1483 has different tube config and another xfrmr..

i think thats intended to be a bass amp..

Possible - huge transformer, 4 output tubes (probably 6L6), maybe 80-100 watts.

Silvertones tended to use cheap resistors that drift higher in value over the decades, so you might want to have that checked out.

[greatmagnet]

Silvertones tended to use cheap resistors that drift higher in value over the decades, so you might want to have that checked out.

Yeah, well this thing's hardly cherry...it's got all sorts of dead spots in the pots as well. What exactly do the resistors do and how do they contribute to the tone?

I was even thinking of taking it to an amp guru and turning it into a master volume amp...seems like it would be fairly easy to trick out that way sincew it's already has two independant channels. But what do I know?