saving an amp

[harpspitfire]

i stopped at a friends the other day, bunch of old guys, mostly acoustic old songs in a smoke filled basement once a week- this amp was there for ages, mostly used to hold beer cans and ashtrays, he gave to me and i took it home, took it apart, 3 buckets of scrub water, then cleaned all the contacts, anyway- it came back to life, sounds really good! i like the old school reverb,tremolo and depth knobs without the fuss of adjustment

[srbell]

Great job! I love keeping older equipment working way beyond its expected life. I'm still using an old Sansui integrated stereo amp I had as a teenager back in the 70's as the sound system for my desktop PC. I had to replace some resistor and power transistors in it a few years ago to resurrect it, but its working great now.
Btw, DeOxit works wonders to clean dirty switches, pots, and other contacts.

[Dru Edwards]

Great job to restore the amp. What is it?

[harpspitfire]

it has HEATH on the front panel, but its a Heathkit TA16, i use isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush on really grimy contacts (not sure if i should) then spray with CRC electronic cleaner, never tried DeOxit, but i will, thx for the tip

[DukeX]

Is that a 2x10 or 2x12? I'm curious about the speakers.

[harpspitfire]

2-12, no name of them, just a serial number and 8 ohms- decent size square magnets by the looks of them, the only thing left to do is change the 2 prong to a 3 prong power cord, im hesitant because i want to keep it original and not disconnect the polarity switch

[Steve DeRosa]

Look like they might be an early Eminence design - here's some info that might help you to identify them:

https://www.eminence.com/faqconc/the...-model-number/

Match them up with the pot codes and you can pinpoint when your amp would have been made with fair accuracy...

[RickRS]

Originally Posted by harpspitfire

it has HEATH on the front panel, but its a Heathkit TA16, i use isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush on really grimy contacts (not sure if i should) then spray with CRC electronic cleaner, never tried DeOxit, but i will, thx for the tip

A blast from the past. I've never done a Heathkit DIY project, but they were a thing when I started as a electronic tech back in 1975.

Don't worry about using isopropyl alcohol on contacts. It's safe for electrical and electronic stuff, with one exception: If the pwb are coated with a clear coat for what referred to as conformal coating, if it's acrylic coating the alcohol will strip it off. Won't hurt anything as long as acrylic/alcohol fluid doesn't redry on contacts.

[Sonics]

It's a 'Starmaker' amplifier (circa '68-'69). Available factory assembled $199.95, or in kit form $119.95. I guess that was a whole lot of money back in the day.

[harpspitfire]

its amazing how much help you get from this forum and the web!!- i did some research , from what i found, 117 is a credence speaker code, somehow they were affiliated with the CTS brand- of course the info is rather limited for such older speakers

[redir]

Cool, gotta love that!

[C-ville Brent]

Cool looking amp! I'm glad you were able to bring it back to life.

[mechanic1908]

Looks great! Nice save