The Challenger Amp - Love it or part it out?

[RJ Guitars]

Hey guys, I traded for a very interesting old PA amp that has been converted into a guitar amp. It's so cool looking that I hate to do anything to it but use it... on the other hand I have a lot of amps... what do you think?

rj

[Andy Le Blanc]

Its sharp lookin'.... but if it was wicked cheap and you can use the iron.....

[jaysg]

I think you're trying to make us feel bad....I'll give you $25 for the thing....lol

[RJ Guitars]

I traded for it because of the A-3801 output transformer. It has been modified extensively into a point to point guitar circuit. It also turns out that it sounds really cool and I'm a bit torn whether or not to grab the tranny...

rj

[M Fowler]

rj, I was bidding on one of those last year, I love the looks of cage amps.

I would grab the 3801 and replace it with another to keep that amp alive or send it my way and I'll put another tranny it it.

Mark

[Bruciep07]

rj, I was bidding on one of those last year, I love the looks of cage amps.

I would grab the 3801 and replace it with another to keep that amp alive or send it my way and I'll put another tranny it it.

Mark

x2! I'm sure you of all people have a tranny laying around you could swap in for that 3801...

[dreric]

Keep it at least long enough to trace out the talent / mood control. I think there's a market for amps with player settings like "mellow and brilliant".

And your knobs go to 90...........that's 80 more than 10!

Eric

[gldtp99]

Here's one from my "I'll get to it........" pile --- with the orig OT--- i think you got a better OT in the Stancor
[IMG:800:600]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f112/ ... erCH30.jpg[/img]
I haven't done anything with this one yet--- too many other amp projects in front of it..................gldtp99

[briane]

Super cool....Restore it and put it in the museum.

Thats my vote.

I have a couple of old time tube radios and whatnot around here, One just blew, and I am going to repair it. Can you imagine what people will think 40 years from now when those old things still work?

[txbluesboy]

Here's an old PA amp chassis I built a Matchless style amp in

[txbluesboy]

And one built into an old radio cabinet. This one is based on a Fender Deluxe, but with all octal tubes. The tone control is connected to the old tuner dial. It has a 4 inch speaker I got out of a modern stereo that sounds OK with the Power scaling set on about 50%. It also has an 8ohm external speaker jack. I'll take it to a Jam and play it through the internal speaker and everyone will think its pretty cute. Then I plug it into my 2X12 and blow them away

[SkinPimp]

There it is !! I cant believe I missed this whole thread .. ha .

I too, was at a crossroads of tearing it down for parts . it sounded to good to rip apart for the iron .

i say pull it and see what another iron sounds like in it . if good, throw that 3801 in an express where it belongs @!@!@! ha ha ..

Look forward to the final judgment , I know it tore through my 412, like cake, the way it sits.

[RJ Guitars]

This has been a fun thread. I love seeing all those old amps and even inspired me to go out to the shed and look for the old short wave radio I've had since I was a kid. That was one of my first tube amp experiences and I guess I never really gave it up after that.

As you can see from the Skinpimp post, this amp came from him.

Both Zippy here on the forum and Skinpimp have a decent idea... Since this already is a cool but unique sounding amp I have one data point. If I swap in another output tranny then listen to the differences I'll get another data point to compare it with. The amp has already been desecrated from it's original pure state so I don't have to suffer any guilt for that. (That wouldn't stop me anyway).

After a tranny swap then I have an original Stancor A-3801 leftover and a comparative set of data points... how cool is that?

Then do I just put that tranny in an Express or have it reverse engineered so I can have more of them made up?

rj