Wow... I had to wait 49 minutes for the final test drive! But it was well worth it! Awesome job Brad! That reverb is dripping wet! I wish more tube amps came with reverb and tremolo. I could gig with that thing!
Brad, I grew up in Kalamazoo, 4 streets away from the Gibson factory. It's great to see you resurrecting a piece of Kalamazoo history. A few of my old friends worked at the Kalamazoo Gibson factory back in the day. Rock on Brother.
I am very impressed, I don't think I could give it back if I did some mods to "fix" an old relic like this and discovered I had created something that really hit my freq zone like that. Great vid!
that mate is one sweet sounding bit of kit,,,, i enjoyed the mods. i'm starting to understand most of what your doing,, and i was clueless a year ago. cheers fella.
Yea, I love this channel. I'm a drummer myself, but I love electronics and seeing how all this stuff works in guitar amps is interesting. I now know more of the logic behind why people are spending so much time modding amps, you can completely change the amplifier for the better with some time and knowledge.
every time I watch these videos I can't decide which is the best part and although in itself the whole video is invaluable, the part where you show your skill on the guitar while testing the results of the repairs, modifications and restorations, although shorter, It is what I enjoy the most. you need to make your own amps and sell records with your music. that would be great! and many of us here would be very pleased to buy your merchandise, music and products.
I came here by total accident (I know nothing about this stuff, but I love music), but I stayed to watch because you make it fascinating somehow, and easy for even me to follow what you are doing due to clear explanations. Also, the video and sound quality on this is just excellent! I'm even thinking of subscribing. Also, the people leaving comments seem knowledgeable as well, which is highly unusual for any channel on UA-cam.
Ace redesign and what a unique tone you have obtained. The reverb and OD are top notch. Thanks for sharing. I was expecting some blocking distorion with such a big 1st coupling cap but it's just great
Love the shirt. NO one puts Bradley in a corner! Brother, that amp really sings. I hadn’t realized those old Gibson’s had so much potential. That Reverb is SO wet and the tremolo is so smooth, It’s almost worth buying an old Tiesco Del Ray and writing a score for a new spaghetti western! Beautiful work, man.
That amp sounds amazing! The rock n roll crunch at the end.....my god it's pure gold! Yes, You should build your own amps! I'd but one. This would be a great recording amp.
Awesome new lighting and sound, Brad! Looks and sounds great. One other thing to note for any new people thinking about getting into this stuff; the high voltage in these amps is no joke. If you're thinking about getting into doing amp repair/restore, please make sure you are comfortable and familiar with safety procedures. Have fun repairing your amps, but be safe!
Simple, set up a ground, and use it to test for stored energy. The old TV sets had far more energy than your average tube amp, but stay safe. Learn the right way, then you don't have to be scared.
Nice add placement! Movie trailers mark new ground for you and many medium size UA-camrs. You are breaking trail in the marketing dept. Congrats! I think this is the proper evolution of advertising via UA-cam. Nice work. Keep pushing the envelope!
incredible job mister!!! the tone you`ve acheived from your mods in the first demo is a thing of beauty, definitely lends itself to that soulful vibe and "feel" in your playing, i could listen to that all day .
I would love to do an apprenticeship under you. Very Knowledgeable and easy going, And as far as your playing goes, I could sit and listen to you noodle on that guitar all night while I kick back with a cold beer, Thank you for taking time for making these videos.
I love the detail you're able to pull with the zoom camera lens and that brighter lighting. New to the channel myself, so will be looking forward to more of your rational words of wisdom as you wind your way through your thought processes. Watching how you made the mods on the Fender Bassman a few weeks ago splitting both input channels it into both a JTM 45 and keeping the other channel sounding like a Fender should was brilliantly badass. You're a clever bunny.
My God I dont think Ive opened an amp to be confronted by that hurried assembly job from a major company.In my opinion it should have looked the way it did AFTER you worked it, beautiful job Brad and killer tone and clever mods.Very satisfying.Thanks for sharing man.J
Hi Brad, love the channel. I have been a fan for some time. I really enjoy your videos, I have learned quite a bit from you, many thanks. A little tip for drilling l'll share that an old timer passed on to me. To make drill bits last almost forever, start drilling at a slow speed, increase speed until the bit starts to cut nicely. Don't increase speed past this point. Your bits will last a long time.
Brad, what i think is so totally cool about what you do is that you take old, worn out stuff and make it better than ever. who needs more new (and usually way overpriced) stuff? i appreciate the guy's comment about wanting you to build your own amps, but i think your rebuilds are way cooler. you rock!
Good grief that amp rocks. I love this channel I am happy to have stumbled across it a while ago. Not only do you rock the guitar, but you make old amps sound awesome too. Thanks Brad for having a honestly useful channel.
Man you did a great job on that little amp. It sounds real nice. I am impressed at how you made it sound so clean and crisp at low volumes. And at higher volumes it sounded like a little Marshall. Really nice job.
It's amazing what you can find on the net. I found this schematic in three clicks. I printed it out and used it to follow your progress around the amp. You were spot on in most of your observations. They did okay with this amp, but you could tell they were not destined to be in the amp business. And those nuts on the chassis are called *captive nuts* and they are a real help when assembling. That is just there for the technicians, kind of a *here, you have your work cut out for you, maybe this will help* lol
Linear Z Amps which is a take off on the Linzy name. Lin Z Amps for short. Although some will say to much like Dr Z. Seriously though Brad you should design a model of amp of your own creation. Then hold a contest to help name the amp using suggestions by your fans here. BTW that Gibson turned out fuckin great!!!
I had one of those from either '65 or '66. What I hated about it was the reverb would never be all the way off even with the reverb depth off and the ft. switch off. You could still hear the tank..I changed the B+ diodes out with FRED's and replaced those 50 year old filter caps/cans. Mine had two 6EU7 valves for the first couple of stages. There's a line matching transformer in the phase inverter/ output section. I reused the cap holder/clamps and installed a pair of multi-stage "firecracker" caps from CE Distribution. BTW, that amp was designed by Seth Lover who designed the GIBSON Humbucking, P-13 pickup and the mini-humbucking for GIBSON and also the Fender Humbucking.
I have the same exact amp mines a 1965. Had a tech go thru it and freshen it up. He said exactly the same thing about the schematic not looking anything like the amp and basically improvising. But I love it and it sounds sweet with the right speaker.
Agree, I roll off about 9ft of 2 colours, tie a knot at one end, wrap it around a door handle etc then the other end in the cordless drill chuck & twist them up to whatever twist you want i.e. loose twist to tight twist then cut off what length you require.
Wow- that reverb was wicked! Like Wicked Game wicked! That's definitely now a solid small club gigging amp. Reverb makes all the difference! Sweet tones! Great playing too Brad! Love your channel- except you keep costing me money I don't need to spend! I bought that Fender you profiled ('93 Fender Professional Tube Series Concert Amp Model PR244) and repaired the reverb on the "one year only" one- and yep- my reverb still doesn't work- the tech I took it in to didn't want to tear it apart to fix it- so I have to find another tech or tackle it myself!
Incredible result! What a sweet sounding amp with reverb to die for. I used to have a pair of those RS speakers in a bandmaster extension cab w. my Super Reverb. They were really nice and crunchy when pushed.
Talking about the notorious death cap... I call it a virtual ground. In a sense it provides a reference to chassis ground. It can be flipped in reference to the hot or neutral. What had always confused me is in DC tube circuits those same coupling caps block DC voltage but AC voltage passes through. So understanding exactly why the AC voltage did not flow through those coupling type death caps seemed hard to grasp at first. As you learn better it then becomes apparent that the AC current flows in the direction of least resistance and choosing to flow through AC wire rather than a healthy working coupling cap. Once that healthy death cap starts to become a resistor over time then current starts to bleed through cap to chassis ground.
Very rad playing in this video. Really digging the sound with the dripping reverb and the slow blues licks. Different style then usual and it sounds GREAT. Dont know what the hell I'm looking at in the amp but I find my self watching hours and hours of it!
Another great video Brad. Loved seeing the virtual center tap executed and rewiring the heaters as well as all the other mods. Good stuff for an aspiring amp builder/tech such as myself. It helps a lot to actually see all the things that I’ve been reading about. Keep up the great work and rock on!
Hi Brad. Sound quality is much improved! The lighting still has a lot of shadows and hot spots which is causing shiny surfaces to get blown out. Maybe check out some small soft boxes or "china ball" lights which will fill the shot with diffused light. Excellent work as always!
My first vid of yours I've seen , subscribed😈 killed that little amp . I love to see people fix old amps and put them back in even better condition. And I just ordered me a red and grey Native sons strap. Now to back track thru your vids thanks for being you man.
wingracer 16 I spent 3 hours watching , so glad I found this knowledgeable guy without an ego ..Pretty sure he's a libraterian str8 shooting no Bullshit kinda dude as well. Got my 14 year watching tonight he's interested in knowing how amps guitars etc. work. We watch troglys also it's how I found Brad. I'm gonna be catching up for a few weeks lol.
I have 3 amps from the mid 60s gibson crestview line. Man, they are ugly, but they are gems. I have the GA-8T Discoverer (which is the same as an Epiphone EA-35T Devon ), GA-19rvt Falcon and a GA-5 Skylark. My only beef is that they often had integrated components (a few resistors and a cap all in one package with 3 or 4 legs sticking out of the main "blob") Great video Brad!!!
If no one else has mentioned it, you can take the wires into a drill chuck, and spin them much quicker than by hand. It's safe and looks perfect as well. Just a thought.
Just listening to your videos while i work on some amps and guitars. I just did a power amp and ran into the same issues with one dead channel. Had some blown diodes on the input, replaced all that and nada. Started probing with my scope with a test tone and had a slip from the collector to the heat sink, arcs and sparks. Fried the bias resistor and a 4 out of 6 NPN and PNP BJT outputs. Replaced all that and nada. Replaced the drivers and nada. Had 120mv of DC offset at the output with no load. The protection relay was kicking in the whole time showing an issue. Heard it clicking in and out so I figured all good. Last frigging thing I could think of so a 3 week order from China and all be screwed if it wasn't that stinking $3 protection relay. Definitely did not make much profit on that repair. It was some off brand amp and I could not find the exact schematic. Learned what not to do again. These things are not as forgiving as tube amps when you make a quick short circuit. They go into arc weld mode. Done that on a tube amp once and the only thing it damaged was my good Probe Master DMM probe. Amp was fine. LOL. The cross referencing of obsolete transistors is a half the battle. Had issues with that before, different pin outs. Blew up a cap in a Peavey power amp of mine replacing obsolete shit. I'm thinking of not taking much more of these unless it's a simple switch or pot. Caps maybe.
The problem with SS is you will get mired down in a lengthy repair like this and the amps just aren't worth the real cost. A lot of the guys I know don't mess with any SS at all for that reason. And you just don't know what it'll end up being until you're in there.
Videos are polished and done well, my man. You've come a long way. Your working hard, and it shows. Really enjoyed this one! Nice work on that amp, but really nice work on the demo! Great playing dude! Keep it up! Peace
I believe the extra inputs are for the your other guitars/instruments, so you don't have to worry about unplugging and plugin in a cord when you change in a live situation, and only using one amp and channel FOH, not for multiple players at the same time. Love the channel, and freedom.
Had one exactly like that one. Had it recapped at Andrews Amp Lab. Best tremolo you've ever heard and the reverb was lush. Regrettably I had to sell it at a beat down price back in 08. Had a Skylark at the same time that had great tone and great tremolo too
Nice Work Brad. You probably have seen it before and prefer your method, but you can wind the heater wires using your cordless drill... saves time is all... maybe some hand cramps too, lol.
I got me one of those Ace straps because of you , I got one with the X's & O's jacquard weave. Really thin leather on the ends not thick like the old ones. Great job on the amp.
I use aluminum HVAC tape for shielding too. I've compared it against copper with my amplifier and it was unnoticeable. It wasn't copper tape either, it was 1/16" copper sheet from an old church I re-shingled. Literally no difference. The experiment was used on my heavily modded Pro Junior III. I made it into a head. Made two top covers one with each type of shielding. So I could just pop one off and pop one on while my looper was playing. No top I could hear my wifi just cracking away. Either top made it dead silent.
Desde Chile te veo .eres un talento .... ojalá vinieras a Chile tengo unos vintage amplif... Philips .guyatone reverbrock .hohner . Lab series . hamstrom sweden ...te espero jaja.
i mostly skip your demos at the end, but this ep made me hang around for some reason. your tone with that tele, the gibson, and your fingerpicking, A++! :D
Man, that thing sounds hotter than my Peavey Bandit 65.😁 I can literally see the speaker grille vibrating on some of the low notes when you were driving it hard. Nice job Brad, and like a few other people mentioned, it might be profitable to do your own 'custom shop' tube amps. You obviously have a knack for what works and what doesn't on old tube stuff, and that's pretty rare these days. You made that Gibson walk & talk like a brand new one (or better, since it's actually a tube amp)!! 🤘😁🤘
YEAH! WHAT HE SAID! [Ed Dana]. Nice Tele and damn nice bit of playing too! Especially that cranked-up bit the following day! *Hey... Bradologist Man (?)* You're becoming an *icon!*
Keep these repairs coming, love em I always learn something. She sounds awesome killer tube tone and man that's some fun awesome distortion. Very cool you mention to elavate the artificial heater ct not many people do myself I find a nice difference running it to the power tubes cathode.
Dude you're the Guitologist... I only saw you on a vid which was the defense of a young kid who was treated in a very nasty way by R. Chapman and I super dug what you said but then I never came across any of your vids. That amp is a gem.
Man I love those old Gibson amps! I have three and all were a bargain and sound great. You probably can still buy them pretty cheap and with some love they sound just as good as old fenders. Brad you always make them sound awesome!
I think it's awesome that you put the 'card' in the amp, so the next person knows who to blame ;). The next time I take an amp in for something, I'll definitely make a note in the chassis of who worked on it and when!
I don't think leaving repair info on the inside chassis is necessary every time. However when you go to lengths Brad went to on this Gibson it is definitely a time to leave some sort of signature behind.
A date indicating when the capacitors were last replaced would be nice though. If you change out caps, or anything else with a shelf life, please make a note of when this was done.
That's turned out to be a great amplifier, versatile with great tones. I admit skipping ahead and may have missed if you did a speaker change. Well done, thanks brother!
No speaker change in the vid. A different speaker of course could change the tone again. It's a 10" onboard speaker, so this would be a good contender for a 112 extension cab.
Offsetting the heaters is a really good idea and easier to execute than making the heaters DC and usually works just as better. On really hummy fender types I've taken a wall wart and done a cheaters DC heaters even going as far as actually using 12.6 volts on the 12ax7s just for fun. I doesn't do much except reduce the amount of Current drraw from the wall by about 1\2 an amp in total.
Wow... I had to wait 49 minutes for the final test drive! But it was well worth it! Awesome job Brad! That reverb is dripping wet! I wish more tube amps came with reverb and tremolo. I could gig with that thing!
Thanks for watching and commenting, as always, Ed.
Ed Dana ii
Brad, I grew up in Kalamazoo, 4 streets away from the Gibson factory. It's great to see you resurrecting a piece of Kalamazoo history. A few of my old friends worked at the Kalamazoo Gibson factory back in the day. Rock on Brother.
I am very impressed, I don't think I could give it back if I did some mods to "fix" an old relic like this and discovered I had created something that really hit my freq zone like that. Great vid!
The good thing is I can do it again. ;)
Holy fuzz pedals, that amp sounded amazing. Dude, you are the man,Brad. Who knew one of those amps could sound like that, I am blown away. Great work.
That was a great clip Brad. "It's ALIVE!" "It's ALIVE!"
Years of trying to dig these Gibson amps, finally I'm now a believer! Amazing!!
that mate is one sweet sounding bit of kit,,,, i enjoyed the mods. i'm starting to understand most of what your doing,, and i was clueless a year ago. cheers fella.
Yea, I love this channel. I'm a drummer myself, but I love electronics and seeing how all this stuff works in guitar amps is interesting. I now know more of the logic behind why people are spending so much time modding amps, you can completely change the amplifier for the better with some time and knowledge.
That thing is SICK! It howls for an old, forgotten Gibson! Now you will have every hipster in the US wanting the "Brad Mod" on their GA series.
every time I watch these videos I can't decide which is the best part and although in itself the whole video is invaluable, the part where you show your skill on the guitar while testing the results of the repairs, modifications and restorations, although shorter, It is what I enjoy the most. you need to make your own amps and sell records with your music. that would be great! and many of us here would be very pleased to buy your merchandise, music and products.
I came here by total accident (I know nothing about this stuff, but I love music), but I stayed to watch because you make it fascinating somehow, and easy for even me to follow what you are doing due to clear explanations. Also, the video and sound quality on this is just excellent! I'm even thinking of subscribing. Also, the people leaving comments seem knowledgeable as well, which is highly unusual for any channel on UA-cam.
Ace redesign and what a unique tone you have obtained. The reverb and OD are top notch. Thanks for sharing. I was expecting some blocking distorion with such a big 1st coupling cap but it's just great
Love the shirt. NO one puts Bradley in a corner!
Brother, that amp really sings. I hadn’t realized those old Gibson’s had so much potential. That Reverb is SO wet and the tremolo is so smooth, It’s almost worth buying an old Tiesco Del Ray and writing a score for a new spaghetti western! Beautiful work, man.
Amazing transformation to that Gibson amp - that Tele sounds GREAT through it!
WOW best hour of my week Brad . Keep up the great work my friend .
That amp sounds amazing! The rock n roll crunch at the end.....my god it's pure gold! Yes, You should build your own amps! I'd but one. This would be a great recording amp.
Awesome new lighting and sound, Brad! Looks and sounds great. One other thing to note for any new people thinking about getting into this stuff; the high voltage in these amps is no joke. If you're thinking about getting into doing amp repair/restore, please make sure you are comfortable and familiar with safety procedures. Have fun repairing your amps, but be safe!
Simple, set up a ground, and use it to test for stored energy. The old TV sets had far more energy than your average tube amp, but stay safe. Learn the right way, then you don't have to be scared.
Wow!.....After all the work, and mods, you did to the amp, it really came alive.
Thanks for the tip on grounding the filament line with the 100 ohm res to the power tube cathode, made a big difference in my Johnson Loredo tube amp.
That turned out great.
Just quieting it down is an accomplishment, all the tweaks are icing.
Nice.
Nice add placement! Movie trailers mark new ground for you and many medium size UA-camrs.
You are breaking trail in the marketing dept. Congrats! I think this is the proper evolution of advertising via UA-cam. Nice work. Keep pushing the envelope!
incredible job mister!!! the tone you`ve acheived from your
mods in the first demo is a thing of beauty, definitely
lends itself to that soulful vibe and "feel" in your
playing, i could listen to that all day .
I would love to do an apprenticeship under you. Very Knowledgeable and easy going, And as far as your playing goes, I could sit and listen to you noodle on that guitar all night while I kick back with a cold beer, Thank you for taking time for making these videos.
I love the detail you're able to pull with the zoom camera lens and that brighter lighting. New to the channel myself, so will be looking forward to more of your rational words of wisdom as you wind your way through your thought processes. Watching how you made the mods on the Fender Bassman a few weeks ago splitting both input channels it into both a JTM 45 and keeping the other channel sounding like a Fender should was brilliantly badass. You're a clever bunny.
sounds killer cranked! It's about the things you can't describe. Love it.
That reverb and tremolo combined is killer.
My God I dont think Ive opened an amp to be confronted by that hurried assembly job from a major company.In my opinion it should have looked the way it did AFTER you worked it, beautiful job Brad and killer tone and clever mods.Very satisfying.Thanks for sharing man.J
Hi Brad, love the channel. I have been a fan for some time. I really enjoy your videos, I have learned quite a bit from you, many thanks. A little tip for drilling l'll share that an old timer passed on to me. To make drill bits last almost forever, start drilling at a slow speed, increase speed until the bit starts to cut nicely. Don't increase speed past this point. Your bits will last a long time.
Brad, what i think is so totally cool about what you do is that you take old, worn out stuff and make it better than ever. who needs more new (and usually way overpriced) stuff? i appreciate the guy's comment about wanting you to build your own amps, but i think your rebuilds are way cooler. you rock!
Good grief that amp rocks. I love this channel I am happy to have stumbled across it a while ago. Not only do you rock the guitar, but you make old amps sound awesome too. Thanks Brad for having a honestly useful channel.
Great Job Brad- Hot Rodded that bad boy - Nice Hendrix'y licks in there also .
Man you did a great job on that little amp. It sounds real nice. I am impressed at how you made it sound so clean and crisp at low volumes. And at higher volumes it sounded like a little Marshall. Really nice job.
It's amazing what you can find on the net. I found this schematic in three clicks. I printed it out and used it to follow your progress around the amp. You were spot on in most of your observations. They did okay with this amp, but you could tell they were not destined to be in the amp business. And those nuts on the chassis are called *captive nuts* and they are a real help when assembling. That is just there for the technicians, kind of a *here, you have your work cut out for you, maybe this will help* lol
I was a "captive nut" during this entire video.
Dude you should start building your own amps and put your own name on them.
Linear Z Amps which is a take off on the Linzy name. Lin Z Amps for short. Although some will say to much like Dr Z. Seriously though Brad you should design a model of amp of your own creation. Then hold a contest to help name the amp using suggestions by your fans here. BTW that Gibson turned out fuckin great!!!
Line Z, where Z is any number other than 6. ;)
Brads Dumbleater Amps
seriously he would just have to crowd fund the start up make x amount of amps and pre sell them I'm guessing there is enough fans to start the journey
Andrew B s
I had one of those from either '65 or '66. What I hated about it was the reverb would never be all the way off even with the reverb depth off and the ft. switch off. You could still hear the tank..I changed the B+ diodes out with FRED's and replaced those 50 year old filter caps/cans. Mine had two 6EU7 valves for the first couple of stages. There's a line matching transformer in the phase inverter/ output section. I reused the cap holder/clamps and installed a pair of multi-stage "firecracker" caps from CE Distribution.
BTW, that amp was designed by Seth Lover who designed the GIBSON Humbucking, P-13 pickup and the mini-humbucking for GIBSON and also the Fender Humbucking.
I have the same exact amp mines a 1965. Had a tech go thru it and freshen it up. He said exactly the same thing about the schematic not looking anything like the amp and basically improvising. But I love it and it sounds sweet with the right speaker.
What a super rework on that amp, sounded fantastic and I love how you quitted that thing down to a whisper. Great work, sir.
Surprized you don't make up a bunch of twisted pair using cordless drill, good time-saver!
Agree, I roll off about 9ft of 2 colours, tie a knot at one end, wrap it around a door handle etc then the other end in the cordless drill chuck & twist them up to whatever twist you want i.e. loose twist to tight twist then cut off what length you require.
I really appreciate the light/sound upgrades, makes it so much easier to enjoy the content for me! Excellent amp upgrade as well - thank you sir!
Neato. I gasped at how pristine the inside looked. Sounds awesome man. Awesome job!
Wow- that reverb was wicked! Like Wicked Game wicked! That's definitely now a solid small club gigging amp. Reverb makes all the difference! Sweet tones! Great playing too Brad! Love your channel- except you keep costing me money I don't need to spend! I bought that Fender you profiled ('93 Fender Professional Tube Series Concert Amp Model PR244) and repaired the reverb on the "one year only" one- and yep- my reverb still doesn't work- the tech I took it in to didn't want to tear it apart to fix it- so I have to find another tech or tackle it myself!
Dayum. That thing has a wondrous tone. You really have some sharp skills & knowledge. I wish I had these, for sure.
The sound and picture is great with the new lighting & mic. Great Job1 Wow!!!
Incredible result! What a sweet sounding amp with reverb to die for. I used to have a pair of those RS speakers in a bandmaster extension cab w. my Super Reverb. They were really nice and crunchy when pushed.
That things sounds huge! And amazingly warm! Beautiful job Brad!
The electronics world has come a long way in 50+ years. It's fun to watch you apply that knowledge to a vintage piece.
The Guitologist+ Adding that gain was a great idea and sounded incredible, that's why you're the man! The Modman.
Talking about the notorious death cap... I call it a virtual ground. In a sense it provides a reference to chassis ground. It can be flipped in reference to the hot or neutral. What had always confused me is in DC tube circuits those same coupling caps block DC voltage but AC voltage passes through. So understanding exactly why the AC voltage did not flow through those coupling type death caps seemed hard to grasp at first. As you learn better it then becomes apparent that the AC current flows in the direction of least resistance and choosing to flow through AC wire rather than a healthy working coupling cap. Once that healthy death cap starts to become a resistor over time then current starts to bleed through cap to chassis ground.
Very nice. Really like the tremolo chords.
Dang Radio Shack speaker cranks pretty good!
Very rad playing in this video. Really digging the sound with the dripping reverb and the slow blues licks. Different style then usual and it sounds GREAT. Dont know what the hell I'm looking at in the amp but I find my self watching hours and hours of it!
Another great video Brad. Loved seeing the virtual center tap executed and rewiring the heaters as well as all the other mods. Good stuff for an aspiring amp builder/tech such as myself. It helps a lot to actually see all the things that I’ve been reading about. Keep up the great work and rock on!
Great job on that amp. makes me wish I had held onto my Tweed Gibson many moons ago.
Hi Brad. Sound quality is much improved! The lighting still has a lot of shadows and hot spots which is causing shiny surfaces to get blown out. Maybe check out some small soft boxes or "china ball" lights which will fill the shot with diffused light. Excellent work as always!
My first vid of yours I've seen , subscribed😈 killed that little amp . I love to see people fix old amps and put them back in even better condition. And I just ordered me a red and grey Native sons strap. Now to back track thru your vids thanks for being you man.
Thanks for supporting a sponsor! I think you'll love that strap. Glad to have you as a sub. Welcome aboard.
Oh man you've got some rad vids to go through. I love some of his old Valco rebuilds. Enjoy.
wingracer 16 I spent 3 hours watching , so glad I found this knowledgeable guy without an ego ..Pretty sure he's a libraterian str8 shooting no Bullshit kinda dude as well. Got my 14 year watching tonight he's interested in knowing how amps guitars etc. work. We watch troglys also it's how I found Brad. I'm gonna be catching up for a few weeks lol.
That is the most rock and roll thing ever! "Let's crank it all the way up and see what happens".... dude!
OMG! I borrowed one of these back in 1974 for about 3 months when I was in my first real band. To my ear it had about the most sweat reverb ever!
Brad it would be nice to see you play more. I really dig your unique style
Absolutely awesome job in every way she and tone!
I have 3 amps from the mid 60s gibson crestview line. Man, they are ugly, but they are gems. I have the GA-8T Discoverer (which is the same as an Epiphone EA-35T Devon ), GA-19rvt Falcon and a GA-5 Skylark. My only beef is that they often had integrated components (a few resistors and a cap all in one package with 3 or 4 legs sticking out of the main "blob") Great video Brad!!!
If no one else has mentioned it, you can take the wires into a drill chuck, and spin them much quicker than by hand. It's safe and looks perfect as well. Just a thought.
That has an amazing tone with the reverb - much better than the weedy reverb in the amp I own!
Just listening to your videos while i work on some amps and guitars. I just did a power amp and ran into the same issues with one dead channel. Had some blown diodes on the input, replaced all that and nada. Started probing with my scope with a test tone and had a slip from the collector to the heat sink, arcs and sparks. Fried the bias resistor and a 4 out of 6 NPN and PNP BJT outputs. Replaced all that and nada. Replaced the drivers and nada. Had 120mv of DC offset at the output with no load. The protection relay was kicking in the whole time showing an issue. Heard it clicking in and out so I figured all good. Last frigging thing I could think of so a 3 week order from China and all be screwed if it wasn't that stinking $3 protection relay. Definitely did not make much profit on that repair. It was some off brand amp and I could not find the exact schematic. Learned what not to do again. These things are not as forgiving as tube amps when you make a quick short circuit. They go into arc weld mode. Done that on a tube amp once and the only thing it damaged was my good Probe Master DMM probe. Amp was fine. LOL. The cross referencing of obsolete transistors is a half the battle. Had issues with that before, different pin outs. Blew up a cap in a Peavey power amp of mine replacing obsolete shit. I'm thinking of not taking much more of these unless it's a simple switch or pot. Caps maybe.
The problem with SS is you will get mired down in a lengthy repair like this and the amps just aren't worth the real cost. A lot of the guys I know don't mess with any SS at all for that reason. And you just don't know what it'll end up being until you're in there.
Videos are polished and done well, my man. You've come a long way. Your working hard, and it shows. Really enjoyed this one! Nice work on that amp, but really nice work on the demo! Great playing dude! Keep it up! Peace
Sounds great! Before i watched this video I just took a gamble and ordered a 1966 GA-20 RVT. I hope I can get mine sounding this awesome. Thanks.
I believe the extra inputs are for the your other guitars/instruments, so you don't have to worry about unplugging and plugin in a cord when you change in a live situation, and only using one amp and channel FOH, not for multiple players at the same time. Love the channel, and freedom.
Highly impressed Mr.Guitologist ! You have turned a very so -so little amp into a true TONE MONSTER ! Wish it were mine.
That’s a awesome sounding little amp. Slick playing too dude. 👍👍
Had one exactly like that one. Had it recapped at Andrews Amp Lab. Best tremolo you've ever heard and the reverb was lush. Regrettably I had to sell it at a beat down price back in 08. Had a Skylark at the same time that had great tone and great tremolo too
I had one of those amps in the 60's. wish I still did I'd send it to you for the same work up. that rocks
That was cool, a new gain. Nice work Brad.
Nice Work Brad. You probably have seen it before and prefer your method, but you can wind the heater wires using your cordless drill... saves time is all... maybe some hand cramps too, lol.
I got me one of those Ace straps because of you , I got one with the X's & O's jacquard weave. Really thin leather on the ends not thick like the old ones. Great job on the amp.
Which brand did you get? D'Andrea?
That amp is KILLER! Awesome work Brad...
Production upgrades are noticeably much better. Good show.
Unique sound; good piece of electrical wizardry.
I use aluminum HVAC tape for shielding too. I've compared it against copper with my amplifier and it was unnoticeable. It wasn't copper tape either, it was 1/16" copper sheet from an old church I re-shingled. Literally no difference.
The experiment was used on my heavily modded Pro Junior III. I made it into a head. Made two top covers one with each type of shielding. So I could just pop one off and pop one on while my looper was playing. No top I could hear my wifi just cracking away. Either top made it dead silent.
I suspected as much. Thanks for sharing.
You're welcome sir.
I’ve used heavy duty aluminum foil attached with Elmer’s glue and that worked well also.
I dont' see why not, I'd even say use contact cement spray and it could be super ass cheap to put on and easy too.
Desde Chile te veo .eres un talento .... ojalá vinieras a Chile tengo unos vintage amplif... Philips .guyatone reverbrock .hohner . Lab series . hamstrom sweden ...te espero jaja.
i mostly skip your demos at the end, but this ep made me hang around for some reason. your tone with that tele, the gibson, and your fingerpicking, A++! :D
Rock on Brad, killer mods = Killer tones! Well done as always!
wow im glad you are sharing this knowledge! anywhere outside LA its hard 2 find any amp tech, period. + Hardly anyone really knows this stuff. thanks
IMPECABLE AMP INTERWORKING KNOWLEDGE AND BADASSERY PLAYIN' BRAD WOW
@ 28:53 You could put those two wires into the chuck of a drill and secure the other end to make quick work of twisting the wires together.
Man, that thing sounds hotter than my Peavey Bandit 65.😁 I can literally see the speaker grille vibrating on some of the low notes when you were driving it hard. Nice job Brad, and like a few other people mentioned, it might be profitable to do your own 'custom shop' tube amps. You obviously have a knack for what works and what doesn't on old tube stuff, and that's pretty rare these days. You made that Gibson walk & talk like a brand new one (or better, since it's actually a tube amp)!! 🤘😁🤘
Sounds great Brad! It absolutely rips! Never expected to hear that come out of that amp!
YEAH! WHAT HE SAID! [Ed Dana]. Nice Tele and damn nice bit of playing too! Especially that cranked-up bit the following day!
*Hey... Bradologist Man (?)* You're becoming an *icon!*
Keep these repairs coming, love em I always learn something. She sounds awesome killer tube tone and man that's some fun awesome distortion.
Very cool you mention to elavate the artificial heater ct not many people do myself I find a nice difference running it to the power tubes cathode.
Dude you're the Guitologist... I only saw you on a vid which was the defense of a young kid who was treated in a very nasty way by R. Chapman and I super dug what you said but then I never came across any of your vids. That amp is a gem.
Man I love those old Gibson amps! I have three and all were a bargain and sound great. You probably can still buy them pretty cheap and with some love they sound just as good as old fenders.
Brad you always make them sound awesome!
Man that amp sounds amazing you do a really great job fixing those old amps up.
Never really found a Gibson I Thought much of soundwise, but amazing Job and Tones I did not expect from that Little Explorer
Great video,I can see everything ,and the audio is spot on as well.Looking good Dr.
without a doubt the best thing I ever heard with the word 'Gibson' on it.
I love you repair videos still. New lights and sounds are great on my end!
I think it's awesome that you put the 'card' in the amp, so the next person knows who to blame ;). The next time I take an amp in for something, I'll definitely make a note in the chassis of who worked on it and when!
I don't think leaving repair info on the inside chassis is necessary every time. However when you go to lengths Brad went to on this Gibson it is definitely a time to leave some sort of signature behind.
A date indicating when the capacitors were last replaced would be nice though. If you change out caps, or anything else with a shelf life, please make a note of when this was done.
That's turned out to be a great amplifier, versatile with great tones. I admit skipping ahead and may have missed if you did a speaker change. Well done, thanks brother!
No speaker change in the vid. A different speaker of course could change the tone again. It's a 10" onboard speaker, so this would be a good contender for a 112 extension cab.
You are a good teacher. Great work as always!
Offsetting the heaters is a really good idea and easier to execute than making the heaters DC and usually works just as better.
On really hummy fender types I've taken a wall wart and done a cheaters DC heaters even going as far as actually using 12.6 volts on the 12ax7s just for fun. I doesn't do much except reduce the amount of Current drraw from the wall by about 1\2 an amp in total.
Fewer components to fail as well.
Excellent sounding amp, thanks for answering the questions about the death cap
Brad my friend, you got some skills. That little amp rips now. Can't imagine what it would sound like using /trying different speakers.
I really enjoy your guitar sessions after Amp repairs/builds, man! Longtime subscriber! I appreciate your channel, man... Look forward to more!
Beautiful job.
Excellent lighting & sound too; a nice improvement.
I got a 65 66 mariner ga40t. Very warm creamy sound with a distinct tremelo. I believe it's the same model as creedence used on born on a bayou