Your Best Vintage Finds

[duffalluff]

I was just finishing some yard work and housework for a friends grandmother, we start talking and get on the subject of guitars and amps and mentions there is an old amp in the basement I coulp have if I wanted. So, I start looking through the basement and it's found, a Magnatone Custom 260!!! Get home and start cleaning it up a bit, plug in, let it warm up, and jam..... It a beast, everything works and sounds amazing, going to bring many years of joy until I'm too old to play and trade it for some yard work too hahaha

[Chuck H]

Screw off!

Seriously though... I had a similar thing happen. I was doing a paint job for a guy, and I tend to make small talk about the things "I'm" interested in to see what might come of it And the guy tells me that he has a box full off EL84 tubes that, in search of a specific tone, were just plugged in and not much used. So we talked a little about EL84 tubes. The job took an afternoon and in the end I left with his box of probably thirty EL84 tubes that had only been used for a couple of hours each!!! Much of my design work has involved EL84's since (because, obviously, I had them on hand!). That was fourteen years ago. I've only been buying EL84's for the last two years!!! it took me twelve years to get through that box of free tubes that I scored on a $120 job! Sweet!

[bob p]

Sometimes you get rewarded for doing a good deed.

I volunteered to clean up a local senior citizens center after it had some flooding in the boiler room that had been used for storing all sorts of strange things. It was a mess! We had to empty the room to make room for the boiler repair crew. Among the junk I found an old amp head on a shelf. It looked like it had been there for 40 years. It was caked with plaster and dust. I asked the center's director what to do with it and he told me to throw it in the garbage. I asked him if I could take it home. He said OK. When I got it home, I found that one of the volume control pots was loose and had lost ground, so the amp had been cutting in and out. That explains why it was shelved 40 years ago. I tightened up the nut on the pot and the amp has worked fine ever since, no restoration required. It has all original tubes including Amperex Holland novals and RCA black plate 6L6. The tolex was free of rips and the amp cleaned up nicely. The only problem was that cleaning some of the grunge off of the faceplate took off some of the painted-on lettering.

I guess it pays to volunteer to clean up when it floods at the local seniors' center.

Here's a gut shot, chassis removed from the box. Anyone know what it is?

[loudthud]

Here's a gut shot, chassis removed from the box. Anyone know what it is?

Looks like a Silvertone or the Supro equivalent. Does it have 9 knobs in three groups of three? Two channels with tremolo and reverb?

[bob p]

Looks like a Silvertone or the Supro equivalent. Does it have 9 knobs in three groups of three? Two channels with tremolo and reverb?

You got it!




As you can see, that caked-on plaster cleaned up pretty nicely.

The amp claims to have "reverb", but it's not what I think of when I think of "reverb". I guess I'm spoiled by Fenders.

[dmartn149]

No actual "freebies" but I got a mid 50''s Allied knight PA at a yard sale for $20, and a brown face Fender Pro on Craigslist for $40. They both needed some work to get them going, which would have been impossible for me without the generous help from members of this forum, but that's part of the fun. Now I'm constantly on the look out for "projects"
My wife says "why don't you just buy a NEW amp"

The Fender was missing its faceplate, and grill cloth

[Justin Thomas]

Damn, I'm going to the Senior Center tomorrow to see what I can get! And a brown Pro for $40? You suck! I did get a Siemens projector MADE IN GERMANY - pre-wall w. an RCA 12AX7, a Siemens ECC83, 2xEL84s, and 2 Mullard EF86s for $20... all work fine except for the EF86s, nothing to plug them into. Good trannies, too. Great deal for tubes, but next time I check ebay BEFORE I take it apart...

If you need to justify buying all these old project amps, just say you're being environmentally responsible by keeping all that electronic waste out of lamdfills, and also saving resources by not supporting blind consumerism of cheap plastic junk. We are simply reducing, reusing, and recycling what we can't use.

Justin

[bob p]

... a brown Pro for $40? You suck!

Word.

So tell me, dmartn149, how would you like to double your money on that Pro?!?

[dmartn149]

Word.

So tell me, dmartn149, how would you like to double your money on that Pro?!?

HaHa Already sold it. still wishing I hadn't

[tonepoet]

I scored a 1973 Ampeg VT-40 from a co-worker for $50 who just wanted it out of his closet for more space. A loud 4x10 monster.

[Chuck H]

I moved to the PNW about seven years ago. But I visited for ten years before that. In the late 90's it was still possible to get vintage Traynor amps for a decent price. And, as geography allowed, they were pretty common and cheaper in the PNW pawn shops. I picked up three for under a hundred bucks each. Two Bassmasters and a Voicemaster. I still have both in frightful Dr. Frankenstein condition having used them as mod and test platforms for over a decade.