hey im new. help me out please! 1967 thunder 1?

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hey guys im new to the page. i have what ive always believed to be a 1967 Guild Thunder 1. its sweet!!! its got two 10's and what makes it better, its 100% original. the tubes still have guild stamped on the glass. has the original quality guarantee sticker on the inside. and the serial number on it and the back plate match so thats good lol. im going to try and up load some pics so yall can see. please give me your comments and teach me something new!

i love this amp to death. its a tone freak!

ok and im evidently not smart enough to get my pics from photobucket on here so it would be sweet i one of yall could show me how to do that to lol
 
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IMG_0083.jpg
 

Qvart

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Ah, you figured out the picture thing quick. And you posted a little late at night for the geezers to stop by with answers for you. I'm sure you'll get some good info tomorrow. Me, I know nothing about amps. capnjuan knows a lot, as do some others.

In the meantime...

gabba gabba we accept you we accept you one of us.

:lol:
 

killdeer43

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Qvart said:
And you posted a little late at night for the geezers to stop by with answers for you.
Yeah, but there are the West Coast geezers to consider! :wink:
I'm an acoustic geezer so I can't help or even comment with any semblance of knowledge, but I can say...WELCOME!

Wait here and the real experts will lend a hand.

Joe
 

Qvart

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killdeer43 said:
Qvart said:
And you posted a little late at night for the geezers to stop by with answers for you.
Yeah, but there are the West Coast geezers to consider! :wink:
I'm an acoustic geezer so I can't help or even comment with any semblance of knowledge, but I can say...WELCOME!

Wait here and the real experts will lend a hand.

Joe

I didn't forget the west coasters. I was thinking of geezers who knew about amps, not birds. :lol:
 

capnjuan

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Hi WP; welcome to LTG and congratulations on your Guild amp. That might the the rarest of the 'Thunder 1' series; member matsickma previously ID'd that model as having been marketed as a bass/practice amp. Like all of its Thunder 1 siblings, it runs on a pair of 12AX7s in the preamp, two 6GW8s output, and a 6CA4 rectifier ... good for 12-14 watts. The circuit may also vary from the standard schematic with some capacitor and resistor values changed to suppress higher frequencies; I'd expect this amp to be a Mr. Cleanjeans.

If you get a chance, a shot of the back would be nice; if your speakers are original, then they are probably square, ceramic-magnet CTS/Chicago Telephone Supply indicated by EIA code # 137-XXX. Some of these amps were fitted with speakers that had plastic bell covers to make them look like alnico speakers; the most collectible still have a red, stick-on 'Guild' logo tag on the cover.

The 6GW8s have been out of production for quite some time; all that's out there is the occasional new-old-stock and used tubes: eBay 6GW8 search results. With moderate use, all vacuum tubes can last a lifetime ... or not. Don't know if you have backups but if/when you want them, this will be what you're looking at. There are no drop-in substitutes for the 6GW8 ... not even its cousin the 6BM8 and, due to the 6GW8's internal resistance, changing to another tube type for output means changing the output transformer too.

If you still have the original multi-section can capacitor in there and you want to upgrade the amp's performance, it's hard to over-emphasize the importance of fresh caps to having the amp reach it's highest potential; after that, a trip to the speaker store will also do wonders for the amp's tone. Anyway .. welcome to LTG!
 
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wow thank you, for all the welcomes and the info.

in answer to some questions, yes it has square magnets. and ill do my best to get some pics of the back.


are the correct replacement tube expensive?
and ive noticed that the amp sounds awesome clean with the original speakers but distorted tones can be a bit flubby anyone else get similar results?
and when you say that this is one of the rarest thunder 1s like how rare is rare? lol. i know that i havent seen many of these if any at all but this might explain why. cause theres not many out there
and was i correct on the model year?


oh and some guy back in the day carved his social security number in the back, thats old school.
 

capnjuan

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wespaul77 said:
... yes it has square magnets ... are the correct replacement tube expensive? ... and ive noticed that the amp sounds awesome clean with the original speakers but distorted tones can be a bit flubby anyone else get similar results? ... are the correct replacement tube expensive?... rarest thunder 1s like how rare is rare? lol. i know that i havent seen many of these if any at all but this might ... carved his social security number in the back, thats old school.
Hi Wes; then the speakers likely CTS ... and old. Flubby dubby; the amp is showing its age and the limits of its design. The power supply capacitors can't keep up with the demands being made on them and the speakers cones, when pushed, don't do any better ... flapping back and forth like limp paper towels. Finally, the amp was intended as a bass amp; it's not really designed to distort ... in fact, it was designed not to distort ... so when you push an aging, clean amp around, you don't get a desirable result.

Cost of 6GW8s; eBay 6GW8 search results.

As far as anybody knows, there is no source for Guild amp serial numbers tied to dates of manufacture. Without annual catalogs, it's hard to tell when which amps were in the product line during which years. Rare ... an awkward work when it comes to Guild amps ... commonly associated with the idea of 'valuable', in this case 'rare' means there aren't very many of them left; not too many sold and those that were were not taken care of ... rare.

The best way to date you amp is with either/both the speaker/pot EIA codes that are on the speakers and the pots. If you can provide the speaker codes, that would help. The pots have their own EIA codes printed on the back or stamped in the casing. If you open the amp, pull the chassis out, copy down the EIA codes, you can date your amp here. Good luck with your amp.
 

fronobulax

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wespaul77 said:
oh and some guy back in the day carved his social security number in the back, thats old school.

Nah. Just 1970's. Got a whole bunch of gear that would hit the market if I could figure out how to get my SSN off. Seems kind of dicey to let it go otherwise while I am alive.
 

krysh

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fronobulax said:
wespaul77 said:
oh and some guy back in the day carved his social security number in the back, thats old school.

Nah. Just 1970's. Got a whole bunch of gear that would hit the market if I could figure out how to get my SSN off. Seems kind of dicey to let it go otherwise while I am alive.
dremel :mrgreen:

and welcome wespaul. :D
 
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hey guys

im curious how many ohms the speaker output is on my amp. please tell me you know
 

john_kidder

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No answer for you, just a welcome aboard. Nice amp - listen to the Capn to get the best advice around, take that advice and it'll sparkle for you.
 

capnjuan

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wespaul77 said:
hey guys im curious how many ohms the speaker output is on my amp. please tell me you know
Hi Wes; a speaker's output, its power handling, is rated in watts. Its voice coil resistance is rated in ohms.

Back in the day, the practice was to provide speakers that were able to handle twice the output of the amplifier. A pair of 6GW8s puts out something between 10 and 12 watts. If your speakers are original CTSs, then chances are they are 25 watt speakers.

If you have an ohmmeter, you can disconnect the speakers, set the meter to ohms, and read the resistance of the voice coil across the speaker lugs. Otherwise, I think a good guess would be that those are 8 ohm speakers.
 
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Thank you sir!
ive got a scoop on some Celestion 10s really cheap so im thinking about sliding those in there and keeping the originals in a box some where nice safe.

which brings a question. is there a proper way to store speakers?
 

capnjuan

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wespaul77 said:
Thank you sir! ive got a scoop on some Celestion 10s really cheap so im thinking about sliding those in there and keeping the originals in a box some where nice safe. which brings a question. is there a proper way to store speakers?
Someplace dry ... in a closet for example. The cones will absorb moisture that breaks the paper down to the point where they become as flexible as paper towels ... in a word ... farty. You might also take a moment to wipe the frame and housing down with a damp paper towel and (gently) sweep the tone-dust off the cone with a paintbrush before putting them away.
 
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