"New" tube amp, Elk VK50 notes and guts pics

guidothepimmp · 2010-12-04T19:20:52+00:00

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 thou...

"New" tube amp, Elk VK50 notes and guts pics

Manfred-Klose

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

Karel-Mars

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!

guidothepimmp

thanks Karel!

cheers Manfred... il investigate that some more

guidothepimmp

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..

FenderBender

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.

guidothepimmp

hmm.. il chevk that again and make sure.. Thanks Graeme

Attila

It is R66 or R67 its is a high wattage wire wound risistor

guidothepimmp

cheers Attila..

thanks...

guidothepimmp

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..

lardz

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

eugey

I've just bought an elk viking 100w bass amp and I've decided to use Svetlana EL34 Winged C.