Clean Thunder 1 RVT on eBay...DFW area

capnjuan

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Posted recently on eBay (not mine):
[IMG:640:480]http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r106/capnjuan/GuildT1RVTgray.jpg[/img]
http://cgi.ebay.com/Very-Clean-1967-Gui ... dZViewItem
Schematic: http://www.schematicheaven.com/bargainb ... reverb.pdf
These amps have a very fine, musical signal and a well-engineered, almost dramatic reverb. 2X12AX7 pre-amp, 2X6GW8 primary outputs, about 15 watts output. Separate reverb amp with a 12AX7, a 6BM8, and about 8 watts out. Look to be original CTS speakers. The design relies heavily on metal film resistors, mylar caps, and fairly large coupling caps in the output. The result is a smoother, jazz-oriented sound.

Improved cabinetry; top-down chassis bolts, vertical, metal chassis backpanel, and the 'ears' formed by front, upper cabinet sides have been cut back. As such, better able to withstand shipping than earlier models.

With one exception, this seller is doing what all the recent sellers of Guild amps have done; posting opening Bid/BINs in the general neighborhood of where, after some spirited bidding, the amp might wind up. The exception is the guy with the Thunderbass head; formerly open/BIN $250, now re-listed with no reserve.

Edit: the Thunderbass head has a Reserve on it.

Edit: amp relisted 4/26/07: seller crabbing about no-pay buyers..
http://cgi.ebay.com/Very-Clean-1967-Gui ... dZViewItem
 

capnjuan

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You're saying that a married German woman wearing a hat likes these amps and owns three of them?

I have fun with mine but I probably won't get another one.

I think it's http://www.captainandtennille.net/ I don't know how I might ever meet them but, if I do, I'll make it a point to tell 'em you said hello... :)
 

capnjuan

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Toenail....Yes...I knew it all along 8)

There's something about these amps...no matter how hard sellers try, either they can't get what they think they're worth or the deals fall through. Several of us ought to form the LTG Amp Squad...go out to every music-oriented BB we can find, register, hang around, and start yacking these things up. Fact is much of it would be true but adapt from the dark world of stock brokers who 'pump and dump': "Did you hear that 'General' is going way up?..." I'm only kidding.....mostly.....

The guy at Michael's Music resorted to mentioning Mike Bloomfield and the Blues Project in his 6th try with his T1 RVT. Unless one of his employees 'shilled', it went off at $600. I asked him how he knew that little factoid about Bloomfield...didn't get an answer. The 'good news' with this kind of bologna is that, since his remark is in print, we can reproduce and, if called on it, point to his auction as the source.

I gotta tell ya though that I had to put as much effort into rehabbing my copy as there is string lube in Coastie's new SUV.... Nice avatar...sort of...one of the AQ bombthowers, no? Any luck with the rare Guild electrics you were chasing?

John
 

gilded

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Here's the new auction address:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Very-Clean-1967-Gui ... dZViewItem

Hi guys, I don't own this amp and have no financial interest.

Having said that, I know the owner and have played the amp
for a couple of hours,
with several different guitars; Les Paul, Strat, P-90 equipped ES 175
and Ricky 12 (no Guilds, sorry. I didn't think it would be appropriate to
play my Guild JS II fretless bass through it...).

The only reason I didn't buy it is because it's not quite loud enough
(in my opinion) to gig with. It would be a great house amp
(the step above bedroom amp!). It has a wonderful sound, both dry and with effects of
reverb and vibrato.

Here's what I know about the amp:

It's very clean and original. I mean, it could stand to be cleaned but it doesn't look like it has 40 years of dirt and dust on it. No corners are dinged. There are no scrapes on the tolex. It's just a nice and tight, all-original 40 year-old amp.

All the tubes I saw are marked Guild. One of 'em was feeding back a lot until I re-seated it. For what it's worth, I imagine that new tubes would make the amp a bit louder. I do remember hearing the reverb tube being a bit microphonic,
every now and then. The speakers are original and date to 1967.

Cosmetically, if you look at the pictures, you'll see a dark area on the front edge of the cabinet on the dark side of the grille cloth. That, in my opinion, is a 'smudge' of something and could be cleaned up and made to disappear.

There is a very small (1/16th") piece of the beige tolex just above that mark that is raised up of the surface of the cabinet. Still, it could be glued down and would probably be invisible.

The grille cloth is in fine shape. The rest of the tolex is in fine
shape. I don't remember the controls being noisy.

There is some mud on the foot control pedal. Gasp!

The price is high because the seller paid over $450 to buy the amp from a pawn shop in the San Antonio area of Texas.

One other thing. The seller knows how to pack things, which is
good because these aren't the sturdiest amps in the world, are they?
 

capnjuan

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Thanks for the input Gilded; this one looked pretty clean to me. Having been mislead into buying the crappiest copy of this amp on earth, I watch these come and go with........skepticism. After extensive rehab and a lot of p*ssing and moaning, mine actually sounds pretty good. Your characterziation of it as a 'house' amp is probably accurate; at 15 watts, recording / practice / foolin' around might be about it.

This copy is also a 2nd generation; a noticeably higher build standard than the first series (mine's a first series - not a reason to boast). My amp has a re-built power/bias supply, fresh NOS and reverb tubes, a 12" Celestion Greenback that will fix a lot of what ails any amp, and a 8" Celestion reverb speaker.

This summer I'm going to rebuild the cabinet; had to wait to see if the amp would come back. The chipboard housing will get metal angle stiffeners, re-worked weight-bearing 'shelves', a coat of epoxy to stiffen it and prevent moisture absorption from further softening the cabinet, and re-covered in Marshall green tolex.

Thanks again; I hope your friend gets the $ he's looking for.

John
 

gilded

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Hey, Capnjuan,

They really are neat sounding amps, aren't they?

They don't sound like Gibson or Fender amps, which are the usual fat and thin sounding amps, relatively speaking.

One thing I think is really neat is that the reverb information
comes out of the small 8" speaker.

When I read about that design feature, I thought it was a bad idea, because I have a Leslie 122 R (R for reverb) cab that sounded pretty bad with the same set-up.

But after listening to Thunder 1 RVT, all I can say is that it works well in this amp and is an intriguing feature.

The vibrato sound has a distinctive aspect as well that I think would be fun to record with, but when the vibrato is engaged
it really seems to drag down the power of this amp.

I think it would be a great amp to record with for other things besides vibrato, too. It sounded like two million bucks with the Ricky 12 and a compressor!

I played it in the bright channel, but with out the bright knob
'pulled out' on the volume. That's not a knock on the normal
channel, just the reality of what's left of my 54 year-old ears.

It is a clean sounding amp, but isn't sterile. In fact, it's clean and warm sounding, too, if that makes any sense. You can also get a little edge with the amp, too. I wish it had about 25
watts instead of 12 or 15.

gilded aka Harry
 

capnjuan

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I did some preliminary research into swapping out the 6GW8s for EL84s; the 6GW8s are no longer in production where the EL84s are all over the place. It will not bump output but it would bring its sound more in line with the other amps of the era.

To do the switch, 4 of the 8 connections on each tube have to be lifted and moved; might require a little splicing but would probably be worth it. The other change I'd try would be reducing the value of several caps in the audio chain...put a little 'edge' back in it.

Like some other designs, the vibrato in this amp works by varying the bias supply; one of those trade-offs. I too like the reverb amp; fresh tubes, 'hi-fi' quality speaker drops, fresh can; thing works very well and much better than earlier Gibsons that use either the 7199 or 6CA4 reverb operator.

10-4 on warm but not sterile; I also like the tone stack to increase bottom without using a full back.... I like to use the amp for voice; take advantage of the 'clean' thing...works better than the Gibsons which tend to turn the voice mushy.
 
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