truly a silvertone indeed !! I have a closet full of silvertone amps and guitars.. I did my first guitar recital with a silvertone guitar and amp. I bought a gibson melody maker shortly therafter...it was like getting a car with power steering for the first time..
I keep telling myself "...I need a lap-steel..." This is why. Lovely impro. No acid required. Great idea to promote a band - I think you've got something there.
Greetings, Brad. Jack and I have encountered some 6SF5's (or the same tube but with a grid cap, the 6F5) on really early amps like the Gibson EH-150. They're actually not that wimpy, with an amplification factor of 100.....like a 12AX7, but let's face it, this jewel was never intended for stadium use :) Speaking of which, your concert at the end was really nice......a testimony to your versatility as a musician. Thanks for this concise and very well-done video.
Fascinating from start to finish..Nothing like that existed in England, so it's a revelation. Naturally we all heard of Sears Roebuck, but there was some sort of U.S. import embargo on in the 1940's and we never really got any stuff from the home of rock'n'roll until the late 1950's. Great job Brad, keep em coming ...
This was one bitichen video. This is the type of vid that makes this channel a must watch. Silvertone put out some unusual stuff. Them old catalogs as a kid, I used to tear up. I would ink pen it up and piss my mom off to know end. Getting back to Silvertone stuff, I remember about 15 maybe 20 years ago on eBay I seen a speaker suitcase. It must have had eight or more speakers mounted on the baffle. Can't remember but I don't believe it had an amp in it. I believe it was like an extension cab / suitcase deal. Wish I would have bided on it now. That was the last time I saw one. Thanks for the vid Brad. We just dodge TS Gordon by 30 miles here on the Mississippi gulf coast. Hope you don't see any of it.
Thinking back, I believe that's exactly what it was titled as for sale. I just don't remember an amp being paired with it and that's probably what kept me from bidding on it. It's been so long ago. I think it was around 1996 time frame. It went for a considerable amount too. Which surprised me. I remember thinking I would keep an eye out for another one because back then on eBay after one would sale other sellers would come out of the wood work with the same piece. But none did which I thought was unusual. I guess they are pretty desirable and rare at that.Thanks for the heads up and have a good day. Curtis
I remember seeing them in the sears catalog when Sears was Sears and they had their catalogs only a memory and I have learned a lot my friend since I subscribe to your Channel thank you
That's a great find! Back in the 60's those Silvertone case amps were basically 'throwaways'. They didn't deliver the tone and especially the volume that we players desired. In 1968, I bought a Silvertone Twin Twelve (1484) for $50. What a great amp it was! 2 channel, tremelo and spring reverb tank at 45 watts. Sold it in 1984 and wish I never did. A lot of the Silvertone stuff for Sears was built by Dan-electro.
The Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogs were our internet shopping. My first guitar was a Global identical to a Fender Strat, but the body was plywood and just as thick as the real deal, but them single coil pickups were much more noisy than the real ones. I took the pickups out and turned them upside down and mixed up some resin and hardener and filled them, let them sit for days and put it back together and they actually sounded much better
Dude your level of playing is nothing short of amazing. I learn tons from your vids but the real reason I watch is to catch these demos. LOL keepem coming bro I can't get enough.
@@TheGuitologist dude the demo was amazing. I'll like to see you play once you get the rust off. I'm completely lost when it comes to playing slide. You didn't appear to be to far out practice to me. Awesome playing and teching. Your channel is top knotch for sure.
Yeah,I 've noticed that too.It didn't look to me like a Valco either, but I don't work on those ,just a rookie compared to you and Uncle Doug,or Terry ( Mr.Fender) D.labs.Great videos watch all the time.🎸
I'm sure it's harder than it looks, but given that doing standard chording would be rather difficult with the shape my hands are in, that I could maybe learn.
Sounds great. You can pick these old guitars up for a song right now. Or atleast you could the last time I saw some of them for sale. You can even get Fender ones for a decent price.
Wow!! Amazing piece, in equally amazing condition! I'm guessing that the owner wanted to keep it as original as possible? Otherwise, an exposed fuse holder (chassis mount) and maybe a power switch would have been nice....perhaps a standby switch?? But then I suppose it could be considered an 'investment.' I can't even imagine what something like that, in that sort of condition, might be worth. The sound is classic, though. Brings to mind a lot of old blues records. :-)
Nice to see it kept stock, they do seem to be rare. Standby switches are completely unnecessary on any type of guitar amp (even the bigger ones, despite popular belief), but I could definitely imagine lots of people wanting a power switch. Believe it or not, some of these old amps didn't even have volume controls! They were at 100% volume all the time and the guitar's volume knob had to be used to change the volume.
JUlian A.....I've been a bass player and professional technician for just short of 52 years, and prefer older tube equipment. When the Navy gave me my formal training, I got to see (and play with) a lot of the antique gear that you're talking about....as 'bare bones' Class A as you could ever hope for! The tone was to die for!! While standby switches are, as you say, unnecessary, they certainly come in handy. It's just a matter of convenience. And while you can live without a volume control (and certainly without tone controls of any kind), they do make your life a bit easier, as a performer. I used to be much more of a 'purist.' Now, I just want something that gets the job done, and don't worry about the resale value. The exception is this newer tube stuff that has more digital technology crammed into it than the average desktop PC!! To me, that all defeats the purpose of using tube gear! :-)
Old slide guitars fetch blah prices... since they are so simple. I have a 45' Dickerson I fixed a few years ago on my channel... They are fun, but since there aren't that many players, the market is weak.
Maybe out your way!! There's a healthy blues community in New England, and a good one fetches a healthy price. Not just any old junk, mind you, but this old Silvertone would probably have commanded twice the price it did near Brad....or you.
Wish you would have done a final comparison of your regular electric guitar to the included lap steel to see the difference in output between "newer" pickups and 77 + - year old pickups. Though, it did seem that the lap steel / amp got louder the more comfortable you became with that old Silvertone. I must say that 3 watts and a 6" AlNiCo can get pretty loud. Almost seems that some of the magnetism may be gone out of the speaker. I have a couple of 6 inchers like that (one I just found last winter - sorry, they're not for sale or trade), that are real crankers with low wattage. Some of my favorite drivers.
good'un, it didn't / doesn't look like most of the Field Coil speakers I've seen, rather it looks like most of the old PA system speakers with the on-board multi-tap audio power transformers. Granted, it only vaguely has the AlNiCo shape, but it is old...
The lap steel's AlniCo magnet was nice and strong still. No issues there. A lot of times the AlNiCo has to be re-magnetized, but this one seemed fine. The calculated watts at the output won't always tell you how loud an amp will be though. This one just has a low voltage swing on the signal into the output due to the single triode preamp. Most of the older amps I've encountered like this are either a single pentode pre or two triodes. That makes a HUGE difference in volume.
Another great repair job, Brad. Kudos for resisting the urge to hyper-modify the little jewel, instead simply returning her to her intended purpose (as your test drive at the end amply demonstrated).I have a question: I've seen tons of these Mother of Toilet seat-covered laps and small amps from this bygone era, yet nothing modern along these lines, yet it's such a cool embellishment...is the process simply lost to us, or what? Has it been rendered obsolete due to regulations? I'm really curious, yet web searches have turned up nothing on the subject...
String action looks a little high Brad ... : ) really cool instrument. A fat doob and glass of fine bourbon would put a man in the right mood to play one of those ....
As always, I see and learn something new with each of your videos, Brad. You are an amazing player/singer and that combination of extraordinary musician/technician is the way I'd like see myself--if I could master either! This is my first comment, so I hate to be critical, but that music you selected for the time-lapse segment sucks, IMO. I don't mind the idea of that format (time-lapse with music). I'd just like to hear something with instrumentation that goes with what you're working on--more electric guitars, please? Maybe even Hawaiian music for this one? It's a very minor issue all things considered. Keep up the good work, my friend.
If I were building an amp-in-case I'd probably use a modified record player amp. You can actually get some good volume out of a few watts with the right kind of speaker. And I'm talking about a full-range one.
hahaha...you're barking up the wrong tree there. I'm a pedestrian slide player. About all I'm good for is the occasional slide track on a recording for added flavor.
I had a guy in one of my bands, he had a guitar with high action and I believe he tuned it to an open G major and he played that like a madman. We had a Sothern Metal Band way back and I mean heavy especially for the early 80's. Is that guitfiddle tuned to any specific open chord?
New sub to your channel, I just stumbled onto your videos; I live in Toronto Ontario Canada, I play and collect guitars, just started doing my own set-ups and small repairs, love history.
Thank you for sharing - excellent video! Why not ETS for the background music? 14:45 I presume you didn't write that interludish relaxing score, just a fan of anything original from the Guitologist. Cheers!
Cool old amp. Probably not worth it to go too crazy and add a power LED, switch, change the tubes, etc. Just as long as it is safe with the new line cord, and death cap removal, and replacing those leaky electrolytics. It isn't likely the owner is going to go out gigging with it. Might be a good idea to invest in a new strap though.
This one was being picked up same day so I was on a time crunch. If it was mine, I'd replace the handle with a period correct spade end leather handle and leave it alone. It's tempting to add all the obvious improvements to the electrics, but it would kinda destroy the interest to collectors of early electric guitar and amp history. At the time this was made, electric guitar was still in its infancy. The commercially successful electric guitar market was less than 5 years old.
That book is wrong a lot. They just repeat stuff half the time. The chassis has none of the hallmarks of National Dobro and Valco would have been in its infancy when this was made. Could have been a number of makers. Guitar and amp might also be from different makers.
True. The field coil would need to be accounted for in the circuit. A dropping resistor and filter cap would do it, but still more to consider there than just a speaker swap.
Wow, that's a cool one. Doesn't look like it's seen much abuse. Amazing condition. I remember Silvertone... not Supertone though. Nice job on that rascal...
Nice one Brad. I like it. How did you learn this stuff Brad? Cool as f**k. Great hobby & if you can make a few quid doing it even better. Keep it up maestro. ;)
It was louder. I think it was down to better power filtering, for one. The old filter caps were not doing their job. And the coupling cap between stages was likely leaky as hell, throwing off the output tube bias. It still wasn't screaming loud, but was louder after the service.
Could this be rebuilt with a ECC88 Preamp and a vacuum tube PWM output stage and might run a lot cooler as the vacuum tubes are only operating as a switch.
did you check the 6v6 resistor? I'd figure being cooked under there this long that It would be outa spec! carbon comp that old with just drift , would been enough for me to change it. hope you n ev1 have a good day 2day :-)
The Guitologist oh ok the I did threw me. With all the replying you have to do phrasing can fall thru the cracks. It's expected and dickfucks holding creators to perfection sucks. So hope you and ur family have a wonderful day 😎
As much as I like the idea of adding a fuse, I can't say as I'm thrilled about that fuse holder - especially in a place where it could be warm. I'd be afraid that plastic would get brittle and crack. I assume you didn't want to drill a hole for a standard fuse holder, so maybe a pigtail fuse or a L bracket to panel mount a fuse holder internally.
Nice idea, but I can't say as I've ever seen a 3-prong fused US-style plug before. I have seen some in-line fuse holders that look much like the panel style. (Bakelite) But I'm not sure where to find them.
I do have some fuse holders on plastic or bakelite bases that mount with a bolt through the center, but I didn't want to drill any holes in this thing. I think that plastic inline fuse holder will be fine.
Nice! That is rare indeed. In my 53 years, 37 of which spent in music, I have never seen one. Great job giving it more life!
truly a silvertone indeed !! I have a closet full of silvertone amps and guitars.. I did my first guitar recital with a silvertone guitar and amp. I bought a gibson melody maker shortly therafter...it was like getting a car with power steering for the first time..
I keep telling myself "...I need a lap-steel..." This is why. Lovely impro. No acid required. Great idea to promote a band - I think you've got something there.
Nice find! The amp sounded brighter after the service.
look at the big brain on Brad...awesome playing dude..best part of this video
Amazing how the amp still remained so clean! Thanks for sharing this, Brad!
Greetings, Brad. Jack and I have encountered some 6SF5's (or the same tube but with a grid cap, the 6F5) on really early amps like the Gibson EH-150. They're actually not that wimpy, with an amplification factor of 100.....like a 12AX7, but let's face it, this jewel was never intended for stadium use :) Speaking of which, your concert at the end was really nice......a testimony to your versatility as a musician. Thanks for this concise and very well-done video.
One of your best vids in a while Brad ... a rare insight into a 75+ yr old piece of guitology. Love the simplicity of these early amp pioneers.
Thanks, Chris.
You played that thing lovely. Sounds great.
That steel sounds amazingly good. What a surprise!
I could listen to you playing that lap steel for hours. Sweet!
indeed!
This is the first time I've heard you play a lap steel. I do love hearing you play!
Very good on you. I don't care how old something is, it is not worth dying to save a piece to close to original.
A fuse is non-optional. I try to keep some inline fuse holders around for this purpose.
What a rare bird. Nice save.
I think he's going to be very happy with that! Nice playing.
Fascinating from start to finish..Nothing like that existed in England, so it's a revelation. Naturally we all heard of Sears Roebuck, but there was some sort of U.S. import embargo on in the 1940's and we never really got any stuff from the home of rock'n'roll until the late 1950's. Great job Brad, keep em coming ...
I'll never how you resisted putting a Big Muff in front. You have a lot more character and restraint than most.
I didn't have the Pussy Melter yet.
This was one bitichen video. This is the type of vid that makes this channel a must watch. Silvertone put out some unusual stuff. Them old catalogs as a kid, I used to tear up. I would ink pen it up and piss my mom off to know end. Getting back to Silvertone stuff, I remember about 15 maybe 20 years ago on eBay I seen a speaker suitcase. It must have had eight or more speakers mounted on the baffle. Can't remember but I don't believe it had an amp in it. I believe it was like an extension cab / suitcase deal. Wish I would have bided on it now. That was the last time I saw one. Thanks for the vid Brad. We just dodge TS Gordon by 30 miles here on the Mississippi gulf coast. Hope you don't see any of it.
Glad everyone is safe where you are.
Thinking back, I believe that's exactly what it was titled as for sale. I just don't remember an amp being paired with it and that's probably what kept me from bidding on it. It's been so long ago. I think it was around 1996 time frame. It went for a considerable amount too. Which surprised me. I remember thinking I would keep an eye out for another one because back then on eBay after one would sale other sellers would come out of the wood work with the same piece. But none did which I thought was unusual. I guess they are pretty desirable and rare at that.Thanks for the heads up and have a good day. Curtis
Dang, I pictured myself as an old man driving an old pickup listening to that music.
Love the elevator music build segment!
Nice video of refurbishing that little amp! Liked your steel playing as well!
What a great SOUND!!
I remember seeing them in the sears catalog when Sears was Sears and they had their catalogs only a memory and I have learned a lot my friend since I subscribe to your Channel thank you
That's a great find! Back in the 60's those Silvertone case amps were basically 'throwaways'. They didn't deliver the tone and especially the volume that we players desired. In 1968, I bought a Silvertone Twin Twelve (1484) for $50. What a great amp it was! 2 channel, tremelo and spring reverb tank at 45 watts. Sold it in 1984 and wish I never did.
A lot of the Silvertone stuff for Sears was built by Dan-electro.
You got her singing pretty sweet
Nice playing!
Great vid - Thoroughly enjoyed - Some cruisy work music followed by some old school slide - Got it all.
That thing is just way too COOL!
Woohoo, Im restoring a silvertone this month too!!!
No,I've not seen one of these!
Had a silvertone guitar as a kid.
Wish I still had it!
Thanks for sharing brother!
Back in the day the Sears catalog was the shit!
The ladies' underwear section was thrilling and confusing.
Ohhhh... yeah!
We're dating ourselves!
The Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogs were our internet shopping. My first guitar was a Global identical to a Fender Strat, but the body was plywood and just as thick as the real deal, but them single coil pickups were much more noisy than the real ones. I took the pickups out and turned them upside down and mixed up some resin and hardener and filled them, let them sit for days and put it back together and they actually sounded much better
Yeah, and I hear that some people would use the older catalog's pages as shit paper.
Groovy soldering music... love the flute... haha... smooth.... that thing is remarkable!
Dude your level of playing is nothing short of amazing. I learn tons from your vids but the real reason I watch is to catch these demos. LOL keepem coming bro I can't get enough.
I'm the first to admit I suck at slide. This was probably the first time I've picked up a slide in over a year.
@@TheGuitologist dude the demo was amazing. I'll like to see you play once you get the rust off. I'm completely lost when it comes to playing slide. You didn't appear to be to far out practice to me. Awesome playing and teching. Your channel is top knotch for sure.
Its fun to look how you discover the instrument while playing !
The pickup and bridge/plate ass'y look totally Valco.
I've had Supros and an Oahu with the same setup.
Very cool.
Yeah,I 've noticed that too.It didn't look to me like a Valco either, but I don't work on those ,just a rookie compared to you and Uncle Doug,or Terry ( Mr.Fender) D.labs.Great videos watch all the time.🎸
The guitar is a Valco product, I'm sure. The amp is my main question mark. It just looks unlike anything Valco or National-Dobro I've ever seen.
That just looks fun to play. Sounds great.
It helps when you can actually play slide. :D
I'm sure it's harder than it looks, but given that doing standard chording would be rather difficult with the shape my hands are in, that I could maybe learn.
Looked her up in the Vintage Guitar Price Guide.That baby's worth between $800 to $1000 bucks.Good find.I guess Gibson had a similar amp also.
Great video that sounded great it was like a Sonic picture of what it probably or what it did sound in the forties really cool
Sounds great. You can pick these old guitars up for a song right now. Or atleast you could the last time I saw some of them for sale. You can even get Fender ones for a decent price.
If Hawaiian music ever comes back into vogue, look out! There'll be a lot of money to be made on lap steels.
@@TheGuitologist😂😂😂
I would love the schematics on this simple amp.
That looks like a fancy dulcimer with an electric guitar pickup!
Beautiful logo!!
Loved the slide playing.
I didn't know these existed either but ,now I want one !
Nice slide you have there!
Wow!! Amazing piece, in equally amazing condition! I'm guessing that the owner wanted to keep it as original as possible? Otherwise, an exposed fuse holder (chassis mount) and maybe a power switch would have been nice....perhaps a standby switch?? But then I suppose it could be considered an 'investment.' I can't even imagine what something like that, in that sort of condition, might be worth. The sound is classic, though. Brings to mind a lot of old blues records. :-)
Nice to see it kept stock, they do seem to be rare. Standby switches are completely unnecessary on any type of guitar amp (even the bigger ones, despite popular belief), but I could definitely imagine lots of people wanting a power switch. Believe it or not, some of these old amps didn't even have volume controls! They were at 100% volume all the time and the guitar's volume knob had to be used to change the volume.
JUlian A.....I've been a bass player and professional technician for just short of 52 years, and prefer older tube equipment. When the Navy gave me my formal training, I got to see (and play with) a lot of the antique gear that you're talking about....as 'bare bones' Class A as you could ever hope for! The tone was to die for!! While standby switches are, as you say, unnecessary, they certainly come in handy. It's just a matter of convenience. And while you can live without a volume control (and certainly without tone controls of any kind), they do make your life a bit easier, as a performer. I used to be much more of a 'purist.' Now, I just want something that gets the job done, and don't worry about the resale value. The exception is this newer tube stuff that has more digital technology crammed into it than the average desktop PC!! To me, that all defeats the purpose of using tube gear! :-)
Honestly...I wouldn't have been surprised if it was much more!!
Old slide guitars fetch blah prices... since they are so simple. I have a 45' Dickerson I fixed a few years ago on my channel... They are fun, but since there aren't that many players, the market is weak.
Maybe out your way!! There's a healthy blues community in New England, and a good one fetches a healthy price. Not just any old junk, mind you, but this old Silvertone would probably have commanded twice the price it did near Brad....or you.
Nice find.Great video Brad.
Another sweet vid Brad. Keep 'em coming!!!
Wish you would have done a final comparison of your regular electric guitar to the included lap steel to see the difference in output between "newer" pickups and 77 + - year old pickups. Though, it did seem that the lap steel / amp got louder the more comfortable you became with that old Silvertone.
I must say that 3 watts and a 6" AlNiCo can get pretty loud. Almost seems that some of the magnetism may be gone out of the speaker. I have a couple of 6 inchers like that (one I just found last winter - sorry, they're not for sale or trade), that are real crankers with low wattage. Some of my favorite drivers.
good'un, it didn't / doesn't look like most of the Field Coil speakers I've seen, rather it looks like most of the old PA system speakers with the on-board multi-tap audio power transformers. Granted, it only vaguely has the AlNiCo shape, but it is old...
The lap steel's AlniCo magnet was nice and strong still. No issues there. A lot of times the AlNiCo has to be re-magnetized, but this one seemed fine. The calculated watts at the output won't always tell you how loud an amp will be though. This one just has a low voltage swing on the signal into the output due to the single triode preamp. Most of the older amps I've encountered like this are either a single pentode pre or two triodes. That makes a HUGE difference in volume.
Nice job sounds pretty good as well, Cheers
Dude you can play anything.......Love the channel Brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Brad.
This is an original PLUG AND PLAY Unit.. no power switch or fuse..YIKES
Another great repair job, Brad. Kudos for resisting the urge to hyper-modify the little jewel, instead simply returning her to her intended purpose (as your test drive at the end amply demonstrated).I have a question: I've seen tons of these Mother of Toilet seat-covered laps and small amps from this bygone era, yet nothing modern along these lines, yet it's such a cool embellishment...is the process simply lost to us, or what? Has it been rendered obsolete due to regulations? I'm really curious, yet web searches have turned up nothing on the subject...
I'd like to know myself
String action looks a little high Brad ... : ) really cool instrument. A fat doob and glass of fine bourbon would put a man in the right mood to play one of those ....
Yeah, I tried playing some Pantera on it and it just wasn't working out.
That was cool. Really enjoyed that.
Lap steels have the coolest pickups. I always wanted to put one on a guitar.
PUP looks like a Supro, like Ry Cooder uses
Yeah, the lap steel is a Valco. The amp-in-case doesn't look like National-Dobro or Valco stuff, but 1941 was a transitional year, so who knows.
As always, I see and learn something new with each of your videos, Brad. You are an amazing player/singer and that combination of extraordinary musician/technician is the way I'd like see myself--if I could master either! This is my first comment, so I hate to be critical, but that music you selected for the time-lapse segment sucks, IMO. I don't mind the idea of that format (time-lapse with music). I'd just like to hear something with instrumentation that goes with what you're working on--more electric guitars, please? Maybe even Hawaiian music for this one? It's a very minor issue all things considered. Keep up the good work, my friend.
Thanks for the critique. I'll take it under advisement.
That amp is about as basic as they came, the whole thing is so cool
Well, that was an absolute joy.
At least in Vegas in the mid 60's the black bands loved the amp in case models. They made them sound soulful as hell.
If I were building an amp-in-case I'd probably use a modified record player amp.
You can actually get some good volume out of a few watts with the right kind of speaker. And I'm talking about a full-range one.
Brad, Silvertone was the name Sears used for their radios from the early thirties !!!
They used it on some late 30s accordions and other stuff too. Still had the Supertone name on guitars I think until about 1937 or 38.
I'd like to hear this with a 6SN7, or perhaps a 6SL7 preamp tube. Of course you would also have to exchange that socket with an octal socket.
Sorry. I just looked at the datasheet, it is an octal base. So, that would be a fairly easy way to gain a stage.
That elevator music makes me laugh. It is oddly fitting to the clip. Rock on.
I like that. Interesting little instrument.
What, no steel guitar rag ?
hahaha...you're barking up the wrong tree there. I'm a pedestrian slide player. About all I'm good for is the occasional slide track on a recording for added flavor.
Wow.....that's beautiful...!!
Sounds good, Brad....!
I had a guy in one of my bands, he had a guitar with high action and I believe he tuned it to an open G major and he played that like a madman. We had a Sothern Metal Band way back and I mean heavy especially for the early 80's. Is that guitfiddle tuned to any specific open chord?
Yes, I think I was in open D, or close to it.
space in there Brad for a second speaker, easy - then the thing would be loud-ish, particularly if set up on its end to play IE columnar
NICE, AN OLD ELECTRIC HAWAIIAN STEEL GUITAR IN PRISTINE CONDITION, VERY NICE !
Not one we get to see everyday.
Lol a few acid trips ago?? Same here! Lol
There is no real measure of time other than that.
New sub to your channel, I just stumbled onto your videos; I live in Toronto Ontario Canada, I play and collect guitars, just started doing my own set-ups and small repairs, love history.
Thank you for sharing - excellent video! Why not ETS for the background music? 14:45 I presume you didn't write that interludish relaxing score, just a fan of anything original from the Guitologist. Cheers!
For a moment there I was back outside Baton Rouge, Sunday Picnic at the Patout's place, indeed. Smell the boil and cold beer, the pig cookin.'
Cool old amp. Probably not worth it to go too crazy and add a power LED, switch, change the tubes, etc. Just as long as it is safe with the new line cord, and death cap removal, and replacing those leaky electrolytics. It isn't likely the owner is going to go out gigging with it. Might be a good idea to invest in a new strap though.
This one was being picked up same day so I was on a time crunch. If it was mine, I'd replace the handle with a period correct spade end leather handle and leave it alone. It's tempting to add all the obvious improvements to the electrics, but it would kinda destroy the interest to collectors of early electric guitar and amp history. At the time this was made, electric guitar was still in its infancy. The commercially successful electric guitar market was less than 5 years old.
P.S. Brad,Valco had their hand in the amp.It's mentioned in the Vintage Guitar guide.Good luck.
That book is wrong a lot. They just repeat stuff half the time. The chassis has none of the hallmarks of National Dobro and Valco would have been in its infancy when this was made. Could have been a number of makers. Guitar and amp might also be from different makers.
Plot Twist, it sounds perfect
Could you swap out an 8" speaker for the 6".....that would give more area for sound...……..But as always Cool Vid...………..
Yep. Lots of ways to eek more volume out of this one, but no way I'm going to butcher a wartime amp in case.
True. The field coil would need to be accounted for in the circuit. A dropping resistor and filter cap would do it, but still more to consider there than just a speaker swap.
Wow, that's a cool one. Doesn't look like it's seen much abuse. Amazing condition. I remember Silvertone... not Supertone though. Nice job on that rascal...
Do you ever get in touch with Vintage Guitar magazine?
To renew my subscription?
LMAO!!! That's funny because I renewed mine last night.
I woulda tried stalling that guy to play with that old soldier a bit longer. Really nice survivor.
Nice one Brad. I like it. How did you learn this stuff Brad? Cool as f**k. Great hobby & if you can make a few quid doing it even better. Keep it up maestro. ;)
It was hard to pick up from the video. Was it much louder after the service?
It was louder. I think it was down to better power filtering, for one. The old filter caps were not doing their job. And the coupling cap between stages was likely leaky as hell, throwing off the output tube bias. It still wasn't screaming loud, but was louder after the service.
Yup was very interesting bro
dont you just love old lead based solder! melts at first touch..
Could this be rebuilt with a ECC88 Preamp and a vacuum tube PWM output stage and might run a lot cooler as the vacuum tubes are only operating as a switch.
Wow Brad sounds Like Eric Clapton!s intro on the First Crossroads Concert,
1941? Why is a picture of Stevie Ray Vaughan on the headstock? ; )
Brad, what song is that @ 14:45. Reminds me of the grocery store in the 70s when I was a kid!
It's called "Ipanema Dream". It's in the RUclips royalty free library. It's a riff on "Girl from Ipanema".
did you check the 6v6 resistor? I'd figure being cooked under there this long that It would be outa spec! carbon comp that old with just drift , would been enough for me to change it. hope you n ev1 have a good day 2day :-)
I did. It was within 10-20%.
you did what? change it? you're video did't show it. that's the only reason I said anything.
No, I checked it and it was within 10-20%.
The Guitologist oh ok the I did threw me. With all the replying you have to do phrasing can fall thru the cracks. It's expected and dickfucks holding creators to perfection sucks. So hope you and ur family have a wonderful day 😎
@@kenhancock8931 The answer "I did" was a direct answer to the only question you asked him in the comment. Lol
Too cool
juanty music mr ross.
sounds good to me. nice little rig.
have to say, latest whatever is a reach.
That’s right cool
In specs a 6sf5 is half of a 12ax7
Hep job Daddio.
As much as I like the idea of adding a fuse, I can't say as I'm thrilled about that fuse holder - especially in a place where it could be warm. I'd be afraid that plastic would get brittle and crack. I assume you didn't want to drill a hole for a standard fuse holder, so maybe a pigtail fuse or a L bracket to panel mount a fuse holder internally.
Nice idea, but I can't say as I've ever seen a 3-prong fused US-style plug before. I have seen some in-line fuse holders that look much like the panel style. (Bakelite) But I'm not sure where to find them.
I do have some fuse holders on plastic or bakelite bases that mount with a bolt through the center, but I didn't want to drill any holes in this thing. I think that plastic inline fuse holder will be fine.