Got a new old Airline amp

tele4tone

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DUDE!!! there is nothing online about this amp.
Montgomery Ward Airline model 8504
6V6GT power tubes
6X5GT rectifier
6AU6
12AX7

15" speaker. It needs a recone.
footswitchable tremolo and I'm not sure what the little box off the side is, but it is wired off of the output tranny so I guess it is an external speaker jack.

It's been gone through and recapped and had some mods done to it. I don't think the Gibby is going to like competition.

Jeff
 

capnjuan

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Hi Jeff; the speaker is a Utah. The circuit is basically a Silvertone 1482 but w/ a 15", not 12", speaker. The 6AU6 is the trem oscillator; same as used in the 1482 and pushes the output tube grid bias voltage up and down causing the volume to fluctuate.

Like yours, the 1482 has pairs of 12AX7s and 6V6s and made by either Valco or Danelectro. The 6X5 rectifier is the older version of the more commonly used 6X4. The 6X5 can handle higher AC voltages - which really wasn't necessary - while pulling more heater current. Quite an amp!
 

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As an interesting aside, there are/is/was two "death caps", one in the lower chassis and one in the upper chassis. Also, the ground for the upper chassis is/was through an rca jack to the lower chassis. CJ Poulos reported that he caught a pretty good jolt one time when he accidentally grounded the upper chassis to the lower with his arm...

Incidentally, yours is a denizen of Neptune, New Jersey. It's Danelectro in origin.

Very cool amp! :mrgreen:
 

tele4tone

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http://huntamps.com/projects/ward-airline-8504/

Above link was the last mods done to it.

The second channel will feedback if you turn it up without anything plugged into it. It is also microphonic if you tap the volume knob #2. It had a cap job supposedly, but there is a lot of floor noise. It's more of a hiss than a hum. The Utah 15 is definitely torn and sounds pretty funky (sigh.....recone). This guy has the same power tubes that my Ga20t has but the Monkey Ward has way more umph.

This was my brothers amp about 7 years ago. He offered it to me and I politely declined stating it was too cool for him to give away. Instead he gave it to one of our mutual friends. I just traded a marshall 18 tmb clone to get it back.


Jeff
 

tele4tone

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ok..... update.

I replaced the 12AX7 and the microphonic squealing went away. The floor noise is better as well. I inadvertently stated that I questioned the tech's ability that worked on it. It was a damaged tube from shipping. So Mr. Lowell Hunt, I am sorry about that. :)

He was very helpful with information on the amp.

Cheers, Jeff
 

capnjuan

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Hi Jeff; V1 ... the first pre-amp tube ... one half (A) is fed from the instrument jacks, the other half (B) from the mic / other set of jacks. Otherwise, the tube halves are independent of each other. If replacing V1 with a known-good 12AX7 doesn't help, chances there's a bad plate or cathode resistor on the B half. Hiss is characteristic of a bad resistor ... hum is usually either a capacitor or grounding problem depending on how it sounds.

Jeff said:
This guy has the same power tubes that my Ga20t has but the Monkey Ward has way more umph.
The 15" speaker is moving roughly 25% more air than the 12" Gibson speaker ... all things being even, it will seem like it has power ... or presence. In Gibson Amplifiers by W. Marx, there's a lot of discussion about what Ted McCarty and Seth Lover were trying to do with the tone of Gibson amps. Their goals weren't necessarily the same as MW/Dano's; the MW is newer than the Gibson and was marketed to a different buyer. My experience with Gibsons v. Silvertones (Airlines under a different brand name ... many Silvertones and Airlines share identical schematics) is that the Gibsons are more mid-rangey, compressed, less gainy / 'twangy' ... not as hot or forward.

Interesting twist to wind up with your Bro's amp!
 

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That is pretty sweet!

Instead of a re-cone, maybe consider whatever Weber 15" might be to your liking.

Enjoy it!
 

tele4tone

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I've considered a different speaker. Maybe a heavier rated speaker. I have done that with 12's and really like the clarity. I really like the 200 watt rated 12's that EV puts out.

Jeff
 
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