Greetings All
I've just bought a Silverface Vibrosonic, as far as I can tell its 1977/78. I bought it from a musician father and son who bought it as a part of a job lot from their musician friend's widow when he died recently. They have no idea when it was last used, they think he was the original owner. They switched it on and said that it worked, I bought it without powering it on as I want to check it out first.
I don't think the chassis has ever been removed until now and I'm fairly certain the tubes are original too!
Its been butchered a bit, the original speaker is gone and it has a Peavey 1505, which I think is a PA speaker, the original owner added two horns so there's a couple of very home made holes on the baffle board.
The owners manual, warranty info and schematic are all with it though the serial number on the book doesn't match that on the chassis. I'm led to believe that Fender often supplied amps with erroneous paperwork and tube charts etc during this period?
I'll be leaving it in with local amp guru Tony Hamilton in the new year for a full service and getting a new speaker. I know these are a single 15" version of a Twin but there's not much info on them on this site or others. I saw a thread where SaschaReynders was asking about putting in an Eminence Big Ben into one but there was no follow up post. I know there's a lot of love for the EVM15L but these don't seem to being manufactured anymore, I can't find one anyway so am also considering the Big Ben so please chip in if anyone has experience with this speaker or any general advice or knowledge regarding this amp.
Anyway, please see a few pics below and I'll let y'all know what it sounds like when I get it up and running.
Cheers
Joe

Yeah, the horns were a bit weird, long gone now, maybe the speaker wasn't bright enough? I hope you're right, HUGE is exactly what I'm hoping for from this beast!
Cheers
Joe

Thanks Psyconaut. Any experience of the beast yourself?

Ditch the Peavey PA speaker; you can probably find an Eminence Legend 1518 for not too much. The original (if not a D130F option) was a Fender PS15 of some flavor. This thing should sound great.
Nice find.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

I've got one of these converted into a head. I've just sold it. Actually it has the distortion circuit so it can be not clean if you want it. Just pull out the master volume.

It's the same circuit as the Twins of the time but a different output tranny as it outputs to 8 ohms.

You can actually get some ok tones if you crank the channel vol and lower the master.

Last edited: Jan 23, 2017 17:35:55

Thanks for the input guys.
I knew the pedal steel history but didn't know about the keyboard link with the horns. I just assumed that the original owner played guitar, he could very well have played keys, I got it from friends of his after he died, they're in the country scene, I think he was too.

Haven't managed to get it up and running yet but coincidentally I'm leaving it into the local amp guy today for the long overdue service. I don't mind the weight too much as I don't gig regularly and have a few amps that are easier to drag around. I loved twins back in the day so hopefully will like this one.

I'll give you my verdict when it's up and running. Still deciding on the speaker, Eminence Big Ben seems to be my best, available choice at present.

Cheers

Joe

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

JoeKinetic wrote:

Thanks for the pics. A few differences from mine but I guess it's a pretty similar beast. How does it sound?
Any suggestions for improvements or anything you've found to watch out for?

It sounds awesome, just like a twin reverb, but fatter.

In your one, the filter caps probably all need replacing if they haven't already been replaced. And in fact all the electrolytes should be replaced in an amp of this age. The one in the picture still had the old e-caps, and was full of problems and underperformance issues until I replaced the electrolytics. The trem roach also needed replacing.

JoeKinetic wrote:

Have to order a speaker soon. Any recommendations from yourself?
Cheers
Joe

If its for a guitar amp, get something with a highish power rating (80-300W), the correct impedance (8 Ohms), and a good response in the bandwidth for guitars (covering ~80Hz to ~5.5kHz). The Cerwin Vega in this amp sounds pretty nice. Other speakers like this are electrovoice (if you can find a decent 2nd-hand one in good nick), or something from JBL. For newer speakers, look at Webers range.

These are pretty nice
https://www.tedweber.com/neomag15

So are these
https://www.tedweber.com/werewolf15f

This is their D130 variant
https://www.tedweber.com/cali15a
https://www.tedweber.com/cali15f

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

you'll find an EVM15l eventually. Just do a saved search on ebay. Also look for JBL E130, D130 and K130

Also, make sure you check ebay.de. I find a lot of good stuff posted there

Last edited: Feb 03, 2017 13:30:43

Isn't Ireland still in the EU? So is Germany. you're in luck