basslondon

Did a bit of follow up with various sources and judging by the serials of the Pre and the power amp it’s from about April/ May 1982. I don’t know if they were still made at Soundwave in Romford by this time…. i also had another stroke of luck , I managed to pick up a later series TE 1 x 15 cab to go with it at a good price (£20) I’m hoping to find a 4 x 10 soon too to complete the rig. Oh and a sack truck to move it about…..

Indeed. Imagine our shock recently when we returned busted Camera boards to Panasonic UK to be repaired only to find our boards( confirmed by serial number check) contained fake CAPS in them. Apparently they’d sub contracted out our boards to a third party to service and when they came back the Panasonic caps were not real Panasonic parts…they lasted three months

But let’s not forget the “Crap fake capacitor scandal “ a few years ago. Where copy’s of Nichicon and Elna and Rubycon and Panasonic were flooding the market that caused no end of issues…that hasn’t helped consumer confidence

Thank you so much for your input

Yeah in this case i concur that its not necessary but a peek at them to evaluate the state of them would not be completely unwise ( what with it being over 40 years old and of unknown background). In my day job in Broadcast Engineering we are often replacing CAPS on PSU's in ageing broadcast kit in the transmission that remains on for 24/7 ( SDI routers / vision mixers /Camera channels etc and the like) so it would be a formality to check and replace any problematic ones. We have old kit that hasnt been switched off for 10 years that works fine, but wed be very afraid if it powercycled...

Yeah the case is a definite doozy. its seems customised completely for this rig.... everything fits perfectly and it looks as though it was made for it. Truly an enigma. Wrapped in a conundrum. Ive been enjoying it immensely this afternoon...glorious. I would venture it sounds better than my SMX 300 era head and certainly is up with my Series 6 AH500X. I'm gonna continue my search for info and thank you for your help so far

I will the usage graph of the lifecycle of this amplifier will be a ruler flat line of inactivity til this week from its birth ,….to a sudden exponential curve of use and enjoyment I can asssure you! Through the Di out the GP11 pre sounds very similar through my mixing desk to my old 1008 (8x10 ) combo DI out from 1983. I think it’s wonderful….. Thanks for your lovely comments.

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Dunno. I am a broadcast engineer so of course the first thing I did was open it up to see if anything needed recapping etc and from a peek inside with my trusty LED torch I cannot see anything that has been changed/ fixed / updated or even switched on over the years there’s not dust on the mosfet fins behind the fan, nothing. it’s truly in stellar condition. The only indicator of anything is the snapped off GEQ controls on the front but that could even be because the plastic has become brittle over the last 45 odd years. I haven’t got the preamp or the power section fully on my bench yet and am a bit trepidant to do so but I may have to in the interests of science! Also I’m gonna try to find replacement faders for the graphic section as that is the ONLY thing less than optimal at the moment. Curious and courioiser…..

Just bought this Amp for a complete song. ( Dont ask the final price, you will be appalled …..I gave the guy more than the final eBay listing settled on cos of my remorse for the eBay victory) I’m thinking this looks very early (1980-1981?) it has just been serviced & PATested and sounds utterly wonderful. Any ideas of vintage? model : AH250G serial : 2225 model : GP11 Preamp Serial : 1069 The GP11 preamp is a stand alone unit with its own serial number distinct from the serial number of the AH250G power amp. Thanks for looking!