kmg Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 I have an old Bell 2122b hi-fi tube amp. It belonged to my father. Obviously, it has some sentimental value, but is it a good candidate for refurbishing (new caps, resistors and tubes) to use as a guitar amp? Building a nice wood enclosure for it would also help to protect it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWelcome Home Studios Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 Only as a labor of love or an item of curiosity. I've converted other purpose amps to guitar amps (most notably a Bogen tube PA amp and an old wire recorder amp.) and it is seldom as easy as it sounds (to do it right...anyone can hack something together.). Your big issue will be the front end. Hi fi amps expect to see a line level input, which is significantly hotter than the minuscule output of a guitar pickup. If you don't account for this level and impedance difference, your signal to noise will be terrible and your pickups will probably load down, changing their sound. (To get an idea, plug your guitar into the line level input of a mixing console). "I believe that entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot." Steve Martin Show business: we're all here because we're not all there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 Yeah; "what Bill said"! It would probably sound great, IF you went to the trouble of doing it right, the first time. Depends on your experience and how much effort and/or expense you're willing to put into the project. Could be real nice to have and use, as a memento of your Father's having had it. Try posting questions (one at a time/per post) about this on the "Feel free to ask Myles"-thread above, but be clear and to the point, and expect a short answer- Myles KNOWS, authoritatively- but he's often very busy! I fooled around once with putting a guitar and preamp in front of a cool old all-tube German-made console stereo, and it sounded phenomenal! This was a decidedly temporary, quick-and-dirty project, though. Who was it around here that made a really cool combo-amp with an old Bogen PA amplifier? Anyone recall? Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWelcome Home Studios Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/BillPark/studio%20pics/ampright4-2.jpg "I believe that entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot." Steve Martin Show business: we're all here because we're not all there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmg Posted July 27, 2009 Author Share Posted July 27, 2009 Thanks guys. Time to do some more homework...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.