Dean Markley CD-120

[Rhodesplyr]

I bought a Dean Markley CD-120 amp this weekend for $50. It's mostly in working condition, but the previous owner told me one channel doesn't work, by which I think he means the overdrive circuit.

I'm not particularly impressed by it either in terms of design, sound, or build quality. It's a hybrid tube/solid state amp, and it's got too many solid state ICs in the signal path. Overall parts quality is cheap. Even the amp chassis is on the flimsy side. I don't like how close the huge ceramic speaker magnet is to the output transformers. The sound I would describe as grainy and flat.

However, (and this is why I bought it), the power and output transformers were made by Woodward-Schumacher and seem almost exactly the same as those from a Fender Twin Reverb except that the output transformer has 4 and 8 Ohm taps. I'm thinking I could gut it and use the transformers to build my own Twin Head from scratch, perhaps using an aftermarket chassis. The amp cabinet itself I could use as a 1x12 enclosure with the stock speaker, which is a decent speaker. (Don't worry about my skill level at building--I build tube amps from scratch.)

I sent an e-mail to Schumacher asking if they could tell me the heater filament winding current rating to see if it would safely support the two AT7s and additional AX7 needed to build the AB763 circuit. Do they tend to respond to information requests?

David