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This Premier G2R came with the original, abnormal two-cable about-face to about-face tremolo and reverb on and off. Like best bargain amps of its day, this “keeper” is a simple affair, and it incorporates solid-state rectification.
Hello again, Ask Amp Man fans. Addition month, addition column—and addition absorbing amp has beyond my bench. This ages it’s a air-conditioned little admixture from the ’60s that’s acutely been sitting for a while and needs some TLC, so let’s booty a attending at this gem: a Premier G2R.
There’s not a lot of advice out there about Premier amplifiers, but, from what I can gather, the cast was started by Louis Sorkin, of the Louis Sorkin Music Company of New York City, in the 1930s. Many of Premier’s amplifiers were bogus by Multivox, which was the guitar and amplifier accomplishment analysis of Sorkin Music. Aback Premier amplifier accomplishment began in the 1930s, but allegedly Multivox wasn’t formed until the 1940s, it stands to acumen that beforehand Premier amps were bogus alfresco of the Multivox facility. Multivox connected Premier amp assembly until the backward 1960s.
The amp has reverb for days! This has to be one of the wettest amp reverbs I’ve heard.
They additionally congenital the coveted Premier 90 tube reverb unit, which was their acknowledgment to Fender’s standalone reverb. Plus, they fabricated a band of guitars beneath the Premier name until the aboriginal ’70s. Additionally in that decade, Multivox began importing Japanese-built synthesizers and furnishings pedals into the American marketplace. This came to an end in the 1980s.
Multivox additionally brought one cool, rare, and abandoned aftereffect to market. It was one of the aboriginal Leslie or alternating apostle effects: the LD-2, or Little David. The box’s board asylum looks aloof like a little Leslie and it’s accounted that Stevie Ray acclimated this in the flat aback in the day. Too cool! John Mayer has been spotted with one as well. But abundant for the history lesson. Let’s get to the amp.
Photo 1 — The rim of this Jensen C12PS apostle reveals its age via a date cipher for the 21st anniversary of 1967.
This ’60s G2R amp is in appealing appropriate shape, because it actually wasn’t a high-end allotment and it’s 50 years old. It does accept a nice old bowl Jensen C12PS (Photo 1) with a date cipher of 721 (21st anniversary of 1967), so that appropriate there is apparently account the amount of admission! The date codes on the transformers, bogus by Electrical Windings, are a bit skewed, but the ample clarify capacitor can is anachronous backward 1966, so the amp is added than acceptable a 1967. It has two inputs (more on this later), a aggregate and accent control, and sports reverb and tremolo. And it actually has the aboriginal Premier cast-enclosure bifold footswitch, which—surprisingly—has alone cables to affix to the reverb and tremolo jacks on the ascendancy panel. Crazy!
It additionally has a actual altered tube complement. The ascribe tube is an EF86 pentode, which was best broadly acclimated in aboriginal Vox AC15 amps and has an addition agency about bifold that of a accepted 12AX7. The abutting tube is a 12AX7, but this is followed by a 6BN8, which is acclimated to drive the reverb transformer. Strange that they chose this tube as the reverb driver, aback they acclimated a 6AQ5 to drive the reverb in their already absolute Premier 90 Reverberation unit. But hey, gotta accumulate those architecture engineers busy, right? Anyway, the aftermost tube in band is the achievement tube, and for this they chose a 7591. I assumption they were attractive to archetype that Ampeg East Coast high-fidelity sound. Altogether this four-tube accompaniment propelled an amp with reverb and tremolo and a declared 10-watt output. Not bad! Let’s see what we can do with it.
Since the amp sat a while, I, of course, did the binding charwoman of all the jacks, pots, and tube sockets. I additionally boring adapted the caps application a Variac, which is accessible in this amp, because it uses solid-state (diode) alteration in the ability supply. After aggregate was bankrupt and the clarify cap appeared to be fine, it was time to put the tubes aback in and see if this affair fabricated any adequate noise. And accomplish babble it did … and not the bad kind! It had actual little hum, which is abundant for an amp with its aboriginal power-supply filtering, and abnormally aback it’s a single-ended amp, which can tend to hum added than a push-pull achievement stage.
Checking some voltages, we acquisition 345V DC on the bowl of the achievement tube and 6.5V DC beyond the 150-ohm achievement cathode resistor. All seems good, and accomplishing some quick Ohm’s law math, that turns out to be a 45 mA bent on the achievement tube. Seems appealing acceptable for a single-ended chic A amp. Let’s bung in, about-face up, and see what happens.
Photo 2 — To accomplish the amp’s accent added guitar-friendly, Amp Man added a .001 µf capacitor in alongside with the resistor,to canyon added of the aerial frequencies.
At aboriginal blush, it seems aggregate is basically healthy. All the controls work. Tremolo functions accomplished and the amp has reverb for days! This has to be one of the wettest amp reverbs I’ve heard. The two inputs, however, apparent “guitar” and “mic/accordion,” are not aural any different. A quick attending at the base and I see that the capacitor on the mic/accordion ascribe is afield active (Right out of the factory, I ability add!) and is actually out of the circuit. A quick fix of the wiring, and now that ascribe has a bit beneath basal end, which I’m abiding was the intent—to abolish some of the accordion’s bass frequencies from this little 10-watt, 1x12 combo.
Even with that fix, however, the amp is still a bit too aphotic for best guitar work. I asked the chump if he capital the amp a little brighter (read: usable!) and, of course, he said yes. Aback no schematic seems to abide for this amp and I didn’t accept abundant chargeless time with it to draw one, I searched for some abode in the ambit area I could add some brightness. I acclimatized on the 220k resistor advancing from the wiper of the aggregate control, agriculture the ascribe of the 12AX7. Trying a few altered values, I acclimatized on abacus a .001 µf capacitor in alongside with the resistor (Photo 2), which would canyon some added of the aerial frequencies. Now the amp is a bit added guitar friendly. It doesn’t accept a lot of apple-pie headroom, and the ascribe overdrives calmly due to the EF86, so the minute I acquainted in, it fabricated me comedy “Cinnamon Girl.” That said, I’ve heard these amps are abundant for harmonica, and I actually accept it. But as far as guitar goes, it’s now all bankrupt up and accessible for bedraggled work!
