Why not recap the amp, bring it up slowly on a variac and see if it actually works?

Superfluous (and not wise) under the circumstances, which are plainly indicated in that picture.

It'll take a heck of a lot more than a recap to tidy up that mess. Remember, someone (and maybe more than one) has been meddling under there, changing God knows what. Apart from that, no one can know how things are supposed to be, without a schematic.

Pointless to test it until the entire circuit has been verified.

Larry

It must have worked at some point, but not sure if that was before any mods were done or after mods were done.

Not if it was a kit or home made , see the srews on the 6L6 tube sockets thats a give away that it was not factory made

I've seen factory built stuff with screws holding in the tube sockets except of course on a lot of antique radios.

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Here is the amp with the cover it came with. Would you not think it was a factory made amp having a cover like that? I called my customer and told him what comments I received on the ARF and he thinks rather than spend any more time on it, to just scrap it for parts, the 6L6GC are not cheap and after all, he got it for nothing.

I don't see any point in re-capping when you know the wiring is messed up, etc.
I do greatly appreciate all the suggestions and information you all have given, which I hoped would help solve the problem, but without a schematic, it's hard to
trace out a problem, not even knowing if the tubes are in the correct sockets and the correct tubes used. -- Thank you all again and if I figure out anything else, other than return the amp, I'll keep you informed. --- Thank you again. --- Ed.

Ask him if he will give you the amp.

You may have to trace out a wiring diagram yourself to see how it is currently wired up. Once you do that post it here and we'll all help figure out if it is correctly wired and if not how to get it correctly wired.

Most definitely factory built unless it was a kit. Not homebrew unless the original owner had access to machine ship tools to form the top cover.

Pity you don't have some old radio distributor catalogs to browse around in.

Several companies, Bud and ICA among them, sold amplifier foundations with covers like that. Allied Radio sold them for years on end, and so did any other distributor who sold their product lines. I'm looking at a Bud-manufactured near-twin to this foundation in the 1954 Allied catalog right now.

Several companies made control dial plates (Mallory and Croname among them), and the distributors sold them along with the foundations. If you look at the dial plates, you'll see that they're not made in a single continuous strip. There are seams with occasional offsets between each plate. The seam between mike 2 and mike 3 is the most obvious one.

So, now that I've seen the cover and got a square look at the controls, I'm prone to agree with Battradio@ that this beast is a homebrew. I'd still date it somewhere between 1938-48. Those slope-shouldered transformers are antediluvian.

It'll still be good as a foundation for a rebuild; some of the iron may still be good, but I doubt that all of it is.

Keep us posted, Ed, and good luck...

Larry

Here is a Thordarson amp manual . they sold parts and chassis , see the similarity of the lay out . Chassis with cover like that with cover were a stock item that could be purchase .several companys sold partial kit , UTC and Stancor are a couple .
http://www.bunkerofdoom.com/xfm/THOR_MI ... 937SAG.pdf

+1

L

[quote="BigBandsMan"]I agree, typical microphone and phonograph amplifier, somewhere from late thirties through late forties. No idea of the manufacturer, but most of these amps followed the same basic themes.

Whatever the make and model may be, I think someone has scrambled the tubes. The current lineup (and those are 6N7 tubes, not 6SN7's), doesn't make any sense to me.

Larry, You are so right, my error, the 2 tall metal tubes are 6N7's. Don't know where my mind was when I said 6SN7)

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http://www.hammondmfg.com/hist.htm -- This is an informative web page on Hammond I just got emailed to me last night.

Ask him if he will give you the amp.

You may have to trace out a wiring diagram yourself to see how it is currently wired up. Once you do that post it here and we'll all help figure out if it is correctly wired and if not how to get it correctly
wired.
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He may part with the amp, but may keep the valuable tubes, other than that there is little worth salvaging. I shall give it another "go" and see what I can uncover that is wired wrong, etc. If I discover
any new "revelations" I'll keep you informed. -- Ed

Tubes shouldn't be hard to find unless it uses any rare or exotic tubes which I highly doubt it does.

Those transformers are worth a bit, don't throw them out. What purpose would the amp be used for, do you want to use it for a PA, guitar amp or music?

More than likely the tube lineup should be

6SJ7 6SJ7 6J5 6N7 6N7(tube nearest choke) 6L6 6L6 83.



Unless I am missing something there could be nothing actually wired wrong. I've seen similar jumbled up messes in some antique radios.

Maybe if it was kit built the original owner didn't do a good job, although looking at the capacitor holder soldered on that choke or transformer (not sure which) I'd be willing to bet it was factory built unless the kit came with that part pre soldered along with the negative end of a filter cap soldered near the capacitor holder. I usually don't see much covering on the component leads of kits as some don't bother to install the coverings on the component leads and those who usually do would have laid out the components better.

I just noticed those two toggle switches. One has FIL written on it and the other one has SB written on it. That would mean the 83 rectifier could probably be correct since the amp would be left in stand by until the tubes warmed up.

In situations like that I trace the wiring then look at the tube pin outs to get some idea where everything goes. Once you figure out where everything goes you can use a different rectifier for testing purposes with the same pinout as the 83 in order to be able to bring the amp up slowly on a variac.

I'm wondering if it maybe has one transformer for the filaments and one for the HV as it looks like those two switches are connected to one wire of the power cord. The FIL switch seems to control power to a filament transformer and also the SB switch whereas the SB switch probably powers the HV transformer.

Of course if it were mine I'd have already had it plugged in to the variac watching for the magic smoke

I don't like smoke. So I don't go looking for it.

Larry

The first thing which I do in a case like that, is to sit down with a meter and tube manual and draw the schematic of the amp, just as it is. You'll quickly find out if any tubes are in the wrong sockets. Make lots of notes on where things go, if you have to disconnect any wires. The PA, jukebox, and theatre amps of that era are all very similar circuitry-wise, so you should be able to find a a schematic which is close enough; the RCA tube manuals from that era are full of amp schematics.

I see some IRC "BT" resistors in there; they are color coded body-end-band, similar to the dogbone type. Their use, along with the 6SJ7s, would tend to date the thing to around 1939-42.

I agree. Don't like it either, but on occasion does accidentally happen

I am convinced that all components work on magic smoke and that the type of smoke determines its function, because once the smoke is let out the component usually don't work any more

I'll stick to my conservationist approach, thanks.

Larry