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I kept the bench!

Yeah, I kind of packed this up during a move years ago, then closed my business and had it stashed away this whole time. I barely even tested it myself. I never did get a guitar player to come over and drive it around for me to show it off. Thats what I was waiting for on the follwup video(s). ANYWAY, I will be unpacking it soon for the shop that I am rebooting currently. Don't be surprised if another video or two show up to this series soon

When did I say that? Maybe in my haste to edit, I made a confusing comment. I do always check for impedance on ALL transformers to make sure there is proper continuity and no shorts.

Oh cool, I saw your Hammonator just today while searching the web. Great work!

The frequency range is mostly limited by the speakers you use and how you voice it. These old, original speakers are all mid range. Great for a mellow church organ or a gnarly guitar! I imagine the output transformer can pass 80hz to 12khz decently and most instruments would fall in that range. I'll find out soon enough. This first project is guitar focused, but the next one will be a bass head! And for that one I will run a modern cabinet. I have an early, all octal version of the A0-29 that will run 7591s with a custom output transformer in a Ampeg inspired circuit. I have 5 of these organs and another pair of Hammond amps. So I imagine, if you stick around long enough, you'll see all the permutations possible!

​@@mesasavage awesome, I will be checking back for sure!

@@obsequious_obsolescence It will probably take a year or more to finish all these Hammonds, but I will eventually. I sure do love working on them!

I would never hack up one of THOSE Hammonds! But AO-29s? They grow on trees. And my M3 parts will feed more M3s that stick around in stock form. I see it as a win/win.

I have no idea! She showed up and adopted me one day! SO I have no idea as to her lineage. I've been told all kinds of breeds by all kinds of folks. I'll have to look that one up!

I'll do a video of my tube collection one day. Let me just say, NOT having the tubes I want for this one, is unlikely! Plus, the nature of this design being a "roller" amp means I can sub all kinds of "wrong" tubes anyway. You'll see. Thanks for the comment, subscribe to see what happens because this is a whole series and I'll be upping an episode or two each week until it's done.

@@mesasavage Save some parts this organ, nice woodwork too. Make it narrow etc.

@@RetroMechanic I'm like the Buffaloe hunters of old, use every piece! Nothing useful will go to waste.

@@RetroMechanic Narrow? Nah, watch my next video and I'll show you why I want to use the whole enchilada. I'm a weirdo. I'm not making any kind of clone. This will be a total mutant, not meant for production!

Great idea. I was thinking about how to take these things apart the best way to preserve the wood. Moisture and steam might work well. It will be a fun experiment either way!

I took apart an early solid state Conn and got a rotating speaker mechanism and two 12" AlNiCos. I didn't even want it at first. I was picking up an M3 Hammond and an 1800s Air Organ at the same time and the guy said I had to take all three of them if I wanted any! I'm glad I did, the speakers are wonderful! Lots of nice wood, too.

If you can use the speaker, I think I have two of those field coils, maybe three! Just let me know, I'll give you a spectacular deal on it.

Nah, I'm just super fat and winded. I'll do better on the next one.

@@mesasavage OK. It didn't bother me. It was just concern.

Its cool, sorry if that sounded prickly. I'm actually down 185 pounds in the last two years, so I'm not nearly as big as I used to be. But I still got a long ways to go and who knows if I'll ever not sound like that. I only really hear myself when I edit. The uhhhs and the uhhmmms and other trash in my speech is bad enough, but having to edit out the heavy breathing can be so tedious. I hadn't edited a video in a while so I just kind of slapped this one together real fast. If you watch the later ones in the series, I'm still breathing just as poorly, but I edit out the more annoying bits so you don't notice. I need to train myself to speak better, though, regardless.

You got to ditch those old caps. I think of electrolytic caps as like tires on a car. Even perfect, 50 year old tires are ready to fail at any moment! You want to drive your amp around with 50 year old tires? Well don't be surprised when it wrecks!

I know right? I said it plays, however not daily and in the 15 years I owned it, I bet not played for even three hours. It is in storage, I moved, could not sell it for $200 and thought one day it might make an interesting guitar amp. Just selling the motor out of it seems would pay the $100 I gave for it in 2010.

@@mesasavage Ahhhh, I see the error of my writing "and it still plays." I owned it for 15 years, in that time, I worked on it and it works but played less than 8 hours for that whole time. You shoulda seen the power cord on that one when I got it. Only fixes have been the motor capacitor for tuning, oiled as best as I could until that pad was soaked, put in a new pad, soaked it again. Like the car analogy, I put in 5 quarts, drove it 50 miles, drained it and filled er up again. It is in storage with a number of other instruments. Love the amp idea. Those little spinet organ amps are loud.

Right! Hammond did make a little sidecar monosynth called the "Solovox" that was indeed and electronic synthesizer using oscillators... eventually. The early ones used vibrator mechanisms for oscillations., though!

The preamp in your new red amp is similar to what I’m thinking about on this one, How do you like the four modes?

@@mesasavagethe one I got when I visited is still in the states and I have yet to plug it in . 😢 I will get it here soon . Like you I am rebuilding and getting it all back in line x it will be here soon ❤

I'm in Forest City, NC 28043

Thanks! Feel free to steal the idea for blank covers. I'm really into straight to ink at the moment, but I do love my pencils. I'll get back to them soon, but for now I just like riding this wave, experimenting with the layering and color, which are both pretty new to me. Previously, I was always just pencils and then black inks on top, comic book style where the pencils are often erased!

Also, I have a CHB-100, and that schematic shows both the plate and cathode of the 12AX7 connected to 240v via a 220k. I've never seen that configuration before and hoping you can explain it to me. thanks again.

I will be doing that soon. This project was finished as far as I remember, just never got to test it much before I was on to the next squirrel that ran by.

Yeah, there is some weird stuff in that circuit related to the remote control stuff and cost saving crap like the grid leak bias on the inputs. It can all be tossed out. I'll get the finished shcematic together soon and you'll see what I did, keeping the Bogen soul while optimizing it for guitar, not a budget PA.

I will be posting more. I rent a warehouse that I'm turning into my art studio from an amp shop. But I have all these pesky donor amps and piles of parts to build them just sitting here... You will begin to see these stalled projects finished after years of sitting idle. Plus, I know myself and once I start building again, I'll dig up old designs to improve and even put together some new stuff. So keep an eye out!

@@mesasavagehope you are ok after that hurricane.

There used to be a kit available on eBay. It has the ~44 volts dc that the audio circuit wants as well as 48 volts the phantom power circuit wants. Five Fish Audio used to sell a kit as well. I currently can’t seem to find where to buy either of them. You could also adapt just about any regulated power supply that would get you close to that 44 volts it prefers.

I just like the sound of the WIMA film caps better, that's all. And if I'm recapping something, unless it is rare or desirable, I might as well do it all.

No, but email me jessemesasavage AT gmail. COM and I'll send you a parts list and instructions.

Sweet! Good luck. If you need a partslist for the recap/mod kit let me know. I don't sell the kits right now, but you can source the parts yourself. I'll be doing a PM-1K based publication... eventually, so keep an eye out for that!

@@mesasavage Where can I find that parts list?

@@evilwasabi629 message me @ jessemesasavage … AT gmail

Sounds too complicated for me. If a Silverface Fender didn't have it, I don't need it. I prefer to rearrange and make something that COULD have been made when new, if the parts were juggled around a bit. But like no consumer tech newer than like 1970s! But I am still intrigued as to what all you got going on there?

Maybe on a big amp with 4 or 6 power tubes, but I don’t see a need for fans. In my experience, this is pretty unnecessary outside of extreme circumstances. Do it if you want, but I don’t see why you’d want to go through all the trouble. Tubes are made to, and want to be, hot! There is a reason they have heaters, of course.

You didn’t use the transformers or sockets?

Bantam bass preamp, huh? Hmmm, I’ll have to check that out.

I had to sell it, unfortunately. Too many projects and I wanted to focus on my two Dodge trucks, a 77 W200/M880 Military 1.25 ton and a 73 D300 cab and chassis with 11 ft bed. Both will be made into campers, one overlander for adventure and one as a rolling luxury cabin. Keep an eye out for those videos in the new year.

Sad to hear, but those sound like great projects! I asked because I just picked up a 68 Valiant 2 door project. 👍

I never did get a chance to film the testing phase. However, I will have access to the amp soon and I will try to get a video of it. With my amps, once they are done, they usually head out the door at light speed! Some of my friends that have known me for years have never seen one of my finished amps because they find their new owners so fast!

@@mesasavage Oh, okay. I was searching and didn't know why the build dead-ended with this video. I'd love to hear how it turned out. I just bought the same amp with the same intentions of turning it into a guitar amp. Naturally I'm a little pumped up and hoping I didn't get burned. It was dirt cheap and lights up so at least I know it's alive. The iron is worth more than I gave for it and I will probably gut it and build from there. I don't care to work through an existing nest of crap that I'll likely end up replacing anyway. Thank you for the reply. It's appreciated

@@Slugg-O SO check it out, there are two very similar versions of this amp. The CHB-35A, which seems to be more common which runs rare and expensive 7868 tubes. The other version is the one I presented here, the CHB-50 and it runs 6L6s. Other than those tubes, the circuit is pretty much the same, though the iron might be slightly different? In any case, you can swap sockets on the 35 to make it a 50, which I suggest doing if you can manage the operation. The 7868s are cool sounding power tubes, but are too rare and expensive to mess with, in my opinion.

@@Slugg-O I usually prefer the full gut and rewire. However I've done that with these Bogens before and this time I just wanted something that was a simpler project. Bogen have good layouts and the rats nest isn't so bad. And this one was particularly clean. So I really just gutted the preamp section and power supply, then rearranged the circuits to be more guitar friendly, added 1/4" jacks, and disabled/repurposed unnecessary circuitry like the "remote". Dang, you're really making me want to revisit this amp. It turned out so nice and unique with the hybrid circuit I developed for it. It really did become it's own thing. Something Bogen could have easily marketed themselves in the late 60s, IF they wanted to. I try to build my amps so that they COULD have been made like that when new. NO fancy relays or modern tech at all. Anyway, good luck with your build, this era of Bogen is so ripe for all kinds of tweaks and mods. I'll try to get an update video done here some time in the new year.

@@mesasavage I'm pumped even more now. Thanks!

Whoa! Grant! Dude! I looked you up before and couldn't find anything. I was curious what you were up to and what you did with your incredible art talent? Mine was spread around to weird disciplines that weren't traditional art paths. But I'm back to drawing full time now, like a freaking monk. Monking Freak? Somewhere on that spectrum. Look me up on deviant art as Tablebeast. And join Deviant Art!!!

I need to dust this off and redo the lost final episode. I don't know where the footage went, but I didn't feel like redoing it at the time. Amp should be awesome, from what my dusty memory tells me!

Are you looking to recap the whole console? I have designs for all the modules and the power supply. Message me here: jessemesasavage AT gmail DOT com

The chb35a schematic is almost exactly the same. I think the conjunctive filter on the output tubes is different, but you’ll probably rip that out anyway. I always do. Chb-35a schematics are all over the place. I’ve seen seems for the 50 before, but it’s significantly harder to find and, for some reason, a much rarer amp as well.

Thank you so much! This turned out to be a mere warmup for when I went back to working on paper and inks again! A whole new world. Its just more cumbersome to film me doing it, but I do have some videos of me live drawing planned. SO there will be more of these, just slightly different, soon...

Indeed it is! You should see my new stuff on paper. It clowns this warmup.

First off, if you’ve only got the one amp, then you’re only going to be able to use the amp in mono. Second, 100 watts a tubes is very, very loud! Even 35 or 50 is too loud for this application, in my opinion. Third, that Bogen of yours is a poor choice for a hifi amp as it is very much NOT hifi. For optimal home listening pleasure, you’d be better off with a stereo low watt amp. 10 watts per channel would be plenty in push/pull, but even 5 watts in single ended mode would fill your listening space with beautiful music at a comfortable volume. Now, as for your resistor, my guess is something has failed or otherwise shorted out. Try to find the defect rather that constantly replacing that resistor. Chances are that resistor failing is protecting one or both of your transformers. Message me at tablebeast@me.com and I can help further.

WTF is actually the most dearest of compliments. Thank you.

It’s not that I think I’m ugly, I’m just beating any smartass who might say that to the punch! Thanks for the compliment.

I have no idea what your baby blocks here mean. Speak English.