Silvertone 1472 Makeover

[Gunny]

While some may prefer to leave their silvertone amps stock I felt I could do better with a good friends help. Did this this morning. 2/24/2006 He did most of the work ( his shop and power tools) I helped where I could. Cabinet is made out of Whitepine aged at least 30 years. From what I have read aged pine makes the best amp and speaker cabinets. I just hated that carboard box and 1/4 inch hardboard baffle. Not to say it was not that bad as this amp case has held up since it was put together in 1961 but I wanted a better version. That done the Cabinet wood is a true 3/4 since the pine was a true 1 x 14 rough cut. Good stuff! Instead of going with the 8 inch cabinet like the origional I went with 10 inches wide so I can put in a better speaker that will probably have a larger magnet so wanted room to do so. The Cabinet is dovetailed together in the corners just like the old Fender amps were. I will also install a computer power supply fan to help cool the tubes for longer tube life. ( Even though these have lasted 40+ years LOL ) First thing was to take it to the tech and get it running right. Still has the origional tubes just had some bad solder joints and a few bad resitors and some cap work but not a complete cap job as he felt the older caps were better than the new ones he could have replaced them with. Then he used one of the instrument jacks to make a line out. That is really nice as I can run it into my Crate G60 amp and match the tone from the Silvertone as close as I can on the Crate but boost it for more power. I can get a fairly good tone match between the two and that tube preamp coming through the Crate amp sounds sweet, yet the Silvertone is putting out at the same time.

Here is a Pic of the finished results except the cabinet needs a couple of coats of laquer yet to seal it.

[Trout]

Very Nice Job!

[Gunny]

Thanks Trout I like it.