The GRETSCH 6166 FURY - Valco's MOST POWERFUL Guitar Combo Amp Restoration
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- Опубліковано 6 кві 2021
- In this video, we will troubleshoot and electrically restore the most powerful guitar combo amp Valco ever made for Gretsch - a 1965 Fury Model 6166. This amp is an amazing example of the BEST Chicago had to offer at the time. It featured 2x12" Jensen speakers and a stated 70 watts through 4x 6L6GC power tubes running IN STEREO! And it had top appointments like footswitchable tremolo and reverb.
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What brand makes brand-new amps, that are worth a shit, not costing millions of dollars?
I love these videos !
Sweet Guitar too ! Where'd that thing come from?
Now I see why you're so busy and that's a really nice amplifier !
I hope you're well and thank you.
Oh, and fuk your hair is getting long ! lol
Great presentation.. love the amp...but my 63 ampeg vt40 stays👍
Busta Speeker my parents owned two music shops and a touring rig shop with trucks. They purchased it for the shop, sold, 20 years later I buy it back👍🎼. 4x 10” and bulletproof. Since mid 80’s till now it has not missed a beat. An over engineered gem.
This is why I keep vintage gear! The human element of it, blows the disposable crap of today, away.
How satisfying it must be to play an amp after doing all the work, like a farmer tasting the fruit, but a lot more rewarding because its like you revive something, and it thanks you by singing the notes you play. beautiful work Brad
It is a nice feeling, yes. Never gets old.
@@TheGuitologist . Hello I can already see that you rarely respond to comments. But I have a quick question. I have this exact same amp, and the power section is wired (from the factory) worse than yours. I just want to know if you rewired it just like the schematic? The reason I ask is I'm going to rewire mine also. But don't you think it's weird how the schematic used both pin #8 and pin #2 on the 5U4 for B+ voltage into the circuit? That is just so weird and untraditional. So again my question is if you wired it just like the schematic? These amps are rare, with hardly information on them, so I would appreciate your response.
@@234dilligaf I’m afraid so far as I’ve seen, the channel has been relatively inactive lately, and so I don’t believe you’ll get a response,, perhaps Direct Message him on one of his social media accounts listed in the discription?
Man it has so much clarity, soundds like a million bucks
Sounds like a million bucks?
Is that good?
They really knew how to make an amp back in the 60's and 70's. You brought that poor thing back to life. Spent the time needed and sounds fantastic.
A year or two ago when I started watching your videos, I didn't know much about amp repair. I know what you're talking about most of the time now. I think I'm going to build a handwired 18 watt Marshall clone kit pretty soon, and hopefully by the end of that I will know enough to start doing some amp refresh and repairs. I appreciate you posting these videos Brad.
You got this. When in doubt, cut the power.
@@TheGuitologist and use a current limiter!
You might want to check out the 18watt stout or Stout reverb, and Stout BMT, at EL34 World (Hoffman Amps) Great little Marshall/Vox circuit that cooks and there is a lot of help there on the forum. I built a couple and they both cooked (in a good way no smoke came out) LTj
I have an old 1947 Magna Electronics Corp. amplifier that is patterned off a Valco amplifier, it has very much the same kind of tone.
Love those old amps, each one has a character all its own.
Great work Brad, no easy task playing both detective and technician.
Dude! I go into a trance listening to you demo your work ... Just awesome watching you ensure these magic little boxes will carry on, for many more generations to appreciate
What a cool amp! It's well deserving of all the attention you've given it. If only we could all have amp techs like you. This is excellent content, man. Please keep it up!
Had not heard about the Squishy Project; thank you for the heads-up.
Thanks for taking us on these journeys Brad. Awesome job.
combos are just magical, sturdy pieces of joy.
Soooo glad to see another awesome troubleshoot/repair vid on your channel man... it's really what you're best at and where you shine brother.
Cheers from another Traynor loving picker in Canada 🇨🇦 🍻
Nice video.
Unbelievably clean upper chassis inside.
I just stumbled across your channel a couple of days ago, and I don’t know about anyone else, but even though the technical aspect of the videos is way over my head, they are so well put together and interesting that I cannot stop.
Great job shining up that old jewel of an amp, Brad! It sounds amazing and I really enjoy your playing, as well.
That light/electrical phenomena inside the tube was INSANE.
im blown away by how clean that circuit is!
Missed these kind of videos. Thanks for sharing Brad!
Great return to form, Brad...glad to see you back in your element. You're rockin' that 'wild-eyed hillbilly mountain man' look...might want to keep a jug of 'shine close at hand...
The speaker problem should serve as a reminder to your viewers that it's not a bad idea to replace the original speakers with something new, just so those old jewels can be put into storage for preservation; they can always be re-installed if you decide to sell...
I say make sure your amp is operating correctly and if it's a powerful amp like this one at 35W per side, consider biasing slightly cooler to go easy on the speakers and rock those suckers until the wheels fall off. They'll dry rot anyway if you don't rock them!
@@TheGuitologist and that's the way it should be! LOL
Meh... why have a vintage amp if you're not gonna play the vintage speakers? The originals can be reworked and not hurt the value.
@@Only1Shadow ,
My point was that very good ceramics are currently available which will crank quite well with a vintage amp, and yes, you can have speakers reconed, but they will never be quite the same, and it's an expensive process. I have a '59 Deluxe, and the original Jensen is in a box on the shelf, where it's safe. The Celestion which temporarily replaced it rocks like a muthaf%#$er...and I can still sell it for $4K+ whenever I choose...duh...
@@chokkan7 I design and build custom amps. There are indeed very good reproduction classic speakers but we obviously have different purposes in having a nice tube amp. My amps are expensive - you would expect that from a custom. They're also show pieces - again, you'd expect that. But they're meant to be played... built to last forever, but also serviced when needed, and everything is a service item eventually. Maybe for the great grandchildren, but that means tens of thousands of hours play time.
Talk about a thorough assessment, wish every tech was you!
I love the way you play guitar
Been watching all your videos for a couple of years now and I don't know anything about electronics. If you can make it that interesting for a guy like me you must be doing something right. Some things I have learned from you are how to hear the difference between tubes and solid state and what kind of amps NOT to buy and for that I am grateful. Keep up the good work, my friend.
What a monster of an amp! Quality , paid attention to detail!
That thing is amazing. What a beast.
Hi Brad I just got on of these. And wish to restore mine. Thanks for posting this because no one had any fury videos at all.
Great Work Brad ... this is such a cool Amp !
I thought it was interesting how clean the upper chassis is for its age ... this amp has lived in a good clean environment ...
Those Jensen speakers are great candidates for a re-cone because the replacements look just like the originals ...
That's a serious transformer! That might be bigger than the one in my 135w UL twin. o_0
I LOVE this new format Brad. Its wonderful to watch your stuff on the 2nd screen while I work from home..
Clear sounding great job Brad!
Love your blue guitar!
My daughter bought me an Epiphone bass guitar for Christmas a few years ago. I bought a Peavey TNT 130 amp from Goodwill when I worked for Goodwill as a truck driver for $40.
Wow!!!!!! Incredible sound. Sounds like if a Gibson Skylark got mad and turned into the Incredible Hulk.
Wow that's a beast of an amplifier. I'm anxious to hear Brad rock its foundation... showtime
Giving new life , to great, quality, iconic ,Electrical Marvels .MAN!, What a gig!
So that amp was born the same year and a couple hundred miles north of me. Stood up a bit better than I have. Having to rip out those baked resisters fueling disgruntlement in the amp reminded me of my gall bladder and spleen demanding immediate divorce a few years ago. I'm a bit more road worn and not as sturdily constructed anymore. I could definitely use a cap change :) Great work, Brad.
I love the new content Brad you keep getting better and better thanks brother
great work, brad. great sounding amp. love your noodling at the end man..
Great sounding amp! Good Job Brad!!!
That thing is a absolute beast
Wow what a beautiful AMP great to see you bringing back to tip top health
Wow... The Cadillac of the Valco line!
I toured for years and early on, I gave up on the Valve amps and went to Solid State for the clean headroom and reliability...
I ended up with an extremely early Polytone 104 (one of the very first off the line) that was allegedly originally custom built for George Benson.
I didn't get my hands on it until the early Nineties, but it somehow stayed in excellent factory condition all those years.
This Gretsch/Valco not only looks similar to my Polytone, but I swear that they sound nearly alike, even though the Polytone is SS.
I think that was the best $150 I ever spent... And although the damn thing is now too heavy for me to lug around to gigs, it's still in beautiful shape and used in the house... Amazingly enough, my wife doesn't even mind it in the living room 🤣
Wow that thing looks like a beast !!!
Very rich, full sounding amp. Also some pretty snazzy playing there as well.
Great vid Brad great camera work etc Top notch !
The etudes you come up with are fantastic.
Cool amp. I'm surprised how raw it sounds for a pretty complicated circuit. I've never encountered one in the wild before. Thanks for doing a video on it!
Yep. The dreaded Illinois capacitors eh. I just had a '59 Fender Bassman come in for repair that was blowing the main fuses every time you flicked it off standby. And yeah, all Illinois caps in the doghouse and for the preamps. It took out a lovely Sovtek rectifier and the power tubes (cheapo Shuguangs) weren't happy either. Replaced with F&Ts and new Sovtek 5AR4 and 6L6WXTs and she is sounding beautiful again. I'm just replacing these caps now if I see them. Great work, as always Brad.
What a killer amp! I had no idea Valco made something like that.
Awesome work as always Brad watching you work on handwired amps is therapeutic they’re a beautiful work of art in themselves.. Seeing these amps being revived... 👍🏼 Until next time on the Adventures of the Epic Bearded Guitologist... lol
Sounds really good! Nice work.
I love these amp repair videos
The tremolo sounds so good. Nice job done on the Valco. She deserves this tender loving maintenance care.
BTW, I like your superman T-shirt and a nice living room you got. 💪🏻
It sounds way better than those amps sounded in the music store when they were new.
I’m not usually a fan of old 60’s amps, but that sounds incredible, maybe my tastes are changing... lol
Awesome job as usual Brad you rock dude!Cheers!
What a cool amp !! Great video, thanks Brad 👍🏻👍🏻
Really enjoyed this one Brad . Brilliant stuff !
That was one EXPENSIVE amp. in its day, YIKES. I bought a new twin reverb fender for 300 in 1973, so 425 is extravagant probably why you do not see many of these today.
Thanks for the video.
Man, I'd love to have a tube glowing like that in the night, looks beautiful :)
Ive built a few customs with type 80 rectifiers and 0A2 regulators for exactly that reason
This is one of my favorites of all the vids you’ve done, B. I’m always pleased to see it pop back in my queue from time to time. It has all the goods. Thanks for doing it. Incidentally. Aside from those bunk IC electrolytics, I’d be interested in buying those old axials you yanked from this (and other amps) if you happen to have bags of them lying around. Thanks again 🤙
Thank you for the detailed videos
Sooo Sooo COOL! I love old amps.
great video and restoration! it sounds amazing 👍🏻
Brad that is one hell of a badass tele
great video enjoyed the fault finding process
I no little to nothing of how it all works but I am at least learning of lot of things to look for that actually just visual. I think i am catching up on your past repairs. I enjoyed every one.
that amp Sounds amazing !
Wow, that thing is really complicated! I can't believe all of the wiring going back and forth in there! I'm also surprised by the amount of physical leakage on those caps, they don't even look that old... I have a 1967 Silvertone with cheaper caps in it that don't show any leaks at all. Wild! Kinda surprised that output tube wasn't fried. Also surprised at the power resistors crumbling apart like that. What a mess. On the upside, that was about the best textbook demonstration of speaker coil rub I've ever seen.
My new favorite channel. Keep it up!
Brilliant video. I hope I'm supporting you by watching all the ad's. Much love to your channel.
Thanks for the support. I think you can skip the skippables. ;)
@@TheGuitologist No worries man. Take care.
What a fantastic sounding amp!
Glad I hung around until the end, brother. I’d buy that record! Btw, that amp sounds fucking amazing...well done!
What a learning experience this was....turned out great man. If it were me I would hate to have to give some of these amps back to their owner. Sounds killer!
Thanks for this. Just picked up the Supro S6699 Statesman version of this amp.
great videos - finally i geat some idea of where my tone comes from.. or not. cheers from vienna!
Lovely job sir!
The amp sounds great! Always amazed me the way Valco used wood blocks to add support and mounting points to the chassis. Not uncommon to find mismatched screws because of that...any appropriate sized wood screw would work in a pinch. I always found those split-chassis amps a bit ofa pain to work on cause you can't fit them on a standard work bench to power up and test. Spot on about those phenolic tube sockets. .very easy to break once they get old and brittle.. noticed one was chipped out a bit...was it already like that or the result of a rehearsal 😀😉? Been there, done that!! Excellent work as usual!! Cheers!
Killer 1980 HBO graphic intro.
Blue glow on the inside of a tube like that (when it's not gassy), is the glass phosphorescing under electron bombardment.
Saved another one brother. Great Job.
Good stream Brad ... Nice sound ...
3 things :
1) With 2 speakers, 2 output transformers and a whopper of a power transformer, how much does this beast weigh???
2) You thought that the bottom chassis may have been wired wrong from the factory. If so it must have been assembled and tested on a Monday, when everyone there was hung-over from the weekend, or on a Friday when everyone was thinking about going out for the weekend and obtaining said hangover.
3) Brad - I've been watching your videos (both current and past) for a few years now and I'm impressed with how you've progressed as a guitar player. You have some very tasty licks and you can rock when it's appropriate. Keep on Keppin' on my friend.
When Valco went to the 6973 driven full size reverb tank reverb went to a new level. Those 6L6 sockets should be replaced soon.
Nice job on the amp Brad.
Screw programmed obsolesence. Old quality stuff deserve a second chance. Keep up the good work!
This thing is a flagship of an amp!
Brad, props for pointing out the excellent quality in noting the shielded cables, which are hard to spot from the whole-chassis view. Commitment to quality should be praised wherever we see it. See you at Doo Wop sometime, I'm a Luavull native...even worse, another cursed tech!
At 23:13 That violet glows spot may from finger oils on the tube. I try to handle tubes with nitrile gloves with clean cotton over gloves. Oils from your fingers can cause heat to build up in those places. It can add stray capacitance (albeit very low and usually won't affect audio circuits so much), but that heat can weaken the glass over time. Also, oils from your fingers can cause the silk screening to wear off. Never push/pull tubes (especially vintage ones) by the markings. Over time they can wear off from heat age alone.
Great job
I dont know how you can spend the time bringing these beauties back to life, play them for a while, fall in love with the amp, and then have to part with them for ever. If I could not keep the amps like that one, I'd digitally record each and model them, so that tone can be accessed forever..since the new tube amps sound so dead ..(some are okay for the dirt channels but that doesn't count)...
I remember watching a video some time ago about changing out illinois cap in a hotrod deluxe for the same reason.
Love this video. I have one of these, and am so happy to watch a video about me beloved amp.
I have one of these amps as well. It's really hard to find anyone who owns them because of what they cost back in the day. It was one of Valcos most expensive amps. My question to you is if you've opened opened it up and looked at the circuitry? Replaced capacitors? Anything?
@@234dilligaf mine was non-operational for a long time until found a gentleman in the chicago area who could (and did) fix it.
@@timcouture2633 . . Oh ok. Thanks for responding. I'm just trying to figure out why my amp is different in the power amp section than what the schematic reflects. So I'm reaching out to see if others are wired this way as well. For some reason it was wired that way from the factory. It's hard to find much information about these on the internet. I wish I knew how many of these amps are out there. The cost of them (in the day) would be equivalent to almost $4000 by todays money. So I'm assuming they're very rare to find.
Amazing build. There cannot be many of those around if it cost that much back then. Rare piece.
Yeah that's why you won't find many of these amps. Just imagine paying to $4000 dollars for ANY amp today? The ones that bought this amp had to VERY wealthy in the day.
Great Work Sir : IT SOUNDS MEGA AND TRUE ❤🙏👊⭐️👍🏻🌞❤️🎸
Nice repair Brad!
They just did things right back then. My 1969 Fender Super Reverb 4x10 combo goes in every couple years for a maintenance overhaul. When you find an amp tech that knows what he's doing, you don't let him get away. Perhaps I should send it to you for the next one. lol You don't see many in the kind of shape mine is in. A real jewel.
Awesome video thanks for doing it for us
Just awesome 👌thought they would too bright but definitely has sweet mids on that baby 👍
A friend of mine in Fairdale had one of these bad boys!
28:11
It’s got what plants crave! 😂👍
Baitin!
This amp was on board the USS Eldridge during the Philadelphia Experiment.
Brad I wish you would do some videos of you playing. You have a different style and I am digging it