Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Picked up some old amps the other day


ksdaddy

Recommended Posts

There's a local musician, been in the industry close to 60 years. I've met him, I used to clean his office 30 years ago. Seems like a nice guy. He and his wife moved into a smaller house so they decided to cull some musical clutter. They enlisted the help of the local music store. He always throws me bones when stuff comes in that he doesn't want to deal with and I always come out on the good side.  One item was a completely beat to crap 1964 P-Bass. Looked like SRV's Number One. I have a pic of the guy in one of his 60s high school bands holding that same bass. That sold for close to 7K on ebay.  I wasn't part of that sale, other than making it known I was on the sidelines with $6000 in cash if it didn't get it's $6500 opening bid. A few other items stayed in the store on consignment. There were several amp-ish items that the store didn't even want to bother with. 

A 1992 Crate amp, nondescript 60 watt. Sounds exactly like you would expect. And loud.

A newer Randall RG75, solid state with one 12", actually sounds great. Has reverb that you could drown a large dog in.

Yamaha powered mixer of some sort. Haven't tried it yet and probably won't know how to turn it on.

Tascam 688 Midi mixing board of some sort with a cassette player. Powers up, I have no idea how to test it or run it.

An old Shure Vocal Master PA. Powers up, sounds very much like a battery powered amp with a dying battery. Good boat anchor.

1970s Ampeg V-4 head. The 7027a tubes were missing altogether. I put a set of 6L6 in it just to try it. It works. Some humming and static but good enough for  me to spend $100 on a set of Sovteks so I can sell it. It's cosmetically horrible; you can't even read the control panel anymore. Still a V-4 though, and marketable.

Mid 60s Ampeg B-15N Portaflex. Cosmetically poor but sounds wonderful. Smooth, deep tone, no harshness at all. And zero hum or 60 cycle buzz. I may keep this one just to say I own one. It's filthy but I'll just clean it enough so I don't get Ebola. The chrome logo is broken and the plexiglass logo is missing, both of which are available in repro form.

I paid $400 for the pile.  I cleaned the pots on the Crate and sold it the next day for $60. I put a few pieces on ebay and I will know the V-4's fate probably Saturday when the new tubes come in. I'll want to clean the pots anyway, and date it at the same time.  The Randall.... that may get weird. It's "designed in USA" and made in China. I repaired a couple nasty tears in the vinyl, otherwise it's in good condition.  I have some hideous gold paisley vinyl or naugahyde and some red cloth with an India-esque theme, elephants and all. The Randall might get stripped down and recovered....

 

OCdANGw.jpg

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That Ampeg reminds me of the 57 Bassman I bought at a yard sale and sold to Naked Clarke on the Tele Forum 20 years ago.

He restored it and sent me pics, but I lost that computer and the pics years ago.

Very nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...