HarpAmps Home
HarpAmps Pages
Recent Posts
Archives
Canned eBay
Related Links
April 22, 2008
  One of the First Premier Amps?
This showed up on eBay. It is a very early (1946-1948) Premier amp. I am guessing the date from the fact that it uses 7C5 tubes instead of the 6V6. The 7C5 is a locking tube designed for use in things like car radios and other applications where the tubes might shake loose.

Premier used these "loctal" tubes on their Model "O" and the very early Model 50s. Since these are all 1948 or earlier amps, I guess that this unknown model Premier is from the same time frame. The Field Coil speaker also dates it very early. After around 1950 Alnico magnets were easy enough to get for speakers so Field Coils speakers were not used. The grill clothe is similar to the mid 1940s Model "O", as well.

By the way, it is usually a no-brainer to replace the Field Coil speaker with a better sounding modern speaker. All you have to do is put a resistor across the speaker power lead to keep the transformer happy. (Don't throw out the vintage speaker in case some day you want to restore the amp to its original configuration.)
OK, here you have a VERY old Premier harp amp. I'm guessing early 50s. It's not working, but I think all it needs is some new filter caps which I am including, as well as two complete sets of NOS tubes. It runs on 2 x 7C5 (locatal version of 6V6) power tubes, a 5Y4 rectifier and 7N7 and 6SJ7 pre-amp tubes. It has a 10 inch Emerson field coil speaker that looks like it needs a recone to me (Ted Weber & co. will do that fairly inexpensively). It also has a 'clicker' tone knob and a regular volume control. I also have a schematic for this somewhere which I'll throw in. I snagged this as a project for our harp player, but before I could get anyone to help me restore it he got a Gibson harp amp he loves. Anyway, this would probably be a real sweet harp mp with just a quick cap job and $60 speaker recone. It's all original except i did change the power cord and clip the 'death' cap. And the handle was missing when i got it.
 
April 08, 2008
  Blues Harp Amps
Blues Harp Amps has some nice blogging on my favorite subject. Check out the old gibson and JT-30 that he has for sale. He's practically giving it away! 
April 04, 2008
  Amp Show 2008
Coming up Saturday, May 10, 2008 the 2008 Amp Show will be coming to Piscataway, N.J.

There may be a couple of good harp amps. This show did not have much in the way of vintage gear or boxes of junk to pick through in previous years. If you go bring a JT-30 and and a harp and plug into a few amps and see how they stack up harp-wise.

Demo, compare, and evaluate, Exotic Boutique, Custom, Prototype, and Production models at Real World‚ levels. Test the amps, cabinets, speakers, effects, and pickups, that make up the classic, vintage, and the cutting edge of the electrified instrument world.

Over 45 exhibitors including: 65amps, Ark, AXL, Celestion, Egnater, Electro Harmonix, Fender, Fuchs, Goodsell, GoodTone, Hermida Audio, Line 6 Madd Professor, Marshall, Pure 64, Sommatone, Top Hat, Tube Wonder, Two Rock, Vox and more.

"TONE WIZARDS" forum discussion with Q&A & more TBA.

GoodTone’s "AMP BIASING CLINIC" • "Pedalboard From Hell"

40+ demo rooms where you can plug in and play at real world levels, the most exotic
boutique and finest production bass and guitar amps, pedals, and pickups available.
 
  Vintage Hi-Fi Equipment EXPO
Vacuum Tube Valley is having there Vintage Hi-Fi Equipment EXPO staring this June. The dates are June 1, July 27, September 28, and October 28.

Location is Blue Lakes Lodge, Hwy 20, Blue Lakes, CA.

Located in Northern California.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view and purchase rare, museum and collector quality vintage tube hi-fi amps, tuners, receivers, preamps, speakers, books, parts and tubes. Thousands of items.
 
April 02, 2008
  Masters TVA30 tube guitar amplifier class A 30 watt
Masters TVA30 tube guitar amplifier class A 30 watt

Masters has just released their new TVA30 - It's all class A and with the proper preamp tubes should be a solid harp amp. It has 4-EL84/6BQ5 and 3-12AX7 preamp tubes with a clean channel (for harp) and an overdrive channel for when your guitar friends borrow it. The 4 power tubes should give it a good bit of sound and this might be good for those medium to large venues.

The list price is $899 which is damn good for an all tube all point to point hand wired amp.