NAD! '69-'70 Superstar Combo.....

matsickma

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Hey Gilded,
You don't even want to see my basement! My wife is furious with me for all the music equipment down there.
Just in the Guild amp line...20T, '65 and '67 T1 RVT, 3- '66 Thunderbirds, '68 Thunderbird, '68 Superbird, '69 Thunderbird, 2-'69 Superstars, '69 Thunderstar, '70 Maverick, '68 Thunderbass, '69 Thunderstar Bass, '69 Quantum Bass, 2- Thunderstar Bass cabs (w/JBL's), 1- Thunderstar Bass cab modified for 4-10's and a 2-12 Thunderbass Cab!
Don't even get me started on the Kustom amps! 😂
M
 

gilded

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matsickma,

I only have 5 other tube amps to keep the Guild Combos company:

a '75-6 Ampeg V4b bass head (with two 1970-'80 era Ampeg B-40 4x10 bass cabs),

a '90s Vox AC30 Top Boost (retro-modded back to the 1965 schematic & specs),

a '67-8 SF Princeton Rev,

a '67 BF Pro Reverb and

a '79 SF Deluxe Reverb (modded back to early Black Face voltage and specs).


Good Amp/Guitar combinations:

My '00 Bluesbird has the Seymour Duncan pickups and is a very versatile guitar. I use it with the Princeton Rev a lot, as in one set with the Guild 'bird and one set with an Ash-bodied Strat with Vintage plus pickups.

I have a '72 ES-335 that sounds good with the Princeton and the Deluxe. The guitar feeds back easily, albeit in a very controllable way. At low volume, that translates into a very lively and responsive guitar when matched with the small Fender amps.

I have a 'loaner' X170T with TV Jones Classic pickups that sounds good with everything, too!

The Ampeg bass amp sounds good with every bass I've played through it; Ken Smith 5 string bass, MIJ Fender Mustang bass, my personal '66 Starfire I bass and a MIM Fender Jazz.

I haven't used the Vox AC30TB much lately, although I should. I had new transformers made for it about 10 years ago by a small company in Dallas that used to make a lot of boutique-amp 'Iron'. The voltage was increased in the new Power Trannie, and then a great tech/amp builder in Austin did a lot of small things to change the amp back to '65 spec. Fawn-colored tolex, Celestion Blues, cool trem, all in all a great amp. Hey, will one of you younger guys please come down to Texas when I have my next gig and carry the durn thing for me? Please? I'll let you play two songs in the 3rd set! :)

I haven't owned the '67 Pro Rev long enough to gig/rehearse with it, so I don't have an opinion about what guitar(s) will work with it. I bought it from a friend who played almost all of his gigs with it for 40 years; maybe 2,000 gigs! He blew up the Output Trannie in '97 and had a SF Bassman OT installed. When you look inside, you can kind of see where different repairmen over the years did different things to it; one guy installed a solid-state rectifier, another replaced the OT, yet another tortured the amp with a hot solder gun, etc.

Right now, it's 'over-filtered', plus it needs a cap job. Somebody pulled four of the Ajax blue-molded tone caps off of the turret board and put in Illinois Central tone caps. A friend gave me some original Ajax caps, so we're going to get it back as close as we can to '1967 stock', then listen to it and see if we like it. My amp repair guy actually has two '67 Pro Reverbs, so we'll be able to compare mine and his. I may keep the more powerful Output Transformer in the amp, or I may change it back, we'll see!

No Kustom amps, though :)
 

Nuuska

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I hope so. It's pretty stupendous, though I did hear a small amount of noise when I played the A note on the low E string that I need to rule out as a speaker issue. I'm gonna take it to a speaker shop and have it checked out. I have a couple of other 15" speaks, but I don't think I can conceive of this amp with any other speaker right now.

A friend played a really strong-sounding Ibanez string-thru hum-bucker guitar with it and the combination of that speaker and that guitar was remarkable.

Sorry I don't have any pics. Thank you, Photobucket.



Hello from Finland

Among my other duties I also fix and recone speakers. Source of a "small amount of noise" in a combo amp could be any loose part anywhere in the cabin - as you surely are aware of. If you have ruled out other possibilities and pinpointed it to speaker, here´s what you can do before bringing it to local speaker shop. Pull the speaker out. If you have any regular pa-amp, connect it into that. Then you need oscillator - preferably one that goes down to 10Hz - mine goes down to 2Hz - continuously variable.

Put the speaker on workbench - floor etc facing up - or hang it from ceiling. If there is a vent hole in back of magnet, it must remain free. Now feed it with low frequency signal. Watch out the cone movement. Do not exeed the limits - +/- 3mm or +/- 1/8inch will do for most speakers. Zoom the frequency to round 220Hz - low A on guitar - and listen if you can find the side noise. If it is a crack in the surround part, it will make very distinct sound once you hit the right frequency.

Pumping air below audible frequencies is also good practice, while the audio is not covering small rubbing issues etc. So go down to as low you can and - watch the cone movement - listen, if the voice coil is rubbing or surround or center spider are producing noise.

Sometimes the frame is slightly twisted - i.e. the amp got bumped hard. Then in some cases turning the speaker 180 degrees will flip the magnet weight to help.

Cracks on cone and surround are easy to glue with white paper glue - simply rub the glue wit your finger so it goes inside the crack - usually no extra support pieces are needed.

If the cone or spider is coming off the frame, then any contact glue is fine.

Hope this helps.
 

matsickma

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Thats a excellent assembly of Fender, Vox and Ampeg amps to off set the Guilds. If I recall correctly the small Ampeg combo's for guitar use the 7591A power tubes of the early Thunderbird and Maverick.

Haha...my Kustom amps are mostly the newer tube amp variety but I do have a few old solid-state heads. I really like the sound of the old Kustom tuck-n-roll cabinets...heavy mothers and solidly built with quality parts. The amps I have been playing quite a lot of these days us a Bogner Alchemist head with a Kustom tuck-n-roll 4-12 cab with CTS speakers and an Bogner 2-12 cab with Celestion gold speakers. The Bogner Alchemist is a very versatile amp and can achieve a wide range of tone.

Starting to organize the gear. Will soon select the "keeper" gear and will begin to sell or trade the balance.
Sure wish I had thus gear when I was young!
M
 

gilded

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A friend of mine named Scott used a Kustom bass amp in the '70s. He always, always had trouble with it.

So, cut to the Battle of the Bands at Scott's high school. His Kustom bass amp caught on fire in the middle of it and began to leak smoke on the bandstand. He was so exasperated that he ripped the bass head off of the cab and smashed it on the floor, again and again, as it smoked away. The kids thought it was part of the act and his band won the contest.

Go Kustom!
 

gilded

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Nuuska,

I didn't see your post until just now. Very interesting, thanks so much!

Harry
 

jp

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Your main amp inventory sounds very much like mine, Harry, except without the Guild amps. :unsure:

- Blackfaced '76 SF deluxe
- 1990's Rivera Super Champ (perfect practice amp and for running stereo set ups)
- Korg-era British Vox AC15TBX
- 1967 Ampeg B-18X (still unsold) bass rig
- 1990's Mesa DC-3 (to get my metal ya-yas out!)

None look as good as the Guild Superstar, though. The one classic sound I still seek is the Marshall, even though a pedal through the VOX gets me close.
 

gilded

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Hey Gilded...by any chance does your amp have the script Guild chrome emblem, like used on early Thunder amps, on the upper right side, when looking at the amp from the front?
The reason I am asking is because their is s old Guild advertisment with the a picture of the amp with a Starfire that has one of those script logos on the fron of the amp but I have never actually seen one on an amp for sale.

I have considered adding on to the front of an amp.

M

Hey M, I finally got my '69-70 Thunderstar 1x12 combo back today (from the guy I gave it to several years ago). I checked and there is no logo, nor are there any screw-holes on the grill where a logo once resided.

I have seen a couple of Guild flyer/catalog pics with the logos on the grill cloth, but I have never seen one in person on an amp or a speaker cab from that '69-70 production run.



Your main amp inventory sounds very much like mine, Harry, except without the Guild amps. :unsure:

- Blackfaced '76 SF deluxe
- 1990's Rivera Super Champ (perfect practice amp and for running stereo set ups)
- Korg-era British Vox AC15TBX
- 1967 Ampeg B-18X (still unsold) bass rig
- 1990's Mesa DC-3 (to get my metal ya-yas out!)

None look as good as the Guild Superstar, though. The one classic sound I still seek is the Marshall, even though a pedal through the VOX gets me close.

JP, sounds like you have some nice amps. I have to confess that I am a mere beginner in the Guild Amp Ownership League. matsickma has a basement full, with quite a few models in multiples! My hero!
 

gilded

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You're right, Chris, it is Minneapolis! Note to self- N. J. Electronics does not equal New Jersey! Mea Culpa.

Was I imbibing when I wrote that last night? No. The real explanation is not quite so mundane. 9 years ago, the retina in my 'good eye' tore in 4 places. The Doc said I was headed for a Detached Retina, then stitched it all back together with a Laser Device the next day. He compared it to 'cross-stitching over a hole in a jacket.' 225 stitches in all.

The operation was relatively successful. I'm grateful that I can still see, but it's also true that I became 'Laser Surgery Onset Dyslexic' from that moment on. It is not without it's humorous moments, especially if I'm reading small font. I find myself taking information from two or three lines of writing and then making up my own sentence without the knowledge that I am doing so, that is, until I wind up in New Jersey when I'm supposed to be in Minnesota!

The Good Doctor checks on my eyes every 4 months, but so far no new tears in either eye's retina.

Anyway, I hope somebody gets that Guild cabinet!

It's getting close to Xmas, so Happy Holidays everybody!

Harry/gilded
 

gilded

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I corresponded with the Seller. He knows a lot about those 1x15 bass cabs and has a couple of EV 15" bass speakers for sale.

I have no affiliation but do think that this guy would be worth talking to if somebody wants a Thunderstar bass cab.
 

matsickma

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One of the little known and yet best bass speaker cabinets of the late '60's is the 2-15 Guild cabs that came with the late model Guild Quantum Bass amp. Somewhere out on the web is a picture of Hendrix, Mitch Mitchel and Billy Cox playing at a venue in Europe and the PA uses a large number of the Guild Quantum bass cabs for the bottom end. This are deep, folded horns and heavy.
M
 

matsickma

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To clairify...the Quantum 2-15 cabs have the top snd bottom 15" speakers facing forward and the rear sound traveling through a folded horn emerging out the center of the cabinet. Similar to stacking two of the small cabs on top of each other with one upside down except the totsl cab is bigger and has greater volume of air.
M
 

jp

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Hey M, I finally got my '69-70 Thunderstar 1x12 combo back today (from the guy I gave it to several years ago). I checked and there is no logo, nor are there any screw-holes on the grill where a logo once resided.

I have seen a couple of Guild flyer/catalog pics with the logos on the grill cloth, but I have never seen one in person on an amp or a speaker cab from that '69-70 production run.





JP, sounds like you have some nice amps. I have to confess that I am a mere beginner in the Guild Amp Ownership League. matsickma has a basement full, with quite a few models in multiples! My hero!
I've known all about matsickma's stash, and I think he and Hans should write the Guild amp book together!

BTW matsickma, is this the chrome logo you're talking about? If so, one just sold on ebay a few days ago. Or are you talking about the script Guild logo on the chrome bar across the front?
 

adorshki

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One of the little known and yet best bass speaker cabinets of the late '60's is the 2-15 Guild cabs that came with the late model Guild Quantum Bass amp. Somewhere out on the web is a picture of Hendrix, Mitch Mitchel and Billy Cox playing at a venue in Europe and the PA uses a large number of the Guild Quantum bass cabs for the bottom end. This are deep, folded horns and heavy.
M

This one?

JimiNYE69.jpg


That's actually Band Of Gypsys with Buddy Miles but sure look like the Guild grill cloth pattern...ahhh...confirmed here:
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?34649-Pics-of-70-s-artists-with-JBLs/page4
pic is actually cited elsewhere as a rehearsal for the shows that yielded Band Of Gypsys from the New Year's Eve shows at Fillmore East
 

gilded

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Chris, GAD, mav', matsickma, JP, Al, frono, Walter, Default, Nuuska:

All of these Superstar/Thunderstar posts really take me back to Good Olde Days, circa 2007, when I was just getting into The Big Single combos. It really energizes me to see that you guys are dipping into the recent threads on Thunder & Super Star Amps!

Thanks, fellas! Mil Gracias!
 
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