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Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 12:42 am
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Interesting, eleventeen. The Mickey Mann rebuild is quite extensive, and he implements a lot of generally accepted mods to coax the best sound out of those amps. I have always liked the Doug Hoffman approach and the quality of his information and component choices. And I would have no problem going that route, if the funds are available. The amp would surely be a toneful, long-life amp. Just wondering about the Vibrolux vs (2)$300-$350 amps. How does that equate ? What amps would you provide in trade ? No offense man, but I work with our school district's sound system and instrument needs. Art

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Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:34 am
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Acclem, I haven't picked out any particular amps to trade 2 for 1 for the Vibrolux, nor have I even asked the "authorities" if they are open to the swap. It would bolster my case, I think, to trade 2 brand new w/warrantee amps (that each weigh 15 lbs less than a Vibro) for one used one, and I am just assuming there is a single 12" w/reverb solid state amp of recognizable brand that I could buy for $300-$350 brand new in a box at Guitar Ctr. I certainly welcome any suggestions you or others may have, not having shopped these things. Hopefully it will be something on sale!

It's entirely a larval concept at this point, but I have had my eyes on that Vibro for a few years! The school probably has 25 guitar amps and actually uses many of them, because they run a "jazz camp" during the summer, which I get involved with more as schlepper and helper than teacher or performer. When they do the jazz camp, they hit up every music store within a 25 mile radius and they can borrow essentially endless amounts of amps and kbds and drumsets for free. The stores lend out of their rental stock, it's a feel good and good karma thing all around. So the school doesn't necessarily need or not need guitar amps.

It may be that the school would rather have three cheap keyboards or two saxophones instead of two guitar amplifiers; I frankly do not know, I'll have to talk to the music director who is a friend. The guitar amps they have are a completely motley collection, 1 of this type, 3 of that type, some are pure trash, none are really great, but we are talking about what kind of amp would be best in a linoleum floored classroom full of desks and chairs with blackboard and windows. Gonna sound like hell no matter what. Get my drift? My only point is that they prolly don't worship at the tube-Vibrolux altar and might ultimately prefer a refurbished marimba instead! They also have a SF tube Super, and even though that's a less interesting amp to me, maybe the whole school needs to be de-tubed!

As for Hoffman, agreed, he goes the distance. I myself can't get $1700 worth of fetished-out on this stuff. I have, sitting around here, a
1: very old BF Pro Reverb #138 (converted to 4x 6L6 Twin-Power back in the early 70's) I didn't do this mod, I bot the amp this way.
2: a SF Princeton Reverb converted to 2x 6L6 using Dynaco ST-70 transformers.
3: a SF AB763 Deluxe Reverb converted to 4x 6L6 Twin that I did for a friend 25 years ago. Yeah, don't ask how I got the trannys and 4x 6L6 into a Deluxe Reverb!
4: A SF vibro champ that is stock that I'll probably just sell on ebay. Busted volume control.

I am figuring sell the champ and the Pro and use the proceeds to buy the parts for the others. But the Pro is a thing of beauty and my only remaining BF. It's also one of the absoute first Pro Revs ever made. My more macro problem is that I don't especially have the physical space to thrash all these amps into shape, plus I've divested of all my electronic parts stuff lying around, so I have to go buy every single resistor. If I were smart, I would probably trade the Champ plus some modest $$ to someone else to do the work on the other amps.

I did the Princeton and the Deluxe mods 20-25 yrs ago, but these amps (especially the Pro--which has 1965 caps! Argggh!) need to recapped and hosed out and maybe de-powered and unmodded in a giant frenzy of lead-tin vapors. The sophistication of the mods I did back then is neanderthal, without question. The Princeton was quite unstable but OMG it was incredibly loud and sounded great. Now..I don't need loud. Basically I need to go through 12-step Fender amp rehab with these four crusty old dudes.

The Vibrolux from the school is basically just something to buy and sell for a profit OR to hold on to since it is so cherry.


Last edited by eleventeen on Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:43 am
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Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
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I'm betting that to actually pull this coup off you'll need to approach one or more board members of the school district since technically all appropriations and expenditures must be approved at that level. Thus, anything a school owns is actually the property of the district.

Good luck though -- it seems like a win/win situation all around and I hope it works out.

Arjay

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Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:11 am
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Generically, yes, Retro. But this is a far, far less formal situation. If the music director who is a jazzbo like me said he could REALLY use 11 folding keyboard stands instead of the Vibrolux, they (the school board) would go for it in a NY minute, without questioning it.

What I have found advantageous in these situations is the ability to perform a "magic wand" move...to change this into that with no expenditure on the part of the school. No sales tax, no purchase order, no money, nothing.

When I used to sell high end video gear in Hollywood back in the 80's, I did a six-figure deal with Universal studios to get rid of six things they no longer wanted by changing them into three things they DID want, brand new in the box, absorbing the sales tax in a 100% (for them) dollar-free transaction. I actually did that deal with Roger Ailes, now head of Fox. Entertainment Tonight bought the used gear! That was a fun deal, nobody could believe I pulled it off, but everyone came away very happy.


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