1946 Dickerson ST-8 | A Bit of Amp Prehistory for You

[@_-_Michael_-_]

That slide part was most heart touching guitar work I heard today. ❤️

[@PsionicAudio]

Mama tried

[@chokkan7]

Beautifully done, Lyle, as always. Sometimes the surgeon has to cut away quite a bit in order that the patient might live...

[@Rocknrollerrink]

Played through it today. Sounds great, thanks Lyle!

[@alexdeleon7135]

Thank you for posting! I have heard of Dickerson amplifiers, but have never seen or heard one. The restoral was well done. I was impressed that you took into account the wall voltages of the 40s, and applied the necessary modifications to the circuit to handle the modern-day voltage. The amp was quiet, resurrected to the status it was during its heyday. I bet Walter would have dug it!

[@mendamp1715]

That rewiring looks perfect, bravo, nice job!

[@andrewsmart2949]

very clean sound for a valve amp!

[@stevehead365]

I don't really have heroes, but if I did, Walter Becker would be one of them. I never got to see Steely Dan live (my fault), and now I can't. Still hurts. Good sounding amp, treated with the respect it deserves. Thanks Lyle.

[@killerrockguitar1845]

suonds very good!

[@GregoryHillSr]

Nice & neat rework! When you mentioned Walter Becker "Josie" & "Kid Charlemagne" popped up in my head.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Hot damn, man. Lovely work. Kudos to the owner for going the whole hog.

[@MichaelSmith-rn1qw]

The Walter Becker estate auction catalog is available online. Over 500 pages. He had quite a collection of guitars, amps and pedals.

[@GIBKEL]

So much potential for fun…..and sorrow. I just came across a field coil speak in a Victor Radio R-5. An future boat anchor or pure audio gold…..not sure? The cabinet was beautiful, the tubes odd; most likely gut and modify. What I want…..a mini Leslie but a Leslie guts are ginormous. Most likely a glorious champ.

[@weschilton]

Wow, really interesting little amp... and wrapped in black diamond pearl like my 1965 Ludwigs! Never seen that before.

[@davidisenberg125]

thank you for all your videos about the wonderful world of tube amps ..... i was a little disappointed you did'nt play a couple of becker licks after you brought the old dog back from the grave.....

[@PsionicAudio]

I was gonna do Haitian Divorce but I misplaced my talkbox...

[@davidisenberg125]

@@PsionicAudio did becker play that lead ??? steely dan had damn near every session guitar player in LA on speed dial ....

[@burnsy55]

Nice video - enjoyed seeing the work. It was interesting to see you use the zener diode B+ reduction approach. I've been thinking about that more with the current tube controversy/shortage - have you ever played with RG Keen's Mosfet B+ reduction before? If so, had any success with it?

[@PsionicAudio]

I've done MOSFET and variable MOSFET. For a fixed drop the zeners are easier to implement. I went with a string of 5Ws in series instead of one honking big one.

[@jonnybeck6723]

"I'll slip the slide to the side, Clyde..."

[@retread1083]

If you don't need to drop a lot of voltage, using a zener in series works well enough. Since the drop across the zener is constant, you'll have all of the ripple and all the change of voltage due to load seen across the actual load. But if the drop across the zener is a small fraction of the total, things don't get too ugly.

[@audiotechlabs4650]

Old-vintage amps are a passion! You have done such great work it wasn’t hard to see you restoring this gem! 6SN7 preamp? 6V6s output? What is the most correct primary output impedance for 6V6s? The reason I ask, because you would know, there seems to be different values for different amps. A Deluxe Reverb is different than a Princeton and so on. I know the secondary impedance for speaker load has a relationship. I’ve always thought the same amount of primary transformer impedance was the same for all circuits using 6V6 tubes. Maybe I’m wrong. Love from NW Colorado. Thanxz

[@PsionicAudio]

Thanks man. Yeah, 6SN7 and two 6V6s. Might make 7W if the wind is right. The DR OT is usually 6.6K and would be my choice for getting a loud clean from a pair of 6V6s.

[@goodun2974]

I own a somewhat similar Dickerson, a '48 or '49, with an alnico-magnet 8", a 6SJ7 pentode preamp tube and built-in volume control. It's kinda tame sounding, and even a Supro lap steel with the famous string-thru pickup won't really overdrive it. PS, be careful around that Pearloid (mother of toilet seat) finish ---- it's nitrocellulose, like old movie film, and quite flammable💥.

[@jetsonIFY]

Very nice amp !. What sort of B+ were you getting before the Zener's?

[@PsionicAudio]

I don't recall but it was way over the max screen voltage for a pair of 6V6s. I think I knocked it back to 360ish.

[@matthewf1979]

Esophageal Cancer. But yeah, plugging that thing in would have lended the same results. With less suffering even.

[@MoreThan_Bob1776]

🚬🥃🎚📻🎵🧲👍

[@roberthurless4615]

It sounds great, and it’s covered in beautiful mother of toilet seat. Lol Seriously, great job on that.

[@jutukka]

Well, that power switch is totally unnecessary as well. Makes using the amp too complicated for most guitarists.

[@_-_Michael_-_]

That slide part was most heart touching guitar work I heard today. ❤️