$1 AMP find

[dougv]

Hello, I'am new here and was told from other cites that you may be able to help me.
I found this western electric 100f loudspeaker set at a garage sale and wat to know if i can put it to use as guitar amp.
here's the pics



and here's a link to a ebay sale with better picshttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

[tom1356]

If you want to double your money let me know.

[svokke]

I wouldn't destroy it to make a guitar amp out of it. I would keep it as a colector's item.
I think you better sell it to a collector and gain some money.

[adamamp]

Bump for you. Glad to see you made it.
Can someone offer him some advice on where to find the schematics for this please. It is not original. Seems the back is missing and someone wired an input to the volume control so as a collectors piece it may not be that great.

Doug, do you have access to a tube tester. Before you do any mods you should get it working stock. I will help if needed. But you need to test the tubes first and find a schematic. Was it you who said your dad had some electrical background? That would be good if we get to the stage of testing voltage and/or soldering.
Chances are the caps are dried out. After tubes, caps are a likely problem. What is under that mesh screen next to the tubes? Looks like it is mounted in another tube socket. What does it say it is, I cannot make it out on the pic.
Also post that pic of the model #. That may help someone get us a schematic.
Check you later.

Adam

[adamamp]

I should also ask if you intend to fix it for what you payed for it?
Haha, cause that is not likely
Hopefully we can get it working stock and that will be enough for a bit of guitar. It depends on weither it was designed for line level input or a phonograph. The tone would not be ideal for guitar but you should get some sound out of it. I hope it is line level. This way you could get a guitar preamp or booster pedal and not need to mod it.

[adamamp]

Originally posted by tom1356
If you want to double your money let me know.

I hope he would not sell it to anyone not able to spell application.
Check your sig cult leader type guy

[dougv]

at the end of my picture there is a link to a ebay auction with the exact same amp mine was spray painted gold, he has a nicer camera and includes the label on the back cover which i have but just removed to take the pictures. my picture of the label won't link but it is the same.

And you are right that someone wired a instrument cable to the volume control. the tubes do light up but will not drive a guitar when hooked up but it it did work when i pluged the cable into the headphone jack of a stero, it has a little approx. 4 inch jensen speaker. There was also two extra wires on the little speaker so someone was fooling around with this before i got it.

I do not have a tube tester, can this just be accomplished with a volt meter, is there still somewhere you can take them to get tested i live in cleveland ohio.

under the cage i believe there is no tube but it is labeled R5.
from left to right the labeling on the chasis is R5 , 25z6gt, 25l6gt, 6sl7gt, .

I could spend $50 to $100 bucks if it would be possible to get a decent guitar amp in the end. Would definetly want to have at least a 8 inch speaker added to it. BY decent i mean from clean to at least a slight overdrive and at a loud conversation volume would be fine.

[dougv]

JUst noticed that was you adamamp, thanks for pointing me here lot of other good info about little amp kits here.

[adamamp]

Originally posted by dougv
JUst noticed that was you adamamp, thanks for pointing me here lot of other good info about little amp kits here.

You are most welcome. It is a fair bit slower than HCAF(most BBs are) but the knowledge base is bar none. I really think that if we can get it working stock you could use a clean boost pedal to get your guitar rawking. Have you any pedals? Tube testers used to be everywhere. When I was a kid the corner drug store had one. Today most techs(TV or Amp) should still have one. Phone around your area and find one that will do it for cheap. Some may even show you how it is done and let you test them. Even if you do not get the amp perfect I hope this experience will help you learn about tubes in general. So was that you that has the father with some electrical background? If so he prolly has some testing equipment, like a good VOM.
For now we have to get the tubes tested. Those and the caps are the most likely suspect. R5, that is prolly a series R for the series heaters. 25+25+6=56 not 115 Volts. One thing about series connected heater amps. They can have a hot chassis. I will explain to you how to check for a hot chassis after we get going on some other stuff. In the mean time do-not try it you could get hurt Please read all my questions and suggestions. I love to help but hate writing stuff twice

Anyone please help us find a schematic

[EC8010]

I suspected that the thing under that cover would be a resistor. You are dealing with an amplifier that doesn't have a mains transformer. That means it potentially has a live chassis, making it very dangerous. What makes it even more dangerous is that you don't know precisely what you are doing and don't even have the benefit of a diagram.

Just because it was made by Western Electric does not mean that you have to fall down and worship it - it looks like an extremely cheap piece of kit to me, which would be fine if it wasn't dangerous.

I would not tolerate such a thing on my bench.