Fun with Valco Guitar Amp

inspiredsports

A buddy of mine guts old houses slated for demolition by a hospital that bought them up for expansion, and he gets to keep the goodies inside!

He know I like to putter around with my anything sound-related like stereos, guitars, amps and anything with tubes. The little gem he dropped off for me to play with before he lists it on eBay is extra special because it combines all 4.

I took it apart, cleaned and vacuumed, inspected the caps, tested the tubes and plugged it in. The tubes are 6SQ7, 6SC7, (2) 6V6GT, 5Y3 rectifier that I have seen referred to as the Valco "Supreme" tube line up.

It has a really cool, bluesy sound and really rocks the house as you have to turn it up to get it to add some distortion to the mix, but I have no knowledge of it beyond that it is a 1956 Valco (by serial number) with one 12" (Rola field coil, I think) speaker.

Does anyone know more about these vintage guitar amps?

halo71

Those are really cool and collectable little tube amps! Would love to have one of them. I already have a few little tubes amps though. What amps/guitars you have?

Check eBay. There is a really clean one in white right now.

mantis

I never heard of that amp before and I have been playing since 1979. Interesting to say the least. I'd like to play with it.

halo71

Dan I think they made amps for several different name brands. I first became familiar with them when I came across a Gretsch amp years ago that after research showed Valco made it. You don't see many actual badged Valco amps around, at least I haven't. I think they were more known for their guitars they made though. Not real sure.

inspiredsports

halo71 wrote: »

Dan I think they made amps for several different name brands. I first became familiar with them when I came across a Gretsch amp years ago that after research showed Valco made it. You don't see many actual badged Valco amps around, at least I haven't. I think they were more known for their guitars they made though. Not real sure.

I've been researching and reading up on these since I posted and found that most Valco's don't even show a model number, but generically shown "Valco Chicago 51" on the control panel where the "51" was their pre-zipcode address designation for where they were located in Chicago.

I've learned Valco made Valco, National, Supro, Gretch, Airline and others.

I owned a lot of guitars when I was younger and played a bit in a small rock band, but just a Gibson EBO Bass, Yamaha FG-360 Acoustic, and inexpensive Esteban Electric are in the house now. The nicest guitar I ever owned was a '75 white Strat that I bought from a pawn shop in 1982 just after I was out of college. I sold it about 10 years ago and now wish I hadn't, but that's 20/20 hindsight.

[Deleted User]

I don't know much about that brand in particular. But if it were me that amp would never see Ebay. I like hearing these sort of stories. An interesting find and thanks for sharing.

inspiredsports

nap wrote: »

I don't know much about that brand in particular. But if it were me that amp would never see Ebay. I like hearing these sort of stories. An interesting find and thanks for sharing.

Well that's on my mind too. After checking it out for my buddy and playing with it, I'd really like to hang on to it. But because they trade for some pretty high numbers on eBay, it won't be easy to swing right now just after Christmas spending. I typed "Valco" into eBay earlier and am now watching about 8 or 9 of these amps.

inspiredsports

I just tested the (all RCA) tubes and found that all test as new, but the 6SQ7 failed the leak test so I've ordered an identical NOS RCA replacement.

While cleaning and testing I noticed how clean this thing is for being 55 years old. It must have been stored high and dry on a shelf as the only thing present was some dust. There's no rust, no smoke odor or odor of any kind, and no cap leakage!

I've read the 2 X 6V6 configuration puts out about 24 watts, and I'm not positive, but I think these amps are designed as Class A.

Systems

Heres a couple of similar ones in action:
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inspiredsports

Those amps in the video look real close, but I've yet to see an exact match for the one I'm testing. There are currently about a dozen on ebay . . . http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=valco+amp&_sacat=See-All-Categories

I found a chart that helps identify the year produced and was able to verify it's a 1956, probably produced mid-summer.

Vintage Guitar Serial Numbers - Valco / Supro
YEAR - - SERIAL NUMBER RANGE
1940-1942 - - Serial numbers began or ended with the letter G.
1943-1946 - - No instrument produced - wartime.
1947 - - V100-V7500
1948 - - V7500-V15000
1949 - - V15000-V25000
1950 - - V25000-V35000
1951 - - V35000-V38000, X100-X7000
1952 - - X7000-X17000
1953 - - X17000-X30000
1954 - - X30000-X43000
1955 - - X43000-X57000
1956 - - X57000-X71000
1957 - - X71000-X85000
1958- - X85000-X99000, T100-T5000
1959 - - T5000-T25000
1960 - - T25000-T50000
1961 - - T50000-T75000
1962 - - T75000-T90000, G100-G5000
1963 - - T90000-T99000, G5000-G15000
1964 - - G15000-G40000
1965-1968 - - Serial numbers had a 1 prefix. Early to mid-1968, serial numbers had a 2
prefix.

[Deleted User]

inspiredsports wrote: »

Well that's on my mind too. After checking it out for my buddy and playing with it, I'd really like to hang on to it. But because they trade for some pretty high numbers on eBay, it won't be easy to swing right now just after Christmas spending. I typed "Valco" into eBay earlier and am now watching about 8 or 9 of these amps.

If he is a bud try and work something out with him. Tell him you won't TP his house on Halloween. Keep us posted, I hope it works out for ya. Cheers.:cool: