Fender AA864 Blackface on the bench

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Came with an assortment of tubes. The power tubes are mismatched brand (I imagine not matched for bias, Gm, etc). The “ECC083” does not have a brand marking but the internals look like nice quality construction. All tubes are visually fine.

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The fuse in the amp is a 3A fast blow type. Back panel calls for 2A.

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Bolt heads show it’s been opened up before. We’ll see why later.

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Very clean chassis. Sockets are in decent shape.

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Gotta love vintage point to point and turret/eyelet construction. Again, nice and clean here. Fiberboards are in good shape, minor warping from age/storage. Cloth covered wire. Rectifier diodes and bias network in the top of the pic will be replaced.

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Power filter caps. The larger orange cap on the right appears to be the reason it was opened up in the past (probably a long time ago). Non-original, non-spec, not that it matters. These will all be replaced.

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Old tag. Not sure about production number. Maybe May of 1967?

On the bench: Zenith K731 (7M07)

This poor radio has seen better days and doesn’t quite live up to modern safety standards with regards to mains electricity.  But the look is great and there’s generous space inside for a small tube amp. Because the enclosure must be allowed to vent for the tube amp to dissipate heat, the speaker (which I also plan to modernize) will be a small challenge. This is a great candidate for a DIY tube radio restoration.

Probable features:

  • 3-5W single channel output
  • Bluetooth connectivity
  • Aux input (analog)
  • Volume control
  • EQ (either treble/bass knobs or loudness contour)
  • Safety!