Convert a vintage Reel to Reel to a Guitar Tube Amp
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- čas přidán 21. 04. 2022
- I picked up a Vintage Webcor Model 210-1B Reel to Reel Analog Tape Recorder from 1953. I paid $29 dollars for it. It was full of old tubes circa the 1950s. It wasn’t hard to find a schematic for a guitar amp that used the 6SC7 preamp tube. The old Fender Princeton 5C2 used the same preamp tube as the Webcor reel to reel. I just took the preamp section of the Princeton 5C2 and used the rest of the amp schematic from a Fender Champ 5F1. The Webcor came with a 6K6 power tube. The 6K6 has an identical pinout to the ubiquitous 6V6. The only difference is the 6K6 has lower wattage. The Webcor was using a 6X5 as the rectifier tube. The 6X5s are notorious for shortening out. The benefit however is that it used the same 6.3 voltage for the heaters as the rest of the octal tubes. The Webcore also came with a 6SL7, 6SN7 and a Magic Eye tube. I can totally use the rest of those tubes in other amp builds in the future. This was super fun. I’m totally hooked on building tube amps.
I recommend for new amp builders to dive into a conversion instead of buying a tube amp kit. The reason is the kits are very paint-by-numbers and don’t offer any education or knowledge into HOW amps work. By converting a reel-to-reel, it forces you to educate yourself and truly understand the signal and power paths.
#diytubeamp #tubeampconversion #tubeamps
All Music Composed by Mark Gutierrez
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So Coool!
reelly nice : )
Never understand why people do this when they can do the same thing and leave the tape deck in it's original form. I have an Akai M8 tube amped reel to reel from the 60's in great working condition. Tapes sound amazing on it but it's one of the most popular decks for people hack apart in order to make it into an ugly little guitar amp. Can't stand seeing such a nice deck destroyed.
maybe i'm silly or something, but couldn't you have left the tape part and made it into an amp with actual tape delay?
schematic????
I cant help but notice the background tones from the very beginning of the video. Are they binaural tones?
Well done!
BTW rewatching, CBS made Hytron tubes.
You should/could have used the 6SL7 instead of the 6SC7, it is the same tube except the 6SC7 has a common cathode for both triodes which is a limitation because you could have biased the individual triodes differently. You could have gotten more volume and grit if you had added a gain stage I have used the 6SJ7's for this but you could have also added that 6SN7 or 6SL7 depending on what you were looking for. I get that you were just getting into this hobby of building tube amps and are just following schematics at this point. If you decided to get deeper into it you will get to the point where you can start with a schematic and tweek it to your taste then you can start experimenting with your own ideas. It is very fun and rewarding. I have that same R2R as well as several more tube ones from the 50's and have converted several in a similar fashion to what you have done here.
Hey Mark, thanks for the video. Inspired me to get a custom conversion made. I have found a Webcor and on the backing plate it written that's its a 95 watt. I noticed in your video you mention that the amp you used was a 5 watt. I am correct in assuming the Webcor is in fact a 95 watt? Many thanks for you help. Cheers
Are there tone controls on this ? My father built a "Jensen" Amp (And FM reciever) for his record player. Eventually we took the amp out and fitted it to a cabinet made from old plywood cupbord doors. Though vol and tone are in the circuit they are fixed using the guitar controls instead. It is pretty handy - though prob needs a recap and service by now. Otherwise my father also built (in a way- he worked for the company) a Vortexion WVA tape recorder- the deck is wearite dropped in but the amp design in part was his and he wound the power transformer, again it works well as a guitar amp (though I blew the internal speaker cone so pure tone is impossible)
(*whyarewewhisperinghere?*)
Awesome! Thnx!!
Ever hear of a Knight KN 4400? I found it for $40 just because of the inputs. It turns into a very primal warm amp with a gruff overdrive when record is selected
Had an old tandberg reel to reel that was a great guitar amp, had bass and treble controls and built-in speaker, and had a great sound.
I have a film projector (that I don't want to canabalize), and it sounds amazing bone stock.
Very cool project. I’m slowly working my way up to a project like this. I’m honestly nervous about working with mains power connections. ❤
Was that usaisamantra?
I have two of these Reel to Reel players right now. Am taking the two to make one good working unit. It is a little sad to see the clean unit you have, broken up for parts. Take care, Mike
Love the music. Your playing sounds like a record I have by Chris Stamey and Kirk Ross. Check that out. Any video about making music?