Converting a JUNK Tape Recorder into Guitar Amp - UPCYCLED MAGIC!

In this video, we will convert a vintage Japanese Fanon Masco TUBE reel to reel tape machine into a smoking hot little guitar amp. Along the way, I'll show you how to install an isolation transformer in a series filament amplifier to make it safe and reduce hum, and also we'll troubleshoot and modify the circuit. Finally, we'll demo the modified tape machine with my Paul Reed Smith CE24 and learn why putting a little effort into a vintage piece of gear like this can reward you with a GREAT tone for very little money invested. SPECIAL THANKS to channel viewer DJ Granstaff for sending me this Fanon-Masco tape recorder! Without his contribution, this video wouldn't exist.
#electronics #repair #upcycling
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[@TheGuitologist]

SPECIAL THANKS to channel viewer DJ Granstaff for sending me this Fanon-Masco tape recorder! Without his contribution, this video wouldn't exist.

[@jmanhowwy]

Is this project for sale?

[@TheGuitologist]

@@jmanhowwy You're welcome to contact me. It might be: bradlinzy at gmail

[@davidroyer5049]

When I was younger I would grab discarded record players and tape decks and either repair them or salvage parts out of them.

[@flaggism]

I made an amp from a Philco tube turntable in 78,,played the Beatles on it and it was loud,,,i think all old people did this kind of stuff,,im 56 and a Metal Head,,,think i sayed that before,,great vid once again my friend...

[@TheGuitologist]

Remember when common consumer electronics had a spirit living inside them?

[@flaggism]

@@TheGuitologist Yea,,i did that when i was 15,those were at the swap shop all the time.Still have a tube 69 Magnavox console never will tear into that gem.

[@glenclifton4563]

Every time I watch your shows I am amazed at your knowledge and talent plus you can see what is possible with so many things people would consider junk! I've watched you for a couple years now. Thank you for all you do. Plus I agree with you about where our country is going.. Keep up the great work in all you do.

[@TheGuitologist]

People don't READ. That's the problem. Or they do read, and it's all the wrong sources - secondary sources of curated bad information. Nothing more insufferable than a fool who fancies himself a wiz. That's what our intelligentsia have become. Once upon a time they might have earned that title. Now they're just liars and cheats with average intellect.

[@craigjacob3704]

Yes I know right, he has some great vision on how to repurpose these things.

[@RHR-221b]

@@TheGuitologist Agreed, B. R 🎯 🌠

[@Ninjametal]

@@TheGuitologist I agree man. Most of the people who consider themselves wits are only half right.

[@harrymitchell5402]

Dammit Brad. .wtg. my first amp was a Lloyd's cassette recorder. Solid state me and my brother built he cut the end of a radio shack guitar cord stripped it down. Followed it to the input just searching my bro was highly degreed on electronics highly schooled. I was 15. Freshman in h school a Barth guitar with a chrome pick guard. I'm on top of the world. My bro has.passed he was a major influence on me. My wife also was a awesome musician. Miss her alot. I still play because of them. And that Lloyd's cassette recorder and that Barth guitar. Alot of amps. Only play one. But you know it only takes a spark. Keep doing what you do. When you second guess yourself you'll go. SHIT

[@TheGuitologist]

Poetry. Thanks for this comment.

[@tjdonaldson6923]

Hey Brad I love your channel always have. I want to let you know that you are inspiring and im behind you 100% and im feeling the pressure from all sides. Trust in your internal tuning fork Brad. It will always keep you in tune. And again your channel has helped me and inspired me to make all kinds of crap so thank you. And thank you for having some balls and not caving to public pressures. We need 7 billion pairs of ur balls to turn this around.

[@TheGuitologist]

I appreciate that.

[@deebojones]

Love your intros. Classic.

[@elroncrusher]

I love it when you work on series filament amps. I have four old tube R2R players I'm saving to make amps out of . I find the tube design is SPANKY TONE!!! 2 Wolensaks and 2 Reveres and a couple others. So Thank You so much for the vids you've put out on these type amps

[@kennethrossfeld5532]

Amazing for what was back when it was made a cheap little tube amp ! Don't play guitar but love tubes, converted a Low powered Magnavox tube amp into a stand alone amp and haven't hooked my old Heathkit 110watt amp since

[@glennselwitz1377]

The ambient music and interesting content made this a very enjoyable relaxing one Brad...

[@TheGuitologist]

Glad you enjoyed it. It takes a lot of extra effort to edit that stuff in without being heavy-handed.

[@timothyb1559]

Missed opportunity: you could have used the drive motor to make a combination Leslie / veggie blender. The little fella sounds pretty sweet. I really enjoyed the, "Requiem for the Parts Pile" demo. I think Brian May and Tony Iommi would approve of that tone. Thanks, Brad!

[@TheGuitologist]

You know how much I love showing the parts graveyard at the end of conversions. It's like "look at all the unnecessary stuff they put in at the factory!"

[@matthewf1979]

Dude! A mini built in rotary speaker made with the motor and some styrofoam would be awesome!

[@theoven7143]

@@matthewf1979 would it be tone styrofoam? Lol

[@r3ngokuking]

Man!! That little thing will rock and roll!!! I want to hear it run through a proper cabinet now

[@russiangoose7053]

I have an Airline Solid state reel to reel I paid a dollar for at a flea market. I paid a dollar for it and cosmetically it's almost mint condition. It's got both Mic and Aux inputs as well as outputs for an external amplifier or external speaker. It gets great garage rock/punk tones, just crank it up and it gets super fuzzy. I even mic'd up the original internal speaker with the little mic it came with and it sounds super cool and trashy. I'd take it apart to make a little amp if it wasn't in such good cosmetic shape and such a good decoration. I eventually want to restore it and use it for it's original purpose just for fun and do like old style 50's recording with a room mic and a vocal mic for some punk songs. Thanks for the awesome content brad, super informative and inspiring. You've taught me a lot over the years

[@Bonedadyo]

My first “amp” was my Dad’s Sony R2R. My Mom bought me a Monkey Wards Global guitar for my birthday but we couldn’t afford an amp. My Dad Made a cord for me to plug into the Sony and I used that till I got an actual amp. You could drive that thing into fuzz - sounded like the Beatles “Revolution”. I lost my Mom 6 years ago and my Dad just a month. I miss them both and were the absolute best parents anyone could ever hope for. Thanks for the gift of guitar, Mom & Dad…see you on the other side one day.🙏💔

[@Chinaguitarsceptic]

Wow that's awesome sounding little amp. Would sound great in a mix too!

[@phoenixlandingstudio6594]

YES YES YES!! Classic Guitolagist awaken that BEAST!

[@tomaskey6844]

Good choice! It will get more use and enjoyment by others than if it was restored. Nice to see the new ribbon mic in use.

[@TheGuitologist]

Love this new mic. It sounds nice and juicy.

[@TeleCaster66]

I agree, number 1, not many people have any use for a reel to reel anymore.

[@HANDBALLDIEHARD]

Ok now lets see who sends you a tube powered reel to reel to turn into a delay pedal ! my last comment i left a couple of weeks ago on an old video was about my 1st tube guitar amp was a repurposed reel to reel player i found in the trash back in the 70's ! My 1st delay i got to play guitar through was my Dad;s Grundig tc-340 reel to reel from the 60's ! Hey that little jem turned out nice , sounds great , Good work as always!

[@garetkonigsfeld2]

Funny how people get upset that your giving this thing a new life. in anybody eles hands it would be in the dump. In the last year of going to the dump I've seen at least 2 real to real objects In the piles of trash. I think its really cool seeing you transform this stuff the way you do. I wish I had a better understanding of this stuff looks fun. Thanks for sharing 👍.

[@howardmaryon]

Back in 1966, my first guitar amp was an all valve Grundig tape recorder TK20 made in Germany. I did not understand at the time that my guitar signal was hotter than the suppled mic, so basically I was overdriving the preamp. It sounded amazing to me.....

[@kennethgroves6552]

I just turned an Audiotronics corporation, 300va classroom record player. Into a really awesome little tube amp. If I push it into my 1962 vintage RCA console amp, which I liberated from a junk console. It's got headroom about three quarters of the way. Then she breaks up and starts getting growly. This is good. Very good. Greetings from the home of Hoover dam. Boulder City Nevada. Good on you.

[@sunbeam8866]

These are known as Fujiya-type tape recorders, as many were made by the Japanese company Fujiya from the '50s through the 60s, with either 5 or 7 inch reels, mainly for export to sell through US outlet and discount stores, or American brands like Fanon-Masco that wanted to market an inexpensive tape recorder. Even by the early '70s, I remember still seeing these in a 'Big Lots' type store my folks would visit on weekends. IIRC, those were priced at around $60 and probably still used tube amps. I have three of the things. A 1958 Fujiya-Corder that, after some minor repairs, now works perfectly, A second Fujiya functions, but the amp is very weak. The last, and cheapest-made is branded Morse, and has a serious overvoltage problem to the tube filaments. As for guitar amps, In the mid 70s brother picked up a late-50s Akai 'Terecorder' for $10. Much higher quality than a Fujiya and he would set it on record/pause, with the monitor switched on and use it exactly that way, or through an external speaker.

[@musclecarmitch908]

The amp in that thing reminds me of the amp in case Silvertone amp I had back in the 70's. Great memories! Thanks for sharing Brad!

[@bobbyvarnell9350]

Great video, I really like the idea of giving old equipment a new life as an amp, the one you built out of a watch timer a few years ago is my favorite.

[@jamesschenk1963]

What a great little amp good tone doesn’t break up or get muddy. Glad you used the chassis it came with.

[@sbennettyt]

In the 1980s I was laid off from my job and ended up taking a bus to California to find work. I took nothing with me except clothes and my strat. Had to leave all my amps and other gear behind. After finding work I bought an old tube amp real-to-reel at a second hand store and that was my amp! It sounded great! Later when I moved back home to WV I donated the real-to-real back to the second hand store. I did not modify it in any way. Just plugged in and played through it.

[@fivehead6675]

This is awesome. Very nice vid! I still have my first tube amp my grandad built me out of a Conn organ about 20 years ago.

[@AdAstraOnYafro]

I have a 1950s German tube radio with three speakers stereo that I would like to turn into a radio/guitar amp. All the wires and pulleys and switches seem intact, but at least one tube is bad. It is an amazing piece of engineering. It is adjustable to almost any voltage from any location via a rotating switch. I think I just need you to fix the tube portion and then I can convert the banana plug input to a guitar input.

[@TheGuitologist]

You should be able to inject a signal into the audio output stage and keep the radio. You could even make that switchable so you could switch between "guitar amp" mode and "radio" mode.

[@AdAstraOnYafro]

@@TheGuitologist it has an aux in via a banana plug style interface on the back. It has one large foreword facing driver and two smaller drivers at 90 degrees on both sides. It is a SABA Wildbad (great name that is actually a place in the Black Forest where it was made) it is the same exact radio as this one kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZ-9Y6mYeLpprpI Geez it is on eBay for $835.00. Don’t tell anyone but I got mine out of a roll off dumpster on my paper route. Plucked it out right as it started to pour down rain.

[@KevinR242]

I love that telefunken sticker! That company represents the pinacle of Tube type amplification/equipment. They were the best.

[@Mark-nu5vg]

My brother and myself did this when we first started playing guitar we used a reel to reel for an amp and stereo receivers they weren't the greatist but it was all we had

[@franky2shoes660]

I'm picking one up $25, it's got a 12ax7, 6v6 and unknown rectifier tube...I got the bright idea to do this and somehow found this vid. Cheers from Canada!

[@rustyrobinson8027]

Thanks Brad best wishes from Columbus Ohio USA

[@nobodynoone2500]

I have seen many cheaper units (even made in USA ones) use the tape/phono motor as a transformer to step down voltage and provide some halfassed isolation. Having made a TON of these lil practice amps, you get to see all manner of sketchy electrical engineering, both factory and aftermarket. You would be suprised to hear some of the early transistor amps sing, they have their own special mojo. I have re-engineered the whole amp, but most times just inject the signal into the existing audio path of the radio. That way it can still serve it's original purpose, or be less objectionable to decor. Many old radios were 2 and 4-tube monsters, with classic style and half-stack volume! Many need an extra bit of gain, but there are often unused curciuts available on the board already after conversion, or a punch die and extra preamp tube does the trick. I protect (using a bandpass crossover) or usually, replace the old speakers. They are the only thing that doesn't hold up well after conversion on older/smaller units. It's also the easiest way to taylor the tone of the cabinet. With an eye to efficiency, Q and interior volume, you can also increase the volume quite a bit. Properly specing caps can also give more volume to many amps that came undercapped, but it ocassionally kills the mojo so try it both ways! Great work.

[@TheGuitologist]

This thing had a lot more in the tank if I wanted it. With that extra 12AV6 up front, it was overdriving the 6" speaker beyond what it could handle, so I backed it off a bit.

[@brazilianmegaman258]

Brad mate that sounds mint! Properly gnarly, can't wait to hear it with some 12" speakers.

[@Bliggick]

How cool was it that you could repurpose that deck into a guitar tone machine. Just like Keith Richards playing his acoustic into his Norelco for the funky rhythm on Street Fighting Man. It also reminds me of this mom and pop music store in Vancouver that was selling these funky custom made guitar amps constructed from old obsolete movie theatre sound system amplifiers made by brands like RCA and Bell and Howell.

[@huntergalloway3944]

Man, I thought I was keeping some sort of studio secret by using my Sony TC-377 as a fuzz box/amp! It really does nail that sound!

[@ROCKNROLLMODS]

Cool video! Thanks man. I thought it was cool that you were worried about the one chap that loved that little tape deck as a kid and was getting sentimental lol. Appreciate that. Manners are rare these days

[@fredvahldiek738]

Used a Roberts tube tape machine for a practice amp about forty+ years ago. Ran my BC Rich (which had two preamp/booster stages} into the mic input. Switched the guitar "out-of-phase" to get that Brian May treble cut.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Cool, might have been nice to hear through an 8" or 10" Jensen. I used the single ended 6AQ5 and 2- 12ax7s amp from a Pentron reel to reel that I had for years. I put it in this late 30's- early 40's classroom wall-PA speaker. Very art deco with two tone light stain/dark stain hardwood front. Best part is it's 'wedge' shape allows it to be on it's back like a stage monitor, or on it's bottom with a perfect tilt for sitting and playing. I never repurpose good operating stuff, but was bored and have a collection of Voice Of Music (VOM), Ampex, Akai, and I love my Wollensak reel to reel workhorse desktop portable units. I made many tape loops using those old Mono " public school" tape recorders. You can put the entire amp/ controls from an old 50's b&w tube type Wollensak into a 1970's olive green Solid State version, and vise versa, with same exact fit and connectors. Loops don't need reels, but if you want a long loop you can use cardboard with pencils. General concept is 1.MAKE SHORT LOOP, 2.PLAY IT BACK ONTO CASSETTE (or another reel to reel) RECORDER WHILE DUBBING NEW MUSIC WITH THE SHORT LOOP. 3. PLAY CASSETTE BACK, NOW YOU CAN MAKE A NEW LONGER LOOP FROM THAT, AND SO ON.

[@JaniceLalla]

Great transformation!

[@stevenconrady1990]

Cool amp & superb playing as always, Brad! 😎🎸

[@TheGuitologist]

Thanks dude.

[@NWLee]

I thought all tape recorders were solid state by the '60s. Always good information well presented, thanks Brad.

[@DeadKoby]

Wish I had time to do fun projects......... Since I introduced a whole pedal line, I've been mighty busy. Not even filming the adventures now....

[@drewjohnson4794]

I wish you could make a video series where you go thru each step of building a vintage style tube amp from scratch. Many kits are available but I can't imagine attempting to build one without more detailed instructions. You could get thousands of people to do it with you. Weekly live streams maybe. Something like that and I'd be willing to pay to join the group.

[@craigjacob3704]

Yes I know right, very intriguing and interesting for sure. I don't know near enough about electronics and not comfortable messing around with stored up voltage ,which is probably a good thing and smart for me to stay away from at this point😁

[@deandee8082]

those videos are out there, mojotone so forth

[@tomaskey6844]

Uncle Doug has the videos you want to see and I have heard the Guitologist talk about watching his videos also.

[@michaelmarchei8539]

Dude this thing sounds vintage sick man 👊👊👊 would love to hear it through a 12 inch 🙏

[@timmooney7528]

Regarding the re-purposing of old devices, I agree some equipment is either too worn out to be restored, or worth more as something else, like guitar or harp amp. A good example is all the Lafayette police radios out there from the 1970's. Their value has actually gone up because they are good hosts to make boutique amps from because several of the components can be retained to build an amp with.

[@TheGuitologist]

I'm sure I've added a little value to a few old things after videos here and there. Never done one of those radios though.

[@timmooney7528]

@@TheGuitologist If it can be saved from a trip to the landfill, give them a try. A buddy works at a landfill outside of Buchanan, MI the former home of Electrovoice. He saved a 4x12 cabinet with EV speakers from being scrapped.

[@brettbunke9096]

Awesome vid as always! Love it

[@phil36135]

I've built several amp kits and some amp conversions, also some scratch builds. But I didn't really learn that much from the kit builds. I learned mostly from Brad and uncle Doug, Both of them have lots of videos and if you keep watching them you will start remembering some of the technical stuff. But a kit is a good start. I recommend a fender champ clone or a tweed deluxe.

[@Axess-sv8nq]

(singing) "They didn't knowwww what the fk they were doin'. They didn't....ask an Amp Tech!!" 😁

[@Mark-iq6hi]

At mark 28:40 I'm sorry but I lost it while enjoying a pour and I'm southern too but you blew me away with that pronunciation of the word "pin"! All over, great video Brad.

[@fullwaverecked]

Now that's a hot Mike! Great video!

[@TheGuitologist]

It definitely had a 'thing' though.

[@fullwaverecked]

@@TheGuitologist Hey, I'm strangely addicted to vintage tube gear. Can't get enough. On a side note, KZbin metrics seems to have changed since the coof. IMHO in a year or two you'll get many more views for electronics videos. Too much crap out there to watch right now, especially with titt twatt. But for now just show some cleavage to get more views... 😵‍💫 Cheers!

[@MegaTubescreamer]

tone to the bone brad,excellent work,there is a case for life after death !

[@framusburns-hagstromiii808]

I would estimate that piece is actually from the late 50's early 60's based on the build quality, the use of tubes, circuit design, type of components,etc..but I could be wrong as well. The cabinet kind of reminds me of early vox ac- amp coverings..Cool stuff Brad..Thanks for an interesting video once again! CHEERS!

[@TheDevice9]

I enjoyed this... I've been thinking about something similar, but I am disappointed that you didn't plug in a better speaker during the test.

[@TheGuitologist]

Disappointment is my middle name. ...and you thought the "D" stood for "Danger".

[@TheDevice9]

@@TheGuitologist I thought the danger would be from the series string amp, so I also enjoyed hearing about this isolation amp on the front end. It took me a bit to understand it, and I appreciate your explanation as this was new to me.

[@shotgunrebels]

Thing sounds great mic’d up like that!

[@pedraw]

That sounds pretty darn good considering the origin and a tiny speaker.

[@jasonlee8497]

Got a nice fat drive tone….a good mic and it would sound great recorded.

[@courier11sec]

Yeah that thing sounds killer! What a rad little machine. Be great to bring to a jam.

[@sunbeam8866]

Masco was an early American tape recorder manufacturer. But by the '60s, it looks like they couldn't stay competitive, and Fanon either merged or bought them out. Fanon was most widely known as a manufacturer of intercom systems.

[@roncarter2188]

Lunch Box Marshall......great job Brad, sounds killer.

[@TheGuitologist]

Thanks Brudda. It was good to get back to the bench. More to come. Stay tuned.

[@williambock1821]

Ha! Just started rebuilding an M8 reel to reel amp into a vox Ac-4 about 6 hours ago! Don’t worry,it’s not a restoration candidate. I only have the amps from it without the reel to reel parts.

[@TheGuitologist]

Sweet! Best of luck on the project. Send me a link if you make a video.

[@williambock1821]

@@TheGuitologist I’ll definitely make a demo to put on Reverb since I have 4 of them. Here’s a demo of a couple Ao44’s that I put on KZbin (again for Reverb) that turned out great. I think you’ll find ‘em interesting. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmSteH5qn61gaKs The designer really did a good job. I used two different tube compliments to get to the same end. Have to say, I didn’t know the difference between a transistor and capacitor before finding your channel a few years ago!

[@williambock1821]

Don’t worry,this isn’t a commercial. I already sold them! 😂

[@hazysativa3045]

That sounds aweome. You didn't destroy it you re purposed it... prevented one more piece of garbage in a landfill.

[@scotthuff3517]

Great little head, and those mics paired sound warm and gooey. I’ve heard you mention things here and there about safety. You might even have a whole video on that already, but I think that’s what holds people back from diving into old or new elections. If you haven’t it would be nice to see a video of all the little dangerous things you have found and how to avoid getting hurt by them. Hell you might have saved someone’s life turning that reel to reel into a guitar amp.

[@motorosso3349]

Cool vid, Brad. I was hoping you would plug the amp into a better speaker to see what it could sound like unhampered by the small, cheap speaker.

[@guitfidle]

Oh hey, I have an old busted reel to reel and a couple record players to do this with. It's not hard to come across busted or non working units- often the amp portion is fine, they have mechanical or electrical issues with the playback portions. One of the record players has a plastic tone arm that is not only snapped in half, but the plastic is getting all crumbly. No fixing that.

[@angelomelitc]

Cool video Brad. I watched it while working on my taxes. 😀

[@jscruffins8767]

dang dude that must be like the only tape recorder ever without a bias oscillator ...lmao

[@ralphups7782]

about the wiring, that jogged my memory a bit. were I was watching a DVD about the Asian wars think it was Vietnam . and this army bloke would take the drug of choice and start playing one of those tape recorders while varying the pitch and trying to decode it also. it had benicio del toro in it and another very funny guy. I am not to great with actors. :-)

[@RA.lightofwarz]

I enjoyed, l learned, Brad ty for this content and conversation today all around jolly good show 👍 awake the 69'.... 🙌

[@TheGuitologist]

The 69 lives.

[@jasoncourtright3978]

Always enjoy your vids... just saying, having a built in tape echo would be cool in that thing!

[@TheGuitologist]

It would need to have multiple heads for record and playback, and spacing the heads or varying tape speed would be a must.

[@shaunzimmerman661]

The 30volts u were seeing in the jack that wasnt suppose to be there was that the left over Voltage to run the fan that was part of the series filament circuit? And if it is then when they put the switch in and while fan was not running wouldn't the filaments in the tubes be seeing way to much voltage?

[@gnashvillecat6654]

In the early eighths we used to find those big giant stereo/TV consoles in people's garbage and turn those things into guitar amps the garbage truck driver asked me one day if we were a stereo repair shop because they didn't last a real long time and we had to throw them away and hunt for more.......lol

[@TheGuitologist]

Awesome. The spirit of rock and roll was strong in you. ;)

[@gnashvillecat6654]

@@TheGuitologist still is.......lol

[@stevelacombe5291]

I used to play my Harmony Silhouette guitar through my dad’s RCA CP-1, because I couldn’t afford to buy a reel guitar amp.

[@juliusweil9464]

That intro is cool!

[@6628guitarhero]

Ever done this to a tube vhf/uhf converter from the 50's? I have one that I've been wanting to do it to.

[@keithosterberg]

Just a thought… could it maybe become a tape echo unit?

[@Eddy63]

Good little vid 👍👍👍 That amp sounds great ... Thx for posting ...

[@RHR-221b]

Another winner, Brad. Thank you. Stay free. Rab 🍻 😎 🌠

[@marshallcrank]

Vary cool sounding amp

[@RuneBivrin]

I'm guessing the extra "speaker jack" and the switch was fitted to facilitate a foot control for the motor.

[@Jonathan_Doe_]

You tried a harmonica through the mic on it?

[@ec2294]

This is really impressive. As someone with very limited technical abilities, can I use my old reel to reel as a guitar amp without touching the electronics? It does sound quite awesome when i plug my guitar but i always afraid it's going to explode.

[@Juicexlx]

Love that great recycling idea of a tape machine into an amp. Dope! :D

[@skullheadwater9839]

sometimes the motor acts to drop part of filament voltage. Like on a 25L6 one tube wonder. This one has a 35,30 and 2x12 so that either has to be dropped by a resistor or maybe the motor itself.

[@TheGuitologist]

The motors wouldn't drop much voltage, some yes, but they did often double the motor as an isolation transformer on the mains. I've seen that done.

[@skullheadwater9839]

@@TheGuitologist radiotvphononut has talked about it extensively where there is a record player motor in series with a 25L6 and the motor drops most of the line voltage leaving just enough for the 25 filament of one tube wonder record players. In that video he added a 6sq7 as a preamp to compensate for the lower volume of a newer magnetic cartridge vs the old ceramic types, due to higher ac voltages now you could prob even use a 12v preamp tube. The motor was designed to drop 70 volts

[@scotthutchens1203]

Love the tone and distortion this thing makes. Love to hear this through a Marshall cab. How many watts does it put out?

[@TheGuitologist]

Maybe about 2W.

[@arsenicjones9125]

Do you think you could do one of these in a slightly better condition into a little amp w tape delay?

[@willkupers]

Cool little amp.👍🏼 Keep it up Brad.

[@VashStarwind]

Could you make a video talking about or fixing a reverb tank? I have a marshall with a messed up reverb tank. I took it off, and it had a wire broken from the connector, and i fixed that, but it still wont work. Idk exactly what to look for. Im using my multimeter to try and find a fault, but im confused because on the output, the positive and negative (of the RCA connector) arent shorting. But on the input side, the positive and negative of the RCA connector is shorting, is this normal? I dont think it is but idk.. Tried to find a video going in depth about them, but most are videos of people either just fixing the broken wire, (which i guess is common) or just replacing the whole thing. I would just replace it if i could afford it, but i cant. Would like to get it fixed, but again, dont really know what im looking for. If i could afford it, i would just send it to you lol, but cant. Well any help from anyone that knows more than i do about them is greatly appreciated. Things ive checked/tried: -I checked the actual RCA wires all the way up to the pins on the board of the amp, looks good. -Tried swapping the input and outputs thinking i may have swapped them on accident, no difference

[@johnpeikert6912]

Wish there was a schematic for the end product. Would be really informative and educational

[@fireantsarestrange]

Love it dude. It's awesome. Think though if I tried to make something like that I would have deleted the tape player face all together and just made a new one which didn't have the stuff on it.. and you also could have put a better speaker in by using the front cover. I dunno. You did a neat thing anyway.

[@johnsears4197]

Great vid one of your best THANKS

[@TheGuitologist]

I liked this one too. The algorithm didn’t.

[@phil36135]

Dang man that sounds better than a fender champ on my end. I wander how many watts it is, you may said but I missed it if you did. To me it sounded like as much as a princeton deluxe, maybe 12 watts? I bet it cleaned up nice too, anyway thanks for another great build.

[@TheGuitologist]

2-3 watts

[@HOLOCULT]

Bad ass as always brad!!

[@ralphups7782]

nice work , well done . it sounds surprisingly good

[@ibanezleftyclub]

Awww no sound tests though a 4x12?

[@waldemarpierzchalski]

I used old Tesla reel to reel as my amp for some time, warm sound.

[@reptalien_music]

Love the Freddy Krueger sleeves :D

[@paulcargo4233]

Are you using the new ribbon mic for the demo right out the internal speaker.

[@TheGuitologist]

Sure am! 6" speaker with the sE VR1 ribbon and an EV 635 mixed to taste.

[@MrMarkar1959]

i still got two cases of tapes and some still in factory wrap. from? '84!! lol tapes maybe junk but the reels are choice.👍🏼

[@VICTORYOVERNEPTUNE]

Mic sounds kind of badass

[@groovedodger]

I have a Elpico tape similar and a matching green ac55? (like the Kinks used for "You really got me") sounded great but both need looking at at the moment. Got them from the garbage dump : ) I accidentally left the amp switched on for several days and the power transformer melted all its wax out and burnt. Do you ever have transformers rewound Brad ? I would like to keep it as original as possible. Ive got one that might work but visually totally different.