Garage Sale Find!!! vintage Tube.

I just got a little luck come my way! Just around the corner from home I found a vintage Canadian made "Garnet" tube amp. About 5W, 8" original speaker. USA Tung Sol tremolo tube. 12AX7 pre amp. Main tubes are pretty small, long thin and not labeled, not sure what they are. Cranked up it sounded amazing.
No circuit board, staright point to point wiring. $70 took it away. Pics to come when I get home. So excited!!! More details to come.

Found this on the net... Looks exactly like this:
https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTEkhEz_znjupOK5w5cWZAR8kDtenJ8j 5dEFoJ6qMCayF7srMYyYw

Garnet is a legendary Canadian amp maker ... nice score !!!

nice score!!!

WooooHooo! Lovin' those yard sales!!

Congrats!

kc

Congratulations on a great find! I'll bet it really sounds good!

Congrats, cool amp.
Here's a link on some of the Garnet amps, history, etc. if it's helpful.

http://www.garnetamps.com/v_garnet.htm

I have a Revolution 1 combo that's labeled as a Pro ll, if you look at the link mine is under the section called "stencil" amps, which are Garnet amps made for other companies. My chassis is labeled Revolution 1 and has Garnet info on the back.
Enjoy.

man cool find. im never that lucky. im the black sheep of the family tho so. i should not be surprised. when i saw it was made in canada it caught my interest because i have a 30wat solid state head that was made in canada. and it has a gold face plate branded as sears on the back it says made in canada. thought maybe this guy built it. but i see he did not build anything for sears, but he sure made some cool amps with even cooler names for other company's/outlets/stores. i want one of his Vagabond amps just cause i dig the name and a 7wat bedroom rocker. heh. ill have to keep my eye out around here. i live in snowbird country and a lot of people come from canada here for the winter. they stay for six month then go home so its no surprise his amps are here. very cool. now i found out he did not make any amps for sears off to read his bio. love learning. oooo i jumped the gun. he did make some for sears. ill look now if its one of his amps. if it is i can post a picture for that webpage.
chris.

UPDATE. no its not one of his amps. it looks to have a spring reverb so that would explain why i like the reverb on this clean sounding amp. the only issue it had was scratchy pots. so thats why i stop using it and just put it under my bed. not that it matters but this is the code for the SA:

LR 29603 then it says "simpsons SEARS" model 26138 under that in small print it says c 575-114408" then your typical 1 and 2 input jacks. then volume, tone, rate ( whatever that dose ) depth,reverb. then a foot jack and then it says an ahead product above the jack and below it it says foot switch then in small print says made in canada and under that it says
register trade mark of ahead music corporation limited"

first time iv looked at this amp in a long time. laughs. the head is in decent shape. tolex is folding up on the bottom a little on the right side i could glue this back down ithink. any how its a clean sounding amp, with sweet revube add some depth and you get the beach boys surf tone. laughs.

any canadian out there know of this ahead company? this first time iv really even bothered to try and find info out about it. the scratchy pots made it no fun to play with. so took it off the 4x12 cab and put it under my bed.

thanks for the motivation, now ill have to see if i can find some info on this company maybe they are still in buiness in canada..

chris.

jipp, Garnet did make some for Sears in Canada, scroll down the page for a pic in the "S" section.
http://www.garnetamps.com/stencil.htm#Sears


Sears

Model D45R

Single Channel - 20 Watts RMS
This is another large retailer that went to Garnet to provide it with amps to sell in its stores. While the name Sears is most often associated with Silvertone amps (in the US) Garnet produced amps for marketing by the retail giant's Canadian arm, which at the time was known as Simpson Sears.

yeah this says simpson sears on it. but it dose not have the the code they say to look for. this also says 30wats

chris.

here's some info on Ahed amps.

http://www.fenderbronco.com/id14.html
scroll down 2/3's on right, it's a Sears head/cab set up 2 pictures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahed
wiki page with some info, but not much. hope it helps some.
Paul.

thanks paul. ill check it out after i lay down for a bit. bad leg gave out on me so need to elevated so it does not swell up.

decided to look at the picture, thats the head alright. wish i had the cab. probably sounds good in that. at least i know why it could push my 4x12 cab with the loudness it did.
chris.

Gar Gilles(sp?) made some great sounding amps.
Congratulations!

Ok the amp is home and pluged in. It sounds amazing. A little slap back delay with my Tele..MMM tasty. The weirdest thing is I cannot find a power transformer in this little guy. Hey, I'm laughing too...I have been in my share of amps. There is no PT! Just an output tranny. 2 prong cord. One end goes to grounding strip, other end to the power switch. From the on/off switch to the volume knob and first electrolytic cap. I think I will post pics over in the D.I.Y. amp builders forum of this site. Some excellent tech help over there.

Here she is, Garnet is the builder I am told. Made in Canada. Also the speaker reads, "Made In Canada". I had no idea. I wonder what make the speaker is? Being that I am a Canadian, I think it is my duty to preserve our culture and share it! :grin:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WXy_m_5CMgs/T6cDQS52IkI/AAAAAAAAA3k/NExy2v4WIiQ/s512/IMGP3533.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mDpkH7fSXA4/T6cChN8qB0I/AAAAAAAAA3I/7Mr1QVsZxtQ/s800/IMGP3525.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-66LJ6SK56Uw/T6cC5Fgl6jI/AAAAAAAAA3Q/QjNxZNvE7QI/s800/IMGP3532.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-yamwUwGSeiY/T6cCgHIIoqI/AAAAAAAAA24/1EQLFOk0MFc/s800/IMGP3526.JPG

Congratulations! Cool Find! Did the people selling the amp know anything about where it came from?

Jim Dep, I got pretty excited and forgot to ask the owner more about the amp. He just lives up the street so I will be back to chat with him. My heart stopped when I saw it in the guy's drive way for sale. I went silent and focused, zoned in on it. My wife laughed. Said she's not seen me that excited in 20 years.

It's nice and clean inside, looks like just an OT also.
Any chance the 2 power tubes have 50C5 marked on them?
Maybe look under the chassis and see if the tube positions are printed on the chassis, that might identify them
If it's truly "transformerless" as to a PT, be careful with plugging in the 2 prong cord.
If the values of the tube numbers add up to about 117, might want to get an isolation transformer for safety playing it.
Is it tube rectified? If so, that might be marked as a 35W4.
Cool amp, but be safe also.

Cool find !

upgrade that power cord

Nice find. I love those "wired in the air" amps with no circuit board.

I've seen a number of amps like that-be VERY careful, and get that isolation transformer stat!!! Almost guarantee that's a variation of the "All American 5" tube lineup used in American made radios from the 1950s, there is probably a 50C5 (output) and 35W4 (rectifier) in there, along with a pair of 12A*7s in there. You'll probably will need to re-cap it at some point, to get it in its best running shape (and a lot safer too-old caps will bleed voltage, and can wind up on the chassis, waiting to bite you!)

Edit: here's a Wiki link to the "All American 5"... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_American_Five

Cool find, still!!! Bet it nails that "small nasty little amp" sound... 'cuz that's what it is!!!

Franc Robert

I'm curious if this is anything like a musicmaster bass amp with tremolo?
I'm thinking while you upgrade the speaker, go with a 10".

Great score. Did the guy have any idea what he had, it looks like some work has been done. Are some of the caps newer?

Look forward to some clips when you have time.

Great tips guys. I looked at some photos and yes I would say my Garnet amp has a 50C5 power tube and a 35W4 rectifier. There is not a pair of 12AX7 tubes. Just one 12AX7 and a 12AV6, which I think is for the tremolo. I just did some research and the NOS tubes for this (aside from the 12AX7) are super low priced compared to tubes in my vintage Fenders. Score!!! I guess it could be a variation on the All American 5 radios, not sure. The history behind Garnet amps is unique and interesting. I had no idea they existed until today. Randy Bachman played one, and they were made in Winnipeg. A Garnet amp is the sound behind the guitar tone in Guess Who - American Woman.

Randy Bachman played one, and they were made in Winnipeg. A Garnet amp is the sound behind the guitar tone in Guess Who - American Woman.


That's pretty neat. I've always heard that the American Woman tone is one of the hardest to find. Very distinctive.

Not to derail, but to add since it was mentioned about "American Woman" tone, Randy Bachman used an item called the Herzog to achieve that tone. More info can be found at this link if interested.

http://www.garnetamps.com/herzog.htm

Again, congrats on the new amp.
Paul.

here's some info on Ahed amps.

http://www.fenderbronco.com/id14.html
scroll down 2/3's on right, it's a Sears head/cab set up 2 pictures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahed
wiki page with some info, but not much. hope it helps some.
Paul.

hey paul. im betting my amp is the

Another model designed by Ahed was the Darius Guitar amp head. This model had a lime/neon green faceplate with volume, tone, tremolo depth, tremolo rate and reverb controls. It had two equal impedance inputs and produced 30 watts to power an external speaker cabinet. The tone "breaks up" as the volume is increased. The reverb is very "wet" at maximum setting.

it has the same pots in the same order too. i doubt he would of built a separate design for sears. just put black/gold and made some cash on a proven early design, i always thought this was a early 60s ss model. but the wiki page says company did not start till 1969. guess ill never know. its to bad the history is lost. will def keep a eye out around here for garnets stuff. lots of canada folks here each winter. guess ill have to pay more attention to them yard sale sighns,

it describes the revurb as wet, i think surf music with it. i dunno why.

canada thanks for the fine amps. i really like this sears head and thinking of learning how to clean pots, probably open her up and dust her out if there is any. it already has a heavy duty power chord that is like 12 feet long. maybe, ill just build a cab for it as the head is not in mint condition so no big harm there. i doubt any collector would yell at me. just hope the pots can be clean.

chris,

@jipp, Chris, glad the info was of some help to you. That does look like a cool amp head. Hope the pot cleaning turns well for you and enjoy playing it.

@keithb7, thanks for finding another cool old amp to brighten our days with on this forum. I always enjoy these threads about discovering some "forgotten" amp maker and what info is learned about them.
Another reason TDPRI is so cool with so many knowledgable folks willing to share and help each other out.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mDpkH7fSXA4/T6cChN8qB0I/AAAAAAAAA3I/7Mr1QVsZxtQ/s800/IMGP3525.JPG

Plenty of room if you want to install a bigger speaker one day!

I also had a Garnet amp at one point, got it free from a colleague at work. Sold it a year later for $300.

Enjoy it!