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how to mod a vintage console tube amp?

mikeNC

mikeNC

Deal of the Century
New to tubes.
Looking into picking up a tube amp console for the amp. What steps need to be done to use it as a stand alone unit? Are there certain models that would be better candidates for a better looking stand alone?
 
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The specifics vary greatly with the amp in question. Some are totally unsuited, others are just about made for it. Generally speaking you want stuff with a stand-alone amp that has 6 or 12 volt tubes, no 50 volt silliness. If the amp has an umbilical that feeds the tuner/pre, then you can probably re-purpose it without great amounts of effort.
 
Yeah...stick with things that use "standard" tubes. The ones that use the 50 volt silliness usually lack seperate filament supply and just aren't suited for the job.

I recommend Motorola amps. From what I can tell, most of them do fine stand-alone.

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Make sure its stereo then I would check that it has 4 output tubes need for a push pull amp the class a amps only have 2 and only put out about 3 or 4 watts max I have a ge console amp with about 3 watts came from a mid size consol. push pull would be 8 to 15 watts in a mid to full size console
 
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kben said:
Make sure its stereo
Click to expand...

There's also nothing wrong with having a pair of mono amps. Although, sometimes finding a matching pair of console pulls can be tricky...of course, there's also the hassle of having two amps to deal with, and if you've never worked on tubes before, it can be intimidating.
 
My Motorola needed a recap and some resistors swapped out, otherwise most of it is original. Added a choke to get rid of some hum, built a base, put in a switch and light, basic stuff.

img4724z.jpg


The only issue with the Motorola, they are 3 channel whereas a magnavox is 2.
 
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how do I handle volume and that sort of thing? told you I was new to tubes!
 
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Depending on the gain, a passive "pre-amp" may be all you need. There are some threads in the DIY area for what thats all about, but basically it consists of a selector switch and a volume pot. No active components. If you need more gain though, you'll need a preamp.
 
bktheking said:
My Motorola needed a recap and some resistors swapped out, otherwise most of it is original. Added a choke to get rid of some hum, built a base, put in a switch and light, basic stuff.

img4724z.jpg


The only issue with the Motorola, they are 3 channel whereas a magnavox is 2.
Click to expand...

What do you do with the 3rd channel?
 
It's used for bass, the 2 el84 tubes drive each channel's high's and mids, right and left if you will and the 2 other el84's drive the bass which is a seperate sub woofer. The right and left are single ended and the bass is push pull. If I had the knowledge I'd redo it to only have two full stereo channels, I have the outputs transformer to do it.
 
I found locally a General Electric rc7436a. Anyone have info on this and if itd be welk suited for this project?
 
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