I have been trying to determine what brand this amplifier is. My parents bought it for me (used) in the middle early 70's. It was my first guitar amp. I have it on my bench now for some repairs, as it has been relegated to a closet at my parents house since before time began. It had quit at one point, and it was replaced with a Peavey.
My dad is quite elderly now, and I was going thru one of the closets preparing for the inevitable and ran across my old amp and one of my grandfathers (an old Silvertone 1472).
I have looked all over this amp, no markings, no label no clues. It appears Japanese made as all the tubes but one are "Ten" tubes, which I believe is Japanese. It appeared to have a logo on it at one point, as there is a screw thru the grill cloth in the upper right corner. I never recall a name being there.
I have the amp playing now after replacing a couple of blown capacitors. I still have some fine tuning and cleaning to do, but it does have a nice sound, the tremelo effect is interesting, but the volume has to be completely parked at what should be low/no volume and then it seems to set the amp at a certain volume and the tremelo effects/controls function. I will explore that later today when I fully inspect the volume pot to see how it is designed. The speaker is a 10 in. 10 watt.
I have attached some pics, the one of the back is with the cover board off (would cover about 1/3 down from top. One is of the top control panel both installed and another pic out of the cabinet.
Thoughts anyone?
My dad is quite elderly now, and I was going thru one of the closets preparing for the inevitable and ran across my old amp and one of my grandfathers (an old Silvertone 1472).
I have looked all over this amp, no markings, no label no clues. It appears Japanese made as all the tubes but one are "Ten" tubes, which I believe is Japanese. It appeared to have a logo on it at one point, as there is a screw thru the grill cloth in the upper right corner. I never recall a name being there.
I have the amp playing now after replacing a couple of blown capacitors. I still have some fine tuning and cleaning to do, but it does have a nice sound, the tremelo effect is interesting, but the volume has to be completely parked at what should be low/no volume and then it seems to set the amp at a certain volume and the tremelo effects/controls function. I will explore that later today when I fully inspect the volume pot to see how it is designed. The speaker is a 10 in. 10 watt.
I have attached some pics, the one of the back is with the cover board off (would cover about 1/3 down from top. One is of the top control panel both installed and another pic out of the cabinet.
Thoughts anyone?
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Beware, I do not see a power transformer in this amp. It also looks like one wire from the power cord goes to the filter cap (or worse, the chassis) while the other goes to the power switch. If this is the case, this amp can deliver a deadly shock. The little transformer on the end of the chassis is the output transformer as it connects to the speaker. If there is no other transformer in this amp it should not be used until a suitable isolation transformer like a Triad N-68X can be added. There were lots of these old "shocker amps" made and imported in the 50's and through the 60's, and people have been killed by them.
The grille cloth or cabinet may not be original since I have the same stuff on my DIY amp and it came from Parts Express.
The grille cloth or cabinet may not be original since I have the same stuff on my DIY amp and it came from Parts Express.
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I concur with you on this!
I deal with this often on old tube equipment and I have a line isolator transformer that I plug into when testing. I recall an instance when an accidental touch of ground side of a probe while troubleshooting an audio problem (after reading the warning notes on the schematic...accidents happen). That occurrence also scared the crap out of me, as my o-scope, freq generator and test equipment went down but I had them protected by an expensive surge protector (it gave its life so that they might live), they survived...it could have been expensive!
As far as modifying this amp for better safety, I may if I deem it worth using.
I am wondering if this amp might have been a home build/kit also. If you notice in the pic of the amplifier section there are two holes per side. A larger hole and a smaller hole. The larger hole looks like someone modified it or added it so the knobs would center in the opening.
its 120vAC so a US or made for US amp. I agree with the other posters that without the power transformer this amp is dangerous.
I agree with the opinion that this amp could be home brewn, or built from a kit. These were my first thoughts about it. I also agree with the others that you mustn't power it on unless you've got an isolation transformer.
Best regards!
Best regards!