Kalamazoo Reverb 12

CabanaBoy

CabanaBoy

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Got a Kalamazoo Reverb 12 a couple weeks ago. It required a little TLC, but seems to be up and running. Sounds pretty good too. It's got a new baffle board made from some plyboard Hack gave me a while back. The present speaker is a little 10" speaker eESGe got from Hack, that I got from eESGe. The grill cloth is made from a piece I salvaged from an older Peavey Bandit I stripped down moons ago. Replaced one of the tube sockets, a few resistors, and the two rectifier diodes. I replaced the old school Gibson footswitch plug with a standard 1/4" plug so most 2 button footswitches will work. Had to bias it a bit. Replaced the two prong power chord with a 3 prong power chord. Removed the on/off from the treble pot and added a switched to the far right above the fuse (reduce some hum). Added a shield between the 120vac indicator lamp and the reverb pot (reduce the hum even more). It's a stage one type TLC job. There is always more that can be done, but I figure it's enough for now until something gives out or it gets a tweak/mod type thing. I'm debating between maybe an Eminence 1058 or Rajin Cajun speaker for it - not sure. It's a bruiser and a survivor - I like it...

Forgot to use black marker or something on the ends of the silver screws that hold the speaker in...
Kalamazoo Reverb 12 (1).JPG
I seem to be out of the plastic straps to secure the power cord, etc - gotta order some more I guess...
Kalamazoo Reverb 12 (4).JPG

I'm also out of the little rubber reverb tank grommets and the tank for this had none on it - so, I guess I gotta order some more of those to...

I'm thinking I might possibly convert this to a cathode driven reverb rather than transformer driven. Those little Gibson transformers are hard to find - could come in handy on a nicer condition Gibson amp down the line. Ah, see what happens...

edit: Forgot to mention the electrolytic caps being replaced...
 
Last edited:
syscokid said:
Educate me, please... How do you know that these diodes needed to be replaced? How did you test them?
Click to expand...

I use a multi-meter with a diode tester built into to test diodes. The diodes being used for rectification where still good, but they had a lot of years on them and I have a stock pile of a bunch of different diodes. I pretty much just beefed them up a notch or to for more power handling capabilities. Could have left the originals, but they are cheap and easy to change, so, ya, why not ;)
 
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