Any scavengers here?

[SonofanAlum]

Back in the 80's and 90's, I had acquired various vacuum tube guitar amps and PA heads. As most people did, I ended up tossing them or trading for other items in lieu of louder solid state amps. Now that I am older, I am wanting a low wattage tube guitar amp again. Prices for vintage amps are through the roof and most boutique amps are even higher. There are a few Chinese built tube amps within my price range, but they are mass produced with PC board mounted components. I want old iron. Now, my scavenger question comes into play here. I travel for a living and I am always on the lookout while passing yard sales, etc. for old audio stuff. You know, some old dude tossing out his son's old crap from his attic. I had visions of picking up an old amp for cheap. Never happens. Anyway, I had begun looking at old console stereos which can have pretty nice tube power amps in them, but dealing with the bulky console is prohibitive. Last week I purchased for $5 a 1959 Motorola SH12S portable turntable with a 12W stereo tube power amp. I am going to convert a 15W cheapy guitar amp into a 6W tube living room amp for my son. I have him hooked on tubes now. Today I snagged an early 60's Bogen turntable/PA with a 20W tube power amp for $10. It is playable now with a mic input and lid mounted Jensen speaker. This will eventually become my 20W guitar combo amp. I have a feeling I am going to be looking over every dang old school turntable I come across now. Even some those old players from our elementary school days have little 5W tube amps in them.

[fourcorners]

I know this sounds obvious, but have you thought about looking on eBay? I have a 15 year old Sony rack system and my amplifier went bad. I started snooping around to see what my options were and on the advice of one of my customers, checked eBay. I was astounded at how much 15 - 25 year old stereo equipment was for sale. Admittedly, I'm not knowledgeable enough to know what any given stereo component should be worth, but i thought most of the prices were very reasonable. Just a thought.

Good luck!