My Old Guitar & Amp

[64phil]

UPDATE - from the Canadian Guitar Forum it has been determined that my guitar was made by Klira in Germany, model 608 "Sioux". It appears in their 1966 catalogue and was made only in the years 1965 and 1966. As discussed above, it was made for and sold by Beare & Son of Toronto. So, my guitar mystery is solved.

Now, my next questions on this guitar relate to how to preserve it.

1. The fret board is very dirty (black gunk) and dry. What should I use to clean it and then preserve/refresh it afterwards?

2. The tuners have open gears. How to clean and lubricate?

3. The vinyl wrap on the body is dirty feeling but intact. Should I just use mild soap and a small amount of water to clean?

4. The chrome bits are very dirty and dull. Just use an automotive chrome cleaner with extra fine steel wool or something like Brasso?

I do intend to re-string it and play it periodically

Phil

[redir]

It's hard to tell what I would do without it in my shop to see for myself but the fretboard looks like rosewood and in that case I would scrape it with a new razor blade and then follow that up with 0000 steel wool in a polishing fashion. I'm not a big fan of fretboard treatments but if it's really dry then there are some treatments that will bring it back to life. But normaally with rosewood or ebony I just polish them up and leave it to your fingers to oil them up.

I find 3 in 1 oil to work well with open tuners.

Not sure what to tell ya about the vinyl wrap, I've never seen that before

I would be tempted to just leave the chrome as is. If you have a mild polish then you can clean it up a bit with that.

I would love to see a video with that guitar and amp

[64phil]

Originally Posted by redir

It's hard to tell what I would do without it in my shop to see for myself but the fretboard looks like rosewood and in that case I would scrape it with a new razor blade and then follow that up with 0000 steel wool in a polishing fashion. I'm not a big fan of fretboard treatments but if it's really dry then there are some treatments that will bring it back to life. But normaally with rosewood or ebony I just polish them up and leave it to your fingers to oil them up.

I find 3 in 1 oil to work well with open tuners.

Not sure what to tell ya about the vinyl wrap, I've never seen that before

I would be tempted to just leave the chrome as is. If you have a mild polish then you can clean it up a bit with that.

I would love to see a video with that guitar and amp

Thanks very much for the cleaning suggestions. Not sure when I'll get to it but will report back when I do. As for a video........ I haven't played electric guitar for at least 30 years so I'm not about to do an online performance . Maybe a few chords at some point but it won't be in the near future .

Phil

[Pnewsom]

Those are great amps! I have 64 Blackface White Knob Princeton, and I use it for all my gigs these days. Wonderful amp!
Don't be afraid to to play it, they are durable and easily repairable should something go wrong. The trickiest thing is finding good quality 6V6's for them. NOS RCA's are the best.
Enjoy it!

[MikeBmusic]

Agree with the posts about leaving the amp "as is" if you are not going to use and plan on keeping it for the family to dispose of (far in the future).
If you want to use, definitely get a good tech to check it out and switch the power supply to a proper (3 prong) grounded cable.
I remember those 2-way "ground" switches. Used to get a ton of shocks from my Fender Bandmaster's one.

[joeld]

It's too bad you didn't buy a used '59 strat and a tweed Bassman that day back in '64! Still a very cool rig though. Polish up that guitar and I'll bet it will make some fine music. Cheers!

[sbpark]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

That Princeton no-verb is, quite literally, museum quality - I haven't seen one that clean since 1966. Adding to what Clint said:

• If you've still got the original tubes in it and it fires up and plays, leave it alone, put it into semi-retirement, and hang on to it - that's what I like to refer to as a 401(k) amp, and it's only going to go up on value...
• I'd give it an exterior cleaning: remove the chassis (carefully!!!), use some mild soap and water to get 50 years of embedded crud out of the Tolex (quite visible in the third photo) and restore the original black color, and use a little Nevr-Dull wadding on the corners/chassis straps/handle caps to remove the oxidation...
• Having done all that, you might want to consider a cover - keep it as pristine as possible...

If you're counting on an old Princeton to be you're 401k amp, I hope you're planning on retiring to a third world country, and not staying here, because although a pre-CBS Princeton (non-reverb) is worth a little bit, it's still under $2,000, so thats nothing to really count on for retirement!

As far as putting it into "semi-retirement" and leaving it alone, that's probably the worst thing you can do to it. These amps need to be played, and an amp this old needs to be serviced, and would DEFINITELY need a cap job. Otherwise you risk actually damaging many of the other components, especially if you have bulging, leaking caps that are a ticking time bomb.

Trust me, I love Princeton Reverbs, own a vintage one, and wouldn't turn down a non-reverb model, but it's likely not going to obtain mythical status like say, a Dumble and be with more than a couple (that's 2) grand. Just being realistic. And by the time any of us here retire, including the younger ones here, they're not going to all of a sudden skyrocket in value equal to winning the Powerball or anything!

[64phil]

Thanks everyone for your comments. My intention is to keep both the guitar and amp and bring them back to playable condition. I haven't taken the amp in to a tech yet but am searching around for a suitable place. I am aware that they will not make anyone rich but they have been with me for over 50 years and they are a part of my life. If the children (now adults) get a bit of money out of them in the future that's great. Otherwise it will be the grandkids.

Phil

[64phil]

Just a quick update. The amp is in to get checked out. In the mean time I just did some cleaning of the guitar. Before unwinding the strings I applied one drop of 3 in 1 oil to the gears and this loosened and cleaned them up really well. Of course when I removed the strings the plastic nut broke so this has to be replaced. I first used a plastic card to scrape some of the crud off the finger board followed by a very light scraping with a razor blade. Then I took a piece of white pot scrubber and went along the fret board full length to clean the top of the frets. This worked o.k. but not perfect. I may still go over it with some extra fine steel wool. I'll decide on that later. I do have to get some sort of treatment to wipe the rosewood with to freshen it up. I used some mild detergent and a sponge to wipe down the guitar plastic wrap and the pick guard. It was filthy. Then I took some automotive chrome polish and cleaned up the chrome bits. It is starting to look not bad. Here are a few photos showing one before and the rest after photos. Oh and also I found some numbers stamped on the back of the headstock. Not sure what they signify but they are there.

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