have a vintage 50 watt head

[WrenchDevil6]

Should I just fire her up AND find a good amp technician and send her in for a once-over?

There you go.

 

[k_kirk]

Don't get it. Sorry. I'm of the same vintage as my amp so please go easy. My question is whether I can cause damage by firing her up without getting these potentially dried up caps checked up & replaced if need be. After all those years of waiting I'd hate to see her on fire or something. Thanks for clarifying and apologies for being thick.

 

[WrenchDevil6]

When/If you ever get it out of storage... Fire it up. If the caps are bad, it isn't going to matter. If they aren't, you just might get to play through it without assuming everything in it is bad and paying a tech more than you would because you didn't to a bit of diagnostic work yourself.

If you re-read my post above yours, all I did was replace the word "or" with "AND".

Make sense?

 

[k_kirk]

Yup. Got it. Thanks for helping me understand. I will definitely get it out of storage. I'm on an overseas posting for 2 years and its waiting for me back home so will definitely get to it. Seeing the original thread and having found the letter from Marshall just yesterday amongst my photos etc was why I posted. No urgency otherwise. I will post photos once I get to it.

 

[fearnpol]

the paper tag on the chasis is all but gone but it has 3/16/1969 on it

Not a chance in hell the paper tag on the chassis will have the date as that.
That is a US style of writing dates and nowhere outside the US especially the UK uses that. If the date were 16/3/1969 then that would read 16th of March 1969, the previous means nothing over here.

 

[MM54]

Third day of the sixteenth month in nineteensixt...... wait. Fearn is right

 

[AtomicRob]

When/If you ever get it out of storage... Fire it up. If the caps are bad, it isn't going to matter.

Uh, no... If the caps are bad it really will matter! Best case you'll just have to clean a lot of gunk off the amp after the cap blows up, worst case it will damage other parts of the circuit. The caps might actually still be OK if they are reformed properly before hitting them with 450v, but this is something you should take to a tech to have done. If you tell them it's been in storage for >20 years then any tech should know what to do.

 

[Strateuphoria]

The box seems really big for a 50 watt of pre '73.

 

[demonufo]

10*** serial number is actually late '67/early '68 is it not? Only A codes are for 1969/1970 and the A that designated a date code (and all other date codes after A) would be at the END of the serial number, not the start.
The S/A denotes that it is a 50w amp, not the year of the amp.

There is some real bad advice so far on this thread. After sitting for so long unused, you really need to send it to somebody for a new filter/bias caps and a quick service.

Rockbert is right on the money though, electrolytic caps that old, having not been used for years run a MAJOR risk of exploding and causing a frigging great diry mess inside your amp.

 

[Reginald]

another pic

is it much clean sound,or it's dirty?

 

[demonufo]

Not a chance in hell the paper tag on the chassis will have the date as that.
That is a US style of writing dates and nowhere outside the US especially the UK uses that. If the date were 16/3/1969 then that would read 16th of March 1969, the previous means nothing over here.

Except for you're neglecting the fact that the amps are inspected/tested by the US distributors. And could have been dated at this stage.

 

[shredless]

Wouldnt it be ironic if the first guy bought the storage unit that belonged to the second guy when someone forgot to pay the bill?????

 

[SWLABR]

It's a box for a 100 watter that's why it looks funny....

 

[chuckharmonjr]

In all seriousness...if its been sitting that long...I would assume dry caps and have them replaced before I even attemtped to power it up. Let me say I am NOT an amp tech...but I am a graduate electrical engineer...and theres no way in hell I would trust electrolytic caps that old. At the very least have them removed and re-formed.