It is currently Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:53 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 284 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 19  Next
Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 19  Next
Author Message
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:08 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2010 2:18 pm
Posts: 6544
Good luck with the purchase. I hope all works out ok. Amazing a 60+ year old amp is still capable of playing.

:D


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 12:34 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:56 am
Posts: 1677
Location: Coastal Bend, Tx.
Quote:
Amazing a 60+ year old amp is still capable of playing.
A true testament to great design and execution.
Radio shack sure isn't what I remembered it being :roll:
3 employees on duty, 2 were selling phones only and me. Felt awkward getting 1-1 attention, so I bought shrink tubing and a couple insulated gator clips. She assured me I could go online to find the rest of the things I asked about, haha...I'll stick to AES and a few select other places as required.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 2:06 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26416
Location: Tombstone Territory
sfceric64 wrote:
Radio shack sure isn't what I remembered it being :roll:


I doubt you'd find a single radio in that place anymore.

:x

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 6:38 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2010 2:18 pm
Posts: 6544
You still have a Radio Shack around? The last "live" RS in this area died 5 years ago.
:(
As an aside... I bought all the Allen-Bradley carbon comp resistors they had re-packaged, at the time. Very hard to find NOS in the ranges that most amps use, these days.
:)


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 7:05 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26416
Location: Tombstone Territory
We had three RS stores in town at one time. Now we're down to one and it's been circling the drain for several years. All they sell are smart phones and RC toys. The only thing keeping them afloat is, the Western Union office is co-located within.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 10:16 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:56 am
Posts: 1677
Location: Coastal Bend, Tx.
We had 5 in Corpus Christi ten yrs ago when I moved here. Now there's 1, they had everything in the store that's on there webpage.

Quote:
Allen-Bradley carbon comp resistors they had re-packaged
they did have a bunch of those and some white wafer type's @300V. The carbon comps they had were all 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1 watts, the larger the watt the smaller selection. I was looking for a 470 ohm 3 watt to make an electrolytic discharge probe. The only thing over 1 watt were the white wafer type 5,10 and a few larger. They only had very small sized/rated electrolytics.

maybe they should rename themselves phoneshack.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 10:30 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26416
Location: Tombstone Territory
sfceric64 wrote:
We had 5 in Corpus Christi ten yrs ago when I moved here. Now there's 1, they had everything in the store that's on there webpage.


Tandy put a corporate store in our mall whose lease terms demand $50 a square foot (in a market that can only support about $22). Not surprisingly, it was the first store to go titz up.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 5:30 pm
Offline
Amateur
Amateur

Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 6:18 pm
Posts: 141
The last Radio Shack around here closed down about a year ago. There's a big Fry's Electronics not far away, with a decent selection of DIY stuff, but the staff is so user-belligerent I avoid the place unless I gotta have something right away.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 7:31 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 7:06 am
Posts: 1662
We have a RS by us yeah mostly phones, toys and RC, but they do have an area where you can still pick up some DIY parts, and soldiering irons, wire and the like, they have one of those big filing cabinets like the hardware stores, filled with a limited variety of connectors, capacitors, resistors, etc.
mud


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 7:37 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:56 am
Posts: 1677
Location: Coastal Bend, Tx.
Update: got the tubes in yesterday, they look good. Still cant really see inside the blk glass 6v6 but they are labeled jan-cnu 6v6gt. They are definitely not the VT107 type from what I can see in the top.

I haven't got the tracking# yet, I will email them Wed. morning... :roll:
Trying to clear my head of a few things after looking at all the different schematics(decided the ones you posted are probably the best I've seen) out there and just in general while writing up a parts sheet.

Electrolytics' recommendation power section and grid all F&T?
All the resistors should be 1/2 or 1w, except for the three 5w (two dropping & cathode from output v3/4)?
Tone stack caps you recommend are 2ea(Jupiter Red) .05mfdx450vdc?

Thanks


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 8:00 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2010 2:18 pm
Posts: 6544
JAN-CNU = National Union. 1940-50 mil spec designation.

Use F&T electrolytic caps. In power supply and bypass. 33mfd/160mfd works fine... size and tone-wise for bypass.

All 1/2-watt resistors. Except, 5-watt "sandbox" types for main power supply and cathode-tied resistor on 6V6GT.

Tone-stack and bypass caps = Red Vintage Jupiter, if possible. Silver mica, if you need to replace any ceramic caps (I doubt this, as ceramic disc caps last forever --- unless physically damaged).

Measure for DC leakage on grid side of coupling caps. If you are in the <2 VDC range --- keep the OEM Astron caps. If > 5VDC, definitely replace the OEM with the Red Jupiter caps.

Good luck! Nice project amp, for sure.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 11:34 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:56 am
Posts: 1677
Location: Coastal Bend, Tx.
Great thanks, eases my mind.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 11:47 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:56 am
Posts: 1677
Location: Coastal Bend, Tx.
Well another update, the email I sent off Wed. worked very well; they sent an extra box "unknown contents" that was returned to find its way to the proper owner.

So to my new gear: a short story on delivery 1st.
sitting around tracking the notice Friday; I had given up on an early daytime arrival. check, check, check-nada, so about 5pm I check again and it says delivered @ 4:10 signed for by blah-blah. :shock: Of course I panic not recognizing the signature as a neighbor and never hearing a knock at my door. I opened a case# w/ the delivery company, hahaha Friday, sure here is your case# a supervisor will call you w/in two hours. :roll: So two hours go by its almost 8:00 dark time, :evil: about to turn :twisted:
Then a neighbors girlfriend 2 doors down knocks on the door, Uh I think I have two boxes that are yours, she was very nice and didn't know me.
:o :D Finally.....I have two boxes to unpack.
Well, I have unpacked and in all my excitement last night haven't taken a single picture " looking for the smack upside the head smilie " not there.
So, I really got a great new guitar and played it after a short time to let it get used to the new house.
Well the amp,
Where to start, ok quick look over-better than the pics I saw as far as general appearance. But a few signs that it hasn't been fired up lately, a couple broken wire connections w/ tape splice joins from the O/T to the speaker and inner chassis.
Check the fuse, all ok intact correct amperage, maybe original?
Pop the upper panel, some bad stuff done inside the amp. OK, no problem it can be fixed, but I can't power up yet. This morning until now, I 've been comparing values, tracing obvious wires and so on. The biggest issue so far is the O/T wiring to the rectifier and unfortunately at this point anyway the speaker DC resistance reading is very low, <1....
That's about where I'm at but ordered a new set of electrolytics, arrive next Tuesday and a few other caps and resistors(dropping and gridstop). Ok I get it, I'll take a break and snap a few photo's for your viewing pleasure. :wink:


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 12:47 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:56 am
Posts: 1677
Location: Coastal Bend, Tx.
A couple pics here and then the link to the rest taken so far.
Image
Image


Let me know if the pictures need to be posted here, retaken/sized or you want to see something zoomed in.
So far I see at least 8 issues that need resolved; a couple major, a few medium and the rest value changes or re-soldier/wire bits.
I have to add, that the person who did most of the bad juju probably had good intentions just poor execution.


Last edited by sfceric64 on Mon Jul 10, 2017 10:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Trying to buy my 1st Vintage Amp
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 1:44 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26416
Location: Tombstone Territory
Did you unplug the speaker lead from the amp before taking that DCR measurement?

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 284 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 19  Next
Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 19  Next

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: