Voice of Music Model 165 vintage amp

[SparkzDeUnrest]

I have rediscovered an amp that's been floating around and I decided to open it up. It is a powered external speaker type tube amp with a 6V6GTA VM tube, a CBS 6X4 tube, and a ECC83 12AX7 VM (made in Holland) tube. I know the amp was made circa 1956+ and was used as part of a stereo tape or turntable set up. I have read that some people are using this as a tube amp for guitars and are fairly positive about its performance. It has an after market Pioneer T160 dual cone speaker in it and some sort of 2 or 3" inch all metal tweeter in it. I'm wondering what speaker combo might be worthwhile to upgrade to and any other info that someone might have on this amp---for use as a small guitar amp---I believe the power output is somewhere around 10 watts. Thanks!

[chaz]

You might want to investigate selling it to an audiophile. 50's hi-fi stuff can bring some serious money, especially overseas.

[doctorx]

I have a couple of these, the 160, 165, 8809 and 8810 are all very similar.

Here is a link to a schematic (http://www.angela.com/catalog/how-to/Grey_Cutie/).

They seem to be popular, going from around $75-$100 on ebay. Dunno why, the sound like shit stock for guitar. I gutted mine down to the trannys and sockets and rebuilt it into a 5f1 style circuit. The voltages were too high for a 6V6 so I fixed it to use a 6L6 or EL34, for about ten watts. Sounds pretty good now.

[SparkzDeUnrest]

Thanks for the "heads up" and Schematic. I'm kind of a music pack rat so probably won't sell but I do like the idea of doing something with it to play the guitar out of it. I have used the amp for misc but never plugged a guitar into it. It is in excellent shape so will probably mess around with and at least get rid of the 70's era Pioneer car speaker that is in it now....hehe!