(tell us about) The amp you got for free (or almost)

[loudthud]

I worked for a short time in the late 80's for a guy running a standalone Amp repair shop. Before I left, he gave me a JCM800 2203 chassis that had been striped of it's PC boards, filter caps and choke. Basically only the PT, OT and the tube sockets remained. The Impedance selector switch was also gone. Around 2001 I built up a set of boards on Vector board with Flea clips using the preamp of a JCM800 1986 Bass amp, the one with the Sweep control. I never got it to sound the way I wanted, so I just set it aside.

Flash forward to around 2016, a guy wanted me to clone a Rockaforte Custom 80 with some small mods. He loaned me one to Blueprint. It's basically a 2203 without the input switching nonsense. I built three boards on G10 with eyelets, a Preamp, Power amp and Power supply. Well, he didn't like it. Reason I found out later was I used Audio taper pots for the Gain and Master Vol instead of Linear pots like the Rockaforte. He likes to set all the pots at 5.

Still haven't found a headshell for it.

[loudthud]

Here's a pic of the inside. Looks like I replaced the power tube sockets. I know the preamp sockets are original, they're riveted in. I used pieces of sheet metal to cover the holes in the chassis and to replace the fuse holders with USA types.

[soundmasterg]

I got a very early Sunn 2000S head for free in the late 90's. I saw an ad for the amp and told the guy I wanted it. He was in LA and had to move. I said ok I'll take it and I'll send you a check. Months go by and the check comes back to me. Apparently the guy had moved before the check arrived and there was no forwarding address.

I also got a 1956 Fender 5E3 and a 1957 Fender Duo Sonic for $250 in the early 2000's. The amp had a Radio Shack speaker in it, so I sourced a 1956 Jensen P12R and put it in. I still have it....fantastic shape. I rebuilt it because all the original caps were bad, but it is a great, great amp. The guitar was really cool, but a short scale, and I needed some cash, so I sold that for $1500 a couple years later. Would have been nice to keep it, but I also needed a place to live so there ya go!

I got a nice 1964 RCA tube console stereo with record player for free too. I overhauled the power amp but I still need to overhaul the rest of it. Up until a couple years ago everything worked on it but FM stopped working. Also got a Dynaco Stereo 70 with tubes for free. That's an Amperex GZ34 and 4 Mullard EL34's and two RCA 7199's. I sold the 7199's but still have the others. In fact I think the Amperex is in my Korg AC30 now. I still haven't rebuilt the Stereo 70 yet but I will one of these days.

My brother got a pair of GEC KT66's in a small hifi project with some Triad transformers, a bunch of really nice hifi gear (McIntosh MC240, Fischer tube hifi, and several other vintage tube hifis) a triple neck Fender pedal steel, and a Hammond B3 and Leslie for free. He still has those, though all except the pedal steel need to be fixed up, which I'll be doing once I get some other projects out of the way.

Greg

[pdf64]

I did a write up a while ago on my best freeby (old PA amp with a pair of Mullard XF4 and RS DeLuxe OT ) https://valveampstuff.blogspot.com/2...itish.html?m=1

[glebert]

Well, he didn't like it. Reason I found out later was I used Audio taper pots for the Gain and Master Vol instead of Linear pots like the Rockaforte. He likes to set all the pots at 5.

This right there is why I try not to do amp work where I deal in gray areas of what needs to be done. Amp comes in broken, hopefully goes out unbroken. I may work on some "it doesn't sound quite right" jobs but let the shop manager deal with managing the customer's expectations.

[nevetslab]

I think it was late October or early November 2020 that Pontiacpete had a pair of Ampeg SVT4-Pro amps up for free, just pay for shipping. I took him up on the offer for one of them, and it arrived around Nov 13, 2020, and opened the top cover after getting the amp out of the box and packing material. Several broken pots, broken 5-position Midrange rotary switch. So, having been working on those Ampeg SVTPro series amps for many years from the rental stock here at CenterStaging, and having settled into a routine for screening MosFET semi's from Bulk Purchase thru distribution, it took replacing the broken pots, switch, going thru the PCB's and replacing at least one channel's N-Ch & P-Ch MosFET's, and then a battle with it that lasted for around 58 hrs labor before I had a working healthy SVT4-Pro Amp to add to my lab, often using it to be the amp to drive bass cabinets needing repair and checkout when repairs were done on the cabinets. Plenty of power to handle any of the rental cabinets in our inventory of bass cabinets.

I was also given a pair of Blackstar D200 'Stage Prop' amps, one fairly well gutted, the other having the PCB's, Power and Output Xfmrs (both had Pwr & Output Xfmr), though one amp had their leads tied off and shortened. It was shortly after Putin's Invasion of Ukraine that suddenly put the world's availabilty for Vacuum Tubes into high demand and vast shortages everywhere, with costs of what you COULD find several times the cost of what they had cost. I decided to build a Hiwatt DR201 Bass Amp clone using one of these Blackstar D200 Chassis, made use of the working Power and Output Xfmrs, and had to add a separate heater xfmr and cobbled a Fender Deluxe Reverb power xfmr having an open thermal switch buried in the core, restored that and loaded it to achieve the Screen Supply for the DR201 Clone. A few months of labor and around $600-$700 in parts and I had a nice sounding Hiwatt DR201 Bass Amp that doubled as a sorting fixture for 6550's and KT88's in the shop as needed.

[Tom Phillips]

I've been the recipient of several non-functional amps and individual spare parts. However, in the mid 1960's I was gifted a working 1959 Fender 5F11 Vibrolux that I still have. The tweed covering and the grill cloth had been "upgraded" to BF style. This was pretty common in those days because many players of the day wanted to keep up with the current amp fashion. Some were embarrassed to show up at a gig with a beat up looking amp or guitar. I have not played the amp since the 1990's. At that time, after a few component changes, it worked fine. Since then it has been waiting for me to make good on my thoughts of doing a complete restoration including a re-fit of tweed. I know who did the tolex job and I know that he was using petroleum based Weldwood contact cement. Therefore, removing the tolex and prepping the cab for the tweed will require a lot of extra effort so it continues to sit on the projects in waiting pile. Photos of current condition attached.

Edit: I forgot to mention the reason this amp was given to me for free. It was because, at the time in the mid 60's, most players wanted more powerful amps that could fill a concert hall or high school gym on their own. The PA systems in use would not have been able to support micing a guitar amp and no one talked about bedroom level sound. The former owner had stepped up to a large piggy back Fender amp and never thought he would ever use the little Vibrolux again.

[nevetslab]

Back in the late 60's when my band was still in the hunt for a record contract and gigging wherever we could in the Los Angeles area, the lead guitarist we had at the time was still in the Navy, so there were times we had to go without working while he was out onboard a ship. Great guitarist. Though his hands had the ability to turn eat the gold plate off of the tuning keys. He had a Gretsch 6070B hollow body bass that he gave me. I have small hands, and the neck on that bass felt like you were playing on a baseball bat. The head piece was enormous, dwarfing the tuning keys.



Prior to Mike giving me the bass, I did get his permission to modify the bass, stripping its' finish to bare wood, and narrowed & shaved down the neck, revised the head piece. I reshaped the neck to that similar to a Guild hollow body bass, re-cut the head piece, gluing on Rosewood pieces and cut a new head design, while reusing the same tuning pegs. When I had stripped off the sunburst finish, I discovered how manufacturer's decide which instruments will get sunburst finish and which will get clear natural blond finish. The top and back side of the body had been sanded thru the top veneer at the body's binding around the perimeter. That didn't bother me. Went ahead and finished it blonde, though at that time, I didn't have the intelligence to select a proper wood finish to use, and over the years, that finish has developed cracks in the finish.

I had added a Gibson Humbucker Bass Pickup (thudbucker) and only wired that pickup instead of the Gretsch pickup. It lasted that way until a few years ago, when I revised the wiring, installed a pair of volume pots and tone pots, along with a pickup select switch (now using both pickups), and cut a new nut from some Teflon material I had, and glued that in. The previous nut at the head piece/end of the finger board had cracked at the E String, it being made from some of the rosewood I had when I did the work on it back in the late 60's.



I haven't yet spent the money for the Gold Plated Gretsch control knobs, which I'll do some day. The bass only had a leather gig bag. For a number of years, while Fender still had an Artist Relations office/showroom across the street here at CenterStaging, LLC in Burbank, they also had Gretsch instruments, including a White Falcon Bass that looked much like this, with a neck and headpiece similar to what I had revised this 6070 bass to. And they had hard shell cases available for it for around $250, if memory serves. I didn't have the funds at the time. Sure liked that bass they had hanging up on the wall. Regrettably Fender left our Artist Relations building, so that window of opportunity has likewise left, so the hard shell case will have to wait for a while longer.

Years ago, the tail piece had broken, and all I could do at the time was to drill some holes thru the two pieces and join them with small machine screws and nuts. The original bass had a long brass-plated peg so you could play it like an upright (if you were seated). The Threaded Tail Piece barrel is still there, so one of these days, I might modify my Gitzo Monopod with a mating head piece to fit the barrel on the tail piece. I also changed to using the first four strings of a 5-string bass set, so now tuned to B-E-A-D strings.

[gmack]

I was recently given a VOX V1113 Beatle amp and found your posting. I am new to this forum and would like to communicate with you if possible on this project. Let me know. Thanks gmack

[Chuck H]

I was recently given a VOX V1113 Beatle amp and found your posting. I am new to this forum and would like to communicate with you if possible on this project. Let me know. Thanks gmack

I'm wondering if you might have the model number wrong.?. I can't find any VOX amps with three ones in front of the other designator (2,3,4, etc.). Maybe V113?

At any rate it's almost certainly a solid state amp with the "Beatle" moniker taking advantage of the Beatles having used VOX tube amps and that moniker added to these solid state amp model names for purely marketing reasons. The Beatles actually never used these amps and buyers/collectors are onto this (for decades). It may not not be a very collectible amp. But there does still seem to be a market for VOX amps with the "Beatle" moniker in the model name. So I would say restore it and sell it because this won't last. Please nail down the model and find a schematic for it and then start a new thread for resoration.

[catalin gramada]

I get rid of two Peavey tnt130 just because I had not room enough in my car to take with me when left my basement. I didn't want to left it in front of house but to give to someone who need it. Posted in a local 2nd hand site and the kids was coming in ten minutes for it....

[nevetslab]

I was recently given a VOX V1113 Beatle amp and found your posting. I am new to this forum and would like to communicate with you if possible on this project. Let me know. Thanks gmack

Any chance this is the Vox 1141 Beatle Super Reverb Head? Back in 2021 I did a restoration of Mike Campbell's Vox 1141 Beatle Super Reverb Head (Mike was Tom Petty's Lead Guitarist in the Heartbreakers).

Vox Beatle Super Reverb V1143 Restoration Project - Music Electronics Forum (music-electronics-forum.com)

This is the thread I put together during project. R.G. Keen's V1141 Beatle Repair Supplement book is highly recommended as a guide, along with as much of R.G. Keen's posts on the Vox Beatle amps published here at music-electronics-forum.com and elsewhere.

[Chuck H]

I get rid of two Peavey tnt 150 just because I had not room enough in my car to take with me when left my basement. I didn't want to left it in front of house but to give to someone who need it. Posted in a local 2nd hand site and the kids was coming in ten minutes for it....

The bass player in my high school band used that amp. We used to call it "the wrecking ball" because it had the one handle on top and it would swing at the end of his arm. There wasn't a door casing in it's travel that didn't get a ding or even a chunk out of it.

Great that a young player is getting it. Durable and though nothing special they sound just fine.

[catalin gramada]

The bass player in my high school band used that amp. We used to call it "the wrecking ball" because it had the one handle on top and it would swing at the end of his arm. There wasn't a door casing in it's travel that didn't get a ding or even a chunk out of it.

Great that a young player is getting it. Durable and though nothing special they sound just fine.

He, he...I bought two of them also from nostalgia reasons remembering the club bands for my town in 'eighties'. Very nice bass amp and the parametric control makes all the money...I got rid both of it.

[nevetslab]

I was recently given a VOX V1113 Beatle amp and found your posting. I am new to this forum and would like to communicate with you if possible on this project. Let me know. Thanks gmack

I recently downloaded these following Vox Beatle Amp schematics:

Beat_14.pdf
Super Beatle V114

Beat_41.pdf
Super Beatle V1141

Beat_43.pdf
Beatle V1143