Convert a vintage Reel to Reel to a Guitar Tube Amp

I picked up a Vintage Webcor Model 210-1B Reel to Reel Analog Tape Recorder from 1953. I paid $29 dollars for it. It was full of old tubes circa the 1950s. It wasn’t hard to find a schematic for a guitar amp that used the 6SC7 preamp tube. The old Fender Princeton 5C2 used the same preamp tube as the Webcor reel to reel. I just took the preamp section of the Princeton 5C2 and used the rest of the amp schematic from a Fender Champ 5F1. The Webcor came with a 6K6 power tube. The 6K6 has an identical pinout to the ubiquitous 6V6. The only difference is the 6K6 has lower wattage. The Webcor was using a 6X5 as the rectifier tube. The 6X5s are notorious for shortening out. The benefit however is that it used the same 6.3 voltage for the heaters as the rest of the octal tubes. The Webcore also came with a 6SL7, 6SN7 and a Magic Eye tube. I can totally use the rest of those tubes in other amp builds in the future. This was super fun. I’m totally hooked on building tube amps.

I recommend for new amp builders to dive into a conversion instead of buying a tube amp kit. The reason is the kits are very paint-by-numbers and don’t offer any education or knowledge into HOW amps work. By converting a reel-to-reel, it forces you to educate yourself and truly understand the signal and power paths.

#diytubeamp #tubeampconversion #tubeamps

All Music Composed by Mark Gutierrez

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