Month: July 2024
SELMER: Corvette, Little Giant & Mercury
SELMER CORVETTE SELMER LITTLE GIANT MKI & MKIII SELMER MERCURY 5
GRETSCH: Model G6151 & G6150 guitar amplifiers
Two great little guitar amps made by Valco for Gretsch – probably best to describe them as direct competition for the Fender Champ, but with some fancier appointments for the time. Pretty sure there’s a Supro equivalent that was also made by Valco for these two as well. Supro 1606 for the 6150. Both small … Read more
FENDER: Tweed Princetons
I’ll start with the Fender 5F2A Princeton, as this is generally considered to be “the one” for a lot of people. Basically take a tweed Champ, and add the classic Fender one knob tone control, which has no insertion loss, and you’re in business. It’s hard to go wrong with this formula, which is why … Read more
FENDER: Tweed Champ Schematics
I know these are everywhere, but humour me – this is mainly for my own reference. FENDER CHAMP-AMP, 5C1 (WIDE PANEL TWEED) Note: The Fender Champion 600 and 800 are said to use the same schematic (or at least extremely similar). Preamp: 6SJ7 pentode, grid-leak biased (no cathode resistor) Inputs: two jacks, each 75k in … Read more
PLESSEY: Vintage Australian Guitar Speakers
Following on from the Rola post, I thought I’d split the posts, as it was getting a tad long. Long story short, Plessey bought Rola in the mid-sixties and the line evolved into the seventies. For a while they carried Rola and Plessey names. PLESSEY SPEAKERS The Plessey C12P is the go to for … Read more
ROLA: Vintage Australian Guitar Speakers & Transformers
Rola is better known as an American speaker maker, but there was also Rola Australia, based in Melbourne, which made speakers, transformers, chokes, and other related items. They also produced speakers in the UK and NZ. As a local manufacturer of quality products, Rola Australia found its way into many Australian-made guitar amps. Their biggest … Read more
Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzzmaster V2
Bernarddur, the schematic and tracing wizard over at FSB got hands on a FM-2 a while ago. It turns out that the circuit went through some revisions during its short lifespan. The Fuzz Adjust (Tone) control had been reowrked and the recovery stage had been altered. Since it is one of my favorite vintage circuits … Read more
