Kent 3 tube Vintage practice tube amp/ HELP ME IDENTIFY!!!!!!!

[JHow]

I am just waiting for it to get here is there any thing I can do to this amp to make it louder without too much trouble? I can,t get it to distort as it is

It is not a very powerful amp in terms of watts. I would think it would be capable of distorting if you select both pickups and put your volume full up, otherwise, try boosting your input.

[RitzRed]

yea thanks thats what I was thinking.Seems like there would be a way to make this amp put out more watts? As far as selecting both pickups I tried that. I do have a old VW first act guitar with a booster built in I think I will try it out I have over 40 different guitars but I have only tried one of them since I got this amp to work.I just got 2 different books in the mail today so once I have a chance to read them I think I will have a better understanding of how these tube amps work. So if there is a mod I can do that won,t be too much cost we will see. If nothing else I will sell this amp and get one that will do what I want,I had planned to use it for a harp amp but it does not distort

[Jazz P Bass]

If you want the amp to distort, put a pedal in between the harp & the amp.
It is your choice as to which pedal.
A 'tube screamer might' sound cool.

[RitzRed]

yea I am going to have to get one all I have is a delay pedal . I did try the VW guitar with the boost on it it sounded cool I just bought a bunch of tube amps so I think I am going to just sell this Kent it is,nt really what I want and it would be a shame to change it too much it is in pretty good shape

[Jack Hester]

Your tube compliment reminds me of the Harmony H-300B and H-400 amps. Both are basically identical, and have your tubes. Take a look at these:

http://www.el34world.com/charts/Sche...mony_h303b.pdf

http://www.el34world.com/charts/Sche...rmony_h400.pdf

I also have an Airline amp that is the same configuration.

Jack

[RitzRed]

I will thanks

[RitzRed]

yea they look the same I have a isolation transformer on it,s way to install once I have installed it I am going to sell it

[RitzRed]

Back again with another question I have a electromuse vintage tube amp it has a metal multi capasitor I think it is bad what I am wondering is if you can replace it with 3 different capacitors of the right value or if I have to find one of the same kind to replace it with I have allot of different kinds of caps but they are ceramic caps some are paper in oil I just don,t understand how the multi caps work or if they can be substituted

[JHow]

Back again with another question I have a electromuse vintage tube amp it has a metal multi capasitor I think it is bad what I am wondering is if you can replace it with 3 different capacitors of the right value or if I have to find one of the same kind to replace it with I have allot of different kinds of caps but they are ceramic caps some are paper in oil I just don,t understand how the multi caps work or if they can be substituted

The short answer is "yes". Multi-section caps are just electrolytic capacitors in a convenient single case with a common negative end. If you can't find the exact same can or package, you can easily substitute the same capacitance and voltage rating (or higher voltge rating) in several single package caps. The challenges to doing so are usually where to put them. Obviously, electrically speaking, they go in the same place and serve the same purpose, but you may have to fiddle around, add a tag strip or so before you can swap them in.

[RitzRed]

cool I am looking for a multi cap now but so far I have not found one with the same rating I do have a bunch of single caps so far I am going to keep looking I was just wondering if it would work to just connect one end to the common ground where the multi is grounded now and connect the other end to the right spot where the multi goes I am not sure I know witch one is witch yet I,ll keep looking

[RitzRed]

is there a way of testing these can multi capacitors I am working on a different amp it has the same loud buzzing as the other one had but this one has a can multi capacitor it has values of 15 350,10 350,and 20 25 I can,t find one with the same values so far and the ones I did find are up to 36.00 bucks it would be nice to know if it is what is bad

[JHow]

Why not look for a dual-section high voltage cap and get a small axial 22-25V for the cathode bypass cap. Mount the cap by wrapping and soldering on the cathode resistor leads? Also don't get hung up too much on the exact values for the high voltage filter caps. If you don't see 350V, get 450V, if it calls for 8uF but you have 10uF, go for it. "Good enough for government work."

[RitzRed]

ok thanks can these be tested to see if the old one is bad this amp has some strange caps or I think they are caps they are soldered in like a cap they look to be plastic but they are flat about 1/4" thick and about 3/4"wide by 7/8" they are all a little different they have circle detents in them some have five of those with some of them with red paint dots or green some of the detents don,t have paint I am guessing that tells you the value they may be resistors as well they are all a little different I think this amp was made around 1940 to 1950 I would like to keep this amp as original as possible but working.This is allot of fun do you know of a sight on the net that has old amps and pictures of the components I keep thinking maybe one of these old amps will turn out to have that Mojo perfect for harp here is the inside of this amp it is a Electromuse it had a ten inch speaker but was gone when I bought the amp

[JHow]

ok thanks can these be tested to see if the old one is bad this amp has some strange caps or I think they are caps they are soldered in like a cap they look to be plastic but they are flat about 1/4" thick and about 3/4"wide by 7/8" they are all a little different they have circle detents in them some have five of those with some of them with red paint dots or green some of the detents don,t have paint I am guessing that tells you the value they may be resistors as well they are all a little different I think this amp was made around 1940 to 1950 I would like to keep this amp as original as possible but working.This is allot of fun do you know of a sight on the net that has old amps and pictures of the components I keep thinking maybe one of these old amps will turn out to have that Mojo perfect for harp here is the inside of this amp it is a [ATTACH=CONFIG]20925[/ATTACH]Electromuse it had a ten inch speaker but was gone when I bought the amp

The site below is for antique radios but the ideas are the same. There are old square paper caps and old square mica caps. The former are dodgy, the latter are more likely to be good (or not, no guarantees with old stuff).

Replacing Capacitors in Old Radios and TVs

You can test caps for capacitance and esr with appropriate meters, but mostly you test them by seeing if they do their job: if it is a filter, do you have too much ripple (multimeter), if it is a coupler, does it keep dc out of the grid, or is it leaking (multimeter). People debate over cap replacement, whether it destroys the antique collectble value, whether it is necessary. I think your best bet is prove to yourself a cap isn't working before you go to the trouble of replacing (besides, look at that spaghetti nest of electromuse, to un-solder just one cap is going to take some time - you will sometimes see where someone snipped the leads and tacked in anew component because they didn't want to unwrap the lugs). Although with the electrolytics, if they are old, bulgy, or look like they puked their insides, you can probably assume they won't work, but many of the other caps will be just fine (although the paper-tube ones would not surprise me if you reported them dead). Regarding your multi-section cap, I would question whether that can was even the original format. Most often the cans are screwed or clamped to the chassis. That one looks like it is zip-tied to something else.

Also here the guy has some info on de-coding cap markings. Your caps may have a variety of marking schemes:

WJOE Radio

[RitzRed]

yes it was clamped to the chassis the amp has a buzz that is just like the buzz the little kent I was working on had so I took it out of the clamp I am just trying to find a new one the paper caps like the .25 mf one looks fine the multi can cap looks fine as did the paper one in the kent I am hoping on hope the buzz is coming from that cap it was such a easy fix on the kent so I am looking for one with the same values 15,350 10,350 and 20,20 I was looking on youtube and heard one that looks like mine it sounded great once I get it working I am going to replace all the tolex covering and clean and paint the amp part I am hoping this will be my go to harp amp it is called a Electromuse but I think it was made by Valco and those Valco,s sound great thanks again for the info I will check it out.