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    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
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    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Should I keep this old stuff?

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When I started my new job in 2003, there was a lot of old laboratory gear left behind by the previous tenant.

I dug into it yesterday, and scored some nice old tubes.

Should I keep the old resistors and caps too? There is quit a myriad. I have many tube hifi pieces and old guitar amps. I hear that people like to reinstall resistors from the era to maintain vintage sound, especially with guitar amps.

But the caps may all be dead? I don't know. Roger Modjeski told me some of the old caps in a Marantz 8B rarely go bad.

I have a DMM that tests capacitance and of course resistance.

What do you think? I never see old resistors and caps in the for sale boards...

Jim
 
My wife and I were rummaging around in an antique mall several years ago when we came across a booth with some old radios. We were talking to the seller and she mentioned that she had a barn full of old electronic stuff. She had tried selling it in her booth, but there was no interest. She said that there were tubes, so we went to look. It looked like a time capsule from a 1965 radio and TV shop, which she confirmed to be correct.

I bought the whole lot for $100 because of the tubes, which I kept. There were about 50 Twist-Lok Electrolytics still in their original boxes. I posted them all on Ebay stating clearly thay they were from 1960 to 1965, stored in Florida without benefit of air conditioning for over 50 years, and unopened and untested. The bidding went into stupid money with all the bids comming from the orient. The caps went for over $400. None of the other stuff (mostly TV parts) generated any interest and wound up scrapped just this year.
 
My wife and I were rummaging around in an antique mall several years ago when we came across a booth with some old radios. We were talking to the seller and she mentioned that she had a barn full of old electronic stuff. She had tried selling it in her booth, but there was no interest. She said that there were tubes, so we went to look. It looked like a time capsule from a 1965 radio and TV shop, which she confirmed to be correct.

I bought the whole lot for $100 because of the tubes, which I kept. There were about 50 Twist-Lok Electrolytics still in their original boxes. I posted them all on Ebay stating clearly thay they were from 1960 to 1965, stored in Florida without benefit of air conditioning for over 50 years, and unopened and untested. The bidding went into stupid money with all the bids comming from the orient. The caps went for over $400. None of the other stuff (mostly TV parts) generated any interest and wound up scrapped just this year.

Wow, amazing. I won't ask about the tubes. This should happen to me.

Jim
 
Definitely keep the stuff. Carbon comp resistors are still desired by some (well, no, not me!) and caps may be good or bad. You really need to test the caps for not only capacitance, but losses (dissipation factor or esr) and do a leakage test at the operating voltage. If they pass all those tests, the chances of them going bad quickly are very low.


Thanks. I think the vintage guitar amp community would be the place where the old resistors are appreciated more.

Jim
 
Wow, amazing. I won't ask about the tubes.

Mostly TV shop stuff, but I like TV sweep tubes for making big audio amps. There were some type numbers that I recognized which fit CB and ham radio linear amplifiers that sell for as much as $50 each. I don't keep those tubes, I prefer to experiment on stuff that I can get for $2 to $5 each.

THe old caps, resistors, pots, IF cans (from radios) are useful to the restorers of old radios. Yes the resistors and certain caps (the bumblebee's) are revered by the guitar and amp guys for their "tone". As I found out there are collectors in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong that worship many old US made parts, especially Western Electric and Altec stuff. Would you believe $75 for a roll of Western Electric solder?

Stuff other than tubes that fits old TV sets, yokes, flybacks, tuners, etc are pretty useless since very few people restore old TV's.

I personally don't trust 50+ year old parts, espcially if they weren't stored in a cool dry place. Old non potted transformers will absorb moisture and the insulation will degrade if left unprotected in Florida. I have seen two transformers develop a short between windings, or between a winding and the case. Use care with old trasnformers and ground the case.
 
Mostly TV shop stuff, but I like TV sweep tubes for making big audio amps. There were some type numbers that I recognized which fit CB and ham radio linear amplifiers that sell for as much as $50 each. I don't keep those tubes, I prefer to experiment on stuff that I can get for $2 to $5 each.

THe old caps, resistors, pots, IF cans (from radios) are useful to the restorers of old radios. Yes the resistors and certain caps (the bumblebee's) are revered by the guitar and amp guys for their "tone". As I found out there are collectors in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong that worship many old US made parts, especially Western Electric and Altec stuff. Would you believe $75 for a roll of Western Electric solder?

Stuff other than tubes that fits old TV sets, yokes, flybacks, tuners, etc are pretty useless since very few people restore old TV's.

I personally don't trust 50+ year old parts, espcially if they weren't stored in a cool dry place. Old non potted transformers will absorb moisture and the insulation will degrade if left unprotected in Florida. I have seen two transformers develop a short between windings, or between a winding and the case. Use care with old trasnformers and ground the case.

Well if I ever try to sell, I can say they were stored in a dark cabinet in a temp controlled laboratory in the driest city in the US!

Jim
 
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