rca conversion

[oogared]

I was told that i would be better off reposting this in here...

ill try to be brief and descriptive . Ok, i have an old RCA tube amp pulled from a hifi, (vintage 50's or so) it uses 6cg7's (new EH's) in the preamp and 6v6's (old, came with the amp when i got it) in the poweramp, with a 5y3 rectifier (which i replaced witha ss plug in thing, cause it didnt have one when i got it). I was planning on converting it into a guitar amp, but im having trouble getting sound out of it... i hooked a guitar through the phono input, i get a signal, but its very weak. I used a distortion pedal as a boost, and the sound was louder, but not much. Would I have to re-do the input section of the amp to make it suitable for guitar?

[amperex]

Perhaps the addition of a 12AX7 to feed the RCA existing amp as guitar amps have high gain like a vintage amp phono input.

[Eli Duttman]

1st, get that SS plug in thingy out of there, pronto. There is a real danger of overvoltage on the signal tubes and caps. If you want to buck the B+ up a bit, use a 5V4. Otherwise, use a Russian 5Y3, which is quite reasonable in cost.

"Amperex" is correct about the phono I/P. It's intended for use with a piezoelectric cartridge with an O/P measured in Volts. You will need to build a preamp to boost the weak signal from the guitar pickup.

[oogared]

I was told i could also copy a fender 5e3 schematic, as it would already use the 5y3 and the output tubes, i would just have to rework the preamp to use 12at7, and a 12ax7