ShortScale.org

Just saw this and remembered we once had such a one in the family. So I can say it's a decent, solid and simple All tube Amp about 15 Watts, that may be a bargain because the model is not sooo popular known among the folks. SO if anyone in the UK needs a nice, small and (hopefully) not so expensive Fender that allows small gigging rather than a champ, watch this: Would not pay more than maybe 300 € for it, though.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0190855382

These things are great amplifiers. NickD has one and it always a hit at Doogfests, it's Fender cleans for cheaps.

i'm bidding on it as of yesterday, so hands off unless you want your tyres slashed.

i was thinking about it but it's all yours.

If I was you I would go as far as £300 for it.

i emailed the guy last night about the hum before i stuck a bid on, he said this:

I think it is the mains smoothing capacitors that are causing the hum, I would guess they need replacing to remove the hum, not expensive parts but you would need electronics knowledge.

so i'm bearing that in mind.

Does Nick's have the Bronco knobs?

Nope, I noticed that too. His has amp knobs.

The knobs may well be original, though - silverface stuff can be quite all over the shop; my old (now James's) Vibrochamp had a weird switch that I thought was non-standard, but turns out was - they just tended to grab what was to hand or unearthed in the storerooms.

The hum may well need the electrolytic caps need replacing - pretty standard job on an amp of this age. Again, I did this (or at least had it done) on the Vibrochamp.

stewart wrote:i'm bidding on it as of yesterday, so hands off unless you want your tyres slashed.

just out of curiosity, why place a bid on an auction that is running for nearly a week? I tended to bidding in the last 70 seconds of an auction, or asked someone to do it for me if I couldn't. usually had fair success with that.

So then good luck on that amp, wasn't my intention to gather unwanted attention with this thread.

I know a guy who repairs amps and old keyboards etc, so getting it fixed wouldn't be a problem. I'd need to pay him, obviously. I might not even get it anyway, it's early days.

kypdurron wrote:

stewart wrote:i'm bidding on it as of yesterday, so hands off unless you want your tyres slashed.

just out of curiosity, why place a bid on an auction that is running for nearly a week? I tended to bidding in the last 70 seconds of an auction, or asked someone to do it for me if I couldn't. usually had fair success with that.

So then good luck on that amp, wasn't my intention to gather unwanted attention with this thread.

i'm like a dog marking my territory. I haven't put my maximum on it yet.

kypdurron wrote:just out of curiosity, why place a bid on an auction that is running for nearly a week? I tended to bidding in the last 70 seconds of an auction, or asked someone to do it for me if I couldn't. usually had fair success with that.

Quite often, an auction will get pulled if it doesn't generate much interest, or watchers don't turn into bidders. Also, there's the risk that without any bids, the seller is more likely to accept some sort of 'Sell it for £25 outside of eBay?' offers.

understood, never happened to anything I wanted though.

and Stewart, Did you win it? Really did not become expensive.

Yeah, he won it.

£255, and a very reasonable £15 postage.

DEMOZ

it's here.




first thoughts: it's pretty darn bright, but nice bright. i can't see how fender possibly thought this would work as a bass amp, they must have been tripping (but everyone knows that). i'll try chucking my EQ pedal in front of it and see what that does. i chanced it briefly at about 5 on the voume, but that's far too loud for indoor use when there's a small child living in the flat above...

i'll probably have to take it to rehearsal to get a proper idea of when it'll start to break up and stuff. i've read of a few people who've changed the speaker so that it still breaks up nicely, but does it at a slightly higher volume. i'll see how it goes though. it is a wee bit noisy, starts to get more noticeable at about 5 on the volume knob, moreso if the tone is set past 2. the tone pot's a bit crackly too. i reckon i'll get those sorted quite soon, chuck it in for a cap replacement and general service.

the other thing is, as you can see in the second photo, the back's pretty much completely open, so i might stick a cross piece over the part where the exposed tubes are, cos guaranteed they'll get smashed after about 5 minutes in our gig van.

also, it weighs next to nothing. light as a feather.

Looks like fun!