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Hey guys,

So as you know I bought Attila's Elk tube amp and have been fiddling for a bit on it... Now that I know a bit about the ol gal here are some thoughts..

So on first appearance... it is in great condition, looks like it hasnt seen much action at all. Tolex is fine with minimal scratches, even the 2x12 cab is good. This is built like a tank. The head casing is solid wood (not very thick though, about 15mm) as is the cab (seems thicker but who knows..). The chassis is clean and seems like a decent enough metal..

So Attila opened her up for me at his place and we had a quick look inside. I naturally had to give it another inspection when I got home... nice and simple design by the looks of things (not that I know much about these things) and all looks original with maybe the exception of maybe 1 or 2 parts that may have popped (I suppose, as the metal is stained black a bit).

So none of the oil filled caps appear to be leaking, then again, they are so old, maybe theyre all dry??

Moving to the cab, it is loaded with 2x12 inch "no name" brand 8ohm speakers with what seems like alnico Horseshoe magnets and wired in parallel.

Now to the sounds.. so I gave it a substantial workout at home. On starting the ol gal up, there is a bit of hum... Nothing unusual though, similar to my Laney hum (although the laney hum is gain related, this is there irrespective of volume, dried filters or whatever they called? or could this be a grounding issue.. the cable the plug is on doesnt have a ground... oh and the ground switch on the amp doesn't seem to do much in any position... could this be faulty?). The sound differs quite radically depending on which guitar im using. it seems to appreciate medium output buckers and single coils the most. This difference isnt quite that noticeable on the Laney. So with the single coils and particularly the neck pup... The cleans are really nice, more treble voiced but with enough bass to keep me happy. havent had the chance to crank it loud but I am quite keen to see whether there is any break up.. particularly with the speakers. My Laney through the cab seems a darker amp... so these speakers definitely did tone down the laney, I could take heads off with the laney on clean...

The amp gets a lot noisier (hum increases in volume) when the Reverb is activated, not sure why, the hum just gets louder.. could this be a tube issue?? The tremelo is an interesting effect... cool enough and works well... not that I would use this much.. It really is simple with just a bass, treble and volume setup with a intensity, reverb setting. Then this is duplicated but without the effects, the "normal" channel.

Now... i HATED my TS808 with the Laney, it just sounded terrible to the point of my wondering what on earth people saw in the TS. Well.. through the elk things changed... and I have seen the light.. Holy shart what a cool overdirve sound with the TS. Now maybe you tube gurus could give me an explanation as to why this pedal would sound so different on 2 different tube amps? Is it just the different tube configurations??
Anywho in summary, I would say this, different sounding amp, really nice tone, (depending on the guitar ???), and Ihave found a new favourite sound for classic rock with the TS...
As discussed with Mike, part of the allure was the potential to upgrade this thing etc thereby weening myself onto tube amp functionality, the other was I really needed a 2x12 cab,.. So either way a win win situation.

Mike ifyou have that Wiring config, would appreciate it man.

enough mumbling though, here are gut pics









    take ot on for a good service, recap, retube..... and cleaning............... it will set the thing up to a point where its so much better.

    The reverb hum, should hopefully just be faulty valves......... And the noise should go down with a bit of a valve switchup...

    I played a ELK custom 50/60 recently and I though it sounded mayve better than most fender silverface amps i have played up late

      guys.. where can i get info sheets on diiferent valves.. Attila has given me an awesome summary on how tubes work and diiferences btween 12ax7 tubes.. does anyone have info on other tubes youd be willing to share?
      slowly starting to understand the working of amps.

      oh... what tube would you recommend to drive the reverb tank? i believe the tube currently driving the reverb tank is a ecc85..

      which are the tubes that need biasing? power stage?

      do the pream stages also need to be matched?

      apologies for the noob questions
        oh... what tube would you recommend to drive the reverb tank?
        i'm not a electronic guru, but i believe the best valve for reverb tank would be a 12AT7
          Hi Guido

          That Elk brings back memories. I have destroyed/rebuilt a few of those. There is at least two amps I built om Elk chassis running around SA :yup:

          The good sound comes from the oil caps (that might be failing ☹ ) and the Alnico speakers. The filter caps are probably also near the end of their days. All this gives you a nice overdrive sound from your pedal 8)

          Check that the large tubes plates do not glow red (like a toaster element). The amp's bias is fixed, so you cannot change it. The original Matsushita tubes are very valuable. Do not let them go, if you can help it.

          There is very little info about Elks on the net. This schematic should be quite close to what you have

          http://www.drtube.com/schematics/elk/twinamp50.gif

          Enjoy the amp!
            thanks Karel!

            cheers Manfred... il investigate that some more
              guidothepimmp wrote:


              Guys in the middle of this picture in the center is a black/ grey cylindrical part next to the green coloured resistor.

              Any ideas what that might be?? I have managed to decipher the schematic (which Im thrilled about) but cannot for the life of me make out what that part is, and it doesn't show up in the schematic. There are no values on it. It has "type AB" printed on it.

              It seems that part may have been replaced as it has been resoldered in..
                guidothepimmp wrote: Guys in the middle of this picture in the center is a black/ grey cylindrical part next to the green coloured resistor.

                Any ideas what that might be?? I have managed to decipher the schematic (which Im thrilled about) but cannot for the life of me make out what that part is, and it doesn't show up in the schematic. There are no values on it. It has "type AB" printed on it.

                It seems that part may have been replaced as it has been resoldered in..
                Looks like it's connected to pin 4 of one of the EL34s. If it is, then looking at Karel's schematic, I'd say it's either R66 or R67.
                  hmm.. il chevk that again and make sure.. Thanks Graeme
                    It is R66 or R67 its is a high wattage wire wound risistor
                      a month later
                      so with all the best intentions in the world and a soldering iron in hand.. i realised quickly i was either going to kill the amp or myself... reading about caps scared the bejeezus out of me...

                      so being the rational thinking (lazy) individual iam... took her to JP for thoughts and and.

                      result.. shes all recapped and retubed with jj tubes. reverb has a phillips nos tube (yaw the reverb is strong)..
                      no more humming... everything works well and zhe is sounding so goood... really pleased. at volume she doesnt break up.. designed like that apparently but oh so creamy sounding...

                      oh.. and the jensen speakers in the cab helped too!

                      thanks JP for the excellent work and the explanations..

                        a year later
                        guidothepimmp wrote: so with all the best intentions in the world and a soldering iron in hand.. i realised quickly i was either going to kill the amp or myself... reading about caps scared the bejeezus out of me...

                        so being the rational thinking (lazy) individual iam... took her to JP for thoughts and and.

                        result.. shes all recapped and retubed with jj tubes. reverb has a phillips nos tube (yaw the reverb is strong)..
                        no more humming... everything works well and zhe is sounding so goood... really pleased. at volume she doesnt break up.. designed like that apparently but oh so creamy sounding...

                        oh.. and the jensen speakers in the cab helped too!

                        thanks JP for the excellent work and the explanations..

                        Hey mate just brought one of these on ebay but wires have been cut near the power supply or around that. could you please send me pics of your amp it would be very helpfully cheers mark
                          4 years later
                          I've just bought an elk viking 100w bass amp and I've decided to use Svetlana EL34 Winged C.
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