Gaolee Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I just agreed to trade a bass head I have had for a while but don't use any more for a late 40s BR-9 amp. It needs a handle, the cord should be replaced with a grounded cord, and the speaker needs work. I hope a recone is all it needs because I don't feel like messing with a conversion from field coil to permanent magnet. Any info about these old speakers would be great. I am really looking forward to getting it working and playing through it. There's something charmingly honest about an amplifier with a single volume control and about 10 watts, max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvguit Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I just agreed to trade a bass head I have had for a while but don't use any more for a late 40s BR-9 amp. It needs a handle, the cord should be replaced with a grounded cord, and the speaker needs work. I hope a recone is all it needs because I don't feel like messing with a conversion from field coil to permanent magnet. Any info about these old speakers would be great. I am really looking forward to getting it working and playing through it. There's something charmingly honest about an amplifier with a single volume control and about 10 watts, max. I completely agree about these little old amps. Pictures please! and congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 The trade should take place Saturday morning, so photos should follow sometime this weekend. I don't even know what kind of shape it is really in, but mysteries and projects are too much for me to resist, especially when they involve something a little offbeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 No pictures yet, but I have it in hand. The tolex is ratty looking, the grill has a couple cracks, and it's missing its handle. I need to replace the cord, since it is a two conductor cord and plug. Grounding is probably a very good idea. I'm told the speaker has tears in the cone, so I'm looking into getting it reconed or repaired, but I still have a few questions regarding its care, feeding, and repair. Plugged in, it makes a whopping hum. The sound it makes is sweet, overdriven, and wonderfully ratty with the exception of the hum and a near complete loss of low frequency sound. Is there anything I should be looking into other than the tubes and caps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Photos of the amp: This is after a whole lot of cleaning. The speaker cone is ripped, and if I can't get it reconed, I guess I'll have to figure out how to convert it from field coil to permanent magnet. I don't really want to do that, since complete inefficiency is part of the charm of this little amp. The tubes all appear to be original, and I ordered replacements, since the amp has a deafening hum. It probably needs capacitors, too, since they look awful. The power cord is a disaster from it's connection inside the amp chassis to the plug. It's a two conductor cord with a three prong plug grafted onto it and what appears to be utterly trashed insulation everywhere. It may be wired backwards, contributing to the hum. There were spiders and all kinds of other things inside both the amp chassis and the box. A little vinegar and a lot of rubbing cleaned things up a bit. If it were a Fender, I could call it reliced, but it's a Gibson so it's just ratty. It's going to stay ratty, since I don't have any ambition to recover it with new tolex. I would like to find an original style handle for it, but that might be impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvguit Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 The ghost of this amp will haunt me in my dreams. Beautiful amp. I would suggest rewiring the plug before you do anything else. That would be great if that was the only problem. Keep us updated! By the way, what brand of speaker is in it now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 I don't know what brand of speaker Gibson put in them back when. It is original, whatever it is. It has no magnet, so it doesn't weigh much. All in all, the guy I traded with probably got a heck of a deal, but I'm happy since this amp will get fixed and used instead of sitting on a shelf, which is where the bass head I traded was going to stay. Yeah, the cord is a really spooky thing, isn't it. You can see a bit of how bad it is in the photos, but it's far worse in reality, if you can believe that. [EDIT] I'm pretty sure it is a Jensen speaker. It has no markings, date code, or anything else I can find, but geeking out on the internet says it is a Jensen if it is original. I don't see any signs anything has ever been altered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 I got a little information about it now. The speaker is definitely a field coil speaker, the caps and resistors are all original and pretty much toast. The Speaker can be reconed. I'm gong to let a professional take it all apart, since there are no quick disconnects of any kind between the amp's output and the transformer mounted on the speaker. The wires coming from the amp are all yellow, so, knowing me, I would screw up the markings and put them back together wrong. The good news is all the transformers work, since it wouldn't make any noise if they didn't. It sounds like a Cessna taking off, what with hum through a badly ripped speaker cone. Even the tube appear to be original on this one. The 6v6 power tubes are both branded as Westinghouse tubes, and the other two are Canadian Marconi Radiotron. They seem to work, but I have new ones on the way anyway, just because I'm not sure and even if they do, I'm not sure how long they will continue to function. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted July 17, 2011 Author Share Posted July 17, 2011 It works now, and it sounds just as sweet as it should. It overdrives almost immediately, in a very satisfying way, and it's got two somewhat different channels. When it was repaired, the guy who did the work noticed that the original setup choked things just a bit, and eliminated the choke for the second channel. You access the two channels by plugging into one or the other input jack. No switching. I can only describe the channels as the Strat channel and the Les Paul channel. The differences are subtle, but a whole lot of fun to play with. Since it only has a volume knob, the amp is straight forward to control just from the guitar's volume and tone knobs. It is loud enough, but not earsplitting, even turned all the way up, making it do exactly what I expected from it. I'm very happy with it now that it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamBooka Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Good to hear!! Who did your speaker work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimR56 Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Congrats, Gaolee. Always good to hear stories of vintage gear being respected, saved, and appreciated. All we need now is a Youtube video of you giving that baby a workout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 The speaker was reconed by a man who works under the name "Around the Sound." The rest of the repair work was done by Jeff Stone of Velvetone. Both are in Seattle, and I'm very happy with the work they did on this amp. Jeff has done some other work on amps for me, including an Acoustic 165, which is a very loud, but very sweet sounding and versatile amp. There's nothing better than keeping the old equipment going. Who needs modeling amps when you can have the real thing? I don't own a P-90 equipped guitar, but a friend played his SG with P-90s through it, and it sounded great. I have a resurrected Fender Bullet which has Fender single coils, and it sounds great through this amp, too. Even my humbucker equipped Ibanez sound great through it, although the amp has got me to think seriously about replacing the pickups with a couple of P-94s or Mean 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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