Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Silkyn Logo Goes Bye Bye





Here's what replaced the chromed plastic Silkyn logo. This is from a bag of furnace badges I got at an auction a number of years ago but recently rediscovered.

It says "June Aire For Those Who Care". Much to my surprise, (if it's the same company) June Aire is still in business in El Paso, Texas.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Bassman 50 update



One thing I've always wondered about was whether a Bassman could accept a tube rectifier. I had a chance to try that out after replacing all the Paktron blue blob caps with Mojotone Dijons.

As it happened I had a Super Reverb power transformer from a reissue sitting on the shelf and it is a drop in fit with 5v rectifier windings. It was simple enough to drill a hole, mount a socket, and wire it up. I cut the original diode bridge off and left the bias setup after overhauling it with a new diode, resistor and capacitor.

It powered right up with a GZ34 in the place of honor, delivering 445v on the plates and I set the bias at a nice solid 38 ma each side.

Whether it was worth the effort is another story but we shall see, after I drop in a 5R4. 

Monday, May 9, 2016

Silkyn Super 50 board shots







I'm not the author of these shots but I snagged them in the interest of getting more information out to the user community. These shots were taken by Jeff Fiske and here is the link to his album. http://imgur.com/a/W59lD

Note that R55 is bypassed with a film cap that looks like it was done at the factory because my amp had never been out of the box.


More "The Pics"



















The Pics

Here are some gut shots from my recently acquired Silkyn Super 50.










Sunday, May 8, 2016

Silkyn Super 50 update.

I had a chance to drop the chassis out of this bird a couple of days ago and I did a little testing. The sound was a little gritty so I measured voltages, tested tubes, and proceeded to install some good glassware from my collection.

V1 was a JJ ECC83 and the rest were Sovtek 12AX7 long plate 12AX7s. One was pretty weak, and they all had dates of 2003 on them.

I installed V1: JJ ECC83, V2: Philips 6681 V3: JAN 12AX7 (Philips ECG) V4: 12AX7 RCA, V5: Mullard ECC83 and V6: 6201 GE 5  Star.

I'm making a pitch for mobile radio tubes like the 6681 and the 6201 5 star, because they're meant to work in the worst kind of service with wacky voltages. They're great stuff if you can get them.

Here's what I found in the way of voltages.

Vp: 484v dc
Vscr: 483v dc

Cathode current 39.2/38.7 (this was after installing a matched pair of Ruby 6L6GCMSTR power tubes in place of the Sovtek 5881 coin base numbers which were about 7ma mismatched. The Super 50 has a neat adjustable bias which works like a charm.

V1 1: 217v 6: 217v
V2 1: 237v 6: 219v
V3 1: 358v 6: 358v
V4 1: 238v 6: 308v
V5 1: 238v 6: 308v
V6 1: 248v 6: 242v

Following David Bock's postings on youtube and his other mod postings on the Super 50 I changed out R33 from 4.7k to 1k to improve the reverb a little and installed an old Accutronics 4AB tank from my Princeton Reverb. There's plenty enough room.

So far, so good. Pics to follow

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Cheap Orphan Tube Amps On A Budget: The Silkyn Super 50

This photo came from Kevin Paul, and I borrowed it-something I usually do not do but it was needed here. If I get the schematic he'll be the first to have it.


I recently became aware of the existence of some ridiculously inexpensive tube amps recently and scored one on fleabay. The cost at $209 shipping included makes this amp worth it for the parts alone. The power, output and reverb transformer and tubes plus the Eminence Legend speaker, purchased online would come to about that so I figure I bought it at salvage prices.

This is not my first expedition into the gray world of orphan guitar amps. I've got a couple of Judybox Revivals-they folded a number of years ago-and a repository of information on the Masters TV30 including the schematic and field mod information. But this one looks especially interesting.

It's the Silkyn 50, it's a two channel 50w item with an Eminence Legend, and it comes equipped with a Ruby short reverb tank and channel switching.

According to Fedex it is slated to arrive here tomorrow, and I'm going to be very interested in seeing what I got.

The story of Silkyn Electronics is yet to be told in full,but from what's left of their website over at the wayback machine, they were a startup that folded in the 2007-2008 financial meltdown, and what's being sold by are amps that are leftovers, probably by a recovery specialist or bought from an auctioneer.  The charge was headed up by a fellow named Mark Ausmus who was a veteran of Fluke and Gibson guitars, If these amps sat in a container in the port while the disposition of them was being fought over, that might explain some of the surface oxidation Jeff Fiske saw.

The original intent was to have graphics applied to the cabinets but nobody seems to have seen one of these.

One person has done a` teardown upon receipt and he notes that the construction was not great but pretty reasonable overall, but the tubes supplied were not top drawer stuff.

What I saw there indicates that the circuit board is not terribly complicated, and the next order of business will be to try and obtain a schematic diagram. That may prove to be a task but it is worth the effort.

The intent is to do a teardown and inspection, measure voltages for further reference and photograph as much as I can.

The Washington  secretary of state tells us that the company filed as an LLC in 2007 and was classified as inactive in 2012, which means these amps have been sitting somewhere for at least four years.

I've written to the proprietor to see about a schematic.

UPDATE: The amp arrived today shipped via Fedex ground (good) in fine shape, with all the accessories in the case. It was shipped Monday and got here to central Iowa about noon today while I was mowing and trimming the back yard. Unlike some this amp had never been out of the carton. I did a quickie power up to make sure all was in order and it was, controls worked fine and the channel switching was good. The reverb is kind of thin, not really what I like but that can be addressed.

It should be noted that you need the foot switch on this amp to enable the clean channel and reverb. Odd but true.

Now to pull the chassis, test the tubes, set the bias and see what I got myself into. But first, lunch.