Martyn, a note of caution about amplifiers with dual chassis that are connected by a signal-carrying RCA cable: I've seen amplifiers where the shield of the RCA cable is also the return ground for the B+ that feeds the tubes in the top-mounted preamp (Danelectro/Sears Silvertone amps in particular). Unplugging the RCA jack while the amp is turned on can cause your body to become the ground return between the two chassis. I got zapped hard by a Danelectro amp once and have remembered that lesson ever since. (I added a ground wire between the two chassis to make the amp electrically safe, and lifted the shield of the RCA cable at one end to prevent a ground loop).
Hello. Yes I had clocked that. I intend to put chassis grounds on all three chassis. The trem unit although small is still a chassis and the most dangerous as I will explain in the video. Take care.
Whoaa! Martyn, you’ve just inadvertently taken me right down memory lane. Stand by for a right old saga. August 1962, I was 10 years old and like every other kid at the time I was chipping away at my Dad to get me an electric guitar. Well, he came home from work one day and someone who worked with him had sold him an acoustic for 5 Quid. As you can imagine, it wasn’t up to much: odd tuners odd strings and rough old frets. It came with some sort of musical tutor stuffed into the sound hole, and my father tossed it to me with the promise of an electric guitar for Christmas, if I could play a tune by that time. Well, by September I’d mastered “Old Black Joe”, and was furiously working on “Railroad Blues”. My father now realized how rash his statement had been and was going to cost him dearly. So the ‘‘deal’’ had to be modified, he would forward 50 per cent, the other 50 per cent was my problem. So, I stepped up the paper rounds from just mornings to evenings as well plus the Saturday Football news (Pink ‘un and Green ‘un) By Christmas I’d Nailed 4 tunes, there was no escape route for my dad, a deal was a Deal! So off down to Hardy Smiths in Mansfield to get my dream guitar, A Watkins Rapier 33 in bright red (The colour of rebellion) It was Hardy Smith senior (Not Rob.) and a quick discussion revealed a suitable guitar teacher in Mansfield called Frank Wooley who live just off Baums lane. Now Frank played Bass in a local Ballroom dance band and he had the exact same ELPICO amp , in green as you rightly said. Now he used this amp into a homemade, ¾ inch ply, front ported cab with an 18 inch Fane speaker. I don’t think his had a trem unit fitted. I got to play through the elliptical speaker only, but it got me started on my journey. 72 now, and still slappin’ the plank. You were spot on with the time frame as well as the original colour. I hope you get to restore it to it’s former glory. Steve (Bangkok)
In 1961 when I was 12, I remember seeing a group of four young women who were doing what I can only describe as ' barbershop' close harmony singing . They had a pair of Reslo mics attached to a single stand and they in turn, were plugged into a Elpico which actually sounded quite impressive .. It looked brand new and I'm sure it would have been an AC55 model. Looking forward to seeing this one returned to it's former glory.
At 20:00, those with sharp eyes may notice that the pots are mounted to the preamp PCB, not to the front face plate, and there are aluminum shafts that extend the pot shafts out through the chassis so that the knobs can be used to turn the controls. This technique was fairly commonly used in hifi equipment of the 1960s through the 80s, and it's a good way to keep the signal path short and eliminate a lot of extraneous wiring that has to be done by hand, but for some reason it is rarely done in guitar amplifiers, which could certainly benefit from shorter, more concise signal paths because it allows fewer opportunities for RF energy and radiated hum fields to modulate the signal. The disadvantage, however, is that an amplifier that gets gigged and transported a lot runs the risk of a hard hit to one of the knobs actually cracking the circuit board. [Edit; closer examination reveals that these aren't separate "extension" shafts but instead the potentiometers have integral, built-in, extra long shafts, which of course exponentially increases their cost and the difficulty of replacing them].
That tremolo was a separate unit that had to be retro-fitted. Colby amps made a boutique version of this a few years ago, very interesting, dying to see how you bring this back to life Martyn!.
Beware of resistors that appear to have kind of an end cap on them where the component leads attach, because those are more likely to become intermittent than resistors where the lead passes right through the insulated body and into the resistor.
This is the amp Paul McCartney has used since 1959, he took it to Hamburg with him and he still has it in use in the studio today!. They don't make 'em like this no more!. It's not a guitar amp btw, it's for amplifying a record player.
I don't know anything about those amps or the add-on tremolo units, but it would be nice to see it restored and listen to how it sounds. I can't imagine the tone would be that great thru that elliptical speaker. There is a YT video about the History of the Beatles Amplifiers, and I believe Paul McCartney's first amp was an Elpico, before he switched to playing bass guitar.
Think I prefer the green rather than the black although I suppose the restoration of the electronics and the cabinet back to something like the original would be very costly indeed. Going back a two or so decades I built a few 10 watt hi fi amplifiers that employed the push pull EL84 , similar to that circuit. One of them I converted to 6V6. I then converted it back because I couldn't see the filament glow on the 6V6's that I had !!
Hello. i think you are right about the Green. Part two is out now. The amp gets a full restoration. The black paint however will have to stay. Thanks for watching and take care.
Great amp its distributed loaded ..for a guitar amp rare and almost hi fi..loads of work there..gotta get a signal..argh. Extension cab for it when its up n running Not quite £650 yet😊
Martyn, a note of caution about amplifiers with dual chassis that are connected by a signal-carrying RCA cable: I've seen amplifiers where the shield of the RCA cable is also the return ground for the B+ that feeds the tubes in the top-mounted preamp (Danelectro/Sears Silvertone amps in particular). Unplugging the RCA jack while the amp is turned on can cause your body to become the ground return between the two chassis. I got zapped hard by a Danelectro amp once and have remembered that lesson ever since. (I added a ground wire between the two chassis to make the amp electrically safe, and lifted the shield of the RCA cable at one end to prevent a ground loop).
Hello. Yes I had clocked that. I intend to put chassis grounds on all three chassis. The trem unit although small is still a chassis and the most dangerous as I will explain in the video. Take care.
Whoaa! Martyn, you’ve just inadvertently taken me right down memory lane. Stand by for a right old saga.
August 1962, I was 10 years old and like every other kid at the time I was chipping away at my Dad to get me an electric guitar. Well, he came home from work one day and someone who worked with him had sold him an acoustic for 5 Quid. As you can imagine, it wasn’t up to much: odd tuners odd strings and rough old frets. It came with some sort of musical tutor stuffed into the sound hole, and my father tossed it to me with the promise of an electric guitar for Christmas, if I could play a tune by that time. Well, by September I’d mastered “Old Black Joe”, and was furiously working on “Railroad Blues”. My father now realized how rash his statement had been and was going to cost him dearly. So the ‘‘deal’’ had to be modified, he would forward 50 per cent, the other 50 per cent was my problem. So, I stepped up the paper rounds from just mornings to evenings as well plus the Saturday Football news (Pink ‘un and Green ‘un) By Christmas I’d Nailed 4 tunes, there was no escape route for my dad, a deal was a Deal! So off down to Hardy Smiths in Mansfield to get my dream guitar, A Watkins Rapier 33 in bright red (The colour of rebellion) It was Hardy Smith senior (Not Rob.) and a quick discussion revealed a suitable guitar teacher in Mansfield called Frank Wooley who live just off Baums lane. Now Frank played Bass in a local Ballroom dance band and he had the exact same ELPICO amp , in green as you rightly said. Now he used this amp into a homemade,
¾ inch ply, front ported cab with an 18 inch Fane speaker. I don’t think his had a trem unit fitted. I got to play through the elliptical speaker only, but it got me started on my journey. 72 now, and still slappin’ the plank. You were spot on with the time frame as well as the original colour. I hope you get to restore it to it’s former glory.
Steve (Bangkok)
Hello Steve. That's a great story. I can remember Rob's Dad when I was a young teenager. He was a really nice man as I remember. Take care mate.
In 1961 when I was 12, I remember seeing a group of four young women who were doing what I can only describe as ' barbershop' close harmony singing . They had a pair of Reslo mics attached to a single stand and they in turn, were plugged into a Elpico which actually sounded quite impressive .. It looked brand new and I'm sure it would have been an AC55 model. Looking forward to seeing this one returned to it's former glory.
Hello Pete. That's hard to imagine these days. Take care mate.
At 20:00, those with sharp eyes may notice that the pots are mounted to the preamp PCB, not to the front face plate, and there are aluminum shafts that extend the pot shafts out through the chassis so that the knobs can be used to turn the controls. This technique was fairly commonly used in hifi equipment of the 1960s through the 80s, and it's a good way to keep the signal path short and eliminate a lot of extraneous wiring that has to be done by hand, but for some reason it is rarely done in guitar amplifiers, which could certainly benefit from shorter, more concise signal paths because it allows fewer opportunities for RF energy and radiated hum fields to modulate the signal. The disadvantage, however, is that an amplifier that gets gigged and transported a lot runs the risk of a hard hit to one of the knobs actually cracking the circuit board. [Edit; closer examination reveals that these aren't separate "extension" shafts but instead the potentiometers have integral, built-in, extra long shafts, which of course exponentially increases their cost and the difficulty of replacing them].
Hello, that's good info. Part two is out today. Let me know what you think. Take care.
That tremolo was a separate unit that had to be retro-fitted.
Colby amps made a boutique version of this a few years ago, very interesting, dying to see how you bring this back to life Martyn!.
That's great info Keiran, thank you. Take care.
Beware of resistors that appear to have kind of an end cap on them where the component leads attach, because those are more likely to become intermittent than resistors where the lead passes right through the insulated body and into the resistor.
Hello, thank you. Part two will be out this week. Take care.
Another goodie! Thanks Martin!
Hello, thank you. Part two will be out this week. Take care.
can't wait to see what it sounds like!
Hello Jools, thank you. Part two will be out this week. Take care.
This is the amp Paul McCartney has used since 1959, he took it to Hamburg with him and he still has it in use in the studio today!.
They don't make 'em like this no more!.
It's not a guitar amp btw, it's for amplifying a record player.
Hello Keiran. Look out for part two. It's a full restoration. take care.
Thanks for the video.
Hello Paul, thank you. Part two will be out this week. Take care.
I don't know anything about those amps or the add-on tremolo units, but it would be nice to see it restored and listen to how it sounds. I can't imagine the tone would be that great thru that elliptical speaker. There is a YT video about the History of the Beatles Amplifiers, and I believe Paul McCartney's first amp was an Elpico, before he switched to playing bass guitar.
Hello Michael. That sounds a good video. I will check that out take care.
Think I prefer the green rather than the black although I suppose the restoration of the electronics and the cabinet back to something like the original would be very costly indeed.
Going back a two or so decades I built a few 10 watt hi fi amplifiers that employed the push pull EL84 , similar to that circuit. One of them I converted to 6V6. I then converted it back because I couldn't see the filament glow on the 6V6's that I had !!
Hello. i think you are right about the Green. Part two is out now. The amp gets a full restoration. The black paint however will have to stay. Thanks for watching and take care.
Great amp its distributed loaded ..for a guitar amp rare
and almost hi fi..loads of work there..gotta get a signal..argh.
Extension cab for it when its up n running
Not quite £650 yet😊
Hello Paul. Yes, it needs a lot of work. Take care.