Silvertone 1483 with shorted OT, need replacement! Help!

[Justin Thomas]

I was more aiming that at Mercury & their insistence that a tranny that's twice as big is The Beeeessstt! Because the feeling in that BM100 thread was that the extra big tranny that got a TROT put in sounded better even for bass - same oomph, less mud.

Justin

[Chuck H]

Oh yeah. When I saw their "Fat Stack" trannies one of my eyebrows went up Spock style. The best word I have for that idea is "silly".

[HaroldBrooks]

One thing that I thought was overkill is the analysis of acceptable Temperature for a power transformer as presented by some aftermarket manufacturers.

I currently own about (sorry lost accurate count) 15 to 20 amps of all styles and shapes, several are just chassis, and one or perhaps two have a transformer that runs at less than 120 degrees Fahrenheit at ordinary summertime outdoor temperatures, after a couple of hours. So am I to think that all those transformers are on there way out and dangerous ?

I drink Tea and coffee right around 120°F ... The Southwest of the USA routinely gets close to those temperatures during the summer, I am told.

Well all of my vintage amps have been run without incident for 50 or more years (the oldest from 1941 so that is close to 80 years !) without any issues.

By the way just for laughs I ran several of those transformers at the old time 117vac wall voltages, vs today's 125vac, and while they ran several degrees cooler, there was no dramatic changes to be found, and nothing to worry about or that would make a significant difference. The hottest power transformer of the lot runs at 140 degrees Fahrenheit (without a small fan that I added), and that's after a full two hours of running and idling. That 1955 amp has the original tubes and transformers, and the original Bias settings, so it's always been that way.

Please someone feel free to step in and correct me if I am wrong, and 120 degrees is too hot for a power transformer.

[g1]

SF Twin PT's run brutally hot as has been noted many times in this forum. I just had one a week ago to remind me. Any layperson or tech that was new to them would swear it can't be right. But it is normal. And of all the PT's I've replaced, I don't think I've ever done one of those. Nor do you ever see them for sale "all stock, except PT has been replaced".
That rule of thumb about 'ok as long as you can keep your hand on it'? I can't keep my hand on one of those after it's up to working temperature.
I think Nevetslab took some readings, but I forget the numbers.

[Sweetfinger]

I wouldn't look for any kind of "upgrade" output for a 1483. My take: it is essentially an early tweed Deluxe circuit, with tube swaps to make it super reliable, so it would never come back for repair, and indeed, most of these I came across back when you found them in pawn shops or the paper, wherever, had the original factory tubes that were still strong. The choke on the output seems to have saved the majority of those Jensen C-15Qs to be blown up in other applications.
The go-to for a simple OT replacement would be whatever the smallest 6L6 OT is that will fit.
If this is a project where the idea is to mod the thing into something different, I'd probably start to push the circuit back towards a 6V6 Deluxe and start with a Deluxe OT. There are plenty of points in the circuit to add gain or adjust response. You have two channels so one can remain stock and the other can get converted to a BF tone stack or whatever turns you on.