Guild 66-J

AcornHouse

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The Guild name badge was original on mine, the "starz" were added by some previous owner. On the 99-J that I traded to Steve, I think that had a blank front with no indication of any brads to hold on the name badge...can you confirm, Steve?
My 99J does have the badge.

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Bill Ashton

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Found them!

It seems that some amps got the nameplate while others did not. Also, among other things, Guild sourced some amps for the Sonola Accordian Company, and there are block letter plates just like the Guild but with "SONOLA" around as well...

My 66-J came with a blue Jensen P12 (R?), which I have boxed away...the Weber Signature is (was?) a nice speaker for not much money, and better than the repro Italian-made Jensens floating about at the time.

The 99-J is now Steve's...

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Sonola was a brand of imported accordions, that Al Dronge owned, so Guild amps were used with a badge change.
 

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Found them!

It seems that some amps got the nameplate while others did not. Also, among other things, Guild sourced some amps for the Sonola Accordian Company, and there are block letter plates just like the Guild but with "SONOLA" around as well...

My 66-J came with a blue Jensen P12 (R?), which I have boxed away...the Weber Signature is (was?) a nice speaker for not much money, and better than the repro Italian-made Jensens floating about at the time.

The 99-J is now Steve's...

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Bill, the Weber Signature Series speakers are awful things. If you'd like to see that Guild amp come alive, try a Weber 12F150. It's a ferrite magnet speaker, but would be a nice match considering the circuit design and voicing of the 66-J. I favor the alnico speakers for amps where compression factors into the voicing, but given the relatively clean low-gain signal path of the 66-J, the punch and articulation of a ferrite speaker would be a nice match.

I've worked with quite a few Weber speakers and have found the Signature Series lacking.
 

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Dunno, have had several Weber Signatures and they have been great, they also reconed the (non-JBL) speakers in my
son's SF Twin Reverb and one (maybe two) of the Gold Bulldog (really Oxford) speakers in his Vox Buckingham. They
are good people and do great work. So sad that Ted Weber passed...
 

Soul Tramp

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Dunno, have had several Weber Signatures and they have been great, they also reconed the (non-JBL) speakers in my
son's SF Twin Reverb and one (maybe two) of the Gold Bulldog (really Oxford) speakers in his Vox Buckingham. They
are good people and do great work. So sad that Ted Weber passed...


Weber's are excellent speakers and the people are terrific. I put Weber speakers in the lion's share of the amps I build.

My criticism was specific to the "Signature Series" speakers. The difference between the Signature series and the Vintage/British is dramatic.
 

Soul Tramp

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Finally got back to working on the failed trem circuit. The trem on this amp uses an R/C feedback loop to modulate the power tube bias. It's make up of four caps. The two Sangamo .01 caps have completely failed (big green ones). From the start it's been my intention to keep the amp period correct, so I've ordered two old Sangamo T33 .01/600V replacement caps on ebay that are untested. If they are defective I'll have to use a pair of Sangamo T33 .01/400V.

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If looks matter that much, gut the old caps and put a fresh set of Mallories in them. I don't trust ancient caps in a $5-600 amp.
 

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Sangamos do not have a good reputation. You’ll be happier in the long run (short run too) with something else. Caps are one of those components that do not age well, with a couple of exceptions. Guild used mustards in their Thunder-1s; that would be a better period choice. Or just put in new caps and keep the old with the amp in a bag.
 

Soul Tramp

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The Astrons have already been re-stuffed with new Spragues (see posts above).

If the new Sangamos check out on the analyzer I'll use them, else I'll go to plan "B".
I not one who guts an amp and swaps out all the old caps. Just because a cap is old doesn't mean it's failing or about to.

@Default, I can't think of a practical way to re-stuff a molded cap. It's a good idea, I just don't see how to do it in a way I'd be happy with the results.

My old Bassman is a good example. I re-stuffed the Mallory electrolytics, and the only failed components were CC resistors. Even the old Whale caps are within spec. I've seen WAY too many vintage amps that have been hacked by mass replacing caps. Caps should be tested, then replaced it too far out of spec.

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I've seen a melted Sangamo cap, as well as enough leaky ones that I would not use them. They will fail and sooner then a fresh one.
If Guild amps went for Fender money, I might consider it, but chances are that you will be able to get your purchase price back if you are lucky, and by that time, the old caps will start leaking.
Just my tuppence.
 

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Got the speaker back from Weber yesterday. Looks terrific, Weber really does outstanding work. Prior to shipping it to them I cleaned it up and re-sprayed it with gray. Much nicer looking now and I made sure not to spray the Jensen badge on the magnet structure and the factory numbers on the bolt flange.

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The trem circuit is kicking my but. I replaced the two failed Sangamo caps with a pair of NOS Astrons and replaced the severely drifted CC resistor. Was quite confident that would fix the problem. Well, it didn't! Now I have to get serious with it, put it on the scope, and see what's really going on in there. What a pain!
 

Soul Tramp

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Bill, I see something on mine that is perplexing, and I'm hoping you can tell if yours is the same.

The four speaker mount bolts in the baffle have a washer and nut that secure them on the back of the baffle (speaker side). This nut prevents the speaker bolt flange & gasket from making contact with the baffle, meaning the speaker is suspended from the baffle by 1/16" or so. I don't want to torque it down as it could warp the basket. Does you cabinet have the same setup? I can post a picture if I've made this confusing.

I can cut the gasket to make room for the nut, but the gasket the original speaker was not cut. I didn't notice this until I installed the fresh re-coned speaker.
 

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Reading your post again, maybe the original gasket was beveled...though one or two Radio Shack/Jensens plus the Weber have been in and out without your difficulty. The basket on the 100 watt Jensen required me to take the chassis out first, but it bolted right up.
 

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Thanks, Bill. It's a curious thing. I've never seen it before. I'm going to remove the washer/nuts on the back of the baffle and see if I can get the speaker to install correctly without the bolts spinning.
 

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Got the trem circuit working. The two Sangamo .01 caps were the problem. I bought a used pair on ebay and they were both DOA. I then bought a pair of NOS Astron on ebay and they were both DOA.

So I took the path less trodden. I gutted the Sangamo and inserted a new Mallory. I didn't go out of my way to make it look pretty as the amp just isn't worth the extra effort, but they came out ok.

So now I have nice brandy-new Sangamo! :LOL:


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