mystery amp?!?!?!

T

theD1CKENS

*insert clever title here
I borrowed this amp, but I have no idea what it is?! the guy who owns it SWEARS it's a Silvertone from back in the day, maybe the 1950's or 60's. he says his grandfather bought a Silvertone guitar and the amp came with it as some sort of package deal BUT it doesn't say Silvertone anywhere on it. in fact, the only thing it says is Tonemaster on a little metal plate on the top left on the front. it kinda looks like something between a Fender Champion and a Fender Hot Rod

it's tiny. roughly 2'x2'x1' with a single 8" speaker(no visible name). has a single power/volume knob and two 1/4" inputs(tho they don't seem to be a hi and lo gain. they sound the same. possibly a mic input?)all on the top. it's a fully open back with a single pre tube and 2 power tubes. something is melted on the power tubes so I don't know the specifics.

does this sound familiar? I can post some pics(when my camera gets back from Germany).
 
I'd imagine it's a single power tube and a rectifier tube. If you can give me the tube numbers.
 
Take a look at the back of the amp. If the tubes are 12AU6 (preamp) 50C5 (power) and 35W4 (rectifier) and there is only one transformer (output) it's probably an old DanElectro /Silvertone. I have one and it's a cool amp BUT, there is no power transformer which means there's nothing between it and input power. If anything gets hinky, you could get knocked on your ass or killed. That's why they stopped making this type of amp based on the All Amercan 5 design (a lot of table top radios back in the day were based on this design).
 
My first amp had only "Model 6000" as i.d. on it, no maker or retailer's name. My mother forgot where she bought it (X-mas present when I was 11) so it's origin was a mystery for decades. I actually sold it at a garage sale, but found another one via fleaBay several years ago. I knew it was not the same amp (same model, though) because I had mounted a second 6" speaker in mine, and the holes were "missing" from the replacement. Both had the same "radio tubes" as yours probably does, plus one more for tremolo.

Then, somehow, I learned they were sold by Montgomery Wards ("Monkey Wards.") Frankly, few if any of these "radio tube" amps have a particularly good tone. Mine certainly does not. Scored a Weber Blue Pup 6" speaker at a garage sale (what goes around, comes around, apparently) but it did not improve the tone much. Still, I like and keep the thing, it has a nice lo-fi sound, and distorts well before being turned beyond 5 (no calibrations on the knobs, though.)
 
@Stevie; this amp might be one of the few that has a good tone. it's got some bite and breaks up really well, if a little early. When I use my Schecter, at about 25% volume it gets pretty growly and overdriven, which is fine by me. If I need a clean tone I'll just roll off the volume. I can't really get a good sound using the Strat(or ANY single coil guitar, for that matter). it's too jangly for my tastes

@Track Rat; some really helpful info there. thanks a bunch. luckily, I haven't had any issues with getting shocked yet. do you think it would be possible to have a tranformer added to eliminate this potential problem? I'd hate to blow this amp, or worse

thanks a ton, guys:D
 
A one to one isolation transformer would do the job. By thr way, my amp has excellent tone to it. Good blues type tone. And with a Shure green Bullet, it's a kick ass harmonica amp for recording.
 
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