I Accidentally Bought An Amp

So there I was.  It was a Saturday.  A nice Saturday.  The kind of Saturday where a person would decide to drive around and visit pawn shops.  I was visiting the last pawn shop of the day, Tampa Gun and Pawn.  It's kind of funny that it's called that since they don't sell guns anymore.

Parking was tight.  I couldn't pull in from the direction I wanted.  So I turned down a street and turned around.  I pulled in from the side street so I could pull forward and back in.  I did just that and parked.

When I walked in I recognized the owner of the pawn shop.  I said, "Hi," and he said, "You hit my sign."  I looked at him like he had four heads.  My first thought was, "Your sign is on the top of the building.  How did I hit that?"  So I looked outside and saw that he had placed brand new, "Tampa Gun and Pawn Parking Only" signs up in front of the individual parking spaces.  Since I backed in I looked at my side mirrors, but not my rear view mirror.

I looked at the sign and yelled, "Shit!"  I yelled it really loud too.  I had bent the sign, but I didn't break it.  The owner said, "Don't worry.  You're only the second guy to hit it today.  In fact, someone has hit it every day.  Don't worry about it."

I spent a minute calming myself down.  He calmly asked me "If I was looking for anything in particular?"  I said,  "I was just there looking at anything and everything."  He said to, "Look around and let me know if you have any questions."  So I looked around.

I was wandering around when I saw a guitar amplifier that I had never seen before.  When I looked at it I just saw this big logo that said MEGA.

As I looked closer I saw that it was a Mega Amp by a company called Megatone.  I pulled out my phone, and began searching the internet for any information I could find on it.  The only thing I could find is that it was a T60R model, and it was made by a company called Fame.

I had worked in an independent musical instrument store where we had two Fame branded Strat copies come through.  Those were made in the 1980's.  One customer we had from South America said that Fame instruments were sold down there.  I thought that made sense do to them copying famous models for markets that Fender didn't sell in.

What few reviews I found were from European owners.  One reviewer said that he paid 107 Euros for his amp back in 2007.  What reviews I could find were extremely positive.  They also cleared up some confusion.  If you notice the amp says, "Solo Tube Series" on it.  I thought, "Is it a tube amp?"  Well kind of.  It has one 12AX7 preamp tube in it.  So "one" meaning "solo" tube.

So I asked the owner of the pawn shop about it.  Specifically "What would be the price on something like that?"  He said he, "Never priced it because he couldn't find any information on it."  I told him about the one reviewer paying $107 Euros for it in 2007.  He said he, "Didn't know the exchange rate of the Euro."

He then proceeded to say, "Do you want to make me an offer I can't resist?"  I said, "I don't know.  I can be pretty cheap.  Also, I would need one of my guitars to check it out."  He then said something I didn't expect.  He said, "How about $50?  You can take it home, and if it doesn't work you can bring it back, and I'll give you your money back."

I thought about it.  Well, I didn't exactly want to pay for the sign.  So I thought, "Well, if I buy the amp he won't bug me about paying for the sign."  So I bought the amp.  But first I had to get it down.  His place was packed with things so I had to stand sideways on four ladders.  I then had to move a speaker off of it, get the amp down, and move the speaker back into the amp's place.

I found a tag on the amp that said 5-6-11.  I asked him "If it had been there since 2011?"  He said, "He was pretty sure it hadn't been sitting there that long.  Nothing in the shop had."

So I finally managed to get the amp down.  I paid $54 with tax for the amp.  I put it in my truck and brought it home.  I prayed that it worked since I didn't want to return the amp.  So I plugged it in, and was shocked.  Channel one sounded like a Fender Bassman.  And not just that, but it sounded like a dang good Fender Bassman.

Channel Two had a flat EQ, but if you turned down the treble and bass, then maxed out the mids, it sounded a lot like a 70's Marshall 2203.  (That's before they named it the JCM 800.)  What made both channels neat is that they have pre-amp controls.  They weren't just turn up the volume until your ears bleed, and then, and only then, you get great tone.  The pre-amp controls let me achieve some great tone at a lower volume.

What was neat was that if you set Channel Two at a flat EQ, you could get a great blues tone.  But you could also turn the gain up and really rock out.  I have to say it was a surprisingly great amp, especially for $50.  The EQ was extremely versatile.

So I had to open her up.  One problem I noticed was that even though it was only a supposed 60 watts, it was not as loud as it should be.  I thought maybe the tube was old, and burnt out.  So that was the first thing I checked.

As you can see it's an Electro-Harmonix 12AX7 tube.  When I inspected it, it was perfect.  There were no burn marks or damage.  I thought I was going to find a cheap Chinese tube in it.  I was going to replace that Chinese tube with... an Electro Harmonix tube.  So I put it back in.

The speaker was a generic speaker, but I have to say I thought it sounded great.  I wouldn't dare replace it unless it was broken.  A funny thing however, was that it was a 4 ohm speaker.  Usually single speakers are 8 ohms.  I'm guessing they wanted a 4 ohm speaker to push more power.

I sprayed the insides of the amp with electronics cleaner.  Since it had been sitting a while I thought it was the right thing to do.  I noticed the channel switching was a little sticky.  That cleared up once I sprayed down the insides.

I'm still not sure why the amp isn't as loud as I thought it should be.  I figure a few of the caps and other parts are burnt out or not working like they should.  I've found that usually when you fixed parts, the amp ends up sounding too clean, and loses the tone you love.  So I won't get this amp repaired until it finally dies on me.

I honestly can't wait to play it some more.  I didn't go to the pawn shop looking for another amp, but I'm glad I found this one.  I've spent more money buying a single guitar pickup.  The same with guitar pedals.  So I have to say this is one of my better buys.  Still, I don't plan on backing into any more signs, even if it lead me to a great deal.

Editor's Edit:  I found the webpage for this amplifier:

https://www.megaamps.com/t30r

Here's some more photos of the amp since there don't seem to be many on the net.

New Guitar Day: Dean Gran Sport

I know what everyone in my family is saying/thinking.  "Not another guitar!"  Well, this one was too good to pass up.  I was looking at the musical instruments listed on Craigslist, when in-between cursing the way too high priced crap, I noticed something unusual.  Someone from a pawn shop had posted a, "Dean guitar" for $89.  When I looked at it, I thought, "that looks like a Dean Gran Sport.  There's no way that listing is correct if all they want is $89.  That's a $600 guitar new."

Usually pawn shops are the worst offenders for things being way overpriced.  Most of the time I can buy "brand new" what they are offering "used" for the same price from one of the big shops.  Sometimes they are actually trying to sell them for more used than I can buy new.  So why on earth do they have one marked that low?

I noticed that the add had only been up for three hours, so since it was Saturday I dressed quickly, and got down there.  I looked down the line of guitars, and didn't see it.  But since there were no missing guitar hangers I didn't think it had been sold.  Then I looked behind the counter, and there it was.  I asked the salesman if I could look at it. 

I looked it over, and it didn't have a scratch on it.  In fact, it had never been set up.  The strings were way too high on it.  I looked at the tag on it, and noticed something weird.  It said "Cort."  As in, Cort Guitars.  This was a Dean, and not a Cort.  However, the serial number on the tag matched up to the number on the back of the headstock.  I wondered if they got it mixed up with a Cort guitar, and thus were selling it way too cheap?

Usually pawn shops buy at 25% of the new price, and sell at 75% of the used price.  Since this was a $600 guitar they would have bought it at $150, and sold for $450.  Then they would have "worked" with a customer, and sold it for 66% of the original price and settled for $400. 

But if they thought it was a Cort, they might have bought it for $40 - $50, and sold at $89.  I wonder why anyone would sell a guitar that had never been played or had a mark on it that low.  I really had to question myself, and ask if I thought it had been stolen.  But they did have the serial number correct, and they run those through the police database. 

So with tax, I walked out of there with a final price of $95.  I brought it home, and did a quick set-up on it.  This is the Stealth model of the Gran Sport that comes standard with EMG pickups.  It is quite the metal monster.  I'm not crazy about active pickups, but they work well in this guitar.  I actually would have liked it to have the DMT Dean pickups that come in other versions of the Gran Sport.  But, I'm not going to knock my good luck.

The only thing that I can complain about it the battery cover.  The little pieces that hold it in, broke off.  But to be honest, I have seen that happen on so many battery covers.  Every active battery holder I have ever seen on a "stage" guitar, has tape over the battery cover.  So I did the same.  I put some electric tape over it to match. 

Now, onto the pics!