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Craftsmen 500

Nice to see this progressing. I am getting ready to finish mine soon. I sold the original Genalex outputs to finance the restoration and a new tube compliment.
 
mpholland said:
Nice to see this progressing. I am getting ready to finish mine soon. I sold the original Genalex outputs to finance the restoration and a new tube compliment.
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It's amazing how much they go for... The ones I have are not really sale-able but test good. I am planning on running them once these are up and operating, I need to see what all the hopla is about
 
I don't claim to have a golden ear, but I couldn't tell the difference between the grey bottle GEC's and the new Gold Lion's in a W-5m. I think the choices made in the 6SN7's will play a far more important sonic role. Just my take of course. The old GEC might have a huge edge in reliability and longevity, especially running class A, but I don't have that kind of money.
 
mpholland said:
I don't claim to have a golden ear, but I couldn't tell the difference between the grey bottle GEC's and the new Gold Lion's in a W-5m. I think the choices made in the 6SN7's will play a far more important sonic role. Just my take of course. The old GEC might have a huge edge in reliability and longevity, especially running class A, but I don't have that kind of money.
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I want a new set of reissues, I would also like to put a set in my MC30's and do a comparison for sh##s and giggles. Most likely I will then try em bi-amped for the heck of it. should be fun. I have all kinds of different 6SN7's to polay with as well, soome dark glass but no red bases yet

Bluelobster said:
I should have noticed how old this thread is...DUH
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Yeah I know. It is a generic title to thread, I just figured I would the rebuild progress to it. I am keeping this is a record of sorts, basically it is for my own benefit.
 
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Still need to tweak voltages but they both fired up no problem with no noise issues. I only have one at a time hooked to AR4X bench speaker, can't really give a fair review but I can say Al Jarrreau does not sound terrible through the one playing now
 

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Heck,
I've squirreled away a 500 and a 500A. I also bought some chokes because the choke on one was cooked. I'm hoping to do the up as a pair of 500As. The 500 is a late production 500 and the 500A is an early production 500A. I'm waiting until I've done a few monoblocs before tackling them though.
My theory may be wrong but the iron looks the same. There might be a different number of leads on the differing trannies though, providing a limitation beyond my ability to fantasize about what I'll end up with.
 
audiodon said:
Heck,
I've squirreled away a 500 and a 500A. I also bought some chokes because the choke on one was cooked. I'm hoping to do the up as a pair of 500As. The 500 is a late production 500 and the 500A is an early production 500A. I'm waiting until I've done a few monoblocs before tackling them though.
My theory may be wrong but the iron looks the same. There might be a different number of leads on the differing trannies though, providing a limitation beyond my ability to fantasize about what I'll end up with.
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Hi Don,

Well I ended up with two opt's that have split windings, the bummer is on is a round corner the other square corner. So I have amps that look identical under neith but slightly different on top. I had to swap a couple of power transformer to get those matched up.

I selected the two nicest chassis, striped every thing except sockets and terminal boards. Looking back once going that far I should have probably done the terminals also, the origanals are all warped and have some lose termianals but it is what it is. More details to follow..
 
perchdog said:
Hi Don,

Well I ended up with two opt's that have split windings, the bummer is on is a round corner the other square corner. So I have amps that look identical under neith but slightly different on top. I had to swap a couple of power transformer to get those matched up.

I selected the two nicest chassis, striped every thing except sockets and terminal boards. Looking back once going that far I should have probably done the terminals also, the origanals are all warped and have some lose termianals but it is what it is. More details to follow..
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Build up one using the ugly remaining parts and sell it on eBay. :D
 
I hope this is not interpreted as a hijack but i have a pair of c500s in storage and had a couple of questions due to my ignorance of some things. I think they are the A models.

Are the transformers on these limited to use in a classic Williamson design? Forgetting the heresy of cannibalization for a moment, but was thinking of possibly using removing the transformers and trying to use them on a new project.

For some reason ive never really loved the "sharper" sound on these despite some tube and tweak changes. Although i have some very "round" sounding ls35a's i may have to try them with again.

i have a feeling the response is going to be dont hurt the value by taking them apart but they are not totally original underneath anyway.....thanks in advance for any comments

Thanks all in advance for the opinions. Would probably make most sense to keep the pair intact but just curious...
 
kbuzz said:
I hope this is not interpreted as a hijack but i have a pair of c500s in storage and had a couple of questions due to my ignorance of some things. I think they are the A models.

Are the transformers on these limited to use in a classic Williamson design? Forgetting the heresy of cannibalization for a moment, but was thinking of possibly using removing the transformers and trying to use them on a new project.

For some reason ive never really loved the "sharper" sound on these despite some tube and tweak changes. Although i have some very "round" sounding ls35a's i may have to try them with again.

i have a feeling the response is going to be dont hurt the value by taking them apart but they are not totally original underneath anyway.....thanks in advance for any comments

Thanks all in advance for the opinions. Would probably make most sense to keep the pair intact but just curious...
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There is absolutely no reason why you would HAVE to stick to the original circuit.

You do not even have to remove those tranny's from these amps to build it here,
and you wouldn't be ruining the value of the amps either as long as you don't cut
any holes you can always put the amps back to stock if you did want to sell them.

So by all means yes make Your amps what You want them to be, it is all fair game.
(and plenty of different circuits you can use with those tranny's)
 
These amps are probably the best sounding ever. The asians compare this amp to the leak tl12. Any comments about the comparisons?
 
mpholland said:
Not tough at all if you have an endless money supply. It took me 3 years to find a second within my budget though.
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not really i bought my second matching stock pair for 450 bucks couple years ago. didnt have to dig too deep. now i have matched pair.

i havent checked the prices lately but what do they go for now?
 
mpholland said:
Not tough at all if you have an endless money supply. It took me 3 years to find a second within my budget though.
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It took approx 3 years from when I found the first one for $10 at an estate sale untill now sitting here listening to Massive Attack. They do sound quite nice even though 2 of my 4 smoked glass GEC's are on their last leg.

The last one came with a pair of real 88's, hoping they test well for possible sale and recoup of a large amount of the cash inlay I have into this project. I will wait for a sunny day to shoot some bing shots
 
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