Advice on buying an old Hammond tube amp

[gkelm]

Hey Guys-
Stumbled on this...would this be a cool (and cheep!) platform for a guitar amp?

Ebay: 270924548518
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Hammond ... 3f145c89a6

I guess I'd have my tech do whatever needed to be done.

Thanks...advice appreciated!
Greg

[xtian]

The chassis might be cheap, but what are you going to build? A 100 watt Twin?

Check out the AO 39 chassis. I just repaired a simple 18 watt build in that chassis. Looks like a pretty easy build.

[gkelm]

The chassis might be cheap, but what are you going to build? A 100 watt Twin?

Check out the AO 39 chassis. I just repaired a simple 18 watt build in that chassis. Looks like a pretty easy build.

Ha! Yeah, sure don't need that kind of firepower...a smaller amp would be better, thanks!

[passfan]

Those older tone cabinets are a pain IMHO. I scarfed one up for the tubes once but the iron is still sitting on my bench. Much easier stuff out there to use. Unfortunately people are gravitating towards it for some reason and the prices are going up. What I bought for 50 bucks a year ago someone wants 150 bucks for now. Take your time and buy at your price.

[loctal]

Not worth it. I have one of those under my bench and have no use for it yet. Watch your local craigslist for a free organ and save the shipping costs.

[Structo]

I agree, I bought a Hammond organ amp and ended up gutting it.

But, mine came with some nice vintage tubes so it wasn't a complete bust.

I think you are better off buying a new chassis and building on that.

[Luthierwnc]

I've made amps out of lots of Hammonds but not that one. IIRC, the output transformers are set for different frequencies as a high/low pass filter. The E series are pretty beefy and use 7591s. They will work if you can get them cheap. As mentioned above, the L series are also very cool for 18 watt type apps.

The trouble with organ amps generally is that they have massive power transformers to drive dozens of preamp tubes but are a little lean in the HV amperage. They also tend towards square chassis which makes it harder to get in all the preamp controls we need. Finally, you have to live with whatever output impedance you get. sh