chongmagic
Well-known member
Visited my uncle today and he gave me this amp. It needs a good cleaning and has seen better days but going to try and restore it.
Maestro Amp
- Thread starter chongmagic
- Start date
chongmagic
Well-known member
Has the original Gibson labelled tubes still in it.
chongmagic
Well-known member
Definitely didn't try plugging it in. If you notice on the chassis, the spot for the fuse holder is missing. Opened the chassis and someone had bypassed the fuse completely and connected the wires with electrical tape.
chongmagic
Well-known member
This thing is a mess, looks like a majority of the wiring is toast, pots might be able to be salvaged. I have only built new amps and never tried to salvage or restore one. Honest opinion is this thing worth wasting time on?
Came with these:
Came with these:
Those look like ceramic disc caps tucked under the resistors.
chongmagic
Well-known member
Yes, it is a strange little amp, has tremolo built in. But to use the reverb you have to clip the leads onto another amp speaker.
Feral Feline
Well-known member
I think it's worth restoring if you're keeping it, family heirloom. Wish I had an uncle like that.
If you want to flip it for a quick buck, then it's not worth restoring and you can donate it to me — naturally I'll pay shipping.
If you want to flip it for a quick buck, then it's not worth restoring and you can donate it to me — naturally I'll pay shipping.
To be real safe you’re going to have to go through every component, the cc reaistors may have absorded moisture, the capa may have broken down and now DC leaky. The big one is if the speaker is still good.
I did a 1957 phillips receiver, all the black h pitch caps had to be replaced, the metal tin electrolytic needed a replacement etc. i hand to make a shunt transformer to reduce the wall voltage.
Assume a 3 conductor cable, death cap removal and check that the chassis is not a live one.
I did a 1957 phillips receiver, all the black h pitch caps had to be replaced, the metal tin electrolytic needed a replacement etc. i hand to make a shunt transformer to reduce the wall voltage.
Assume a 3 conductor cable, death cap removal and check that the chassis is not a live one.
chongmagic
Well-known member
Yeah definitely will remove the death cap and install a modern 3 conductor power cable. Strange that someone just removed the fuse and connected the wires together. So who knows how many components are fried.
chongmagic
Well-known member
Any good tips on cleaning up the chassis?
chongmagic
Well-known member
I have a variac that I have used for building amps.
Just be careful of the faceplate cleaning, some of the old vintage stuff becomes easy to dislodge due to age, even with water. Clean, dry and possibly clear coat it to protect the decals.
The speaker will be interesting - I can't see it but given the age, it may be used as a choke with a electro magnet rather than a ceramic/alnico. There are paper rebuilding/reconing speaker specialists, not cheap but will do the job if that's terminal.
Lastly check for wood bugs.. older amps get left in rooms and other locations out of the way.. the same places woodworm etc likes.
Question is - do you want an old looking amp with rejuvenated innards or a cleaner restored outer with a clean front mesh?
If it was me, I'd quickly check the power and output transformers (out of circuit), I'd strip it down, treat the corrosion on the chassis (assuming there's no manufacturing stamps etc). Test each component, and make the chassis and speaker both safe and functional. There's a risk doing the outside beyond a simple dust.. when you start cleaning you can rinse out dyes, warp wood, and it will not be back to 'new' anyway... so I'd probably do that - dust/vacuum it, stablise any rips/tears and carefully clean up the face place if it can take it.. The switch gear/lamp/pots can be changed and still have the same look and feel so that's not a biggie to resolve. On the speaker - you want to check this first, if you're going to restore it.. then sending it away and getting it back takes time.
All in all, there's nothing that should stop you from having an operational piece of history. I had a rock salt needle stylus on my receiver - they degrade over time and so do the spares whilst on the shelves, the result is there's no replacement possible, the rest works really well (at least until they retire AM/FM), the magic eye works still, and at the moment the EZ80 is sat in my guitar amp
The speaker will be interesting - I can't see it but given the age, it may be used as a choke with a electro magnet rather than a ceramic/alnico. There are paper rebuilding/reconing speaker specialists, not cheap but will do the job if that's terminal.
Lastly check for wood bugs.. older amps get left in rooms and other locations out of the way.. the same places woodworm etc likes.
Question is - do you want an old looking amp with rejuvenated innards or a cleaner restored outer with a clean front mesh?
If it was me, I'd quickly check the power and output transformers (out of circuit), I'd strip it down, treat the corrosion on the chassis (assuming there's no manufacturing stamps etc). Test each component, and make the chassis and speaker both safe and functional. There's a risk doing the outside beyond a simple dust.. when you start cleaning you can rinse out dyes, warp wood, and it will not be back to 'new' anyway... so I'd probably do that - dust/vacuum it, stablise any rips/tears and carefully clean up the face place if it can take it.. The switch gear/lamp/pots can be changed and still have the same look and feel so that's not a biggie to resolve. On the speaker - you want to check this first, if you're going to restore it.. then sending it away and getting it back takes time.
All in all, there's nothing that should stop you from having an operational piece of history. I had a rock salt needle stylus on my receiver - they degrade over time and so do the spares whilst on the shelves, the result is there's no replacement possible, the rest works really well (at least until they retire AM/FM), the magic eye works still, and at the moment the EZ80 is sat in my guitar amp
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