A novel guitar amp ! - Page 2 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

avocollector · 24th Jul 2017, 9:35 am

This was a Sears sold product back in the day (50's 60's). This was this model where the guitar (1 pickup) and amplifier sold for $70 ish US and another, more expensive model which had a similar built in amp (2 pickups on the guitar) BUT with a proper mains transformer cost $100+. Besides Danelectro several other firms tried this amp in a case idea and it is quite useful for band practices for example where you don't want to lug your main amp. What makes the cheaper amp an even more lethal combination is that Fender Stratocaster guitars and a lot of others for example have the earth side of the output jack connected to the strings via a wire to the tailpiece. Which means if your amp chassis is live as can happen with ac/dc stuff and you touch a properly earthed amp stand with the other hand on your strings - it's lights out and no waking up. On older more expensive amps (Fender) they used to have 'ground switches' to deal with this problem - you basically did your set up then checked any voltage between the mic stand and the amp with a meter - if there was you flipped the ground switch and it vanished - in theory. I'd never operate this cheap amp without the isolating stepdown transformer.

24th Jul 2017, 9:35 am	#21
avocollector Heptode Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Wellington, New Zealand. Posts: 653	Re: A novel guitar amp ! This was a Sears sold product back in the day (50's 60's). This was this model where the guitar (1 pickup) and amplifier sold for $70 ish US and another, more expensive model which had a similar built in amp (2 pickups on the guitar) BUT with a proper mains transformer cost $100+. Besides Danelectro several other firms tried this amp in a case idea and it is quite useful for band practices for example where you don't want to lug your main amp. What makes the cheaper amp an even more lethal combination is that Fender Stratocaster guitars and a lot of others for example have the earth side of the output jack connected to the strings via a wire to the tailpiece. Which means if your amp chassis is live as can happen with ac/dc stuff and you touch a properly earthed amp stand with the other hand on your strings - it's lights out and no waking up. On older more expensive amps (Fender) they used to have 'ground switches' to deal with this problem - you basically did your set up then checked any voltage between the mic stand and the amp with a meter - if there was you flipped the ground switch and it vanished - in theory. I'd never operate this cheap amp without the isolating stepdown transformer.