[davetcan]

One of the young guys who works for me came up to me a couple of days ago and asked me if I wanted an old amp he was throwing out. Of course I didn't even have to think about it. Turns out to be this. I'm not sure if it works yet because I refuse to plug it in given the state of the power cord. He said the last he remembers you could feel the current coming of the guitar strings when it was played, whoa! Anyway here it is.

I think it's around a '68 given the serial # and the rounded edges but I'll have to do some more research and then find a good tech. I can't decide wether I should mod it to plexi specs, which seems very popular, or just leave it alone.

 

[davetcan]

You lucky bastid!!! I'd leave it stock, as it should sound great once you've had a tech go over it.

CT.

Yeah! I was feeling kinda lucky the whole day A friend on another forum has recommended Gar Gillies in Winnipeg who is apparently a bit of a guru when it comes to these things. I wonder if that's the Gar of "Garnet Amps". I know the Guess Who used to use them and that would be a Winnipeg connection. I'm tempted to just fix the power cord myself and plug it in and see what happens. I'll wear rubber soled shoes

 

[davetcan]

Yep, that IS Gar from Garnet amps. Of course, you would be asking him to fix his main competition!

Does the amp have a three prong cord? Often these old two prongers will give you a "buzz" if you stand on concrete with no shoes on . . .

I included a pic of the plug. Definitely a 2 pronger and just hanging on by a thread at that I can't believe someone would have plugged this in

 

[davetcan]

Nice find at a nice price! I think the head (late 60's) is older than the cab (early 70's). Also the logo on the head looks like it came off the cabinet. The earlier logos were chrome without the black background. Is it a "Big B" 8-10 cab?

Thanks for the info. I'd sorta come to that conclusion. The cab is a 4 x 10. I took a couple of the speakers out today and they're stamped 1972 and that sounds about right. No name on them, just a DW12 and a serial number. I must say the cab does sound great with my Bandmaster though. I get the feeling from what I've been able to find that the head is pretty early due to the rounded corners and non "flip-top".

 

[davetcan]

Davetcan: Gar Gillies is the Garnet guy. His workmanship of construction is fantastic; I call him the Pete Traynor of western Canada since the heavy duty components he used were much like Traynor's.
I work on amps like yours all the time. You don't need to send your new amp off to Winnipeg, there's lots of good guys in Ontario that could help you. If I was closer to London, I'd offer to do it myself.

Thanks for the offer :food-smiley-004:

I just dropped it off at Rob Fowler's place in Cambridge (found a link on the London Power page). He figures it'll take a couple of hours worth of work to get into good shape. Someone else had already been in there, probably a long time ago, and done a couple of strange things. For one the on/off switch had been disabled, plug it in and the amp is live, although the standby switch on the front still worked. He was impressed with the overall condition and said it looked very clean. He's going to install the 3 prong plug, replace the 4 meg volume pots with 1 meg, install a bias control, add screen plate resistors ( I think that's what he called them)to help save the tubes, and tame the treble a bit, apparently these things could be very bright. All going well I should be able to pick it up next weekend, I'll keep you posted.

btw I told him about this place so hopefully he'll sign up.

 

[davetcan]

Yep! That looks exactly the same. Any idea what year yours is?

So far all I asked Rob to do was to change the volume pots from 4 meg to 1 meg which he said would take away some of the harshness. I got the amp back on the weekend and I needed to swap out a couple of the 12AX7's as they were microphonic. Once that was done everything was good. This thing sounds really nice stock (or close to it). Almost fenderish but different in a subtle way. The reverb is very strong and sounds suprisingly good, not quite as "warm" as the Bandmasters but still very good. I'm not getting a lot of volume out of it, I was actually able to dime it without killing myself (wife was out) and it sounded really great. It takes pedals very well. I use a TIM and MI Audio Crunchbox for my OD/Distortion sounds and both sound great with the Traynor. Because of that I'll probably not bother modding it any further. I like it the way it is.

 

[davetcan]

Not trying to hijack your post, but how do you like your TIM? Is all the hype from the Gear Page true?

It may well be the one pedal that I'll never sell. It really sounds great with the Bandmaster and very good with the Traynor. The boost function is also really usefull for getting that extra nudge when you need it and it has it's own tone control so you can add a bit of bite to it to help cut thru if necessary. I guess in my opinion it lives up to the hype. It also has a built in loop so you can add something like a delay or eq that would only engage with when the TIM is on, although I've never used it.
The Timmy is supposed to sound as good and has a little more gain on tap but you lose the boost and loop.

 

[davetcan]

Yes I was in channel 1. I'll try jumping them and see what happens this weekend.

 

[davetcan]

Dave, which plus did you use to jump?
Guitar input = Top I
Jump Low I > Top II

LOL, you realize this thread is 12 years old!

Luckily I still have the amp. I do this, although this is not my amp in the pic. I'll take a pic of mine later.

 

[davetcan]

here you go.

 

[davetcan]

Yeah, I do.
But, as people have said, search the forum first for answers before posting a question again.
Man, you STILL have the amp, amazing.

Modded to hell but it's still absolutely awesome.

 

[davetcan]

My laugh for the day.

Sorry that it is on you @davetcan , my friend.
However, you must admit that it is an extremely witty statement
(not based on fake news and facts)

And quite astute . But I still have the LP and Newsom

 

[davetcan]

Dave , where did you get the faceplate done ?

Cool that you still have the head !

It was a guy in the States but he's been out of business for a while. Used to make amps too, can't remember his name. I sent him all the dimensions.

 

[davetcan]

I see mojotone is now offering this service.

Custom Control Plate, Faceplate/Backplate/Logo Capabilities - Mojotone.com

 

[davetcan]

Also for those wondering about the name "Busen Amps" I had the amp modded by our own @Wild Bill many years ago, and Busen Amps was the name he was going by at the time. I used the name as a nod to Bill for doing a great job on the amp.

 

[davetcan]

Has anyone seen or heard from @Wild Bill recently?

I haven't but I sure hope he's doing well.