Chord Vox amp

[RAW]

I was in junk shop today and noticed an amp with the name Chord Vox. Appears to be from the 1960's . It was dark in the corner so I couldn't see a model number. The back was off so I counted the tubes they were small and there was eighty of them. The asking price is $100 dollars and no one knows if it works. Is it worth the asking price for the tubes or parts if it doesn't ? Would love to fool around with it. I don't have pictures as of yet. RAW

[Helmholtz]

The back was off so I counted the tubes they were small and there was eighty of them.

What??
80 tubes in an amp?

[The Dude]

I assume you mean Chordovox? I've not heard of Chord Vox, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Is it a combo? Is there a model number? Sans more info, I wouldn't think 100 bucks is a bad deal for tubes, iron, cabinet, speaker, etc. I don't think it would be hard to get any tube amp working, but even if you couldn't, you could build something else in the chassis and cabinet from existing parts.

[The Dude]

What??
80 tubes in an amp?

Oh, I missed that part! If that's the case, it's probably a tone generator and not just an amp. Chordovox specialized in accordion amps, and sort of primitive accordion type instruments that generated tones from oscillators. If that's what it is, there would be well over $100 in tubes alone! Something like this:

[The Dude]

I'll add:
If that is what you've seen, it won't do much without the accordion style instrument that plugs into those multipin connectors and all associated cables. I worked on a few of those back in the day, and they were a pain in the a** to keep everything working. They were plagued with connection problems, corroded connector pins, broken cable connections, bad keys, etc., etc. It's well worth buying for parts alone at that price. I think the tubes are all 12A*7 type and still quite useful, but I wouldn't even waste time trying to fix it. I'd pull the oscillator tubes for use or sale and just make the amp work. Or build something else in the chassis using existing parts.

[g1]

It's spelled Cordovox, and the full unit is 2 'suitcases'. The tone generator and preamp is in the unit in the photo The Dude posted above.
The second unit has the speakers, power amp, transformers, and controls. It won't work as a stand alone because the preamp is in the tone generator unit.

Only 6 of the tone gen. tubes are 12AX7, and there are two 12AU7. The rest are not common amp tubes.
The power amp unit has two 7591's, a 12AX7, and two 12" speakers (Jensen?).

If it's both units for $100, I think you can salvage your moneys worth out of it. If it's just the tone gen. unit, I wouldn't bother.
edit: the power transformer isn't of practical use for much else due to the massive heater output.

I worked on a few of those back in the day, and they were a pain in the a** to keep everything working.

When I was much younger and working in the big city, an old timer around 70 or 80 used to bring one in. The whole rig, both suitcases plus the special accordion with the monster connector on it. He would bring it in a taxi cab, and I'd help him lug it all down the stairs as the shop was in the basement.
He had a regular gig at an auction barn, lol.

[The Dude]

Thanks for the info, g1. I wasn't aware that the oscillator unit and the amp were originally separate units. I worked on a couple of these and both were modified/custom built systems built by a local organ guy nearby that is now retired. He had built the tone generators and amps in to one giant stand up case with wheels so that they were all one unit on wheels. They were monstrous and heavy. I remember thinking I wouldn't want to be carting them into venues- especially if they had stairs. Aside from the weight of the units, the cabinets were built out of 3/4" plywood, so you can imagine how heavy they were. It was a PITA just getting them into the shop.