I got a chance to work on a Silvertone 1481

[Dave]

A guy brought me a 1481 several days ago. Cosmetically, it was almost a museum piece, but it was non-functioning.
Every single resistor was within specs, but every single capacitor was hammered.


I replaced all the capacitors and got ready to give it a test run only to discover that the OT was bad. I dug around in my stash and found a replacement that was the right specs (although I don't know where it came from). Got it up and running.


I'm writing this post just to document what a great little amp I thought it was.


Very smooth little amp. Great sound. Customer was thrilled.


I had heard that these amps were cool, but had never had the chance to fool with one. I approve.


Dave

[jim]

I got a bad shock from one of those split chassis amps once.   There is a thin piece of braid grounding the chassis together that often inadequate.  It is a cool sounding piece though.  Jim

[Dave]

The one I worked on was not a split chassis. That's interesting. I wonder if there may have been more than one configuration with the same nomenclature.


Dave

[Platefire]

Here is a link with most of the Silvertone Models:
https://reverb.com/brand/silvertone?product_type=amps
A lot of the 50's Silvertone amps had the two chassis layout. The 60's models were I think all single chassis. The 1481 was a 60's amp.

[Willabe]

What kind of caps did you change?

B+ e-caps, ceramic disk signal caps, wax/paper caps, Mylar caps?

[Dave]

Sorry, I thought I said already. I changed all the caps.


There were three e-caps and three caps in the signal path (those wine-colored "drop" type caps).


Also got rid of the death cap.


Dave