Gut and refurb old ss combo

[Greg_L]

I had this combo lurking in my garage for over a decade, behind a car, out of sight out of mind. I've had the idea to gut it and turn it into something useful for a long time. Finally dragged it out and checked it out. It still works! The "dirty" channel never worked, but the clean and reverb still works and actually sounds pretty decent.





But yeah, I'm gonna gut it and strip it and turn it into something tubey. Probably make a new face plate, re-tolex, make it look totally new and different.

The question is....what do I turn it into? It already has a reverb tank, but it's a small one, so huge surf drip is out of the question. I already got that covered anyway. I'd probably like to keep the mild reverb though.

The chassis is what it is. I'll undoubtedly have to drill and punch a bunch of holes. No problem. It's very wide though. I can fit a lot in there. The cool thing is I can go from total scratch - make my own turret board, pick and choose exactly the components I want. But what type of amp do I want to turn this into? It's gonna be a combo obviously. And not one I use every single day, so weird is good. It's not gonna be huge wattage either. I don't want it to be too complicated though.

My first thought was some kind of Supro or Vox, but I'm not sure. Maybe a Bluesbreaker type Marshall circuit with internally jumpered channels and an extra gain stage. I don't know. Gimme some ideas.

[Tadpui]

Cool, and old Acoustic! Harvey Gerst would be proud

Heck if it's solid state, maybe try to dig up an approximation of the Dumble Overdrive circuit? Surely humanity has been able to overcome Dumble's black epoxy resin and figure out the circuit by now?

*edit* all of these years, I though that Dumbles were solid-state. But the schematics I see are tube driven. Well, I feel inadequate as a guitar nerd now...

[Greg_L]

Cool, and old Acoustic! Harvey Gerst would be proud

Heck if it's solid state, maybe try to dig up an approximation of the Dumble Overdrive circuit? Surely humanity has been able to overcome Dumble's black epoxy resin and figure out the circuit by now?

*edit* all of these years, I though that Dumbles were solid-state. But the schematics I see are tube driven. Well, I feel inadequate as a guitar nerd now...

Ha no they just sound solid state.

[rayc]

You've all the important Marshalls covered including to minis PLUS the world's best Fender clone so so I say go VOX...simply because it's entirely different. I can't see you being a Dumble fan and almost everything else is a wanna be Fender or Marshall that's been "boutiqued". If you VOX you can add the extra gain stage JUST for a giggle - your Mosrite will like the VOX. OOORRR make a bass combo.

[Greg_L]

OOORRR make a bass combo.

That is actually on my mind.

[rayc]

OOORRR make a bass combo.

That is actually on my mind.

It' certainly something not already in the tool box.
Put a bassman clone in with a good speaker.

[JD01]

Could you fit 2 10" speakers in that box?

[Greg_L]

It' certainly something not already in the tool box.
Put a bassman clone in with a good speaker.

That's a pretty good idea and super easy.

Could you fit 2 10" speakers in that box?

I'd have to make a new baffle, but yeah.

[JD01]

I'd have to make a new baffle, but yeah.

2x10 little bass amp could be fun. A new baffle would probably be the easiest part of the build!

[Greg_L]

2x10 little bass amp could be fun. A new baffle would probably be the easiest part of the build!

My only reservation with a bass amp build is that it will almost never get used. I don't play bass. I don't even think about bass unless I have to track bass. It's a lot of work for something that only gets used quickly in a recording session and then put away till next time.

[Greg_L]

Blonde/Brown era Bassman 6G6 could be good!




I'd have a "bass" channel like they did in the olden days

The "normal" channel can be whatever I want.

Maybe I could make the speaker baffle easy in/easy out so I can use it for just the head portion sometimes and my spring reverb tank could sit in the bottom of the combo. That would be pretty slick.

[Greg_L]

I'm compiling the basic parts list....
Power transformer - http://www.classictone.net/40-18005.html
Output transformer - http://www.classictone.net/40-18006.html
Choke - http://www.classictone.net/40-18003.html

[rayc]

Yeah, make the "normal" a higher gain thing and put an external speaker jack on it (with match to one of your cabs) that cuts the combo speaker maybe.

[Lt. Bob]

I actually have a pair of Acoustic PA columns for ya' if you're doing weird and wacky things.
Not sure how I even have these but I do

[Greg_L]

I actually have a pair of Acoustic PA columns for ya' if you're doing weird and wacky things.
Not sure how I even have these but I do

Lol wow. Nah I'm gonna keep it pretty basic.

Right now...here's what I'm thinking.

Early 60s Bassman 6G6B. This is pre-blackface, but after the Tweed era. So like blonde/brownface Fender. This will be approx 35 watts, 6L6/5881 power tubes.
Bass channel - totally stock. I wanna run bass through it.
Normal channel - stock with switchable extra gain stage. Ideally this could go from Brian Setzer to perhaps I can wrangle a Mike Ness overdrive type sound out of it. That would be cool as shit if I could pull that off.

Features:
Switchable solid state or tube rectified. This is a maybe.
Metro zero loss fx loop.
Pre and post phase inverter master volumes.
Multi-impedance output for different cabs/extension cabs.
Removable speaker baffle.
Adjustable negative feedback.

Visually, I'm gonna obviously have to strip and refinish everything. The chassis will get stripped and I'll probably make a new faceplate for it to accommodate the controls and layout. I don't want to use the current holes and controls. For simplicity I think I'll just make a single piece of sheet steel or aluminum to cover the entire face and rivet it in place. A friend of mine is a painter. He can do all the paint and lettering and shit. Then I'll re-tolex the cab and get new grill cloth. I'm thinking something gaudy like gold or silver sparkle tolex.

[Lt. Bob]

well I was, I hope, obviously kidding about the PA columns although i really do have a pair ..... they're loaded with a buttload of 6x9" speakers.
What could they have been thinking? lol

But I actually hooked them up once and surprisingly they sounded decent for voice ..... which was all PAs did back then..
A LOT of old stuff manages to sound good despite being basically junk by today's standards.

I have an old stereo console and it sounds pretty good but the guts are just the smallest cheapest shit you ever saw.
They worked with what they had.

I'ma taking the tube amp out of it at some point and fooling around with it for guitar.

[WhiskeyJack]

Way late to the party here but A bassman is definitely the choice of choices. You own pretty much every workhorse amp under the sun aside from a ??W Rockerverb (Which is what i would have thrown a nod at) But a Bassman is a pretty logical arrow to put in ones quiver.

[Bill L]

I just saw this thread (I actually had a gig this weekend!) but I would have suggested the bassman. Sounds like a fun project.

[Greg_L]

Way late to the party here but A bassman is definitely the choice of choices. You own pretty much every workhorse amp under the sun aside from a ??W Rockerverb (Which is what i would have thrown a nod at) But a Bassman is a pretty logical arrow to put in ones quiver.

I do wanna have an Orange something one day, but not with this little combo. I don't know know enough about them yet.

I just saw this thread (I actually had a gig this weekend!) but I would have suggested the bassman. Sounds like a fun project.

Ha we'll see if it's fun or not.

[Lt. Bob]

Way late to the party here but A bassman is definitely the choice of choices. You own pretty much every workhorse amp under the sun aside from a ??W Rockerverb (Which is what i would have thrown a nod at) But a Bassman is a pretty logical arrow to put in ones quiver.

I do wanna have an Orange something one day, but not with this little combo. I don't know know enough about them yet.

I have a Tiny Terror you can have ......