Sears Silvertone Twin Twelve 1484 Major Restoration Project [1/6]
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Chris called me up from Cornerstone music with an amplifier in such disrepair that he was giving it to me for free. I have a sneaking suspicion he took hard to see pictures in the text messages for fear I might not show up to pick up the amp. What I saw was horrible. I have a good feeling that this was out in the weather for a while or at best in a wet basement for a great many years exposed to the elements. I have decided that regardless of all of this, the Silvertone would be my yearly Shango66 resurrection challenge, along with full restoration.
There will be as much electronics work as body work and vice versa. This thing is absolutely horrible. I feel disgusted to touch it. layers of crap are coating this thing.
Tubes falling out. Wires cut, chewed up by rats, the inside just covered in god knows what. Oh boy. So ill just remove the tubes and get this amp out of the cabinet. Surprisingly the underside of the amp looks really nice except for the caps that seems to have formed a film upon them.
After blowing out the cabinet, chassis cleaning starts, and that means scrubbing, because its disgusting. and aluminum does clean up ok. The challenge comes in starting to pull the rust out of the front face. Its a cheap chrome plating on metal with silkscreen. I need to go deep enough to remove the rust, but I also need to grain it to cover the imperfections. All of which needs to be balanced to not remove any paint. The metal work went really slow.
Slowly work is being done on the amp cabinet to pill the dirt out of the grain as well, I keep going back and forth between the two as I start comprehensive polishing of the chassis. The electrolytic cap will not be used anymore so it will be left in place and shined. The reverb tank will have to be removed and restored separately.
After the final cleaning of the chassis its brought outside for the final blowout also allowing for bench decontamination. This begins the next phase, starting with the replacement of the fuse holder for the amp. Following this, the Power transformer is removed from the chassis, remembering where everything was connected to. Also the covers of the power transformers, exposing more places to clean.
I tool this time to check out the works cheapest reverb tank. and shine up the aluminum for it, i put it to the side so I could make a test for it later. What I really want to do it test that power transformer with the impedance bridge.
Testing showed that I almost made it out of testing without issue, sure enough we have a serious problem with this power transformer, an open!!! and its the filament voltages.
Tune in for PART 2
#retrotechandelectronics #vintagetubeamprepairs
![Sears Silvertone Twin Twelve 1484 Major Restoration Project [2/6]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uub69XEOoIc/mqdefault.jpg)
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Amazing, what you do is fantastic. Not only you are deeply wise in the electronic field, you are generous and so clear in your expresion. I live in Ky, do have several tube amps, and once I have a better organized space I plan to follow your lines to maintain them. One 1969 twin, two bassman and an ampeg triaxe or something. You are great, thank you, Joe
Glad you enjoyed the series.
I replaced the old 2 prong plug and replaced it with a grounded one a couple years ago in mine and just replaced the electrolytic caps and removed the cap can, death cap and hum switch from the circuit a few days ago. Not a whole lot of room in the chassis for 3 new caps to replace the cap can so I'm interested in seeing how you lay yours out. Mine isn't exactly neat and tidy inside so maybe this will give me a better idea of how to lay it out. Amp sounds great though now that I've fixed it up. Super stoked to see how yours goes!
Must be the season for these. Uncle Doug is working on one too.
@Dirty Leslie Yeah. He has a dual output version.
Had one of these when I was in high school . Played it way too hard , still going.
Just re-watching this after a couple of years. I swear, this is STILL one of my all-time favorite Yourube restorations EVER. The meticulousness, determination and sheer attention to detail is simply second to none. Very well done! 😃
Glad you enjoyed it.... While I still restore amps, Making videos takes a lot of time to edit. This series did so bad on youtube, that i havent made an amp restoration video since. Maybe ill try again in the future. Who knows.
Had one of these growing up .
6:25 - Extreme dampness can case that white stuff to collect on components. Credit the wood side-blocks for keeping out dust and keeping everything clean!
Can you share what was used to clean the faceplate. Was it just 1500 grit sandpaper?
A product called maas
Just so you know, Silvertone/Sears never made their own tubes... Though it says "Silvertone", they're just rebranded tubes, which were usually made by RCA or Sylvania, among other companies. Just look at the EIA and date codes on the sides..274 is RCA and 312 is Sylvania, etc. Good job so far on the restoration and I'm really looking forward to seeing Pt. 2!
I was aware.... thanks for sharing.
Yes! I have one of these. It IS in the COMPLETE opposite shape as yours but I’m still totally stoked to see your resto!
ooooooh this is gonna be a fun one.
I have a Twin 12 that wasn't quite as bad as yours but it was pretty bad. It has a pot where the Standby / Operate switch is in yours. I didn't realize that it had been modified until I saw yours. They are great amps. Mine's not finished though. Close but I keep getting "distracted" by work.
Id be interested to know then what that pot is for.
@@retrotechandelectronics It acts in the same way as the standby switch when it's 0Ω (turned all the way down) and lets you vary the amount of signal to the output tubes as you turn it up. Honestly... I'm not sure what the value in that is but I'm not much of a musician either.
Here's where I found the quote - www.premierguitar.com/articles/Tweaking_a_Silvertone_1484
About 1/2 of the resistors in mine are way out of tolerance and I found an extra 2.2MΩ resistor in the reverb circuit. Fun stuff...
maybe i missed it, but what you clean chassis with. thanks.
I used several different solvents depending on the area.
I played thru these when I was 16 nice, thanks for the trip!
Hope you enjoyed your stay....
I believe this was made by Valco. They made a lot of amps for Sears, Montgomery Wards and many other names back then. They can actually be good amps after going through them.
Ron Shaw, it was actually built by Danelectro. Notice the main chassis is aluminum. Valco always used steel chassis and Danelectro virtually always used aluminum. The thin papery silvery covering on the cabinet is also definitely Danelectro style.
Nat Daniel Danelectro from Neptune N.J. Valco stopped making sears amps in fifties.. 1484 is one of the most sought after today.
^Truth.
Like these two gentlemen said, Silvertones amps were made by Danelectro. They were produced into the late 60's
looking forward to part 2 ! when is it coming up?
Next monday, and then every other monday thereafter