Gibson Scout mods?

[60s_scout]

I just picked up a Gibson Scout this week in great shape that has definitely been “upgraded” at some point because it has a 3 prong power cable and a Webber 10in speaker.  Other than that I have no info on the amp.  I absolutely love the tone and would like to make it my primary gigging and recording amp but I am concerned about its performance and reliability while out on the road.  I have read quite a bit about mods and upgrades for this amp and would like to know your personal opinion.  I am not as concerned about making it louder as I am about making it reliable and rounding out the treble/brightness in the tone a bit.

1)      Is it a bad idea to take this amp on the road and depend on it as a primary gigging amp? 
2)      Do the mods really improve the sound that much?  Mine can sound a little too bright at times but other than that its fantastic.  I read that you can remove a midcut circuit that could help with this.  Have you heard of this mod?  Will this effect reliability?  I was thinking I should just get a an MXR 10 band eq pedal instead.
3)      The tremolo definitely works on the amp but seems like it doesn’t affect the sound as much as it should.  Is this normal for this amp or am I to used to my  Super Reverbs intense tremolo?
4)      What would be the best “bang for the buck” mod that I could do to this amp to make it a reliable for gigging and recording in your opinion?

Thanks in advance!

[tubenit]

What would be the best “bang for the buck” mod that I could do

My opinion is to add a 5E3 type tone stack and change some of the coupling caps on the amp.  I even changed the 6AQ5 tubes to EL84's on one for a friend. However, I don't recommend that and the 6AQ5 tube is actually more to my liking.

I also changed one of the 6EU7 tubes to a 12AX7 wiring so he could use all the 12A_7 tubes to vary the gain levels.

And I ripped out the rat's nest wiring and installed a tag board.

So, I'd recommend a tone pot and change the 6EU7 to a 12AX7.

Here is what his Scout ended up as. The tremolo and reverb both worked quite well.

With respect, Tubenit

[Fresh_Start]

tubenit - thanks for sharing that schematic.  Am I reading it correctly in that the 1 meg tone pot is strictly a variable resistor and not connected to the "send" lead for the reverb circuit? 

Also, is the switch to turn the reverb off drawn correctly?  Either I'm having a bad day or...

Respectfully,

Chip

[jojokeo]

I am not as concerned about making it louder as I am about making it reliable and rounding out the treble/brightness in the tone a bit.

1)      Is it a bad idea to take this amp on the road and depend on it as a primary gigging amp? 
2)      Do the mods really improve the sound that much?  Mine can sound a little too bright at times but other than that its fantastic.  I read that you can remove a midcut circuit that could help with this.  Have you heard of this mod?  Will this effect reliability?  I was thinking I should just get a an MXR 10 band eq pedal instead.
3)      The tremolo definitely works on the amp but seems like it doesn’t affect the sound as much as it should.  Is this normal for this amp or am I to used to my  Super Reverbs intense tremolo?
4)      What would be the best “bang for the buck” mod that I could do to this amp to make it a reliable for gigging and recording in your opinion?

tubenit offers some sage advice however in aswering directly to your questions:
1) No not at all. As long as you feel comfortable w/ it in playing it hard like you would gigging & practicing w/ it a few times, there's no reason for it to suddenly just fail for no reason. That being said, do all of the electrolytic caps look 40 years old or have they been replaced at some point? I'd carry a couple of spare tubes and a fuse or two to keep handy and you should be okay in an emergency. There's no real reason for any sudden failures out of the blue.
2) There's a number of very simple and reliable things you can do, like simply putting a small value cap across a load resistor, making the power tube's grid resistor a little larger, a feedback cap across the cathode & plate, a cap from a grid resistor to ground/cathode on a stage, etc...it's easy to bleed away a little high end in many ways that doesn't hurt anything and will be reliable for as long as the amp lives.
3) too vague to give a direct answer but have you simply tried a new tube for this function?
4) A cap job and new tubes, speaker is already good and the 3-prong grounded chord are already done.

Hope this helps, Keo

[tubenit]

tubenit - thanks for sharing that schematic.  Am I reading it correctly in that the 1 meg tone pot is strictly a variable resistor and not connected to the "send" lead for the reverb circuit? 

Should've looked more closely at the schematic. This may be the very first schematic I ever drew since the Gibby Scout was the first tube amp that I ever worked on?

I did this for a friend (who loved the amp) and I haven't seen that amp in years ..............    It had a very "traditional" sound/tone and was a Gibby response to the Princeton Reverb from what I remembered.

The original speaker was just awful & I put a Jensen C12Q in this amp.

 And I doubt that on/off switch would work on the send?

With respect, Tubenit

[60s_scout]

Thanks everyone for all of the advice.  Tubenit any idea how much the mods you speak of would cost?  I am not planning on doing the work myself and want to make sure i dont get ripped off?

[tubenit]

Tubenit any idea how much the mods you speak of would cost?

It would involve the cost of a tone pot ($3) and a 12AX7 tube  ($12).  Maybe some wire to rewire the 9pin socket from 6EU7 to 12AX7.  A couple of .02 caps (between the phase invertor and power tubes) would be maybe ($3) total.

It probably would take me about 2-3 hrs to get it all completed and try it out with a guitar. If you are going to take it to someone, just talk with them ahead of time and ask them for parts plus labor estimate.

IF you know how to work on an amp safely, this is something that you can do yourself.

Here is a photo of the chassis interior after I converted it to a tagboard and made all the mods. It's not necessary to do that with your amp at all to accomplish the simple mods I'm suggesting.

With respect, Tubenit

[bluesbear]

The trem in my GA-8t was odd. When you hit a note or chord, it was non-existant. As the note decayed, the trem would slowly become noticeable. Interesting but not very useful.
Dave