Philco 37-630 conversion to guitar amp?

[acorkos]

Does anyone have any experience converting this radio into a guitar amp?

The Free Information Society - Philco 37-630 Electronic Circuit Schematic

Is it worth it or even possible, without making wholsale circuit changes? See anything in the schematic that is of interest?

Thanks for your input!

[JHow]

I would vote to keep it as a radio. I am not a tech guru like many posters here, but I started in this hobby playing with tube radios (Philcos!) and so I feel like I should put in a word for radios as radios.

If you look at the schemo, the last two stages are an AF amp, so you can, in theory, if everything is working, introduce a guitar signal into the 6Q7G triode portion and hear it play through the rest of the radio (kind of like a phono input). I would bet it will sound underwhelming, unless the speaker is something special. The speaker is field-coil type, which if you change to perm. magnet, you will face some design decisions for the power supply.

From a radio perspective, this should be a pre-war, transformer design, and if I am not mistaken, has the cathedral-style cabinet (which scores high on the radio-collector coolness factor). If you have a complete example, why not restore it and use it as a radio?

[tboy]

I would vote to keep it as a radio.

Ditto.