Old Microphone Mixer

[j.harv]

Just bought this for peanuts.
One of my many silly impulse buys. Anyone ever heard of the "Impact" brand?
The thing with this relic is that it has a British plug on it. So I can't test it right now,that is if it even works.
Could I buy one of those travel adapters for the plug?
Im just curious to see how this thing sounds.It has reverb too.
I was thinking I could maybe use it as a "dirty" pre.
6 ins and 1 out.
I've also included a guts shot.Could use a cleaning that's for sure.

Sorry about the GIANT pics. Still don"t know how to resize stuff

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Cool find!

I'm surprised with the size of that thing that there's no tubes inside of it!

Never heard of that brand but do have some experience with an older Tapco 6000R which is from the same era and a similar configuration with build in spring reverb too. The Tapco was a total POS.

Hopefully yours is better then that!

Cheers!

 

[mdainsd]

The Brit plug means 220VAC mains. But have a look at that power transformer and see if it can be strapped for 115. I wouldnt turn it on until you examine the inards real closely. It looks as though someone has been monkeying around in there.

 

[rob aylestone]

I remember the Impact brand from catalogues I had when I was a teenager in the early 70s - Orange, WEM, Laney and Marshall were the 'name' brands, but I'm sure Impact was in there too. This doesn't look (to my memory) anything like the kit of the time. It's also very home brew - Veroboard and very cheesy wiring makes me think it's either something one-off, or maybe a re-use of the original box. Here, there seems a snowballs chance in hell it would pass any form of safety test - and I don't think that something like that would be really very useful. Interesting, though!

 

[j.harv]

Yeah.....
Im not sure what Im gonna do with it.
I might just try and clean it up a little and see if I can get some audio passing through it.
But this thing will most likely end up in E-waste.
I'll probably keep all the knobs and switches though and maybe keep the case and strip it and cover it in duratex.


Was just thinking...... do you think I could hook the reverb tank up some how to use as a nasty sounding spring verb?????

 

[ecc83]

Yeah, a very crappily built pile of crap!

From a safety point of view it has obviously suffered from severe damp and that mains traff needs PAT testing for earth leakage BEFORE you plug it in! In fact if you did want to use the unit again, replace it with a nice, modern toroid.

Reverb? Probably the best option but first check the continuity of the input and output coils. If either is O/C bin the lot! If you can find a model number for the tank you can find the input and output Zs.

You can drive the tank from a 1W amp chip such as the LM386 or Maplin/Velleman do a very handy "7"watt chip amp that will give you even more clean drive and in that case the input Z is pretty immaterial, that amp will drive any Z.

Recovery amp? NE 5532. You could have multiple input amps and a mixer and put the 'verb over multiple sources.

Dave.