Friday, February 6, 2015

Rare 1960's St. George Tube Guitar Amp in Hesperia CA for $150

This seller is offering a St. George tube guitar amp from the 1960's for $150.  there is a lot of chatter online about these St. George amps because some people believe they were built by one of Leo Fender amp designers named Ray Massie.  I don't know about that - this one looks more similar to a Lectrolab R500C than anything Leo Fender ever built - but the debate goes on. 

What is amazing about these types of amps is the way they are built.  We've all heard of "Point-to-point" circuit constructions - but these amps take it further to where there is not even a breadboard - they just solder the resistors directly to the lead wires of the output tubes and the volume and tone pots!  Apparently these amps were ubiquitous here in SoCal back in the 1960's since they were built for a store called George's Music right here in LA.  The circuit on this one is pretty straightforward:  Two 12AX7 preamp tubes (one split for use with the tremolo), a pair of 6BQ5 output tubes (like a Vox AC15) and an EZ81 rectifier tube.  Not a whole lot of power to push a PAIR of 12 inch speakers - but they are alnico's so they should be fairly efficient.  I'd imagine this is about as loud as one of those 'lil Fender Blues Jr's.  Of course it probably needs a cap job and a good cleanup and overhaul - but it should be fun to play with.

Maybe Tom Morello should buy this to go along with the St. George Guitar he plays on "Calm Like a Bomb"!  LOL. 

Check it out.

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Vintage tube amp - $150 (Hisperia)

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St George Amp. Mid 60s. don't know much about amps I plugged a vintage bass in.It worked some buzz and left speaker a little rattle.The tremolo work ok. If interested you bring a Guitar up and check it out

1 comment:

  1. I bought this amp. If you have amy questions about it let me know. It worked, with minimal 60hz hum but both speakers were buzzy. They are 4 ohm 12" speakers wired in series to match the 8 ohm amp output impedance. Not so bad because it sounds great turned up and the buzz is not audible with the amp distortion. I added a 3 wire power cord and new grill cloth. Do you still have the original CL pics? They are not showing up on your page anymore. Just that question mark in the little blue box in place of each pic.

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I appreciate your comments but please no commercial links or non guitar related conversations. Thank you. - JC

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