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Posted (edited)

I know some may think this is sacrilege but is it feasible to turn an old radiogram in to a Guitar / harmonica amp and would it be worth the effort. Stock picture, not my Radiogram.

I have the carpentry skills but not the electrical.Radiogram.jpg.be73e36d0288dc142b8619a2b9efdacd.jpg

To some thing like this Oldharpamp-Copy.webp.d2bc46e23eb9d543c63bd34ea5bb1fac.webp

Edited by EV Cali

Posted

What power amplifier do you need?  Most old consoles are only about 5 watts.  Aside from that, it's a very old console, so many parts will need replacing, not least the speaker, which is probably field coil based and ready to fall to bits when you put anything through it.

Posted (edited)

5 watts would probably be ok, it is mainly about getting a warm valve sound. 

The possibility of doing this is appealing because 50s, valve  guitar amps sell for big money.

I would intend to use it to put a harmonic in to , to get a Chicago blues sound.  

Plus there appears to be a lot of old radiograms on FB Market place and it would be nice to put them to good use, as they are not really suitable to play records.  

Edited by EV Cali
Posted
1 hour ago, EV Cali said:

5 watts would probably be ok, it is mainly about getting a warm valve sound. 

The possibility of doing this is appealing because 50s, valve  guitar amps sell for big money.

I would intend to use it to put a harmonic in to , to get a Chicago blues sound.  

Plus there appears to be a lot of old radiograms on FB Market place and it would be nice to put them to good use, as they are not really suitable to play records.  

 

 

Another downside is the chassis will be huge and be mostly full of the radio sections, so a complete rebuid on a new chassis will be needed/desirable.  In the end, after buying new valves, all you will really use is the power and output transformers.  

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

You might do better by converting a 16mm film projector's amp, CW Stoneking used one as a guitar amp on one of his albums.

This thread has a bit on film projector's audio amp, not sure if it talks about converting to a guitar amp (I just skimmed over the first bit).  There could be more info on the web...

 

 

Posted
49 minutes ago, EV Cali said:

Thanks    I will have a read.

 

 

Amps from reel to reel taperecorders are probably more common and also carry less unusable circuitry than something that has a radio in it, like a radiogram.  The nice thing about film projectors is that you might find something larger, hence the amp might be more powerful.

 

Another great source is old P.A. amplifiers as used in shops and public buildings for announcements and background music.  These are getting harder to find now.

Posted
On 25/1/2025 at 7:52 AM, aussievintage said:

Amps from reel to reel taperecorders are probably more common and also carry less unusable circuitry than something that has a radio in it, like a radiogram. 


I found an old national (?) suitcase-style valve reel to reel at an op shop in the 90s and tried running my guitar through the mic input. The sound was completely effed-up in a pretty awesome way. I used it on stage a couple of times but then it fell out of the van and I couldn’t get it to turn on again. 
 

Worked quite well for noisy garage post-rock but maybe not ideal for Chicago blues 🙃

  • Like 1
Posted
5 minutes ago, RankStranger said:


I found an old national (?) suitcase-style valve reel to reel at an op shop in the 90s and tried running my guitar through the mic input. The sound was completely effed-up in a pretty awesome way. I used it on stage a couple of times but then it fell out of the van and I couldn’t get it to turn on again. 
 

Worked quite well for noisy garage post-rock but maybe not ideal for Chicago blues 🙃

 

It probably had too much gain to ever think about getting a clean sound (with the guitar into a tape recorder microphone input)

Posted
6 minutes ago, aussievintage said:

 

It probably had too much gain to ever think about getting a clean sound (with the guitar into a tape recorder microphone input)


well, a clean sound was never the goal but, yeah 😁

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