1959 Sears Silvertone #1451 Tube Amplifier Speaker Mystery

[ivan H]

When I was a little kid, I was shocked many times by this type of amplifier.

All you gotta do is touch the chassis with one hand, and touch ground (like a water pipe) at the same time.

This type "hot chassis" was eliminated by safety code changes.
The third wire (ground wire) (earth wire) was added to appliances, to prevent people from being shocked.

A lot of people died from this, before the codes were changed.

Yes, people died from touching their guitar strings (which are connected to the amp's chassis by the instrument cable) & a microphone at the same time (microphone body earthed).
Not sure on our early electrical codes here in Oz, though I have repaired/restored some very early radios, & a few very early guitar amps in my time, never seen one without a proper earth. Cheers

 

[T-Rex]

I can’t really tell from the schematic, but it looks as though the speaker is a field coil speaker? Feel free to correct me if I missed the point, it ain’t been a great week

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Ivan, and ampmad, confirm this, would not a user of electrical equip that runs on 220-240v be in greater degree of injury from the shock vs a 110-120v user? And ampmad, I do know an unearthed, death cap, 2 pronged amp is not the recipe for safety that the modern or modified ones are of today.