Amps Gibson in da house, or shop anyway.

CapnDenny1

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
I got this in for repairs. I've been busy doing my own repairs, and don't get as many customer repairs as before. Most of this came from my buddy Dave, and he doesn't give them to me anymore. Which is fine. I am enjoying the laid back customers. (Me) Anyway I got this in for a repair. These old Gibson's sound really nice, but look weird when you are used to fender's.

Here is a pic and the schematic for those who are interested in that stuff. It is really low output, and a tad noisy. Bad volume pot too. Probably just needs caps and tubes. These tubes are some oldies? Probably not cheap.

IMG_4545 by Dennis Kelley, on Flickr

ga-17rvt by Dennis Kelley, on Flickr
 
CapnDenny1

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
A look under the hood, so to speak..

IMG_4546 by Dennis Kelley, on Flickr

IMG_4547 by Dennis Kelley, on Flickr

One of the 6eu7 tubes is half dead. One side works, the other is dead.

Both power tubes are reading dead, but I'm not sure if it's them or my tube tester. It was doing that.

So here's the work outlined so far.

1. Re-wire the power cord with a grounded cord, and kill the death cap.
2. Replace the multi section cap with the lead wires. It's an original. 55 years is long enough. The rest have been done.
3. Replace 6eu7 tube and maybe the power tubes, if I decide to trust my tube tester.
4. Replace volume pot.
5. Replace input jacks, or clean depending on how they look.
6. Put crimps on the wire to the speaker. It has a nice Carvin V10 speaker.

I will decide on the power tubes. Not likely both are dead and it still kind of works? Low output is probably the 6eu7 tube.
 
CapnDenny1

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
Sorry, the Gibson is customer amp. I don't think he wanted to sell. They seem to go for around $500 plus or minus.
 
sdbrit68

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
CapnDenny1 said:
Sorry, the Gibson is customer amp. I don't think he wanted to sell. They seem to go for around $500 plus or minus.
Click to expand...

I would have thought a ton more for the age, noticed only very few amps seem to command a value. I see a lot of 50's and 60's under $700
 
blackcoffeeblues

blackcoffeeblues

Student Of The Blues
One of the 1st amps I ever owned was a Gibson Falcon---it replaced my 20 watt Silvertone. It looked just like that one but had a couple more knobs and spring reverb but the reverb didn't sound nearly as good as the Fender reverb
 
sdbrit68

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
I have always wanted an older amp, one from the 50's, 60's so on, really for nothing more than fun
 
CapnDenny1

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
Got 'er done, ...sort of.

I sent an email to my customer, telling him my plan. I didn't get a response for a few hours so I went ahead and started in ob the stuff I could. I had input jacks, and actually had a couple of 22uF 500V caps. I got those done and took a break for dinner.

My customer emailed me back and basically asked me if I knew what I was doing? He wanted to know if other repair techs would do the same things as me. If I was a buyer, would I expect those things to be done. he said he was having second thoughts, and wanted some assurance that I knew what I was doing.

I got pretty pissed. He said stuff like, "I hope this doesn't upset you, but..." It took me a full 24 hours before I cooled down enough to email him back. I considered just having him come get it as is. But I like the amp, and the amp deserves my best efforts, even if it's owner doesn't. So I went ahead and shot some pot cleaner in the volume pot, and cleaned the tube pins and straightened them, which solved most of the low volume issue. I went ahead and did the 3 wire power cord, and told him to come get his amp.

he hurried up and came right away to get it. I told him to pay me $60 for 2 hours labor, and $10 in parts. I probably spent 4-6 hours on it, but it was sounding pretty good. And I know it's safer with the 3 wire plug. I think it just needs some new tubes and it would really sound a lot better. But I ain't puttin' them in there.

I swear people are a real pain sometimes.

The amp was OK. Nothing to get too excited about. It's just an old tired amp.
 
sdbrit68

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
Damn, I never question my techs once I have taken stuff to them, I figure, thats their area of expertise, if I have questions, its before the handshake
 
Grateful_Ed

Grateful_Ed

Student Of The Blues
sdbrit68 said:
Damn, I never question my techs once I have taken stuff to them, I figure, thats their area of expertise, if I have questions, its before the handshake
Click to expand...

...at least not while they still have your gear! Absolutely, those are questions you ask first. A discussion about expectations will go a long way to prevent the kind of experience that both the customer and tech had in Capn's example.
 
CapnDenny1

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
I got my $60. He got his amp back.

It was fun to mess with it anyway.

I don’t get it, why people are so hot about these old amps? There are reasons why they improved the tubes from that era. And to insist on 50 year old tubes in an amp.

Oh well, put it behind me.
 
sdbrit68

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
CapnDenny1 said:
I don’t get it, why people are so hot about these old amps? There are reasons why they improved the tubes from that era. And to insist on 50 year old tubes in an amp.

.
Click to expand...

Exactly.........lol

For someone who just wants to play guitar, any good one will do, they can get a Les Paul, a Strat, PRS what have you, set up and go.
Then you got the people who want a few different ones for tones and stuff.................and more people in between.

Then you have people like me (or versions of it)

I have a few 1950's arch-tops, none of them especially valuable, but they are priceless at this time for me. Where have they been, what have they seen, have I listened to a recording and heard them ?

What was it like playing before special thin necks, or recording an old design.................or trying to get a sound out of a old low watt amp, its a very nostalgia thing, and an appreciation for those that came before us. Hell, Bonomassa is the ultimate geek in that respect, he has the cash for any new and incredible gear, yet he still goes after the old stuff

Just like with upgrades, my amp and speakers would have been fine for 90% of the population, but me, I gotta do tube swaps and speaker swaps, its part of the enjoyment for me
 
blackcoffeeblues

blackcoffeeblues

Student Of The Blues
I agree with Capn here: I have played through some old amps---considering I started playing in 1956 (acoustic) 59 went electric--I started playing in a band in 1960----you would not believe the amps---and guitars we played back then. Most were very small 25 watt amps of all kind of brands Silvertone was probably the most popular they were cheap and not as bad as some of the others that were out there. Of course there were Fenders-Gibson-Gretsch- but all out of the price range for us lazy "I hate to work" musicians. Supro was popular they were in between
the poor lazy boy and the people that could hold a job-- higher end amps. Same went with guitars a lot of Harmonys--Kent -Silvertone/Danolectric and alot more I can't even remember the names----back then drug stores sold guitar strings Kreskys--Woolworths-and even a few bars.sold them too. They were 'Black Diamond strings" garunteed to turn your fingers green--One gauge and that was that---probably 12s----used the same strings on the acoustic and the electric. Oh how spoiled we are these days. It was a lot more fun back then.
 
Rancid Rumpboogie

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
My first amp was a Silvertone head and 2 X 12 cabinet I got from Sears along with a Silvertone arch-top dual-humbucker electric gee-tar. Out on the farm, 120 miles from any music store. We had just gotten a TV with an antenna up on the roof ... snowy episodes of the Grand Ol Oprey, Porter Wagner & Dolly Parton ... one radio station that was all country ... Ernest Tubb, Hank William Sr., Red Sovine ... and I thought I was in heaven with that guitar and amp.

I used to go to sleep every night listening to that country station.
 
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