jp
Senior Member
Hi John,
Thanks for a very thorough description. I've always been curious about the Guild Thunder Reverb I and it's funky reverb circuitry.
When I was gigging pro, my main amp was a Fender Twin, and then a Mesa Boogie DC-5. I still love the Boogie, but I wanted a lower wattage tube amp, and my journey has landed me with the Epi, the Falcon, and a Deluxe Reverb, which is in a class by itself. The thing with vintage gear nowadays, is you have to buy it to try it, since they so seldom end up in shops for reasonable prices.
The Falcon sat in a studio relatively untouched for many a few decades. It needs a once-over with Deoxit, new caps, new tubes, and a three-prong plug--much really to get it optimum again. Although a little scratchy, it still sounds great as it is, especially for that groovy jangly surfy 60s garage sound, old timey country, and R&B. The reverb is deep and spacey. It has some black plate RCAs in it right now, and it definitely qualifies as the poor man's Princeton. New tubes will give it a little more spank.
The Epiphone is actually a very rare creature, and I haven't found a corresponding Gibson, as with the Crestline-styled series. I've never seen another besides this one.
http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/GearDe ... tem=797079
There is very little info on the net as well outside of the schematic. With the Devon-style cabinet, it most closely matches the Gibson Tweeds, or the Maestro-Supros of the period. The tube complement is also uncommon. I need to go through my CD of schematics to see what it matches most closely.
1-(12AY7) 2-(12AY7) 3-(6EU6) 4-(6EU6) 5-(EL34/6AC7) 6-(EL34/6AC7)
Funky, huh? It's been robbed of original tubes, the hardwired footswitch is missing, the reverb sounds hollow and fuzzy (drive or recovery tubes probably cooked and bias most certainly off), the 12AY7s have been replaced with 12AX7s, what I think should be a Jensen C12P is now a 60s orange Utah, and I suspect the power transformer is not original. This is the amp I'm most curious to start on. I'm gonna dig around first to find someone who knows more about them.
Thanks for a very thorough description. I've always been curious about the Guild Thunder Reverb I and it's funky reverb circuitry.
When I was gigging pro, my main amp was a Fender Twin, and then a Mesa Boogie DC-5. I still love the Boogie, but I wanted a lower wattage tube amp, and my journey has landed me with the Epi, the Falcon, and a Deluxe Reverb, which is in a class by itself. The thing with vintage gear nowadays, is you have to buy it to try it, since they so seldom end up in shops for reasonable prices.
The Falcon sat in a studio relatively untouched for many a few decades. It needs a once-over with Deoxit, new caps, new tubes, and a three-prong plug--much really to get it optimum again. Although a little scratchy, it still sounds great as it is, especially for that groovy jangly surfy 60s garage sound, old timey country, and R&B. The reverb is deep and spacey. It has some black plate RCAs in it right now, and it definitely qualifies as the poor man's Princeton. New tubes will give it a little more spank.
The Epiphone is actually a very rare creature, and I haven't found a corresponding Gibson, as with the Crestline-styled series. I've never seen another besides this one.
http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/GearDe ... tem=797079
There is very little info on the net as well outside of the schematic. With the Devon-style cabinet, it most closely matches the Gibson Tweeds, or the Maestro-Supros of the period. The tube complement is also uncommon. I need to go through my CD of schematics to see what it matches most closely.
1-(12AY7) 2-(12AY7) 3-(6EU6) 4-(6EU6) 5-(EL34/6AC7) 6-(EL34/6AC7)
Funky, huh? It's been robbed of original tubes, the hardwired footswitch is missing, the reverb sounds hollow and fuzzy (drive or recovery tubes probably cooked and bias most certainly off), the 12AY7s have been replaced with 12AX7s, what I think should be a Jensen C12P is now a 60s orange Utah, and I suspect the power transformer is not original. This is the amp I'm most curious to start on. I'm gonna dig around first to find someone who knows more about them.