Amp Restoration Project
Hi n-Trackers:
That Gibson GA-6 Amp has come outta Excess Studio Gear and is on the bench for restoration…
Yesyerday, we made up a resistor list and we are almost complete with the resistor replacement…Bob has the cabinet cleaned as much as the amp’s character will allow…
We replaced the 5Y3 rectifier tube with a Diode set…
The 6V6 output tubes are on order…
The set will be the GrooveTubes Hi-power matched pair…
The signal caps will not be replaced unless the amp behaves in a maner that needs any of them to be replaced…
We’ll see.
?
For anyone interested, the Photo Blog can be opened on THIS LINK…
Today, we (Bob-and-I) were discussing the Marsland 12" might go and be replaced with another higher powered Ceramic Magnet Speaker…
We’ll see, as the restoration Goes…
Bill…
Hi Bill,
It’s been a while since I ventured on these e-shores.
That’s a nice little project you’ve got going on there. Great pics.
That Fender Tweed amp you’ve got in one of your other albums looks nice too. I have a Washburn wannabe amp modelled on that Tweed look. It’s tranny rather than tube but sounds pretty good.
Now we’ve getting settled in our new place it’s time to start work on a few of my own projects. I got a Shergold Masquerader with an awful hand painted varnish finish that I need to sort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shergold).
And I’ve got an old tranny bass combo that sounds great but sometimes does a good impression of egg frying. I’m hoping it just needs some caps replacing or maybe has a dry joint or two.
Anyway, I’ll be back to see how you get on with this project.
Cheers
Mark
Hi Again Mark:
Thanks for the peek and the support…
Bob, the Partner-in-Crime on these projects has an old Harmony Bass that he has stripped the finish off some time ago…
Too bad, though… By doing that he has reduced it’s character value…
As he says, that’s O.K.
It didn’t have any value, anyway…
Well, one man’s trash is another man’s Pot-of-Gold…
Anyway, He also has a British Made ?
Guitar…
We are gonna get busy on this project… SOON-I-Hope…
We’ll post up some photos of that project, as it takes hold…
I thought of you right away when he brought it out of it’s case…
I’ll tell yea…
It’s got some heavy-duty lookin pickups on it…
I don’t know just where he finds these things…
However, I know there’s quite a musical history around here…
Should be…
There’s much history in settlers in our history from the British Isles, in-and-around here…
Bill…
[edit] I was gonna reply … I’m not against transistor amps… I just like to see little glass bottles in the back of guitar amps that glow in the dark… Without pouring Radium Water into the Amp…
I had to say that TomS… 
What a great song he put together… lol… Anyway, TomS… Put some fire under that 720 AMP…
I see you here…
I was talking to Bob a while ago…
I was telling him about your interest in Old gear-and-all…
He’ll get some photos of that guitar and post em up…
This guitar was manufactuered in-and-around the London area, as he says…
I don’t know the year… He seems to know some history, on it …
I’m sure you’re gonna recognize it when he gets the photos posted up…
Bill…
Bill, I started to take apart the 720, and got cold feet. I really am not comfortable doing hi voltage work.
Hi TomS:
The only thing I know is…
We’ll have to take a run over there and peek inside that chassis the see what it needs, to bring it back, to life…
We powered up that GA-6 Amp this afternoon…
We still don’t have a decent set of 6V6 output tubes to plug into the amp…
However, there still appears to be an issue with it’s behaviour…
Nothing is simple…
and …
nothing that’s good is easy…
It’s gonna require another kick-at-the-can…
Bill…
Hey Bill,
Just incase you, or anyone is interested, here’s My Shergold after my DIY refinish
OK, some pics
And you’ll see from this one that I put the body down on something and put some light scratches on the back already! Doh. I think they will polish out though.
Mark
Hi Mark A:
I’ll get back here later today…
We are into a '61 Brown Faced Deluxe amp restore this week…
I got some photos of a British made Guitar I’d like you to see…
Be Here Soon…
Bill…
Hi MarkA:
I’m back again…
Nice Guitar you got there…
I’m lookin behind the Guitar and Eyeballing the Amp…
Anyway, Over this way we’re spending much time restoring amps that haven’t made it to the land-fill sites…
This Gibson GA-6 amp came to me some number of years ago…
We did a track with it, and I suggested he leave the amp here and when I had some time on my hands, I would give it a once-over…
Recently, Bob and I opened it up and began the restore…
only to find that it is closer to a basket case then first appearance…
Now we are past the point of n-return and we are gonna make something out of it…
It might not be a Gibson GA-6 Amp when we get it completed…
We’
ll see…
The more research we did on it the more a GA-6 schematics we found…
I believe the amp should have been trashed by Gibson… They should have dropped the model… In my opinion, that is…
Back to this nullBurns Guitar of London…
I am sure I opened a topic on this Guitar…
However, I’ll open one and maybe, you might reply and add some History on this Guitar…
I’m not sure how far we’re gonna take this restore…
We’ll see as it gets on the bench…
The project that’s on the bench right now and at the moment is this '61 Brown faced Fender Deluxe Amp…
I have a thread going on this project…
I’ll update that thread and bring the photo blog up to current…
Bill…
[edit] Do you notice that the body outline of your guitar looks quite similar to the body of that Burns Guitar of London ?? OR is it just my imagination ?
Quote: (woxnerw @ Dec. 02 2010, 12:15 AM)
I'm lookin behind the Guitar and Eyeballing the Amp..
[edit]
Do you notice that the body outline of your guitar looks quite similar to the body of that Burns Guitar of London ??
OR
is it just my imagination
?
Hi Bill,
So what makes the amp a basket case. Bad design? or is it just too old.
The amp behind my guitar is a Rocktron Taboo Twin. (http://www.activemusician.com/Rocktron-Releases-the-Taboo-Twin-DSP-Combo-Amp--t101i7018). I picked it up cheap a few years ago. It's no toob amp (but it does have a tube in the pre), but it sure is a lot of amp for the money. From what I can gather it was an expensive amp it its day. I think the looks may have not appealed to the guitar buying market though.
Yes, back to your burns. Interesting guitar and a nice project. What does it need doing to it? I don't really remember too much Burns guitars but the guys who started Shergold did work for Burns so maybe there is something to the similar shape. There's bound to be and enthusiast's forum or site somewhere for Burns guitars (there is for Shergold). They should be able to give you any info that you can't find elsewhere.
Cheers
Mark
That Gibson Amp design is not that bad… However, we did a fare amount of Googling and every site we found had a different basic schematic…
Seems to me that every tube repair guy has a different idea of what his finished project should look like and sound like…
Too Bad…
I think that the amp if properly prepared would blow the socks off a Rock-and-Roller…
Having said that, I’m thinking that maybe we’ll make the amp into a Fender Deluxe, Early Design Amp, on the inside and a Gibson GA-6 Amp on the outside…
Bill…
Hi Bill,
Long time, no post. I have a '58 GA6 that I picked up for $40 in the mid 80s. My amp tech recapped it in the mid 90s with mil-spec components. I have gigged with it in smaller clubs. The tone is best suited for trad blues. harps sound amazing through these.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-IjeepOeY
Best to you, and all the old n-track gang.
Tom
Hi Tom Hicks:
It’s so nice to see you here…
Threads open up from time-to-time asking where the senior/old Board Members retire to when they move on from here or other Boards… ?
I went to visit your page and sure enough…
There you were…
I hope you are well and healthy and All…
What a nice link you posted to that Harp Player using that GA-6 Amp…
You see Tom, I’m just an old Bar Room Bass Player of 35+ years…
I don’t consider myself
a Gifted/Creative Writer Musician like many of the guys that frequent this Board…
They can write a song in 20 minutes on the average and then do another one on a daily basis…
ME
I can’t do that…
In fact, most of the guys I made music with are not with us anymore…
Maintaining their Amps was my contribution to the Music Community, that I considered myself to be part of…
Anyway, lately, we put this amp aside to work on other vintage amps…
BUT…
now that I’ve heard this video clip, I am gonna get back at it and get a speaker for it…
The GA-6 Amp we have sounds pretty much like this one, except the speaker that’s in the cabinet is the “Bottleneck” to the way it sounds… I believe the owner had blown the stock speaker and substituted a poor replacement speaker…
Too Bad…
In my last reply to the thread I pretty much gave up on the restore…
I had pretty much planed on turning it into a pre-'60’s Fender Deluxe Amp, that looks like a Gibson GA-6 Amp…
At the moment we are working on an Ampeg B15N Bass AMP…
a '74?
I Think ?
Anyway, your reply has given this GA-6 Amp a whole new lease-on-life…
It’s good to see you back here…
Thank you for your interest in this old amp and nice post, Tom…
Bill…
Hi again Bill,
Its my understanding the pre-Lancer GA6 is practically the 5CE circuit anyway, except not as loud. Gibson’s version of the more popular Fender Deluxe. Same basic tone for a couple grand less!
Tom
Hi Tom Hicks:
You’re correct…
Those 6V6 output tubes make about 10 watts or so… Maybe 12 if they are grid biased…
I like how the output sounds when they are cathode biased…
The GA-6 circuit doesn’t have many parts/components in the signal path…
However, when we began to look for the circuit diagram of the chassis we found too many to choose from…
Some of the guys who has them added parts Here-and-there to “spruce up” what that considered sounded good to “who-ever”.
The GA-6 Amp seemed to me to be an “In-Between” Model Amp…
There are several models and this Model to me seemed to be a “Bastard” amp…
Meaning it may have gone into production and then the designers of the day brought “Up-Dates” to the assembly line(s)…
It’s hard to know just what the official version of this model was-or-sounded like…
Anyway, the model is talked about in some pretty High Circles… and mainly as a Harp Amp…
but this amp has a nice Guitar Amp Feel to it…
AND I’m not even a Guitar Player…
This Ampeg B15N Bass Amp is another “Bastard” Amp…
I’ve seen as many as a Half Dozen different schematics of the model over the years…
Although the version I have was built in '74, it began production in the late '50’s…
BUT this amp has traces of most of the models in this particular version…
Another Amp Manufacture like that was Acoustic in California…
I have an Acoustic 370 Bass Amp built in '72…
I bought it brand new in September of '72…
One beautiful Bass Amp…
I never had an ounce of trouble with it over the years…
I ran it 7 nights a week when I was playing…
I must have be lucky with the one I have…
I’ve seem much trouble with some that ended up in these parts…
Nothing but issues with them…
I’ve never worked on two that were exactly the same on the inside…
Some of the guys wanted me to modify their 370’s to look like mine on the inside when I worked at the Musicstop…
However, I never did that to the BAD ones…
Coming back to the Leo Fender Deluxe Amp…
I have recently acquired '57 Re-issue Deluxe Amp built in '91…
It’s the “wide Front” version…
I’m gonna say it…
What a beautiful AMP, iT iS…
Again…
I’m not even a guitar player…
However, I couldn’t leave it in the Pawn Shop…
I had to have it…
It set me back 700.00 loonies…
I just couldn’t leave it there, to fall into “bAD cOMPANY”…
It’s all Original…
The only thing it doesn’t have is the Cover…
I need to get one…
for it…
If you’re interested, I have a photo blog of the stuff we’re working on…
nullIn these Photo Blogs
I’ve worked on this stuff most of my days…
I don’t seem to get enough of working on this stuff…
Bill…