Fender Pro Amp
Hi n-Track Board members:
We came across this amp for restore today…
It has a classic story to tell…
It once belonged to a Guitar player who toured with Chubby Checker…
I know the Guitar player personally…
When I mail him the photos of this amp he’ll corroborate the stories I’ve heard
about this amp…
Anyway, it fell upon hard times and Bob saved it from the landfill site some number of years ago…
I only heard about the Chubby Checker Story today…
I’ll send out some mail and see what comes back…
The output transformer needs to be replaced along with the 12" speaker that’s in the cabinet now…
The speaker should be an Eminence 15" speaker…
My recollection is…
Chubby Checker became one popular entertainer in-and-around the time the Beatles came on the scene…
This amp may very well have been responsible for creating the Dance Craze…
“The Twist”, as we know it, in these parts…
Bill…
The link to the photo blog page…
Keith Extien’s Amp…
He was the original owner…
dang! when are you going to work on my Kay? 
That looks like it’s in great shape physically. I assume that’s not the original grill cloth. Those are 45 watts or so? I know I can look it up, but I’m testing my memory.
Hi TomS and phoo:
The name Chubby Checker is a Stage name…
What was his real name 
?
No Wiki-leaks
hehehe…
Was he a Mo’town’er ?
Did he record at Sunn ??
Did he live in the “Golden Triangle”…
?
I’m not sure if I can define the “Golden Triangle”… So much of American Music was created in the Triangle before it spread out North and West to the Coast…
If that Kay Amp doesn’t get it’s Due Restoration, I’m gonna be one upset person…
sigh…
That Pro Amp looks to me like it has been re-covered…
I know the Speaker Baffle Board has been re-cut for a 12" speaker…
If you look at the chassis it has been manufactuered as a Push-Pull Parallel/Twin/Showman Chassis…
Having said that, I believe that there may have been very few of these Pro Amps built by Leo… I’m thinking that an output transformer for a Bandmaster Amp would be the correct output transformer to replace the one that’s on it now…
In my opinion, that makes this style amp even more Classic/Vintage…
Bill…
Ernest Evans. He as born in Spring Gulley, SC. I’d say he was part of the Philly music scene. Hank Ballard came up with The Twist but Chubby Checker got it to the world.
I have a few of his original albums. Parkway? Cameo? I can see the label…might have to dig them out.
Too bad he was only known for The Twist…and Hank Ballard wasn’t. Chubby Checker was a lot better than just that kind of stuff. So was Hank for that matter.
Looks like two 6L6 fire bottles… so 45 watts is probably about right phoo. Of course, other factors come into play but MAX 50 or 60 watts is about all you’re going to get outta two 6L6’s… Keeping it down to about 45 would keep it clean… the way Leo liked it. 
UJ
Hi Gents:
I just got home from today’s session…
The Amp is back together and the project is complete, except for replacing the the Baffel Board/Speaker and Output Transformer… That may happen in 2011…
We’ll have to wait-and-see…
We contacted Hammond Transformers in Ontario regarding the transformer that in it now…
It’s a bit more transformer than what is necessary for the amp… But we got the specs on this transformer…
It appears that whoever replaced it, wired the secondary/speaker load as a 4 ohm load…
We changed the secondary to an 8 ohm load which matches the present speaker…
and set the bias voltage/current to -51.0 volts and tried the amp… It works like a charm for now…
till he decides what speaker and transformer he’d like to install in it, in the new year…
We’ve sent off the amp’s performance specs to the Hammond Engineering people for their records…
Hammond is one of the better Transformer Companies out there in the Transformer Business, bar none…
The photo blog is now complete, for the time being…
Updated Photo Blog of 1964 Fender Pro Amp…
I have the E-Mail Address of the amp’s original owner… I hope to contact him regarding his recollection of the amp while he owned it…
We’ll see what stories come back, from him, regarding the Amp while he owned it…
Bob knows the Drummer, Bass Player Sax player,along with the Guitar Player on that tour, while Chubby was here in the Maritimes…
I think the Sax player is not with us, anymore…
His name was Keith Jollimore…
He later played with the Lighthouse Band from Toronto…
The Jollimore Brothers became known as the Brass, on that stage…
I believe there were 3-if-not-4 Brothers…
Bill…
Quote: (woxnerw @ Dec. 17 2010, 9:17 AM)
Hi n-Track Board members:
We came across this amp for restore today..
OK, it's official, I ain't never reading no more of you're posts Bill. They be too upsetting : - (
(Unless you box me up one of your "findings" and ship it down under :-) )
Mark
Wow, you guys work fast.
What’s the acoustic with the knobs in some of the pictures?
Hi phoo and All:
I brought it up to Bob about the Amp’s condition, being that it was manufactured in 1964…
I would have assumed that the amp would have not been covered with Black Toilex…
It turns out he has had the amp for some twenty years…
I’d still like to hear from Keith, the original owner, to hear his comments on the amp he owned…
The story has it, that for him to be hired to that stage back then it was a condition that he update and get an amp to do the job, which he did…I don’t know what amp he had, before that one…
That guitar is an Epiphone Knock-off of a John Lennon J-45 Guitar he owned, way-back-when…
Bob just bought it the other week…
It has a classic pickup mounted at the neck of the guitar…
Came from the Factory, with it…
This amp is now awaiting a decision as to what Bob decides to do with the Output Transformer and Speaker/Baffle Board replacement…
Electronically, the amp is complete till the monumental decision is made…
It’s gonna run into some 300.00 loonies to take it to the next step…
This amp was built during a time of transition when Guitar Players were moving toward Amps with Reverb built into them…
Personally, I liked the separate Fender Reverb Units to create the effect…
To me, they sounded much better than the sound of amps with the reverb, built-in…
They were much more musical, than Springy, in nature.
Having said that, the chassis has a model number stamped on it…
AB1164…
It identifies the circuit design as it was assembled on the line…
It turns out that we are unable to find the exact schematic for this chassis…
My limited history says it was during a time when Leo became ill and the operation of the business was in transisition from Leo to his partner and then to CBS…
I don’t know Leo’s Partner’s name…
He was quite instrumental as to how the Operation progressed…
I’m calling it a Bastard Amp…
It’s something like the Gibson GA 6 Amp we’re working on…
It’s tough to restore in a “Flavor” to Bastard Amps… There are not enough of them left in existence to compare them, with…
As I’ve been told, Leo was a Bass Player, as opposed to being a Guitar Player…
The Precision Bass I have is dated on the heal of the neck as April 1966…
It’s been said that Leo was Still around the Factory during that Date…
BUT…
it was shortly after that when he left us…
I know…
MarkA…
I’m so blessed to be around this stuff…
It don’t matter to me what the Brand names and labels are attached to this stuff…
I treat every amp I get to touch as if they were mine and give them all the respect they deserve…
Bill…
Bill, what is the difference between the built-in springs and the external unit that would explain the different sound? I know exactly what you mean. But I’m wondering, what makes the difference?
Hi TomS:
My take on the old external Reverb Unit that Fender made is better than the built-in Amplifier setup because the signal that is amplified contains more musical content…
The preamp stage of the amplifier now contains the effect of the instrument, at the input/preamp stage of the amplifier…
The external Reverb unit has some 2-3 watts of amplifier, driving the spring unit…
The built-in circuit of the reverb unit has a smaller drive/amplifier stage driving the spring…
The external reverb unit has a control called a “Dwell” control…
That circuit Loops the reverb’d signal in-and-out of the external reverb unit as much as the operator allows the Dwell circuit to contain…
Where as the internal amp’s circuit allow only the level of effect that the reverb’s volume control mixes with the Dry Signal…
Not the same type of reverb effect as allowed by the Dwell Control, of the external Reverb Unit… There is just No Comparison…
That’s just my opinion…
to describe the two types of effect…
Bill…
Cool. I never knew that, Bill. Thanks!