infiniteposse
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I should really avoid pawn shops. I lack the gene that lets someone see a tube amp and say, "hey, I really don't need that" and then walk away. That gene's just not there. Sad.
So anyway, I got to my fav pawn shop and they've got this lovely early 60's looking amp. 2-tone tolex - almost like a Supro, really beefy chassis and a verb and trem. Quite clean condition for the age (needs some wipe down though), missing one knob and with a lovely selection of RCA tubes in it. Price? $195, which while not the deal of the century is pretty ok with me.
The tube lineup is 12AX7 (3), 6AN8, 6AV6 (or two 12AX7's), 6973 (2), 6CA4. The 6973's can probably be rewired for EL84's if need be, but my tech's going to look it over and see if it needs that or not. Caps need some TLC, a few are visibly going.
So how does it sound? At this point pretty cool and I can only imagine better after some TLC. It's got a "Brown" sort of flavor I'd say, on the dark side of things. The clean sounds are warm and thick, not chimey at all to my ear. The verb is weak right now, so that's going to need some TLC. The trem is unusual in that it's asymmetrical, so it's got a very unusual sound to it. Not sure if that's just how it sounds or if it's a little out of whack. We shall see. My tech was thinking about $100 in work was needed, which is about average for an amp overhaul. I think for $300, it should be very sweet. Here's some shots of it as I left it at my tech's place:
So anyway, I got to my fav pawn shop and they've got this lovely early 60's looking amp. 2-tone tolex - almost like a Supro, really beefy chassis and a verb and trem. Quite clean condition for the age (needs some wipe down though), missing one knob and with a lovely selection of RCA tubes in it. Price? $195, which while not the deal of the century is pretty ok with me.
The tube lineup is 12AX7 (3), 6AN8, 6AV6 (or two 12AX7's), 6973 (2), 6CA4. The 6973's can probably be rewired for EL84's if need be, but my tech's going to look it over and see if it needs that or not. Caps need some TLC, a few are visibly going.
So how does it sound? At this point pretty cool and I can only imagine better after some TLC. It's got a "Brown" sort of flavor I'd say, on the dark side of things. The clean sounds are warm and thick, not chimey at all to my ear. The verb is weak right now, so that's going to need some TLC. The trem is unusual in that it's asymmetrical, so it's got a very unusual sound to it. Not sure if that's just how it sounds or if it's a little out of whack. We shall see. My tech was thinking about $100 in work was needed, which is about average for an amp overhaul. I think for $300, it should be very sweet. Here's some shots of it as I left it at my tech's place:
