Have you ever used a vintage.....

[KHK]

I am a total numbnuts when it comes to the equipment side of things but I can tell what sounds good and it is usually something with tubes in it.

I still have my first stereo amp which I bought used with paper route money when I was around 11, a tubed Marantz 8B which is just a power amp. Many years ago, I tried to incorporate this little mother into my rig but ended up frying some of the components because of shear incompetence. As I write this, I am looking at it sitting on the shelf hooked up to a system that doesn't get any play anymore and it is calling to me...

As a stereo amp, it has incredible sonics and puts out around 35w per channel. Talk about sparkly and sweet, this thing is king but it has pretty clean specs in a guitar amp sense.

I am wondering if it could withstand the signal that is fed from a guitar setup or whether the hot signal would burn it up like I did in the past. This would probably be a great recording amp if you could mate it to a preamp and all the other necessary stuff. BTW, it weighs a ton for such a small package so I am sure it has big transformers and such...what else, it has EL34 power tubes, 2x on each side.

Would it be possible to use as a guitar amp?

What would you use to preamp the signal from the guitar?

Would this make any sense or is it a wacked out idea?

Any thoughts are welcome.

 

[loverocker]

Answered on the other thread - it's a fine idea. You can't harm it by feeding it a guitar preamp's signal.

Might just be too fragile/fiddly to gig, of course...

 

[KHK]

Thanks man, I appreciate the response. Yeah, I would just use it for practicing or recording if it sounded good...it weighs about 65lbs in an approx. 16" x 8" x 8" package...and the tubes are exposed so you really can't haul it anywhere without mounting it in something.

Thanks again.

 

[BP-Plickner]

Wow an 8b! Put that sucker back in your stereo set up and build yourself a head!

 

[drbob1]

Would it be possible to use as a guitar amp?-Yes, I've done this with several stereo type amps. The input impedance from the guitar signal doesn't really match up with any of the line level signals that amp is expecting, so it would be best to use some kind of direct box or buffer with it.

What would you use to preamp the signal from the guitar? I think any buffered pedal would work, or any direct box that has a line level out.

Would this make any sense or is it a wacked out idea? Sould sound sweet, although you'll have a lot more tone options if you use a preamp into that (any of the rackmount or pedal style preamps will work-I'm partial to Tech21 stuff, the Marshall JMP, my Morin and a few others).