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Do I have to buy this thing?
Just got back from Goodwill where I saw an old phono tube amp with huge speaker cabs. Asking $20. After prying it apart I saw huge Iron. The largest tube was 5v5. 6 or more tubes altogether. Very clean condition. The speaker cloth screamed vintage vibe. The cabinets looked like a handyman project with the phono player and hidden amp. I plugged it in and all the filaments lit up but it was'nt connected to the speakers. I don't know about converting phono input into a guitar amp. Is it doable? Anybody know anything about a single 5v5 amp. What kind of power might it produce? The chassis looked manufactured. No names on anything other than a Mallory can. Boy them Irons looked big. Looked like a ton of trouble though. (:
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There was a time that I would not have passed up a deal like that. Now my garage is full....... -
Well they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" so I guess the beholder is you !
Or to quote Shakespeare from 1588
"Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues"
Might point out that chapmen are dealers or merchants.
Not much has changed in 422 odd years - used cart/car salesmen for instance !
The fact that it lights up indicates the heater or tube filament supply is working
whether the high voltage supplies are ok is unknown.
It probably is not a very high wattage amp and also the capacitors may be very old.
What era is it from ie really early ones had electro-magnet speakers they had a very high DC voltage going to a coil to create a magnet before permanent magnets came in.
Do any of the valves have a metal nipple/terminal at the top ?
If this is a first time project it may be a little difficult.
Its possible to add a suitable pre-amp to suit guitar but considering the difficulty it may
be better to build a kit or something there are plenty of references to particularly if you need assistance via forums etc.
The cabinet you could turn into a mp3 jukebox ..fitting a pair of reasonable speakers & tweeters and 2 x those chip amps .
You could feed it with an ipod or similar or get adventurous and customise an old PC
to fit (could play CD's too!) .
Years ago I recall seeing some great efforts at reusing those old cabinets (they don't make 'em like they used to) on the web with remote controls etc but havn't seen any for a while .
So there's some food for thought .. in the meantime if you could find the make and model so a schematic can be found this would make it much eaiser to advise you on
the merits of that "beauty".Comment
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One speaker cab had a piezo horn so I figured it's not electro magnet out put. I think somebody made all the cabs and salvaged the tubes and record player elsewhere. The chassis was super clean. I figured the large 5v5 to be out put. There were 2 other paired tube sets. The larger might have said 6023 or something 60--. I googled 5v5 tube and found nothing. It had 3 knobs. I'm guessing Vol-treb-bass. What I liked most was the size of the chassis which only had 1 rca input jack. I wondered about an old jukebox? Anyhow it's just a few minutes from here and I'm guessing it's not sold. Be a good amp project including the cabinet. I'm unknowledgable about converting phono to mic input. I would think all the parts would be there to do so. The 5v5 looked silver on top. Very pretty shaped bottle. Oh wellOriginally posted by oc disorder View PostComment
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