Fender Showman from 1963
N_Cook
its original set of valves (not in there and used now, but will test out of
curiosity). What are the main potential safety/reliability issues with an
amp of this age? All the cotton covered wiring looks good but is there some
test/procedure more convincing as to insualting value? Bakelite brittleness
in the valve bases? metallurgical failure of springiness of valve
contacts?
Someone modified to 3 core mains cable and made an earth point, for 240V
land, at some point in its history. Numerous caps replaced in 1991 and 1997
and some carbon R replaced with MO at some point. I've not checked the main
caps yet.
Meat Plow
No known safety issues other than mains wiring. These were pretty
reliable amps. I own a 1970 Showman USA model. Someone tried to turn it
into a 100 watt model by replacing the iron and adding two octals to the
already blanked out chassis. I ripped all that stuff out and put new
output iron in it. It's not worth much but it does sound sweet.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
N_Cook
news:pan.2010.09...@hahahahahahahah.nutz.I.am...
Closer look and the cotton covering to the wiring between the output heaters
is "perished", crumbling to dust, and needs replacing. Strange having a load
of Mullard, Brimar and Z&I Aero valves to test
Meat Plow
Since the heater wiring is twisted it would be a good idea to replace if
it is that poor of a state. I don't recall ever seeing the LV wiring in
any Fender of that era in that state and the state of all the wiring is
what I usually inspect first on any P2P wired vintage amp.
Jeff Layman
> Closer look and the cotton covering to the wiring between the output heaters
> is "perished", crumbling to dust, and needs replacing. Strange having a load
> of Mullard, Brimar and Z&I Aero valves to test
Z&I Aero!!! I haven't heard that name for over 40 years. That was when
their shop in Tottenham Court Road was worth visiting, followed by a
stroll to Proops, and then onto Lisle Street. Are there any surplus
places worth visiting today?
--
Jeff
Arfa Daily
"Jeff Layman" <jmla...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:i7dh7q$uq6$1...@news.albasani.net...
I still have a Z&I Aero (Zaerix) glossy covered catalogue / data book in
near pristine condition. It has data on lovely old things like VCR97 'scope
tubes, and has all the prices in pounds, shillings and pence ! Oh those
lovely old days of skiving off school for the day and jumping on the train
to London to go to Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street. Into Henry's Radio
... I bought my first 'hifi' amplifier in Proops. It's a Teleton SAQ-307.
It's here in the computer room with me, and I'm looking at it right now.
Still works as good as the day it was bought. Only about 8 watts per channel
as I recall, but punched way above that weight. It drives my EMI 13 x 8 cabs
with 7 x 5 mids and Eagle dome tweeters. The EMIs came from Henry's and the
Eagles from Maplin I think, but might have been Tandy (Radio Shack). I also
have the matching Teleton GT-203 tuner, and then the Nikko ND-790 cassette
deck. Remember those ? All together, it was the classic "poor man's" hifi
rig of the early 70s.
I think most of the wonderful old junk shops have pretty much gone now, but
I think that Anchor Supplies up in Nottingham is still going. Remember AH
Supplies ? They used to advertise every month in Practically Witless
magazine, and I bought a lot of ex WW2 radios like 19 sets and an R1392 and
a Wavemeter D from them. I have a feeling that they might still be going in
one form or another. I'm also pretty sure that Birketts over in Lincoln
somewhere are still going too. Then there was John's Radio, and Bull
Electrical. Happy days ... Blimey. I've just looked up John's Radio, and
they are still going !
Arfa
Engineer
Tottenham Court Road... Proops... Lisle Street...
Brings back memories!
Cheers,
Roger
(in Canada since 1970...)
N_Cook
The conductor size, under the insulation, is only 0.7mm presumably not
enough for the current plus localised heating. Will replace with silicon
sleeved wire with "Refrasil" glass sleeving over that , dulled down with
dark green permanent ink felt tip pen, gives a very convincing contemporary
look, and surprisingly does not wipe off the glass
Ron
Teleton SAQ-307! yes I had one o them. Marvelous amplifier, didn't it
have some unusual feature for it's day, slider control or something?
I had mine in my shop driving a stack consiting of a 15" Gauss in a
home made Altec Voice of the Theatre copy, a 12" Gauss VotT copy and a
whopping great Vitavox multicell horn (courtesy of the recently closed
local ODEON). No electronic crossovers in those days!
Even tho it was only a few watts, it could visibly make the shop window
shake in time to the music (Dark Side of the Moon - Most impressive)
Ron(UK)
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N_Cook
before soldering. Although original wiring , a 6L6 socket has been replaced
at some time. Did he swap around the wires and so the heater pinning is
different? . The original "push" pair have opposite polarity pinning for the
heaters of each but the "pull" pair, with the replaced socket, are same
"polarity". I'm inclined to replace the wiring with both pairs having
alternate polarity
N_Cook
news:xtmdnahND7U6vgbR...@bt.com...
I had one of those from a local cinema, half the weight was the loose sand
fill between the cells
Jeff Layman
>
>
> news:i7dh7q$uq6$1...@news.albasani.net...
>> On 22/09/2010 17:39, N_Cook wrote:
>>
>>> Closer look and the cotton covering to the wiring between the output
>>> heaters
>>> is "perished", crumbling to dust, and needs replacing. Strange having
>>> a load
>>> of Mullard, Brimar and Z&I Aero valves to test
>>
>> Z&I Aero!!! I haven't heard that name for over 40 years. That was when
>> their shop in Tottenham Court Road was worth visiting, followed by a
>> stroll to Proops, and then onto Lisle Street. Are there any surplus
>> places worth visiting today?
>>
>> --
>>
>> Jeff
>
> I still have a Z&I Aero (Zaerix) glossy covered catalogue / data book in
> near pristine condition. It has data on lovely old things like VCR97
> 'scope tubes, and has all the prices in pounds, shillings and pence ! Oh
> those lovely old days of skiving off school for the day and jumping on
> the train to London to go to Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street. Into
> Teleton SAQ-307. It's here in the computer room with me, and I'm looking
> at it right now. Still works as good as the day it was bought. Only
> about 8 watts per channel as I recall, but punched way above that
> weight. It drives my EMI 13 x 8 cabs with 7 x 5 mids and Eagle dome
> tweeters. The EMIs came from Henry's and the Eagles from Maplin I think,
> but might have been Tandy (Radio Shack). I also have the matching
> Teleton GT-203 tuner, and then the Nikko ND-790 cassette deck. Remember
> those ? All together, it was the classic "poor man's" hifi rig of the
> early 70s.
>
> I think most of the wonderful old junk shops have pretty much gone now,
> but I think that Anchor Supplies up in Nottingham is still going.
> Remember AH Supplies ? They used to advertise every month in Practically
> Witless magazine, and I bought a lot of ex WW2 radios like 19 sets and
> an R1392 and a Wavemeter D from them. I have a feeling that they might
> still be going in one form or another. I'm also pretty sure that
> Birketts over in Lincoln somewhere are still going too. Then there was
> John's Radio, and Bull Electrical. Happy days ... Blimey. I've just
> looked up John's Radio, and they are still going !
I used to visit GWM in Worthing till they closed down in 2003. But I
didn't know they had simply moved. Some interesting stuff here:
http://gwmradio.netfirms.com/stocklistuk.html.
With regard to Z&IAero, in the early 70s I worked at a company where the
electronics guy was Polish. Somehow the subject of Z&I came up. He
said that Z&I were a front for a communist spy group! I Suppose
anything is possible, but how they made much money out of pile of dusty
and dirty ex-WWII (and earlier!) crap I don't know I actually bought an
ancient Cossor 3339 from them. It didn't work and I never got it
working. No doubt every capacitor was suspect as they would have been
30 or 40 years old by then, and heaven knows where it had been stored.
--
Jeff
Archon
>
>
> "Jeff Layman" <jmla...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
> news:i7dh7q$uq6$1...@news.albasani.net...
>> On 22/09/2010 17:39, N_Cook wrote:
>>
>>> Closer look and the cotton covering to the wiring between the output
>>> heaters
>>> is "perished", crumbling to dust, and needs replacing. Strange having
>>> a load
>>> of Mullard, Brimar and Z&I Aero valves to test
>>
>> Z&I Aero!!! I haven't heard that name for over 40 years. That was when
>> their shop in Tottenham Court Road was worth visiting, followed by a
>> stroll to Proops, and then onto Lisle Street. Are there any surplus
>> places worth visiting today?
>>
>> --
>>
>> Jeff
>
> I still have a Z&I Aero (Zaerix) glossy covered catalogue / data book in
> near pristine condition. It has data on lovely old things like VCR97
> 'scope tubes, and has all the prices in pounds, shillings and pence ! Oh
> those lovely old days of skiving off school for the day and jumping on
> the train to London to go to Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street. Into
> Henry's Radio ... I bought my first 'hifi' amplifier in Proops.
> Arfa
I'm surprised you didn't build the "Texan amplifier" sold by Henry's,
http://www.angelfire.com/sd/paulkemble/sound8h.html
I must have built 10 of those for me and my mates, then spent many happy
hours replacing the unprotected output transistors! They did sound good
cranked up (with a good heatsink)!
JC
Arfa Daily
>>
>> Arfa
>
> Teleton SAQ-307! yes I had one o them. Marvelous amplifier, didn't it have
> some unusual feature for it's day, slider control or something?
> I had mine in my shop driving a stack consiting of a 15" Gauss in a home
> made Altec Voice of the Theatre copy, a 12" Gauss VotT copy and a whopping
> great Vitavox multicell horn (courtesy of the recently closed local
> ODEON). No electronic crossovers in those days!
> Even tho it was only a few watts, it could visibly make the shop window
> shake in time to the music (Dark Side of the Moon - Most impressive)
>
> Ron(UK)
>
The treble and bass controls are sliders, Ron. I was always told that this
amp was designed in Germany, and built in Japan. You can't get above about
number 4 on the volume knob before it's blowing the glass out of the
windows. As you say, a marvelous amp for its day, and based on the crap I
see now on a daily basis, still up there in terms of performance. There were
actually several versions of it, as I recall. The name Solatron or Solarton
maybe, comes to mind as another version ??
Arfa
Arfa Daily
"Archon" <Chipbee4...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:DARmo.155010$Qg.3...@en-nntp-04.dc1.easynews.com...
Oh, I did. I built probably three all told, and then a Mark 2 for a friend.
He's still got it I think. I'll ask next time I see him. That was a
Practically Witless project, designed by a couple of lads from Texas
Instruments just up the road from me in Bedford. I went to college with a
lad from the same department, but not directly involved in the design.
I used to build lots of projects from that mag. Like 'The Clubman'
transistorised HF receiver. Jackson Bros tuning gang with 6:1 epicyclic ball
reduction drive. Repanco and Denco coils. Remember those ? Different colour
plastic former for each function, and they plugged into B9A valve holders. I
also built an audio amp that used those output transistors that looked like
TO3s that had shrunk in the wash. Can't remember the type numbers of them
now. I still have that amp under the bench in the workshop, and it still
worked last time I put it on. I also built the famous PW frequency counter
that used those seven segment filament displays, and a cartload of 74 series
TTL. Don't build too much any more, except bits of special purpose test
equipment to make my life easier.
Arfa
N_Cook
news:DARmo.155010$Qg.3...@en-nntp-04.dc1.easynews.com...
I hve a non-worker Texan on a shelf. Wood cased , slimline due to the
transformer form-factor. Unprotected from high dV/dt I remember, first time
I came across fridges blowing amps
N_Cook
Not very convincing , some sort of legacy site?
"Page info " dates like 24 October 2003 13:55:48, and 24 October 2003
15:07:28, even for "New In" page info date 24 October 2003 14:43:53
I will try phoning to confirm -( isn't high tech marvelous) but
GWM Radio, 63 Victoria Road, Worthing
is indeed different to the Portland something address. I used to drop in,
going to Brighton
Jeff Layman
>>
>> I used to visit GWM in Worthing till they closed down in 2003. But I
>> didn't know they had simply moved. Some interesting stuff here:
>> http://gwmradio.netfirms.com/stocklistuk.html.
>>
>
>
> Not very convincing , some sort of legacy site?
> "Page info " dates like 24 October 2003 13:55:48, and 24 October 2003
> 15:07:28, even for "New In" page info date 24 October 2003 14:43:53
> I will try phoning to confirm -( isn't high tech marvelous) but
> GWM Radio, 63 Victoria Road, Worthing
> is indeed different to the Portland something address. I used to drop in,
> going to Brighton
You're right. I didn't notice the 2003 dates!
But there was an interesting link to some European dealers on their
"Links" page. The link ended up somewhere else, but on that page it
pointed to http://home.kpn.nl/angrynine/surplus2.htm. One or two German
sites listed there were also in English. May be worth a browse sometime.
--
Jeff
N_Cook
phone number is defunct. Looks like they moved in 2003 and closed in 2008.
I keep seeing ref to the Freidrikshaven radio rally on the RSGB rallies
page.
http://www.rsgb.org/events/index.php
How many Brits go there to buy junk ?
Arfa Daily
"N_Cook" <div...@tcp.co.uk> wrote in message
news:i7hjqt$l1n$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
From what I remember, the Mark II version addressed those problems. It was a
very highly specced amp in its day.
Arfa