slider313 Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 I sold an Eminence Wizard to a local dude at the beginning of the week and asked him what he was putting it in. He say's,"a '65 Ampeg Reverberockt R12-R-T. Well, I had the exact amp about 20 years ago and gigged with it often. That specific circuit just sounds "magical". It has just the right amount of break up and crunch and is a very punchy 18 watts. It was the last top loaded version of this model and IMHO the best sounding. I ask if he's interested in selling it and he say's maybe. He emails me and say's the Wizard sounds real good but he thinks it needs a tube or something because it's crackling and breaking up in an odd way. I ask if he would be interested in a trade for my Weber 5E7 Bandmaster clone, he say's yes but on a gentlemans handshake we can reverse the deal if either of us is unhappy with the trade within 48 hours. I agree and am now the owner of my new/old R12-R-T! Whoever did the "repair" to it didn't have very good soldering skills and there was a resistor in the pramp that had one "leg" basically disconnected. Hit a bass note or push the amp and it crackles and cuts in and out. Well it's fixed now! These early Ampegs also have the best reverb I've ever heard and the trem is quite nice also. The tube line up is not common; two 7868 power tubes, two 12ax7's, a 6U10 and a 6BK11. This amp sounds great with any guitar and really excels when you plug in a strat or tele.
Spectrum13 Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 Nice Slider.... Love our collection of 3 ampegs 1313 they made several variations of that model. Never saw that configuration.
gopeteygo Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 From one Ampeg owner to another....that's COOL! And it looks like it's in great shape!
slider313 Posted December 14, 2009 Author Posted December 14, 2009 Spectrum13...thanks. Yeah, Ampeg was constantly changing their circuits and trying different tubes. This was the last top loaded Reverberocket. By mid-late '65 the Reverberocket II came out, which was front loaded and had a completely different circuit and tube line-up. gopeteygo... thanks, it is in great shape and came with the original cover.
slider313 Posted December 15, 2009 Author Posted December 15, 2009 Brent, it's an 18 watt amp but it has plenty of balls. It can get some nice Marshall like crunch when you push it but it holds it together real well with the right speaker. Sort of a mini HiWatt with reverb and trem.
slider313 Posted December 16, 2009 Author Posted December 16, 2009 Nice!! Looks Brand New! Yeah Scott, it's in real good shape. The old matching grey cover is even real clean. He also gave me the original speaker, a Jensen C12R, which is in great condition. Those small magnet Jensens break up real quick and are good if your going to do some low volume recording.
slider313 Posted January 3, 2010 Author Posted January 3, 2010 Well, I had to order a cap can as that was the last part needing updating. The electrolytic caps for the power supply are in this can, which has four sections; 60uf/40uf/10uf@450v and 20uf@25v and was used to save space as there wasn't room in the chassis for single caps. Remember, the caps used in the early 60's were much larger than today's caps. The problem was finding the correct values...which no one stocks. I couldn't even order a custom made can at these values from Weber. That left only one choice...find the closest one and use single caps for the values not offered. I found a 40uf/40uf/20uf/20uf@525v can and tied one of the 40uf's with one of the 20uf's for the 60uf section, used the other 40uf for the second section and used single caps at 10uf@450 and 25uf@25v. This is one of the things you encounter when specific parts are no longer available. If you want the amp to be dependable and sounding as good as it can sound, this is what it takes to restore it to spec. I found the Weber 12F150 to sound best with this circuit after working with a few different speakers.
Kuz Posted January 6, 2010 Posted January 6, 2010 I don't know what you said there Mike, but the way you said it is the reason why you are servicing my vintage '67 Vibrolux!
slider313 Posted January 9, 2010 Author Posted January 9, 2010 I don't know what you said there Mike, but the way you said it is the reason why you are servicing my vintage '67 Vibrolux! And it's a good one! I may have to just keep it!
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