Vintage RCA Victor Animatograph conversion to guitar amplifier

I discovered this beautiful vintage amplifier online recently...for $50. It came in a carry case with a power cord and a unique accessory that looks like a transducer microphone of some sort for recording.

Not too much information about the amplifier, except that it appears to be an external amplifier for a 16mm film projector from 1930-1940's.

I plan on converting it into a guitar tube amplifier head.

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Comment by Paul Craig on December 23, 2016 at 7:46am

Gotcha.

Comment by Scott aka Farmer Ted on December 22, 2016 at 8:41am

This is a single ended amp, single 6V6 power tube, so no phase inverter needed.

I'll be using a 6**7 series dual triode for pre-amp and gain stages, with the second 6**7 tube for the tremolo circuit.

Comment by Paul Craig on December 22, 2016 at 7:13am

That should turn out very nice. Using  a preamp tube and a inverter tube?

Comment by Scott aka Farmer Ted on December 22, 2016 at 3:52am

Update: Finished removing all the old components, wires, etc. from the chassis. I've chosen the Fender AA764 Vibro Champ layout for this project, with 6SN7 pre-amp and tremolo tubes instead of the standard 12AX7, since the chassis has octal (8 pin), not noval (9 pin) tube sockets.

These are the new components (missing a couple items, on order)

Comment by Paul Craig on December 15, 2016 at 6:59am

That's great.

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on December 14, 2016 at 5:00pm
Score!
Comment by Scott aka Farmer Ted on December 14, 2016 at 5:30am

Comment by Scott aka Farmer Ted on December 14, 2016 at 5:11am

Hot damn! They have it.

Comment by Scott aka Farmer Ted on December 14, 2016 at 5:03am

Update Ron,

Lady from the "Obscure and Impossible to Locate" Department at U of I replied and is sending me two cover images of the two items/documents they have. This will enable me to verify if they have what I am looking for before ordering the scanned copies.

And finding obscure info seems to be a hit or miss for me recently. I have an old floor model tube radio & phonograph in the final stages of restoration. In the beginning of this project I hit walls everywhere in searching for a schematic. I learned something interesting...that many old tube radio chassis' were made for multiple versions of radios, in other words, common between different manufacturers of the cabinets (final product for retail).

So this radio/phonograph is a Serenader model 5058. But for another radio chassis for the Viking 51-101, my radio/phono is added on the schematic as Serenader 50-58...yes a fargin' dash/hyphen was the detail keeping me from my quarry.

And I do have a local electronics repair shop run by one lone elderly gentleman named Angus. Has helped me plenty in the past couple years with my tube amplifier madness, and he has knowledge of older technology...bonus. I plan on visiting him once I get the U of I issue settled. That way, if I can get the info from Iowa, I have that as reference for Angus.

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on December 14, 2016 at 1:46am
Paul:

Did that. So far, like Scott, I found plenty schematics for the film projector, and even some for the 1960's versions of the amp, but zero, nada, zilch, for Scott's particular model. Why? Because I can't resist searching for "impossible" stuff. I'm good at it, and usually find what I'm looking for. Very quickly. So this is frustrating for me personally, as I'm sure it is for Scott.

Scott:

Wasn't trying to dissuade you from turning it into an amp head, was merely trying to facilitate same. See my response above. It frustrates me when people can't seem to find stuff, on any subject. Especially in this day and age. Somewhere, there's a guy who collects these, or who used to repair them, and knows exactly how...hmmm. Have you got an old radio / TV repair shop near you, the kind of place that sells NIB tubes with dust still on the box? Those guys invariably can suss things out very quickly on old equipment. Might be worth a shot, eh?

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