$10 at an auction for a 1959 Knightkit KN-740 integrated amplifier. Not a great amp, but it came with 4-blackplate 6L6GC's and 5-Amperex bugle-boy 12ax7's. It has a nice big power supply xfmr and the output xfmrs have pretty good bandwidth. I've since been using it as a testbed to learn more about vacuum tube amps. I replaced some bad caps and I've modified it to have switchable triode/pentode output. I'm removing the horrible tone controls from the NFB circuit and I'd like to add a pot to make the NFB variable. It sounds pretty damn good for an old cheapie. Not a bad deal for 10 bucks!

Wow, great deal on those old tubes that came in that amp.

Tube amps are great fun. I feel like some crazy old man hobbiest when I tinker with my tube amp stuff. With a little reading and practice, an old guitar amp can be easily tweaked into your personalized favorite amp ever. I do desest destructive mods to old amps, but non-destructive mods are my friend, as is my old fender pro reverb.

ben
loving that hot tube!

chrissummerlin wrote:$425 for a Veleno? what moron sold you that? jesus...

In the not-so-distant past when I bought it (1984), you could barely give those things away. The previous owner bought it after it collected dust in a very popular guitar shop for well over a year at the same price.
I'm fairly certain that the Veleno I own started the chain of events that resulted in them becoming some sort of Holy Grail amongst hipster guitar players.

I still find Velenos to be relatively uncomfortable guitars to play, and as mine has the original Guild humbuckers, mediocre sounding. They do look cool as hell though.

zom-zom wrote:In the not-so-distant past when I bought it (1984), you could barely give those things away. The previous owner bought it after it collected dust in a very popular guitar shop for well over a year at the same price.
I'm fairly certain that the Veleno I own started the chain of events that resulted in them becoming some sort of Holy Grail amongst hipster guitar players.

I still find Velenos to be relatively uncomfortable guitars to play, and as mine has the original Guild humbuckers, mediocre sounding. They do look cool as hell though.

I tried to buy the one Zom-Zom has, calling him every time I heard of a misfortune or layoff, but he wouldn't sell it. I eventually got the one I believe was Keith Levine's (the dealer said he got it and another Levine-associated guitar from "an English junkie who needed cash") and two others. They sound significantly better with P90 pickups, but it takes a mechanical genius to mount them. The "Levine" Veleno was re-chromed at a bumper shop in Winnetka.

With P90's, the Veleno is a great guitar for aggressive rock. With the stock Guild pickups or the DiMarzio humbuckers the last few were sold with, I'd say no.

-steve

I need a re-chroming, is this bumper shop still around and do they do a good job? I've not had much luck finding a decent place around here.

Well, if either of you guys fancy offloading one of these Velenos seeings as they sound so bad I'll be happy to do you the favour and take them off your hands.
Actually the P90 point is a good one, I reckon you could put P90s in a Squier and it'd sound good.

Sure, I'm willing to part with mine for $15,000.00 Cash only.

maybe not the most outragous but my most recent...i just bought a beyer m500 for 100 bucks from a home studio guy who said "its just no sm 57".
his ignorance is my bliss.

putting it to use right now as i type this.

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You're using it to type?

Chris

I bought a M 500 for 50 bucks and a M 380 for 45 at German ebay before you Americans even heard about ebay.de.
Another favorite purchase was "Kraftwerk 2" on Phillips in mint condition for less than a dollar at a fleamarket.