aon
Well-Known Member
My first amp was a Marshall MG15CDR. When that wasn't loud enough, a friend's dad sold me a Fender Super 60. When I quit playing the last time the amp sat around for a couple of years and then I sold it.
I've been thinking of building an amp but the price of the cabinets and chassis have put me off a bit. Also, since I usually dive into stuff head first, building a kit isn't really my kind of thing
Well, today I picked up this for less than the price of an empty 1x12 cabinet:
Would've been funny if it was my original unit but it probably isn't. I still have the footswitch from the one I had before and this has one as well.. Also this one has what look to be the original preamp tubes, I replaced mine with EH in the preamp and Sovtek in the power amp, as the power tubes in my old one rattled... I don't remember if I had GT's or what before. I remember someone had GT's back then but don't know if it was me or someone else
The guy who sold it said the power tubes are shot and he was probably right. There's something loose in the left one and the leg of the getter is bent. I plugged it in, played a bit and it doesn't sound half bad to be honest... Much better than I remembered but I probably have different sensibilities and EQ settings now But initially there was a lot of hum which did disappear, but was replaced by high pitched "shrieks" and sudden loss of sustain/volume. The reverb is garbage, much worse than the BJr. But I remember that on the other one I had it hummed quite loudly when turned up, on this one it doesn't do that.
Anyway, my current plan is to convert this into a "RR763 Blackvibe" but with a solid state rectifier. I'm planning to re-use at least the cabinet, chassis, PT, OT, choke, tube sockets and probably initially the preamp tubes and speaker as well... as well as some other minor bits like the glorious red knobs, power/standby switches and the pilot light. If manage to do all that I'll look into adding reverb (maybe 6BM8 based)
I have a rough sketch of the HT power supply adapted to the power transformer in this amp already. So I guess my next step will be to finish a full schematic and open up the amp to verify some stuff before making a BOM and ordering parts... To be continued...
I've been thinking of building an amp but the price of the cabinets and chassis have put me off a bit. Also, since I usually dive into stuff head first, building a kit isn't really my kind of thing
Well, today I picked up this for less than the price of an empty 1x12 cabinet: Would've been funny if it was my original unit but it probably isn't. I still have the footswitch from the one I had before and this has one as well.. Also this one has what look to be the original preamp tubes, I replaced mine with EH in the preamp and Sovtek in the power amp, as the power tubes in my old one rattled... I don't remember if I had GT's or what before. I remember someone had GT's back then but don't know if it was me or someone else
The guy who sold it said the power tubes are shot and he was probably right. There's something loose in the left one and the leg of the getter is bent. I plugged it in, played a bit and it doesn't sound half bad to be honest... Much better than I remembered but I probably have different sensibilities and EQ settings now
But initially there was a lot of hum which did disappear, but was replaced by high pitched "shrieks" and sudden loss of sustain/volume. The reverb is garbage, much worse than the BJr. But I remember that on the other one I had it hummed quite loudly when turned up, on this one it doesn't do that.Anyway, my current plan is to convert this into a "RR763 Blackvibe" but with a solid state rectifier. I'm planning to re-use at least the cabinet, chassis, PT, OT, choke, tube sockets and probably initially the preamp tubes and speaker as well... as well as some other minor bits like the glorious red knobs, power/standby switches and the pilot light. If manage to do all that I'll look into adding reverb (maybe 6BM8 based)
I have a rough sketch of the HT power supply adapted to the power transformer in this amp already. So I guess my next step will be to finish a full schematic and open up the amp to verify some stuff before making a BOM and ordering parts... To be continued...
![IMG_20201007_180403[1].jpg](https://www.thetonerooms.com/data/attachments/49/49893-1161244728a980d7773508ea3e149f19.jpg?hash=EWEkRyipgN "IMG_20201007_180403[1].jpg")
