Wow, you guys have been busy since I've been gone!!
I've been thinking about buying this amp, but if one of you guys wants to take a run at it, I'll gladly step out of the way.
Just let me know, because if I don't hear from anybody, I'll may start bidding with about 10 seconds left on the auction.
Snipearoo!!
Gents, I've gotten the same pics from the seller. I also asked him to pull the chassis and give me a pic.
No such luck, though the seller did provide his phone number, instead. That's nice, but doesn't provide a picture of the chassis.
I'm sort of expecting that the reverb pan will be in there (not withstanding the auction language to the contrary), but you never know.
Here are the variables I'm considering:
Speakers: two Jensen speakers and a CTS speaker.
A) The 15" is a '67, not a '57 (as the Seller believes). It's a model C-15PS speaker, coded 220749.
It's a ceramic magnet Jensen, so it wouldn't be manufactured in the '50's.
Therefore, in this case, number code 220749 means:
1) 220= Jensen EIA code
2) 7= '67 year of manufacture
3) 49= 49th week of the year, while
C-15PS means:
4) C=ceramic magnet
5) 15=15" speaker size
6) P is the letter speaker grade; stronger than a Q or an R (found in Fender 4x10 bassman amps, Qs in the later ones, that is,
'59 or '60) but weaker than an N model (found in Twin Reverbs and Epiphone EA-300 RVTs)
7) S is for Special. A senior member of the LTG 'amp advisory board', who resides in Fla., but shall not otherwise be named or
mentioned, tells me that PS speaks were found in Dano and Silvertone amps (did I get that right, CJ?). If that's the original
cone and it's in good shape, it's may be a nice speaker for a guitar amp. On the other hand, Jensen was making some
pretty stiff cones by '67 (at least on a pair of '67 C12Ns that I passed on). Combined with a 15" size, that might not sound
great. Probably not terrible, maybe good, but not the best 15" speaker you ever heard......
B) The 'silver' 8" Jensen looks like the kind of speak found in Champs/VibroChamps. Wonder what the ohm rating is?
It would be a 4 ohm speak if it came out of a Champ. Wonder what kind of ohm load the amp is seeing from those 8" speaks?
C) The CTS speaker looks just like the one in my Thunder 1 RVT. The speaker code 137 548 means:
1) 137= EIA (Electronics Industry Association) code for CTS (Chicago Telephone Supply)
2) 5= '65 year of manufacture
3) 48= week of the year manufacture
Speaker $ value:
If I were gonna buy this amp, I'd value the two Jensens around $100, if they turn out to be in good, original shape.
'I'd give em a good getting rid of', as we say in Texas, take the money and buy a good 12" speak, after getting the template for a new particle board speaker-baffle from one of the brotherhood.
Speaker-board grille:
That's the original stuff, but it looks wavy and loose on the dark-side edge. I wonder if it's been cut a bit short and will always show the edge of the baffle on the sides?
Shipping:
Well, I'd pay more for shipping than the Seller wants and get him to ship the speakers and tubes separately.
I'd leave the plywood baffle-board in place, because it might help keep the crumbly Particle-board cab together.
I don't know if I'd ask the seller to take the chassis out and ship it separately (depends on his ability to pack a bare chassis), though that would certainly be the best bet for getting the cab in one piece and the chassis from breaking loose and rolling around. Particle-board cabs can have bad mojo, for sure. Somebody sees some water damage in a corner, right? That could be really bad in shipping, right?
Chassis:
There's no telling what's going on in the reverb section. It might be simple, it might not. $$$???
Finally, go back and look at the big Power Transformer in the pic that John Kidder provided. Why?
The paint is dripping off the trannie. Anybody think that it got really, really hot, like there's been some kind of 'thermal transformer event' that took place when a power tube socket arced, or something??
I dunno, maybe I'm wrong. 10 years ago, I would have looked at the PT and thought, 'Wow, they didn't paint it very well at the transformer plant.' Now, I just suspect 'foul play'. Old age breeds fear and paranoia, don't it??
gilded