Help with Organ Conversion

[bluesystratcat]

Hey guys its my first post on this site so here we go...

okay so I have an old baldwin organ tube amp that i want to convert into a guitar tube amp..im a 17 yr old blues guitar player that cant afford a good tube amp and I dont know the first thing about converting an organ amp into a guitar amp..the wires in the the baldwin amp are all in-tact and some of the tubes are there.,..so I just wanted to know if I could pay anybody to convert this amp for me into an amp head...as of now its just a piece of heavy metal and underneath it is the wires...any suggestions or ideas or recommendations would be great.
thanks

[RWood]

Hi Bluesy and welcome.

The good news is that your Baldwin amp probably contains the necessary tube sockets, transformers, the chassis itself, etc, to end up with a functioning guitar amp. And organ amps can be some of the most affordable donors, as you are already aware.

The challenge is doing the work, and finding somebody who can, ideally, do it while you watch or otherwise interact with in-person. I suggest you start with your school - does it have an Industrial Arts teacher who knows electronics? How about a local trade school? What would really help is somebody like a retired Navy guy who learned electronics in the service, and now has some time to help you with a project. Ask around, start talking to people. If you have a local electronics supply place, ask there. Even an ad in Craigslist could turn up someone.

When you do find a guy, he might ask what circuit you'd like built. Start with the chassis you have......did it use 6L6s? A 5U4 rectifier? Your new circuit would be something that uses the same basic building blocks. Go to schematicheaven.com and pick out a circuit that uses your power tubes. Keep it simple, with one channel, no trem, no reverb, no channel switching....save that stuff for a future build.

This might be more involved than what you were hoping for but I guarantee you will learn more than simply shipping it to someone else to build.

RWood

[bob p]

There's a thread that's open in the Harp amps section about restoring an old Masco PA amp. The underlying theme is similar, in that we have someone who's got an old amp that they'd like to convert and they need help getting the job done.

I agree with the recommendation to find someone local who is willing to take you under his wing. The problem that you may run into is that some of the old amps can be a royal PITA to work on, and that professional technicians may not want to take on this type of project.. Conversions can take a fair amount of research time and bench time, and hiring someone to do the work is expensive. All too often these kinds of jobs end up being refused by technicians because the project isn't cost effective, and the customer would have been better off buying a guitar amp outright. Conversions just aren't economical if you have to pay someone else to do the work for you.

Your best bet at this point would be to do all of the research that you can so that if you ask someone else for help, you won't be imposing on their time to do the research side of the project.

Whatever you do, stay out of that chassis if you're not fully qualified to work on it -- there are some truly life threatening risks associated with working on tube gear.

Welcome, and have fun.