Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

scored this for 25 bucks..heard on one forum there were 3 different "types" if you will, a bass amp, a PA amp and a guitar amp.. guess it powers up on 40 ea. D cell batteries LOL!.. I ain't looked inside it yet it is taped shut..LOL.. I heard these were wickedly great amps.. would be fun to sit at the swap meet jamming on it.. 45 watts RMS??? .. literature is hard to find? I hope Slacker (probably my favorite guitarist here) can give me some pointers to check before I fire it up.. don't want a "flash-thru" to happen because of a dried out capacitor in the circuit or otherwise.. suppose the safest thing to do is overhaul it before firing it up?..I don't know what it looks like beyond that taped access panel yet.. 40 d-cell batteries YIKES!

In the lyrics of Steppenwolf,... There's a monster on the loose, stuck our head into the noose...

My brother bought a boat for $750. Really liked it. Spent another $4250 to fix it up. Then he got appendicitis. He went out on it 5 times.
Any way the next year the top end BLEW UP.

Good job BRO... You spent 5 grand on a boat you went out on 5 times... HMMMMMM, That's only a grand a boat ride.

Sorry Dane, I'm just busting and you are right. Slacker is a great player and he may be able to steer you in the right direction.... I just hope it doesn't cost you way more than you thought.

I wonder what some vintage gear collector on ebay with more money than sense would bit it up to? I don't feel like buying 40 d-cell batteries to test it with? granted if I took a chance and purchased 40 D-cell batteries and it worked might get a better price? but then again a couple D-cell batteries runs 3 bucks? X 20 ? .. egads!

Dane Ellis Allen wrote:I wonder what some vintage gear collector on ebay with more money than sense would bit it up to? I don't feel like buying 40 d-cell batteries to test it with? granted if I took a chance and purchased 40 D-cell batteries and it worked might get a better price? but then again a couple D-cell batteries runs 3 bucks? X 20 ? .. egads!

Actually there is an electrical calculation for that. I'm tired and I don't have the right questions to ask... But I could almost guarantee one transformer could replace all those batteries... But then you would have to plug it in.

a guy would have to be a complete imbecile to mod this rare amp.. any value to a purist vintage guitar amp collector would be wiped out..

Dane,

I can't imagine any problems with it if it hasn't been abused. Just make sure you get the batteries in right. Some new pickups are hotter than older ones so start with low volume and bring it up. You can be sure the speaker is doing OK if it sounds clean and doesn't shove the cone foreword or back more than a second or two. If it does fly foreword or back you may have an output problem with the transistor push pull pair.

I always just turn on an amp to test it. Here is an idea. Put a 50 watt light bulb is series with the battery. If there is anything seriously wrong with it the lamp will light up and keep you from burning anything else up until you can find the problem.

From your pic there is nothing that could be too expensive at all if anything is wrong.

Yes you can easily make an AC power supply for it.

40 D batteries - if they are completely in series = 60 volts. Never seen a 60 volt power transformer, but I'm sure there must be some somewhere.

cool looking amp, dane.

i'd like a nice little DC operated amp that isn't too heavy and sounds decent for busking and for "acoustic" band gigs where i'm playing dobro. (got a pickup on mine so i can play it w/o using fingerpicks in moderate volume situations....but when competing w a loudass banjo player...it's nice have a little extra oomph for some amplification.

dane, i'd check around on amazon for some decent pricing on those batteries...might not be all that bad.

Planetguy wrote:cool looking amp, dane.

i'd like a nice little DC operated amp that isn't too heavy and sounds decent for busking and for "acoustic" band gigs where i'm playing dobro. (got a pickup on mine so i can play it w/o using fingerpicks in moderate volume situations....but when competing w a loudass banjo player...it's nice have a little extra oomph for some amplification.

dane, i'd check around on amazon for some decent pricing on those batteries...might not be all that bad.

I re wound computer power supply transformers and designed a switching power supply for my big amps 100 - 200 watts. Easy to do. My supplies hook directly to the caps of my AC amplifiers. I usually run the rail voltage at +- 40 volts to +- 50 volts. They can be easily rewound for any voltage from +_ 12 volts upwards. And the power drain is very low. You can play for hours at high volumes on a 12 volt motorcycle battery.

Another solution if you are not good at this stuff is to buy a small car stereo amplifier and use a battery operated FX box such as the Zoom which runs for 8 hours on 4AA cells. Put your 12 volt stereo power amp in a box along with the speaker, then hook the input source to your modeling amplifier. I use a Zoom G2 for the preamp. Just about any sound you ever want can come from that little unit, and at $99 it is a steal. Power amps can also be had for as little as $99.

Hope that helps the "outdoors pickers" on here.

'outdoors pickers'....yeah, in addition to "regular" weekend gigs (yeah, someone please define "regualar") i played mandolin on saturday from 9:00 til 11:30 w my bluegrass group Mere Mortals.

farmers market gig outside in columbia mo. temps were prolly around 50 degrees which is bad but we've all prob played worse. the main problem was the damn wind. huge, huge gusts and when it wasn't gusting it was just blowing hard and cold constantly. vendors had to keep one hand holding their tents most of the day.

plastic patio tables, chairs, both our tip jars getting blown all over the place. i kept waiting for dorothy and toto to blow by. i left my dobro in the car cos i knew no stand would hold it w/o it sharing numerous kissed w the asphalt.

this was the first outdoor f-mkt of the season and i always insist we don't get on the calendar any earlier than may cos here in mid-mo it's just a crap shoot w the weather. they signed on for this when i wasn't around to weigh in on it.....besterds!

anyway...we got thru the gig. the five of us each went home w a few bags of goodies and ten bucks each !

so.....i guess i'm a "pro" !!!!! playing a "paying gig" AND one that sends me home w produce!

Thanks for posting the pictures, Ive never heard of an amp like that.

A friend of mine used to have one of those pignosed amps in HS and we used to jam on it some, but thats the only battery operated amp I can think of.

This is my favorite little busking/coffeehouse amp that sounds amazingly good for what it is. The whole amp can be bought for about the price of 40 "D" cell batteries but it has no vintage mojo.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... -combo-amp

Thejohnny7band wrote:This is my favorite little busking/coffeehouse amp that sounds amazingly good for what it is. The whole amp can be bought for about the price of 40 "D" cell batteries but it has no vintage mojo.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... -combo-amp

yep...i've seen those and have thought about snagging one. how's the bottom end on that? i'm not expecting or looking for much from an amp that size...just asking cos i wouldn't want it protesting too much and woofing out on a loud lower note.

Planetguy wrote:

Thejohnny7band wrote:This is my favorite little busking/coffeehouse amp that sounds amazingly good for what it is. The whole amp can be bought for about the price of 40 "D" cell batteries but it has no vintage mojo.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... -combo-amp

yep...i've seen those and have thought about snagging one. how's the bottom end on that? i'm not expecting or looking for much from an amp that size...just asking cos i wouldn't want it protesting too much and woofing out on a loud lower note.

Reasonably good if used within it's simple design parameters. Like most solid-state amps, if you turn it up to where it starts clipping (farting), and then turn it down just a bit, it sounds pretty smooth and natural.

If you need 30hz at 120db, this is not your amp.

I used to have a Dwarf (like Pignose) but tried to run a big cabinet from it and fried it.

I do have a mini-marshal - 2 or 3 watts, batteries. Has it's uses.

Talbot