Old Kay: maintenance? speaker? shocking...

[hippietim]

I just got a Kay 703 - it's like a 5 watt amp but sounds very cool. It appears to be all original. It came with some schematics dated 1963. It seems to be working fine but I'm wondering if there is some sort of maintenance I should do to it.

The speaker could stand to be replaced. Any suggestions for a nice 8" speaker to go along with this?

The amp doesn't have a 3-prong cord and I've gotten shocked a bit touching other things. What can I do about this?

[Silverface]

Hey Tim - Cool little amp, but the wiring is an electrocution waiting to happen.

If you look at the tubes - 60fx5, 36am3, 18gd6a - you'll notice the first numbers add up to 114. Look inside, and you'll see no power transformer - so one side of this little amp is ALWAYS hot with 120 volts or so. A 3-prong would do you no good - there's no way to ground the chassis. Best bet is to only use it plugged into a ground fault interrupter (GFI).

Personally, even though some of these little guys sound cool I won't have one around - too much of a chance of getting fried.

[hippietim]

I was afraid of something like that. Thanks for the info Silverface.

I tried running it in stereo with my Fender Pro Jr. -- there was a horrible hum that I couldn't get rid of.

Between that and your comments, I'm convinced I don't need to hang on to it -- it sounds good but not good enough to hassle over.

Thanks again!

[Silverface]

Whoa - running it in stereo you could have gotten fried...glad nothing bad happened.

Yep, those little amps can be really nice sounding, but not worth the potential hazards. There's no way those things could be made under current electrical codes and regulations.