Thanks Oren. Big doings in today's update! Man, I got more done today than I have in a long time!
Went to the tube store and got some tubes for my Super and B-15N tested, broken or Russian ones replaced with some sweet NOS tubes, and got the tube relay. For the record, it's a 115NO30, or a 115 volt normally open relay with a delay of 30 seconds, made of course by Amperite. From the looks of things, it was NOS, not new. Fine by me. New ones are $150 and this one was $22. The only thing none of us were sure about was the length of the delay, but we all agreed 30 would do the job the best.
Then I drove to Birddog's store and dropped off the relay and my Super for a Blackface conversion. While I was there, I spotted an old Kay and an old Montgomery Ward guitar amp. The Kay...eh...it looked cool, but I kept looking at the Ward amp. I asked him about it and he said it was a 2-channel 10w amp called the 62-9013a (precious little on the net about it, BTW), made for Ward by Danelectro, and he said Silvertone also sold the same amp rebranded for them. Then he told me about the work he put into it...cleaning it up, putting new caps in it, putting some weird blue speaker (12") in it that he couldn't identify, and revoicing it so channel one sounded good for harmonica and channel two sounded better for guitar. I always wanted a low-wattage guitar amp similar to the Champ so I could have great power tube breakup tones on guitar at low volumes for gigs and studio (sorry, I double but bass is my main squeeze). When Birddog plugged it in and played some blues, it sounded to me like a Champ on steroids. And it followed his response...he wanted SRV sound, he got it. He wanted Clapton sound, he got it. Power metal chords...no problem. Clean but thick fingerpicking tones...right there. Long story somewhat less long, it got in the car and came home with me against my will. It wasn't cheap but for all the mods it had and the sweet tone it put out, it was worth $225 to me, so out came the plastic! There goes the money I saved by not doing the SVT's retolexing.
Then when I came home, I took a look at this new amp, and I took a look at my B-15N, and I did what I had been putting off for a little while and decided to go ahead and do it...I called Jess Oliver, and now he is going to go through my B-15N and optimize it and recover the cab! He didn't quote me a price, but after a couple minutes of talking to him, I thought, "Idiot! How could you not want the inventor of the B-15N tweaking your B-15N no matter what it costs?" So I basically told him that he had carte blanche to do whatever he wants to it, and I will pay for it and pay gladly (didn't tell him that part). Even my wife thought it was a good idea, as a Jess Oliver-tweaked, recovered, and autographed B-15N with a paper trail to prove it will be worth a lot to her when I'm dead, even one as dilapidated as mine. He seemed shocked that mine had the double baffle since it was a 66, and he said that mine must have been one of the last before the transition to single baffle. As we finished up details, I told him how much it meant to me for him to work on it and that it was the greatest bass amp ever made (true) and I will keep it until I'm dead (also true), and he said, "Well that makes it all worth it for me. Thanks."
OK, enough of the sappy stuff...put your tissues away and fear this beauty of a 10w guitar amp! Two 6V6's for power, two 12AX7's for the pres, and a 6AU6 rec tube. Did I also mention it had built-in vibrato? Really, for what I do, the Super is overkill and this will be perfect for just about every guitar gig I do. It does what the Super does but at a lower volume. So now if I can tear myself away for a few minutes from the petty arguments about GC and mic'ing cabs and wanting things my way when I play out, I have a new guitar amp to rock out on. All you guys get are pics
