1960 Tremolux 6BQ5 Blonde

[plexi50]

Wowza! I got this 1960 6G9 Tremolux in yesterday to go over. I didnt realize it was the EL84 version for about 10 minutes. Then i said (DAM!)
It is in very good condition inside and out. Original dog bone handle and all. I dont think i could afford this amp even if it were for sale. But while it is here i can love it and dream about it being mine

[DummyLoad]

very nice looking amp for the age.


what's wrong with it? the usual suspects: electrolytic caps?


--pete

[plexi50]

Yes the PS caps are shot.
Thankfully the owner did not to try to use it. It has been sitting in a closet for a very long time
V1 & V2 Cathode caps have been changed at some point in time                                                       
 

[TubeGeek]

Nice! I didn't even know they made an el84 version of that circuit.  Thanks for sharing.


I like the little cages built around the el84's!

[Platefire]

Me too! Wow! Never knew of an EL84 version. Well preserved. Have fun with it. Platefire

[TIMBO]

Plexi, You get all the TASTY treats.

A fender with EL84s. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

[plexi50]

It's been a wild last  2 years thats for sure. I think i would like to see a 1959 5F6A materialize next.  Ask and you shall receive!

[TIMBO]

Hey Plexi, Just a bit of info...........http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Tremolux

[6G6]

They only made that version for something like 3 or 4 months.
Pretty rare.

[Cliff Schecht]

I guy I do repairs for has three of these, EL84 versions, in pristine shape with the matching cabs. I refused to work on them because they're really museum quality pieces and so rare! Might end up getting one running someday, but I wouldn't work on all three...

[EL34]

Very cool.
I remember seeing this model in the schematics listing in the 90's
But out of the 100's of Fenders that came through my shop, I never had one of these come into the shop

[DummyLoad]

plexi50 has the pied-piper attraction of rare and collectible fenders. is it ironic that his forum ID is that of a marshall?


--pete

[Willabe]

plexi50 has the pied-piper attraction of rare and collectible fenders. is it ironic that his forum ID is that of a marshall?

    Opposites attract?


                   Brad     


 

[DummyLoad]

plexi50 has the pied-piper attraction of rare and collectible fenders. is it ironic that his forum ID is that of a marshall?

    Opposites attract?


                   Brad     

yup.   


so by the rational of that logic, if one were to change to a "fenderish" user ID, one would then be visited by the rarest of marshalls?


--pete

[sluckey]

I remember a time when he would have converted that Tremolux to a Plexi.   

[DummyLoad]

I remember a time when he would have converted that Tremolux to a Plexi.   

 

[Willabe]

Plexi where are you located anyway??????  You seem to be in a hot zone for old amps?????


                    Brad     

[sluckey]

If it helps, his profile indicates he lives in the central time zone.  (only 40-50% of population is in that zone).

How so?

[plexi50]

It is ironic that i am stuck with Plexitis. Steve is right, there was time when everything that i got my hands on was modded to a plexi or some sort of Marshall circuit. Thank GOD i got that out of my system (mostly)


I am in SW Florida. Tampabay Area. Those tweed amps (1955 410 Bassman & 1959 5E3 Deluxe) i got were just a freak of nature that will more than likely never happen again. If i had found this Tremolux i would probably have to seek counseling for mojo voodoo syndrome or something.


All i did was a power supply re-cap. The amp sounds very sharp and lots of true Fender Clean. It does start breaking up nicely just past 5 on the knob

[sluckey]

I like the way you did the caps. Was it hard to gut the originals?

Carol and I bought a Prindle 19 in Clearwater back in '89. We spent several days there sailing around. Can't remember the name of the dealer nor the name of the beach where we launched the catamaran.

[sluckey]

Looked up his member info.  Compared current time to my computer time; either added or subtracted hours from my time zone to determine his time zone.  This works only if the state you are in follows standard time zone info.  Example, AZ does not move into Mountain Daylight time, It stays MST.  There a couple of other states that do this.

Well you got it wrong. The local time in someone's profile is only correct if that person has correctly enter the appropriate time offset. I bet it's wrong for most members.

Also, time zones don't necessarily follow state borders. Florida happens to sit in two time zones.

Maybe his email info would have been a good clue. Or follow his website link and remove all doubt.

[plexi50]

I like the way you did the caps. Was it hard to gut the originals?

Carol and I bought a Prindle 19 in Clearwater back in '89. We spent several days there sailing around. Can't remember the name of the dealer nor the name of the beach where we launched the catamaran.

No not hard at all to remove the sleeve type cap covers. Just use a small pan head screw diver. Slide it under the rolled over bead of the cap sleeve and slide it around  the entire cap. Push out the old cap. Then roll the sleeve bead back over with your fingers and round in place as original. This is only good for use with F&T & Illinois capacitors as they are small enough to get inside the vintage capacitor sleeves. Sprague Atoms are too big even if you remove the plastic covering on them. I have dozens of old cap sleeves just in case a special amp arrives . Nice that the original sleeves were in excellent condition.


Probably Clearwater, Johns Pass or Maderia beach. I wonder if there is a tweed in the water of the coast here? Probably/


I will check my profile time zone now and see if it is wrong

[TIMBO]

Hi guys, I bought an 18w tranny set 290-0-290(magnetic components) some time ago and that is as far as I got ( I even think I tried to kick start a thread for a use, but it coughed and spluttered and didn't start  )
Along comes Plexi and lands a great project in my lap 

Just a couple of things.......
I don't have a GZ34 but I have an EZ81 that is rated at 150mA and the same rectification as the GZ34, I do have a 5Y3GT as well
The PT is rated at 120mAs which should cover the tube lineup.
May add a one tube reverb if there is enough mAs
Should I add screen resistors the power tubes??
Sheared cathode resistor on V1b/V2b???

[plexi50]

I've got to build a clone just for GP. (General Principle)


I need to get a blank Fender chassis and punch out the sockets
Astron caps are hard to come by and most if not all of them are way bad and leaky / Dilemma
I have a 1960 30 watt output transformer. That's 80% of the mission

[DummyLoad]

Hi guys, I bought an 18w tranny set 290-0-290(magnetic components) some time ago and that is as far as I got ( I even think I tried to kick start a thread for a use, but it coughed and spluttered and didn't start  )
Along comes Plexi and lands a great project in my lap 

Just a couple of things.......
I don't have a GZ34 but I have an EZ81 that is rated at 150mA and the same rectification as the GZ34, I do have a 5Y3GT as well
The PT is rated at 120mAs which should cover the tube lineup.
May add a one tube reverb if there is enough mAs
Should I add screen resistors the power tubes??
Sheared cathode resistor on V1b/V2b???

ugh! 400V to 6BQ5 plates! maybe why they didn't make many?


--pete

[DummyLoad]

I've got to build a clone just for GP. (General Principle)


I need to get a blank Fender chassis and punch out the sockets
Astron caps are hard to come by and most if not all of them are way bad and leaky
Dilemma

use weber octal to 9pin shim and buy prepunched.


click here


use spring retainer socket.


click here


it would be cool to see this amp replicated.   


you can get the front panel and rear panel faceplaces from tube amp doctor in germany.


yikes! 66euros!


--pete

[plexi50]

Yes to all of the above. I want it to be all the original ridiculiously as possible. Hey that's why we do this in the first place right?
I have tons of 1960's carbon comps in all values. Astrons will be the problem but not impossible. Like a 1 year search for them


It took me 3 years to find NOS  fairchild 5133 button top trannies for a 1973 big muff triangle pedal. I got them though.

[tubeswell]

What's the serial #? (Is it higher than 318?)

[plexi50]

What's the serial #? (Is it higher than 318?)

No. Mid 200's

[sluckey]

I will check my profile time zone now and see if it is wrong

So, did you check it? Why didn't you correct it?

Profile -> Account settings -> Modify Profile -> Look and Layout

Change the time offset to make the forum time equal to your real time.

[plexi50]

I just  changed the time profile. Got side tracked again. Thanks for the reminder.

[Stankfut]

Nice amp! I've always wondered how they sound.


BTW, I was just down in that part of Florida last week. It was an interesting trip! Didn't get any cool amps though








 

[lego4040]

   Museum piece it is. It must be a really hard decision owning one ofe these rare amps. You have to make a choice of either pkeeping it original and gaze at it or amke repairs and play the living sh*t out of it, something I'll never have to worry about

[TeslaRect5150]

Awesome amp! I had no idea that fender made these amps. Also really like the way you did the filter caps. 
Peace
-Aaron

[Willabe]

It is a rare amp and is in great/mint condition but....

There must have been a reason that Leo Fender tried EL84's in a model but quickly changed his mind?????????


                    Brad     
   

[eleventeen]

Maybe he didn't like the lack of good tube retention on those 9-pin 6BQ5's. I don't see what those little stands shown in Plexs' pix do other than to keep the tube upright, whereas the normal spring-steel metal claw retainer works pretty well on 6V6's, etc; Especially as cheap as they are/were. Plus, remember that the line cord was shoved into the back of the amp post-gig in a hurried fashion, so maybe reports of those tubes getting broken came in more than Leo liked.

[Willabe]

Maybe.

But I think he didn't like their sound and or players didn't like their sound compared to his other amps.



              Brad     

[Cliff Schecht]

It just wasn't a popular model. Not a lot of headroom so not a lot of clean output power which is what Fender was after in those days. That and the 6V6's were used across all of his other smaller amplifiers so why have to order a bunch of different tubes when one can recycle? Remember Leo was also super cheap and did whatever he could to save money without sacrificing quality (most of the time...).

[Ed_Chambley]

Maybe.

But I think he didn't like their sound and or players didn't like their sound compared to his other amps.



              Brad     

I think Leo was just giving Jim Marshall his new "student design" 18 watt platform.  The Watkins Dominator is also of this family.  I found out the value of this amp and was surprised they do not appraise for what I thought.  I was thinking $6000 or so when I first saw this.  Reality is less than half will get one.  Just because it is rare, blah, blah.


The EL84 tube is a strange item and vary more than any tube I am familiar with.  Pushed, they really distort but playing a Watkins Dominator with an L5 makes a great rock-a-billy tone.  Zenith used a lot of EL84 in consumer console sets and provided a nice clean tone for phono.


400vDc is overkill I think.  They sound best at or around 300 IMO.  The tubes themselves make a huge difference.  For instance I have some RFT's I use in the AC15 when I am playing it around the house.  They breakup at half of the volume than Bugle Boys and do not have as open quality.  I can get good headroom using the Bugle Boys and they also have a good tone without any noticeable harshness.   


THis amp I am sure has a wonderful Fender clean and probably doesn't saturate the OT.  Just guessing, but not much headroom and too expensive to be in the 'performance' Fender line.