My vintage amp Christmas present.

Ascension

Ascension

Well-known member
I once owned a 1959 Gibsonett so knew how to read the Jenson Speaker date codes. 220233 is the 33rd week of 1952 so this appears to be a 1952 or 53 BA-6 Gibson. My son found it while helping a buddy clean out his family estate. Looks all original and every thing seems to be intact except the handle which snapped off as soon as it was attempted to be picked up. Just got it home and cleaned up a little and will get to pulling it apart in the next day or so to see what I find internally. Power chord is original and so brittle it just crumbles and it's a given all the filter caps are toast so have to go through the little beast before I can see what I have to work with. Tubes and speaker appear to be originals and these little amps can produce some really nice tones. It's a sure bet that this one will be brought back to life so keep you guys posted.




 
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Re: My vintage amp Christmas present.

looks nice

please post as you go along

this is fascinating for me
 
Re: My vintage amp Christmas present.

Great score. I'd love to have that one, since it kinda matches my 1998 Gibson Goldtone in brown tolex.

I'm surprised that the prices on vintage Gibson amps isn't sky high. Refurbishing old ones would be a good hobby/business for someone. I love the well used look of yours, and would keep it just like that with a fully serviced chassis.
 
Re: My vintage amp Christmas present.

Gearjoneser said:
Great score. I'd love to have that one, since it kinda matches my 1998 Gibson Goldtone in brown tolex.

I'm surprised that the prices on vintage Gibson amps isn't sky high. Refurbishing old ones would be a good hobby/business for someone. I love the well used look of yours, and would keep it just like that with a fully serviced chassis.
Click to expand...
Thanks man. I also am surprised these old 1950's - mid 60's Gibson Amps are not more sought after as ever one of them I have played through sounded really nice.
I had a 1959 Gibsonette at one time and it was real tone machine. stupidly sold it during a really hard time and have wanted another one for years. I hope this one once i get it fired up sounds as good.
I intend to carefully re-glue the Tolex where it has come loose and clean it up a little more but will keep it as original as I can.
 
Re: My vintage amp Christmas present.

Myaccount876 said:
I'm sure you already know this, but change that power cord to a new three prong.
Click to expand...

Have to as the old chord is literately so brittle it just crumbles. Will also replace all the old paper caps before it gets fired up.
Biggest challenge right now is what to use to re-glue this thin brittle 60+ year old covering without damaging it. I need to stabilize it before I can tear the amp down or risk destroying much of the covering.
 
Re: My vintage amp Christmas present.

I think we'd enjoy it if you document your whole process of fixing it up. Those are always the coolest types of threads.

Godspeed.
 
Re: My vintage amp Christmas present.

Today got a new type adhesive to try on re-ataching the old covering and it worked well.
Went from THIS ( trust me it doesn't show how bad it really was here!)

To THIS as of a few minuets ago



Needs a full day to fully dry so will get into the internals in a day or so to see what I'm working with.
The old covering (60 years + old and looks like a kind of thin tweed of some type) was so fragile I wanted to get it stabilized before i dove into the internals.
This was the glue I used and it so far is impressive.
 
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