I love funky old tube amps

Dew Knot Humps

Dew Knot Humps

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Been re-bonding with my 1962 Silvertone 1472. It sounds like a poor man's tweed Deluxe. Was messing around earlier, 3 settings: volume on 3, 5 and 8 and an Epiphone 57 RI Les Paul Jr. with a Duncan Antiquity P90 plugged straight into the amp. After a few years the original Jensen tore so I replaced it with a Celestion Greenback. This amp has no clean headroom after one on the volume knob.
 
I had an old Harmony 3W tube amp. That thing lit me up more times than I can remember. I don't miss it at all. My Vox AC-4 is a much better amp.
 
I need to get my 1964 SIlvertone 1484 worked on. I dropped it a couple of years ago and it hasn't worked well since :(
 
Nice

A number of years ago I when I was into modding things, I found an old tube radio in my parents house and found I could reuse the output tube from it. So I built a sort of 5w tweed amp in the chassis and had switchable output tubes between a 6v6 and the original EL33 which gives 4w output. It sounded great, not used it in a while though

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I love those sounds too...the reliability not so much. My first amp was a Gibson Falcon and it always had something wrong with it. If it wasn't the reverb tank it was a pre amp tube, if it wasn't the speaker it was some mysterious crackling. I never really considered getting it repaired...I wanted a Marshall. lol, those were the days. Right now I would like to score a Silver face Champ if the price is right.
 
I can't find an image of one of his, but a buddy of mine who is a regional full time musician has a brother who makes all kinds of cool gear out of old vintage gear. Paul used to set up a stage that had old lamps and a round screened TV... and his brother built several tube amps into old suitcases. (His would have never used a black grill.... his always had tweed and other integrated grills. They didn't look like they were modified... they looked like they were MADE in the 50's and we've just "never seen the before".)

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Dew Knot Humps said:
Been re-bonding with my 1962 Silvertone 1472. It sounds like a poor man's tweed Deluxe. Was messing around earlier, 3 settings: volume on 3, 5 and 8 and an Epiphone 57 RI Les Paul Jr. with a Duncan Antiquity P90 plugged straight into the amp. After a few years the original Jensen tore so I replaced it with a Celestion Greenback. This amp has no clean headroom after one on the volume knob.
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Sounds great! tasty playing too. :thu:
 
Mark Wein said:
I need to get my 1964 SIlvertone 1484 worked on. I dropped it a couple of years ago and it hasn't worked well since :(
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I have the 1483 bass version of that amp. It's got a killer bass recording tone and the other channel sounds like a Bassman. I can 100% verify that too because at the time I got that amp I was using a 1966 Bassman in my band and the other guitarist was using a blonde 1962 Bassman so we A/B/C'd them and the Silvertone wasn't that much different sounding.
 
Gary Blanchard said:
We had one in the basement of our home in Baltimore, but even my redneck father knew enough to put plywood walls and a shower curtain around it. :grin:
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Number one it's five inches off the furnace with duct work above it so if I framed it out it would not only block access to the furnace it would also create a sauna like effect that would smell like a hot toilet.

Number two it's sparked an incredible amount of lively conversation during rehearsals, recording and videos over the the years. It's practically a Chicago landmark at this point so it's staying the way it is.
 
Reminds me of a literally painful memory from my past: When I was 13ish, I somehow stumbled on a small guitar amp where the circuit board had been destroyed, but the case and speaker were usable. I also stumbled upon an old tube phonograph. I took the guts out of the phono and installed them in the guitar amp case. Viola! Instant tube guitar amp with tons of gain and a really cool funky tone.

The problem was that since the electrical guts of phonographs were tucked away from humans, phonograph amplifiers (as well as other consumer electronics) used a hot chassis whereby there was no power transformer - chassis ground was connected to what in theory should be the neutral side of the 120V outlet. The problem was that in those days, too many electricians paid no attention to hot and cold connections on polarized plugs.

After getting zapped really bad a few times, I ended up throwing it away.
 
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