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NAD! A 1969 gem from Nippon Gakki!

#21
Definitely a guitar rig. If that’s not a well sealed cabinet, and even if it is, I’d be careful putting a lot of low end through it. Something designed for nothing lower than 83 Hz or so might give up in pieces with a 41 Hz or lower signal going through it at any significant volume / power level. Old speaker cones are closer to death than young ones….
 
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#23
H K said:
Heya! I've not been doing enough of these NAD/NBD posts lately. Too much work and not enough time, and lets be honest, noone cares if I get a new rumble 200 or not.

But this thing is something out of the ordinary, and I'd feel bad if I didnt put the information I have out there. I've been researching this amp over the last few days, and I figured this is a good place to post what little I have found, so whoever looks next can pick up where I left off.

Ok, so what we've got here, is, failure to communicate.
View attachment 4900061
Oh, no its not, it's a Yamaha PE 200A, and its friend, the TS 200 cabinet.

From what Ive gathered so far, they were produced by Nippon Gakki (Yamaha) at the Hamamatsu plant, from about 1968-71. This is quite unclear tho, and just an educated guess based on the very few other models I found.

It consists of 2 parts; The head, and the cabinet.
Now which one do you think is the amplifier?
View attachment 4900058

Wrong.

They both are.

The head functions as a control & effects unit and 4 channel preamp, while the cabinet is the main amplifier and, you guessed it, a cabinet.
View attachment 4900059
Pretty strange right? It gets better. The cabinet has 4 12" speakers, AND a rotating horn. I am not sure if the spring reverb is in there too, but I intend to find out. Either way, fitting all that in 1 cabinet is impressive.

Some noteable features: reverb, Tremolo, WAWWAW (no, not wah wah. WAW WAW)View attachment 4900054WAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWA all night baby!

It's also just sliders. Not a knob in sight. Seriously, it's ALL sliders, or switches. Not 1 hecking knob.
View attachment 4900057
The seller was selling it as a bass amp, but I dont think it actually is. Atleast not in the modern sense of the word. Doesnt matter tho. It's in great condition, and I like it ALOT! I'll probably keep it as an allrounder amp, once I give it a good cleaning.
I can say this tho, there is no distortion in the sound, even at max level. And max level is LOUD.

It's in very good condition for the age, I'd say. Not a closet queen, but definitely not gigged that much.

I lucked out and got it for what I consider a very good price, but since it's impossible to find any recent sales online, it's hard to say for sure what it could be worth.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. If theres any interest I'll update as I go in and clean and check the insides. Here's a picture of David Gilmour using one of these back in the day.
View attachment 4900052

Oh, and note the green/purple grill-cloth. Mmmm, smells like old basement.

Heres a quick clip testing the WAW WAW:
Click to expand...

Seriously Bada$$! That waw waw is to waw for. Have fun!
 
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#28
Riff Ranger said:
Looks like someone went under the hood of one of those cabs, or one quite similar, here:
Click to expand...

Oh sick! I havent actually seen one of those in operation before! It's one of the later ones, RA series, more dedicated to the "leslie" thing. The one I have has 1 horizontally spinning one I believe, instead of the 3 vertical ones. But I'll find out over the next few days:D
 
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#29
Tim Skaggs said:
Definitely a guitar rig. If that’s not a well sealed cabinet, and even if it is, I’d be careful putting a lot of low end through it. Something designed for nothing lower than 83 Hz or so might give up in pieces with a 41 Hz or lower signal going through it at any significant volume / power level. Old speaker cones are closer to death than young ones….
Click to expand...
Was anything back then capable of low HZ?:p I mean, even the Bassman..:D
 
#32
Bassic_desires said:
@H K A rotating horn? Does it produce a tremolo effect? Is it possibly a keyboard amp and cabinet?
Click to expand...
I don't think it was made primarily for that, no, but it will certainly function as one! The frequency response is WILD. I've done some comparisons today with several other amps, and it's got more low end than anything else I have, apart from some very recent ones. I am 100% keeping it. And yeah, theres trem and waw. I am not 100% sure about the horn yet, but something is definitely spinning in there.

I'll be opening it up this week for cleaning and possibly some repairs.
 
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#34
Steinway was an American company (founded by a German immigrant) that later began a subsidiary company in Germany. They are not a European company. No one invented the piano any more than one person invented the violin or the guitar; it was the product of a couple of generations of development by many, many individuals taking innovations copied from others and refining and developing them. And yes, countless Japanese and other Asian-Pacific companies have manufactured and marketed direct copy and imitation products, but Yamaha has never been one of those. I find it amusing that someone might suppose we would need informing of who Yamaha is -- they've been a well-respected manufacturer of musical instruments for much longer than I've been alive. :)

The concept of having the amplification in the speaker cab would be neither unknown or innovative in 1969. WEM was employing powered PA cabs for several years by then. And of course, the concept would be most familiar to Yamaha because it was almost exclusively the way electronic organs were amplified -- with external "tone cabinets" that had the speakers and the amplifier in the same package. This was common even in organs intended for home use, at least with larger instruments. Leslie is the most familiar, but all electric organ makers offered powered tone cabinets, and I'm almost certain Yamaha was always a player in that business. In fact, with the packaging this way and the rotary horn, I'm more inclined to believe this was intended for the portable electronic organ market. Also, in 1969, manufacturers hadn't yet given up the accordion market either. I'm sure this would be a bitchin' amp for an amplified accordionist. Don't laugh... it used to be a thing. :D

The use of all slide potentiometers, however, would have been fairly innovative for the era, IMHO. Only custom-built studio consoles had slide faders at that time -- I can't think of a manufactured pro audio product at that time that had slider/faders. The graphic equalizer was still a couple of years in future at that point.

One last point is that Fender offered a rotary speaker cab for a while, co-branded with the Leslie name in much the same way as the Fender/Rhodes piano was. It did get the effect, sorta, but didn't put out much sound. I presume the Wawwaw nomenclature on this Yamaha is referring to that effect. Too bad it doesn't have a speed control... of course, even a real Leslie only has two speeds.
 
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#39
beans-on-toast said:
I've never met a Yamaha producct that wasn't very well designed and executed.

I've always wanted an RA200 from that same era. This guy does a great job playing.
Click to expand...

Oh? There's 2-3 for sale nearby me. Average around 500$ or less for one in good condition. TBH if it doesnt say "leslie" on it, people arent really interested in rotors here. Their loss I guess, cus I love em!

Maybe I should pick one up actually. The 3 rotors are so cool. Plus theres a really good PF tribute band in the area, I wonder if they have one already...
 
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#40
H K said:
Oh? There's 2-3 for sale nearby me. Average around 500$ or less for one in good condition. TBH if it doesnt say "leslie" on it, people arent really interested in rotors here. Their loss I guess, cus I love em!

Maybe I should pick one up actually. The 3 rotors are so cool. Plus theres a really good PF tribute band in the area, I wonder if they have one already...
Click to expand...

my wife googled the amp in Japanese and sent me some links to an auction house selling what looked like the same amp for next to nothing. I think it sold for less than $30 usd. I can’t be too sure but they didn’t seem to be much value to them.
 

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