Here's the conclusion of our 2-part series on the 1948 Webster Chicago (Webcor) Model 7 Wire Recorder complete with a sound test. PART 1: • 1940s Webster Chicago ...
Thanks Buddy. I appreciate that. I still may try a couple tweaks and I did change most of the other power resistors and forgot to show that, but it's mostly there. It was a fun one! Next, we'll have a customer's amp he sent me in the mail.
Hey Guitologist, Brad, Awesome conversion, you didn't waste any time getting to it. That be me, who asked for the 3 wire installation, Thankyou. Sweet little Art Deco Amp, sounds good, could be a keeper, small and portable. One of the coolest conversions as of late. Nice little amp, head. Plenty good break up. Love the Iconic Hofner, that's a keeper. The fact you can use other speaker cabs is nice. Great video, got the 3 wire down. Can't wait to see what you come up with next. Take care, be good, C.
hey Champ, HOLY BEANS WTF? I had no idea you could take such a thing and make it sound so nice, great job, great spirit of work, understanding what you are creating. I'm a huge classic rock fan / metal head, and I am impressed with every video you make, every goofy little tube amp you make out of something that wasn't designed to be a guitar amp rocks. Keep it up you are the best.
We will see. I'll admit I have a hard time seeing the back of some of these creations, but I can't keep 'em all. I'm sure I'll find a good home for it eventually.
I'll have some more cool vids up this weekend. In the meantime, take some meds and check out the best band that's ever existed. You're welcome. ;) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ukjnrXTTvPY.html
I actually love that band in a way I can't explain... It's like an infantile level of not giving a fuck coming from every member. They have no idea how bad they are, and that's great! :D
NOOOO! Complete is a pure band. Tapped into the source of all Creation through their intellect. Check out the interview with them in another video. It's golden.
I hope this video assists people in the restoration of their recorders, if nothing else. We did get a rare glimpse of the innards of this model for posterity.
@@TheGuitologist great Video. I wonder if you could get more of a tweed sound out of this Amp.. Maybe in a small box with a Jensen p10q and a bit more break up. Quite a bit of knowledge you have. Would love to sit around and pick your brain some day. 😆
Man it doesn't get much better than turning things into amplifiers. Some of this stuff would never be used ever again but now it's got an entire new life. Fuck anyone who doesn't like it. This is what makes the world keep turning. And the demos are some damn good music either way. Lots of inspiration in these demos.
WOW, ANOTHER OLD SCHOOL TONE MACHINE, LOVE HOW THEY RESPOND TO TOUCH. DIRTY WITH NICE NATURAL GRITTY HOWL WHEN TURNED UP!! I WANT ONE, GOOD RESURRECTION! SOUNDS AS GOOD AS MY 1958 SEARS & ROEBUCK-3.5 WATT SILVERTONE 1451. NICE TONE REHAB!
Really love the art deco period designs. The thing is sick LOL. I would find it hard to sell that sweet conversion but we got to pay the bills. Thanks for the videos.
Most of these Webster wire recorders I have looked at on eBay have a 6J5 in V2 instead of the 6SN7 your model has. The 6SN7 is basically two 6J5 triodes in one envelope. What are your thoughts on feasibility of adding/rewire V2 for a 6SN7 to achieve the same amount of gain stages you have? This is definitely one your coolest conversions. Thanks.
The reason for the additional triode in this model is it drives the magic eye. It isn't used as an amplification stage, so any similar recorder with the two preamp triodes will sound pretty similar to this one.
Just wondering how you got into amp conversions? Did you start with a basic interest in electronics and go from there or was there schooling involved to get to where you are at now which I'm sure takes a considerable amount of time to get there. I would love to refurbish and make usable amps as well. Keep up the good work, I'm trying to soak up all i can and thanks once again for your posts.
My advice, watch a lot of RU-vid, maybe buy a book or two, then start with something relatively easy to cut your teeth. A lot of this old equipment is harder to work on if it has other functions like, in this case, a wire recorder and all the associated stuff other than the amplifier. Try to avoid stuff like that at first. Maybe go with a hi-fi stereo or mono amplifier, like an old Heathkit or Knight or Fisher or something like that. Hammonds are good too, but they can be cramped inside and hard to work on depending on the model. You can also always order a kit and build a simple single ended Champ clone for your first time and learn from that. Whatever you do, come back by and share what you've done with us here.
I have my dad's old Webcor 210 and it has very little speaker output, but plenty of crackle on the pots, even after deoxit. Line outs work, the Cats Eye Tube works. It works perfectly mechanically, but the heads are so worn they would need milling or replacement. I was considering using the parts to build a guitar amp, or restoring it, because I still have tapes dating back to the fifties that were recorded on it, but I can still play them back to some extent on my Sony Reel to reel with some head adjustment. Even with the schematics built into the case, I don't even know where to start. Selling it on eBay will only get me about $100, and it is HEAVY...
I know it's obvious but for someone that doesn't know, you forgot to mention the GREEN ground wire should go to the chassis or to the transformer iron if there is a connection for it.
it seems when you are a good guitarist the equipment always sounds good ! it seems to have a kind of early stones type distortion , i suppose low wattage with little speaker.
After being inspired by your video I picked up a almost identical unit with a different model number. It's the model 81-1. Same tubes including magic eye and layout. Only difference I see is mine didn't have that weird antenna outlet you had next to the 6sj7. Iv been video documenting and did 3 prong cord, 1/4 inch jacks, speaker repair( contact cement doping the surround), Same bad resistor as you had and a few other bad ones I still have to replace, put in an internal on off switch for the motor in case anyone wants to use wire recorder in the future and new shielded input from 1/4 inch jack to 6sj7. I am getting weak guitar sound, flubby on bass notes and occasionally gets loud for half a second then back to low output , out both the internal speaker and out the external speaker, hooked up to a pair of Jenson p10q's. I have not replaced any caps yet, hoping when I do, that I will get the volume I am expecting out of this cool monster.
That's going to be awesome! I look forward to checking out what you were able to do with yours. Have fun! I think you're doing well by making the switch to turn off the motor and use the recorder or not. That's my only slight regret with this one, but at the end of the day, a wire recorder is novelty.
That low output problem could have many sources. I'd just check tubes and tube sockets first thing. A lot of the time, a bad connection in the socket will cause a tube to fail to conduct any signal. I had this issue on the amp I just finished, whose repair video I'm uploading now, and I go to some troubleshooting with that one.
The Guitologist I figured out my low volume issue it was bad screen and plate resistors on the 6sj7 and several other bad resistors drifted up and or no connection. Sounds good now. Except that internal speaker rattles front screen on bass notes, I will have to work on that. Did you change any capacitor or resistor values from original spec to change tone at all? So for I have left mine spec.
I pretty much left mine factory in the signal path. I could have done some fiddling probably and milked a touch more out of it, but I was mostly focused on just getting it going as a guitar amp.
very cool, has encouraged me to learn more about electronics I know how to plug it in and that's about it...how about trying a drive pedal into one of the vintage amp conversions? may get a cool sound a little more sustain
Sounds Great Brad, Looks awesome too... Really unique...... What brand/watt/ohm speaker is in the Victor Cab? You always find the coolest stuff.... I really like the Hofner as well, don't see the guitar version too often.. BTW, Do you have a NOS RCA or GE 6K6GT late 50's or early 60's Black Plate clear glass? I have one of each, I am making a P-P amp for them and would like to have a matched set of either..... Thanks, Tom
Thanks Tom. I'll look for those tubes for you. It's highly possible I have some. Do me a favor and shoot me a text message and remind me later: 812-773-1103 The speaker in the cab was the original RCA, I believe. Stamped 1945. I didn't measure it, but someone had written 4.5 ohms on it.
Killer conversion Brad. It may seem like a green question, but what is the purpose of the "magic eye" tube other than an indicator? Is there any signal or power going through it? I've see them used on older pieces of equip, and I am curious of their purpose/purposes. My name is Matt, by the way. Sometimes the "posting alias' " drive me crazy lol. Anyway, thanks again for an awesome lesson and session.
The Guitologist Cool, thanks. I haven't had any pieces in my workshop with the magic eye. I guess I'll read more about them. My elderly Heathkit signal generator has "hidden" glowing ob2 or ob3 tubes. I'm gonna have to read up on those as well. I think I'm going to try converting another smaller Heathkit sig. gen ag-9a into a guitar amp. No lamp-ish tubes in that, just filament glow. It's 6x4 rec, to 6au6 and 6cl6. Have you ever converted these? I'd be extremely interested in that vid, if you've made any. Anyway, thanks again for the awesome ideas, and for sharing your knowledge
Great sound, unique. Arte Primitivo, I hear an old movie sound track about a blues story. maybe with a cigar box guitar plug into it. Play some Mississippi Fred McDowell
Is there any issues with using the output selector switch while the amp is on? Because for a split second while the switch is being rotated there will be no load on the output transformer secondary. Is that a problem or does it take longer to damage a tube amp when you run it with no speaker?
Good question. As long as the output tube(s) have no signal coming in and are running at idle, there is no current through the OT. So switching is fine while not playing. Even on large amps, in theory it's ok to change speaker cabinets while the amp is turned down or in standby mode. You are right there will be a brief surge of current, but if it's something that's going to burn up the OT, it would probably take longer for that current to be converted to heat in the OT to actually have a chance of burning it up.
Is it the heat that destroys the transformer? I always thought it was because the transformer basically turns into a choke when there's no load on the secondary which generates large flyback voltages in the primary that exceed the transformer's rating and can punch through the insulation on the magnet wire, shorting turns or even the windings (as well as damaging tubes, caps, etc...). Maybe you really have to be playing balls out loud for that to happen? Around the 15:30 mark you can hear the chord decaying as you switch between outputs with no harm done. It would be an interesting experiment to hook up a multimeter, or better yet, a scope that can detect peaks, to the primary and see if the voltage spikes when you rotate the switch.
Ohm's law, heat and voltage and current are related. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_heating The bottom line is, at least to my limited understanding, as long as the OT is rated to take any extra heat created by having no load, it should NEVER short out due to overheated primary winding. Running at idle particularly should present no more current on the primary side than was there with a load on the secondary. But a lot of OTs are just skirting the line of acceptable rating. I've seen arching in tubes and sockets I have attributed to being run with no load, but maybe I'm missing something. Maybe it's pure myth an OT needs a load on a Class-A amp at all. This is one of those things I've kind of always thought without questioning it much. The more I think about it, the presence of a load should not make that much difference to the primary side. Why should an inductor care whether it's a transformer with a hooked up secondary or just a lowly single coil inductor./choke?
After some thought, it's all down to conservation of energy. The extra heat is heat that would have been dissipated doing the work of moving the speaker in this closed system. In the absence of a speaker coil and wires to dissipate that heat energy, the primary has to soak it up. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't.
no solid state sounds like that almost sounded like a Valco anyways thanx for another great video once I start watching one cant turn it off u definitely have a talent again thanx for a reat video and inspiring a lot of thoughts Richard from PGH.
Great to hear comments like this, Richard. We adults have such a confined space for acceptable daydreaming, and it's great we of similar interest can have such a space together. And I agree...very gritty, very Valco-ish. The octal preamp, particularly the up front pentode is the secret sauce, I think.
a little late to the party but i imagined on part one this wouldn't have a whole lot of head room because it's only for dictation and it sure does break up nicely.
I've got that recorder and intend to do the same conversion to guitar amp. I also have the original documentation including the schematic if you need a copy. Lucas AKA Arn_Jones instagram.com/arn_jones
What's best, ..tube amps from the 40's? ..tube amps from the 50's? ..tube amps from the 60's? ..tube amps from the 70's? ..tube amps from the 80's? ..tube amps from the 90's? ..tube amps from the 00's? ..tube amps from the 10's? ..tube amps of today? 🤷
Oh my, another guitar geek who has old Victor speaker cabs - I love these and I'm always on the look-out for more i88.photobucket.com/albums/k182/IlapU2/Music/Amps/DSC_3387_zps281c2e07.jpg
I work on a lot of various stuff with different sized holes and sometimes it's hard to find a strain relief, so I've tended to default to a grommet and zip tie. Just a personal preference, I guess.
