Kadent amp - CL find

[gui_tarzan]

I picked up this amp recently and can't find any schematics anywhere. It came without tubes, but it appears to be a 6L6/12A*7 configuration. I don't need a schematic for the tube section but there is a solid state board and I don't know what it's for. So far I've come up empty at all the forums I've asked for help on, and it's got a "cool" factor I haven't seen before so I don't want to just strip it for parts. Gut shot to come, I'm having trouble sending pics from my phone at the moment.

[Enzo]

Looking at your photo, do I see a couple wires trailing from that board over to the reverb pan? That would indicate it is a reverb drive/recovery board.

Could be a trem circuit, except there is no trem control, and this appears to be a PA amp.

[olddawg]

Enzo is correct of course. It is a PA and that is most likely a reverb driver/return board. The picture is awful. Not sure if those are transistors or ancient op amps. It's totally subjective but I would say this is pretty useless as a guitar amp. I would measure the B+ and build something else in it from a known schematic since you have to get new tubes anyway. With all those channels you will probably have enough heater current to build whatever you want with that tube complement if the B+ is high enough.

[g1]

Seems odd to have reverb for a PA with no controls for it. Also the tank is awful close to the preamp tube sockets. I'm guessing it's a hack.

[Jazz P Bass]

The knob next to the power switch may be the Reverb control.

[gui_tarzan]

It's not a hack, it's all factory. Sorry for the picture quality, I usually do better than that. And yes, it appears to be the reverb driver circuit. As usual you guys are right, I should just scam the iron for something else. I was hoping it would be something really cool but it is turning out to be such a rare bird there isn't any information out there for it.

[Enzo]

Pick an input channel and trace out your own schematic for it. MANY people have converted old PA amps to guitar use, I think we even have a section on that in build your own section.

[olddawg]

Yeah.. I meant useless for a guitar amp as is.. IMHO, and even that is totally subjective. You have lots of holes on that front panel. Plenty of room for multiple inputs, channel switching, tone controls, gain, master volume, tremolo, reverb, presence, whatever. If you don't like the location you can always mount a plate over the front and re drill it. Nothing wrong with using the chassis, cab, and reconfiguring the circuitry as you like.

[gui_tarzan]

I could theoretically put four different pre-amp designs in it and run them all to a single power section. But that seems like a lot of work for little gain (no pun intended). As cool looking as it is, it's probably best just to use the iron for something else. On the other hand, it could make for a good platform for tweaking pre-amp designs...

[mort]

My favorite use for old tube PA's is using it to give cheap solid state stuff a nice tube sound. For example, take one of the $90 Vox pathfinder amps that has reverb, trem, gain, etc and run an out signal into the PA amp. That cheap little practice amp just turned into a big tube machine with effects even. Sometimes you'll end up with a dud combination where the total is less than the sum of its parts, but more often than not the sum will be much greater