little old amps.

[dd12939]

I was in a little shop on Friday afternoon and got to play for a little while through this lunch-box-sized Montgomery Ward amp. It had a volume knob, tone knob, one 6V6...
Aside from the crackling in the tone knob when it wasn't at '0' or '10', the little thing sounded great. With the tone down and the volume between 3 and 5, it had a great little jazzy chord tone, and pushing the volume up to 8 or so got just a little fuzzy edge on it - cool for blues. Putting the tone on 10 made the thing WAY bright, but in a good, bell-like ringing chord kind of way.
The guy asked $325 for it. I figure I could have walked in there with 3 $100 bills and gotten it though, especially with the crackly tone pot.

I was thinking though - this circuit can't be that complicated - It might make a cool amp-making-learning project. So a) do you amp-smart people think that type of amp would be a good first project (given plenty of research and etc) and b) where could I find such a schematic?
Thanks

here are some pix i found on ebay that look similar(but the one i played wasn't branded Airline)

 

[dd12939]

Re: little old amps.

*up*

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: little old amps.

Airlines were usually made by Valco- basically the same thing as a Supro in a different cabinet. Cool little amps.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: little old amps.

It's likely quite similar to a Champ. IIRC,
Schematic Heaven has a good assortment of "bargain amp" schematics. Look for a Supru/Valco/Monkey Ward model with a 12AX78, 6V6, volume, and tone and you've likely found it.

An you're right, building it would not be hard. Begin the journey at AX84.com.

 

[seafoamer]

Re: little old amps.

I love old valco type amps. $325 is way too much for an amp like that. U can get em for around $200-250.
Here's 2 of mine:

 

[chcjunior]

Re: little old amps.

I'm waiting on the Champ Head kit I purchased recently. The basic model runs $212 and comes with illustrated instructions.

http://www.stf-electronics.com/

 

[dd12939]

Re: little old amps.

It's likely quite similar to a Champ. IIRC,
Schematic Heaven has a good assortment of "bargain amp" schematics. Look for a Supru/Valco/Monkey Ward model with a 12AX78, 6V6, volume, and tone and you've likely found it.

An you're right, building it would not be hard. Begin the journey at AX84.com.

Thanks Rich - something like this?

Edit: i don't see a tone knob on that amp though. Could I add one? no TMB stuff - just a simple treble-rolloff thing.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: little old amps.

Thanks Rich - something like this?

Edit: i don't see a tone knob on that amp though. Could I add one? no TMB stuff - just a simple treble-rolloff thing.

That's probably close enough. You might want to compare/contrast that schematic with a tweed Princeton. That was a 2-tube design with a tone control. Tweed Champs had no tone control, later black/silverface Champs had treble & bass. Simpler is better - a single tone (or no tone) will give you more gain thean a TB stack.

Pick up a copy of Dave Hunter's new book The Guitar Amp Handbook for a good overview. Then, either build from scratch or buy and mod a kit to taste. Good DIY amp pages:

Hoffman (check out the forum)

AX84

Weber

18Watt.com

Ampage

PM me if you get lost...