212Mavguy Posted April 13, 2016 Posted April 13, 2016 Sorry, no pics. Rhonda Jean the trailer trash Queen is a '65 Lectrolab R600C 1/12 blonde tweed combo, has the compressed paper board baffle top, bottom and back baffle, only wood is the sides of the amp, solid pine. Cheesy blonde cloth long since worn off the corners as well as some wood. Came with a Jensen p12r, pair of el84's in cathode bias, 6v4 rec tube, a bias trem section driver 6au6, 12ax7 PI and 12ax7 V1, a very simple flying point to point build with less than a handful of terminal strips. Likes to sustain and has a warm, syrupy tone, quick to break up and long sustain, compressed more than bouncy. Unusually rich and musical harmonic content from previously reworked preamp tone cap swapout. Final mod following speaker, tube, and tone cap swaps: Replace stock output transformer with a more robust one. Found a 35w Japanese wire and iron and labor made with huge primary current rating, easily enough for a pair of el34's much less a pair of el84. Brand is Tomiko, 8k primary to 4/8/16 secondaries, also 43% screen taps for ultralinear hookup (didn't use). It has easily four times the mass of the stock one. and very wide, even frequency response. I mounted it with t-nuts in the bottom of the cab and ran primary wires extended some inches up to the power tube sockets inside the chassis. The sound was breath taking right from the get go. More headroom big bottom and lower end that sounded effortless, much more dynamic in volume to pick attack than before, crisp top end, and the best part of all the sustain and warm harmonic colors in the tones were there and enhanced. There is a fullness and at the same time sweetness that is jaw dropping. Each guitar sounds like that guitar, but you hear a lot of detail in the sustainful decay, definitely more musical sounidng, made the best parts of the amp sound better with no drawbacks, so easy to play through as far as pick feel, forgiving, yet authority in fullness with clarity when called for. So there was a fair amount of work involved to have the success, but once again choosing an appropriate upgrade output transformer helps that vintage preamp design to sound more like that circuit and that instrument playing through it than before, winner winner steak crab dinner! I have done something very similar to RJ's sister amp, a basement storage Cinderella story rescue, '61 Harmony H-306A, for that one I had used a scavenged early 60's Magnatone 20w PA output tranny, it was similarly massive is mass and sound as well, the two amps are identical in size and cab type, both have early 60's University Diffusicone 12's in them, one is 6v6 based and this one is el84. They sound amazing in stereo. It's possible and affordable to turn a vintage cheese into a pretty cool rat rod amp or pair for not a lot of $$ if you buy the right amps and parts, some of them at the right time.
Gitfiddler Posted April 13, 2016 Posted April 13, 2016 Great amp tale, as usual, Mavguy! Is this like your Rhonda Jean? According to this write-up, the Lectroab and Harmony were sisters! https://lectrolab.wordpress.com/lectrolab-models/r600/
kbp810 Posted April 13, 2016 Posted April 13, 2016 It's possible and affordable to turn a vintage cheese into a pretty cool rat rod amp or pair for not a lot of $$ if you buy the right amps and parts, some of them at the right time. Great words to live by right there.
212Mavguy Posted April 13, 2016 Author Posted April 13, 2016 Great amp tale, as usual, Mavguy! Is this like your Rhonda Jean? According to this write-up, the Lectroab and Harmony were sisters! https://lectrolab.wordpress.com/lectrolab-models/r600/ Yes, exactly!
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