Here is a very interesting mid-70’s Sound City 120 mk. IV. Sound City amps, precursors to the coveted Hiwatt amps, are deafeningly loud, clean behemoths of iron and glass. Equipped with 6 EL34s, this thing easily puts out 160 watts.
The mk. IV models are quite unique in the fact they use active EQ controls, more often found in solid-state amps, powered by all-tube circuits. This gives them a very wide tonal range, yet are a bit tricky to dial in relative to a standard Fender style tone stack. Due to this they get a bad rap for being finicky and noisy, but the noise issue is actually a result of the bad grounding schemes common to many British amplifiers at this time. By removing the ground buss and properly laying out the grounds, as well as a full recap, this thing is remarkably quiet for how loud it is. These also have notoriously unreliable power and impedance selectors, so I adapted a modern style selectors to fit the oversized hole with a massive washer and hardwired the power to 120V.
Quite a bit of work later, this thing makes for an excellent bass amp or pedal platform. This unit has its original Partridge transformers and was apparently owned by someone in a band called 'Deja Vu' as the phrase is plastered all over the amp. These were famously used by Electric Wizard in the 90’s to get as loud a tone as possible, and since I recently acquired an old Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, I fealt obligated to pair them here.
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#vintage #guitar #amplifier #tubeamp #soundcity #boss #electronics #electricwizard #doommetal #stonermetal
FOR SALE - Here I have an excellent example of a ~1965 Fender Blackface AB165 Bassman. This is the cream of the crop. These are legendary for a reason. Fantastic Fender cleans and raunchy overdrive. Not much needs to be said about these. This unit is in excellent shape with no major wear aside from the scratched out serial number. I do suspect the knobs have been replaced, but I am not certain. Either way they’re very high quality. Aside from the electrolytics and bias supply, this amp is fully stock. I added a bias control (along with the stock bias balance) and removed a capacitor on the bass channel that makes it far too dark (pretty standard mod). Exactly what you’re looking for in a guitar amp. I dont expect this to last long so I’m posting here before it goes to Craigslist. Asking $1,500. @.
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#vintage #Fender #guitar #amp #electronics #rock
Another one in from a local studio, here is a 1956 Tweed 5E5 Fender Pro-Amp. Sharing a lot with the legendary tweed Bassmans and Deluxes, this amp appears to be a transitional model, likely one of the earliest with a fixed bias supply. This thing has taken a beating from years on the road; the rear panel has been replaced as well as the original 15” speaker. Internally everything was looking pretty good aside from a thick layer of dust and grime. These 50’s Fenders are loaded with the notorious yellow Astron film capacitors. These almost always go bad and after measuring most of them at over double their marked value, I replaced them all with Mallorys. Aside from a full recap, amps from this period typically need some updates to the dated designs. I converted this to a balanced heater supply for safety and noise reduction, as well as adding a bias adjustment pot and backup rectifier diodes to ease the life of the rectifier tube. After the dust settled, this may be one of the best sounding amps I’ve had in. Great vintage cleans with a real squishy, bluesy overdrive. The tone controls are pretty odd and far less flexible than on a 5E6, but when you get it dialed in you’d hardly care.
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#tube #amp #vintage #electronics #fender #guitar
FOR SALE - Here I’ve got a 1979 Kramer DMZ 1000. Totally original, this instrument comes equipped with the very unique aluminum neck with wooden inserts and the original DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers. These are super hot passive pickups measuring over 13k DC resistance with two coils tap switches to bring them down to an under wound 3.5k. Perfect for slamming a dirty amp or fuzz box. This thing is a Doom machine. 25.5” scale length, this thing has super solid tuning stability and very comfortable action set up with 9s. However I will set up for heavier gauges as this thing eats detuned riffs for breakfast. As is common for aluminum necked guitars, this thing is heavy. Lot of the weight is in the neck but balances very nicely on a strap (no neck dive). Unlike modern aluminum necks, this one is super chunky. If you like 50’s Gibson baseball bats, this is for you. If you like heavy shoegaze or green-tinted riffage, this is the guitar for you. Includes original hard case. Asking $1600. DM if interested, will leave here for a bit before posting to Craigslist and Reverb.
Here we have a 1967 S6420 Supro Thunderbolt. Built in Chicago by the Valco company, these things have a very quirky design. It sports a single tone knob that blends between a low-pass and a hi-pass filter, similar to the tone control on a Big Muff and a very rudimentary phase inverter. This gives it a very odd midrange response with limited tonal options. But what it does, it does well. Being the later variant with a solid state rectifier, it puts out about 35 watts through 2 6L6s.
This thing is in miraculous condition externally. Aside from a small dent on the top and a few nicks, the tolex is nearly flawless. Unfortunately the guts were another story. It needed a new output transformer and had a blown speaker. A new @mercurymagnetics transformer and a recone by @weberspeakers later and this thing sounds great!! A full recap and replacement of out of spec parts, as well as a slight redesign in the grounding cleaned up the rest.
These amps are often linked with Jimmy Page, however he actually used a modified 1690T (supposedly) on their debut. This still gets you in that ballpark though. Surprisingly good cleans and unsurprisingly great crunch. Also similar to 60’s Bassmans, the Thunderbolt has an unused triode from one half of the first 12AX7, so why not hook it up for some extra gain?!?
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#guitar #amp #solidstate #tube #hybrid #fender #supro #bass #vintage #electronics
Here is an original Music Man 65. Prior to being purchased by Ernie Ball, Music Man was started up by one Leo Fender nearly a decade after he sold his original company to CBS (yes that CBS) in 1965. Originally designed with a solid-state pre-amp to beat out the Twin Reverb for huge clean tones, it can be argued if he succeeded or not. Regardless, the result is a very versatile (and loud) amp with shimmering cleans to heavy dirtbox-like crunch. The early silver badge models also had a tube phase inverter, along with the tube power amp, making them more sought after than the later black badge variants.
This particular amp was in very good shape. It previously had a replaced Mercury output transformer and fresh caps, so it really just needed a general cleaning and a new indicator light. I also converted the master volume to post phase inverter and added a presence switch. These amps rarely need much work. Incredibly well built from one of the very best, they are possibly the best bang-for-buck you can get out of a vintage amp. I highly recommend these early 70’s MM amps for anyone looking to get into buying vintage
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#guitar #amp #solidstate #tube #hybrid #fender #musicman #vintage #electronics
Here is a 1966 BF Bandmaster. This is the little brother to the legendary Twin Reverb. Same pre-amp with half the output, making it far more manageable in both weight and volume. This example is very clean aside from a touring stamp on the bottom. This amp didn’t need too much work, just a new input jack, bias, and general cleaning. Pair it with a set of vintage Jenson’s and this amp has the legendary Fender AB763 tone and then some. This amp is actually for sale, DM if interested
Update: SOLD
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#fender #guitar #tube #amp #guitaramp #vintage #electronics
In today is a legendary vintage piece from a local recording studio; the AB763 Twin Reverb. This thing has seen some horrors during its long life on the road, but the guts were miraculously preserved. What started as a totally original interior, I did a full recap including bypass capacitors, re-did the bias board, replaced the grid leak resistors, microphonic pre-amp tubes, and a bright switch, and performed a hefty cleaning to reduce conductivity in the cloth wires and eyelet board. This all resulted in a super low noise floor making this amp sound better than it has in 30+ years. This amp definitely has THE tone you’ve heard countless times. And with replaced high-efficiency EV speakers, it’s a wonder I didn’t get evicted play-testing this thing. Catch @yaresaurus on guitar at the end.
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#fender #vintage #tube #amp #electronics #guitar
Here is a not particularly common 1996 Sovtek Mig-60. This Russian made amp is based on the legendary Marshall JCM800 using wonky old Soviet components. Working out the old parts coded in Russian was quite a time, but this thing can really rip now. I replaced all the original can capacitors with modern standard aluminum electrolytics; some mounted internally and some mounted in the old holes using silicone. Not the prettiest solution but it worked. While these amps sound very unique stock, the high gain channel is notoriously flabby and sputtery. I heavily modified the first two gain stages blending Marshall specs with the original design. I also added a switch to change the bias of V2b, as well as a PPIMV and fresh EL34s donated by my grandfather.
Overall I was extremely impressed with the layout and design of this amp. Far higher quality to most of its Sovtek siblings and really easy to work on with a grounding scheme that makes Jim Marshall look like an amateur 😅. It’s a true fire breather now
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#vintage #guitar #amp #guitaramp #tubeamp #electronics #sovtek #stonerrock #stonermetal #stonerdoom #doommetal
Here is one of the absolute classic vintage amps - a 1968 AB165 Drip Edge Bassman. These amps went through a lot of changes over the years and this is one of the classic and more desirable circuits (outside of the prohibitively expensive early Tweed designs). You’ve heard this amp on numerous classic records (think Nevermind) as they have a truly classic sound. While it has fabulous Fender cleans, you really want a Bassman for its great natural drive. This particular unit was in pretty questionable condition when I got it. A previous tech had tried to convert the power amp to an AA864 circuit (a common mod on these amps), but really pooched it. I re-did the power amp to correct AA864 specs, fixed the power filtering (the filter caps had already been replaced but to the wrong values??), and replaced a bad 12ax7 and it’s now sounding better than when it left the factory. I also added a Type-2 PPI Master Volume on the back, as demonstrated in the last slide (the hole in the chassis had already been cut). This lets you get some gnarly pre-amp gain without going deaf 😅. This thing is now an excellent studio workhorse
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#guitar #tubeamp #electronics #Fender #vintage #bassman
Here’s a 1968 Univox PB-235 (I think that is the model, not a lot of info out there on these amps) head with matching 1x15 cab. It’s a relatively clean, low-powered bass amp with a very warm, round tone reminiscent of an old B15 (unless you have it dimed like I do in the last slide). I got this for a killer deal as it was non-functioning when I came across it. A fresh pre-amp tube and socket later and it was sounding great. The amp already had the filtering capacitors changed as well as a few resistors, but after taking some measurements I realized a majority of the resistors were ~20%-30% out of tolerance!! I guess that’s what you get with a cheap old Japanese tube amp. With it being an etched circuit board, replacing about 95% of the resistors in here was a chore but ultimately worth it. This along with another replaced 12au6 and a re-wired input impedance gave this thing new life! I’m not sure exactly how many watts this runs at but it’s definitely not enough to compete with a band so this will remain a studio piece, and a pretty unique one at that. These old Univoxes are really under appreciated and are a great way to get into vintage amps if you can get a good deal on one. Just don’t expect it to be as easy to service as an old Fender 😅 (speaking of old Fenders…)
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#guitar #tubeamp #electronics #Univox #vintage #japanese
Here we’ve got a 1966 Silvertone 1484 “Twin Twelve” head. Famously used by Jack White, this thing has a real nice, gritty Fender-ish sound to it. At ~50 watts it’s got enough headroom for those classic American clean tones but can get real mean when pushed. This particular unit is in fantastic shape for its age and was entirely stock (except for the power cable). It even had the all original “Silvertone” branded pre-amp tubes! These things were budget amps back in the day and it shows. A far cry from the relatively tidy Fender wiring, this thing was quite noisy when I got it. After a full power filter re-cap, a few new resistors, and a set of shorting input jacks she’s singing pretty. Really great opportunity to work on one of these. Got a couple other amps in need of a tune up so expect to see some more soon
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#guitar #tubeamp #electronics #silvertone #fender
