Excelsior Americana Reverb Question

[dorrisant]

Where is the reverb tank driver circuit for this amp? I don't really know that these two schematics match... Hell I'm not even sure if either of them are from an Americana or not.

Hmmm... The footswitch and volume control on the preamp page looks right for the speaker driver circuit on the power amp page... but it looks like something is missing.

I'm very interested in the reverb since it has its own speaker. I want to experiment with a wet/dry mix kinda thing. I was just wondering if anyone had any further info.

[Stevem]

The reverb tank is shown at the lower left of the power amp schematic, it output goes to the section marked as input on that schematic and the tank is a Hammond 4C model.
The reverb section gets its input that is shown on the preamp schematic, and the reverb volume pot is on that schematic also.

Note that the connections are shown being made thru sheilded cable!

This seperate reverb amp and speaker thing is the way Ampeg Gibson, Epiphone and a few others did it in some late 50s and 60s amps.

[dorrisant]

There is one output on the preamp page shown as an RCA plug... There is one power amp input on the PA page shown as an RCA jack.

The tank has no driver shown here... Just "Input"... Makes no sense to me.

[Stevem]

Why, on the preamp side one half of one of the au7s is used as that sections output and reverb driver , then that feeds two inputs on the power amp side, one into the PIs driver and the other into the pan, then one half of the an8a is used as the reverb recovery amp.

[Firestorm]

I'll bet it's speaker driven. The big input cap is common in those designs.

[dorrisant]

I'll bet it's speaker driven. The big input cap is common in those designs.

This was what I was leaning towards... but I didn't know if these were a matching set of schematics or not.

I will dig into the Ampeg/Gibson/Epiphone circuits to see what I can find.

Thanks for the input guys.

[Stevem]

This is really a Accordian amp I think and in that case Ampeg would be my first pick.

[Firestorm]

Or Sano, but those schematics are rare. The Guild Thunder 1 Reverb is speaker driven. That schematic is around for comparison.

[dorrisant]

Looks like the Gibson GA-1RVT is a stand alone unit and GA-1RT1 is speaker driven. I will look into the Guild Thunder... That's it!!! (T1RVT) That is what I saw before and very much what I was looking for... I may build the reverb section as a standalone unit but I really want to try this as the reverb amp in a combo with another circuit. Sweet!!

Thanks to all for the replies.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I'll bet it's speaker driven.

That's the way Sano did it, and others I'm sure.

Early 60's Ampeg made a separate reverb amp with gator clips on speaker leads to drive the tank. Cute little thing, I owned one for a while then one of the local blues cats just had to have it.

[dorrisant]

I'll bet it's speaker driven.

That's the way Sano did it, and others I'm sure.

Early 60's Ampeg made a separate reverb amp with gator clips on speaker leads to drive the tank. Cute little thing, I owned one for a while then one of the local blues cats just had to have it.

The Sano amps got me motivated in this one... I had a Sano 300RC come in for repair. When I went looking for Sano as well as the Americana schematics (almost 100% sure they were built by Sano) , the reverb with it's own driver was something I had wanted to try for a long time.

[Leo_Gnardo]

The Sano amps got me motivated in this one... I had a Sano 300RC come in for repair. When I went looking for Sano as well as the Americana schematics (almost 100% sure they were built by Sano) , the reverb with it's own driver was something I had wanted to try for a long time.

Can't say I ever heard of Americana amps but Sano, Ampeg and Guild were just a few towns apart from each other in the 60's, Irvington, Linden and Hoboken NJ respectively. Their amps seem to share a good deal of technology & build style. I imagine they shared a brain trust of designers and builders. Wouldn't doubt there were a few other more obscure brands that came out of this mix.

[dorrisant]

Sorry Lou, didn't mean to confuse. The Americana was a model made by Excelsior... They (Excelsior) seem to have had a few other companies do some of their manufacturing and or design. Sano is probably responsible for the Americana. They share design and building traits. Close enough that the American would easily pass for any of the Sanos I've seen.