mavuser
Enlightened Member
hello everyone. i am new to this forum and looking to start a discussion about my 1971 Guild Maverick amplifier. let me first start by saying i am just a "recreational" guitar player, and basically know little to nothing about electronics. I can see by other posts on this forum, that puts me in the minority, so i hope i dont make myself sound too stupid. i have had the mav for about ten years and it has always sounded very good, although the reverb never worked, the tremolo did and i was very happy with it overall. when i got the amp it had 2 Groove tubes as the power tubes, and from the sound of it, the tubes were new at that time and other than that, it was all original. there were a couple screw holes in the tolex, but i dont know why. i honestly have not used it much at all for 10 years but like i said, when i did it was always bright, clean and loud. i go with a boss overdrive/distortion pedal with this amp as well for the overdrive/fuzz, and i find it genuinely perfect. with the single coil P-90, that amp and that pedal i am really hearing like anywhere from a dickey betts/derek trucks to jack white or neil young tone. even just clean the single coil and the mav sounds amazing. like a clean fender tele but alot louder. i also have a flange, digital delay, and whaa and the amp responds great to everything. it has always sounded amazing. i have a les paul special with 2 soap bar p-90s and a melody maker with 1 dog ear p-90. everything sounds excellent. so i noticed recently the wires were cracking so i brought it to a reputable source to have a gander. he told me his goal was to keep it original and get it working properly and safe. so first he replaced all filter, bypass, and 2 leaky coupling caps, burnt resistor, cleaned switches and controls, and replaced the orig 2-prong power cord with grounded 3-prong power cord. then he called me and asked me if i wanted to replace the original 2-spring reverb pan with a new 3-spring fender reverb pan. he said a new one would make it sound more like it did in 1971 than the old one so i told him to do it and save the old one. i picked up the amp, and it sounds great. the tremolo was always great but now i am blown away at the tremolo, it never was working like this before. and the function of the amp when you turn up the volume is much smoother than before. no "scratch" at all whatsoever. what a difference. the only thing is i need to order a new reverb tube since the one in there was original. so i have not heard the reverb yet. the old one still lights up and the amp sounds great with the verb turned all the way off but if i play with it at all it gives very loud feed back. so he told me order a new reverb tube and also told me to get JJ tubes as new power tubes to replace the Grooves when necessary. he also said the orig speakers sound "good enough" to him, but a new pair of Jensen re-issue speakers would be a great move and would have more fullness. he said the original speakers in there are more highs and less lows and i do agree with him, but looking for other feedback on that one. so in addition to that question (Jensens?) i am also wondering if i can unplug the speakers and plug this amp into a half stack or any other cabinet regardless of ohms. i do not know how all of that works. also wondering opinions on the new reverb tank as described above. like i said i still have the old one. the new one looks identical to me. and of course, i have to ask, how much is this amp worth, anyway? its in pretty decent shape. i cannot find much at all on the maverick, and just bits and pieces of other guild amps out there on the web. truth is i was considering parting with it and figured it needed this service first, but the tremolo is so incredible now, so im not sure now. was thinking of giving it to an acquaintance of mine as a gift, who is in a professional band that collects and uses vintage amps, but i dont know enough about the mav or other amps to know if they would even genuinely want it (or possibly already have one). i am very curious what they are worth. any info very appreciated and thank you in advance.
Eric
Eric