Super Reverb Re-Do

JCH

JCH

El Nacho
A while back, I picked up this severely molested '66 Super Reverb Amp. The original cabinet was long gone, along with the speakers. The internals were also heavily modded. Among other things, the PT had been switched to one from a Twin Reverb. It didn't take much work to get it working pretty well. The main problem was a shorted power tube, and a blown resistor in the power supply that the tube likely took out when it shorted. For my $150 investment, I had a SR with a solid state rectifier, a single 15" 4 ohm bass driver for a speaker, in a POS ugly falling apart cabinet.

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It sat that way for over a year, in line behind other projects. It smelled so bad it wasn't even allowed into the garage. I weighed my options, and came to the conclusion that it would be cost prohibitive to restore it to original. Just not worth it. Sure it was once a blackface Super Reverb, but I wasn't willing to spend the loot to undo the shame it had endured for many years. Speakers alone would be over $400. The amp was so far from original that I decided to roll with it, and build something unique.

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I decided to re-incarnate it as a 2X10 twin.

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Dovetailed pine box, just like Leo used to make. I opted for a secured baffle board to add some structural integrity.

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Ready to cover. I've owned many black amps. This one will be white.

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Nice new tolex!

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Lets put this thing together.

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I ended up with around $400. invested in parts. It weighs in at a manageable 50lbs., and sounds great.

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Really great job; this looks fantastic. The "before" photo looks like it was attacked by a puma.
 
The only thing I'd add is that if that is the original output transformer (you're saying the power transformer is from a Twin), it should be a 2-ohm secondary. Using two 8-ohm speakers (as a SWAG) won't get the total impedance low enough. Nothing bad will happen with a 4-ohm load, but you lose power. If power and/or volume is important, you may have to swap out the OPT. Say a Bassman head OPT. If it is a Twin output transformer, the impedance is really wrong. Just quick math, if it is 3800-ohms into 2-ohms for a SR, the Twin is 1900-ohms into 4-ohms. That's low for the primary. Using the SR OPT with 4-ohms fools the primary into acting like a 7600-ohm transformer. You'd lose power, like I said.
If you have a test bench, you might have to measure everything to make sure what is going on and how efficient you are running everything.
 
@ranjam...It's OK I'm cool on the output load. The P10R's are 4ohm parallel = 2ohm. Thanks for looking out for me though.

@danw... Thanks. IDK what attacked it, puma sounds good. Yeah it was a puma.
 
Ron at Northwest Speaker Exchange in Marietta, GA has a bunch of 16-ohm Fender 10's, if you are interested. At least, I think they are 16-ohm speakers- maybe they are 4's, working from memory. Call him for the skinny.
 
Those clever Italians. I always forget Jensen speakers now come in flavors other than 8-ohms. :o Two 25-watt speakers with a 40-watt amplifier has always been my secret recipe for getting great speaker break up. You now have a Vibrolux Reverb, which was always my favorite.
 
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stevieb said:
Ron at Northwest Speaker Exchange in Marietta, GA has a bunch of 16-ohm Fender 10's, if you are interested. At least, I think they are 16-ohm speakers- maybe they are 4's, working from memory. Call him for the skinny.
Click to expand...

ranjam said:
Those clever Italians. I always forget Jensen speakers now come in flavors other than 8-ohms. :o Two 25-watt speakers with a 40-watt amplifier has always been my secret recipe for getting great speaker break up. You now have a Vibrolux Reverb, which was always my favorite.
Click to expand...

I ordered the speakers from Jensen USA. They were on my doorstep in less than a week. They also sent me a free T-shirt. There isn't much to choose from when you're looking for 10" 4ohm guitar speakers, especially AlNiCo's. It's really cool that the P10R's are available.
I hadn't thought about it, but I guess it is very similar to a VR.
 
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