For those that enjoy old tube powered music gear...

[wolfeman28]

Just fired this puppy up today and gave it a good run through. It's an old Conn strobe tuner(ST-4), all tube powered.

I bought this off Ebay a few years ago for around $30 shipped. Never planned on using it, just wanted it as a conversation piece. I figured it didn't even work properly for that price. I was bored today so I decided to give it a whirl. The internals are all original, even the tubes. I checked all the caps and amazingly they are still good(they have to be around 40/50 years old). Even the tubes still check out good on the tester. Another cool thing about these old tuners is that they are practically a standard tube amp, just with no output transformer(the motor takes it's place).

So it turned on ok and the motor spun fine, even the neon's still work. I didn't expect it to be accurate anymore, but I threw a 440hz sine through it and calibrated it. I then checked it with a higher frequency and it showed steady on the wheel. Not bad for a piece of gear it's age!

I have a more recent strobe so this one still won't get used, but it does work as it should so I'm happy about that. Was fun messing with it, the nostalgia factor is pretty awesome as well.

 

[Ayrton]

Very cool!

 

[ZMAN]

Whrn I played trumpet for a local marching band the instructor tuned us up with one of those .. was cool to use we used to to compete to see who could make it stop the quickest ... we did pretty good for a bunch of 10 to 12 yr olds !!

Z

 

[wolfeman28]

I would love to grab one of the old tube powered ones with 12 wheels.... But it would probably cost an arm and a leg for one that actually works.

 

[petejt]

Looks really cool man.


A friend of mine found a really old cabinet radio that is valve-powered. I'll take a pic of it soon.

 

[glpg80]

love the old vintage tube gear. love working on them too

 

[rupe]

I have a wooden upright console stereo and a horizontal one as well...both are all tube. I also have a Bogen PA head (2x6L6) that I've considered converting into a guitar amp...it would make a cool "sleeper" for jam sessions

 

[blackba]

Very cool. Would love to see some gut shots if you have them.

 

[glpg80]

I have a wooden upright console stereo and a horizontal one as well...both are all tube. I also have a Bogen PA head (2x6L6) that I've considered converting into a guitar amp...it would make a cool "sleeper" for jam sessions

i know where an old 4 channel big ass bulky peavey PA head is located, i thought about buying it and converting it into a sleeper SLO

 

[Silverjet]

I've got 3 old Stromberg Carlson Tube heads converted for guitar.....love the old tube stuff!

 

[wolfeman28]

Very cool. Would love to see some gut shots if you have them.

Sure, here you go-

You can see the cool way they did the fine tuning knob, it's a choke with moveable top portion that gets closer or further when you turn a knob. Pretty neat, you don't see that anymore.

 

[blackba]

^ Awesome pictures. Love the ground bar running through. That is true PTP wiring. Cool to see those blue molded caps that vintage Fender amp fans like myself, love to see and hear.