Well I must say that I echo your thoughts. I bought an SB220 for GBP250 some
years ago. It's currently in use by a pal of mine (Lee G0DBE) who keeps the
tubes nice and hard and stops the electrolytics drying out.
The amp must have been owned by someone who smoked those Gitanes or Gauloises
cigarettes 10 at a time (six in the mouth and two in each nostril?). I thought
that the amp was supposed to be gold anodised inside and that the tank coils
were just copper - but polishing eventually brought them up as silver! Every
component was just .... brown. Brown bands on brown resistors, brown lettering
on brown capacitors, wires in differing shades of - you guessed it - brown.
Every time the amp was switched on it produced a smell like a French cafe so
full of smoke that you couldn't see more than three feet. I could almost taste
the coffee, croissants and pains au chocolat.....but it worked, and had
continued to work since it was built in the late 60s. 1200 watts and probably
1200 milligrams of nicotine output. A truly great design and components that
stood the test of time. A plain vanilla SB220, no mods, no new components.
But a rather unique smell.
However - would I pay $1000 for one? Absolutely not. They're a great amp, but
these days ancient and overpriced in my opinion.
Using hamfest fleamarkets as a component source, supplemented by scrounging at
a local fabrication shop for the aluminium to build the chassis, my current
3CX3000A7 Pi-L amp cost me around $500 to build including a second-hand tube.
I've seen good TL922s going for GBP500 here (about $700 these days) and other
excellent amps (Linear Amp UK etc) going for less. Heathkits weren't so
popular here as they were in the US. We only see them once in a while, whereas
every American hamfest I've been to I could have bought a good SB220.
But supposing that amp goes for $1000. I don't know how long it would take to
assemble really carefully and really nicely. Maybe 100 hours? You end up with
an amp worth $600 and you've paid just $4 an hour for the entertainment and the
pleasure of building an icon of the 1960s. Maybe you wanted to relive that.
Maybe you wanted to experience it for the first time. Maybe you just wanted to
build an amp for the first time and no-one makes kits any more. Plus you know
that no-one's mistuned it, dropped it, poured beer in it or farted around with
the circuitry. It's your amp and you built it.
Now I think about it, I really can see how that might appeal. Maybe someone in
China might see the market niche and start remanufacturing.
cheers
Dave G0OIL
--- On Sun, 15/2/09, chas <chasm@texas.net> wrote:
From: chas <chasm@texas.net>
Subject: Re: [Amps] I have unbuilt SB-220 complete anyone interested?
To: "Amps Amps" <amps@contesting.com>
Date: Sunday, 15 February, 2009, 8:16 PM
KB0NLY wrote:
> Your Welcome!
>
> Scott
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Van K7VS" <wa7fab@cdsnet.net>
> To: "KB0NLY" <kb0nly@mchsi.com>
> Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 8:38 AM
> Subject: Re: [Amps] I have unbuilt SB-220 complete anyone interested?
> thanks, that did it. Have a nice day. Van
now, assuming this unbuilt ebay kit makes it to $1,000 in the next 3
hours, how much is a complete set of mods from Harbach, Measures, etc???
In fact, this "number" is why I have not opted to buy and rebuild a
"used" set already. I am guessing that it would cost about $600 with
new caps, tubes, transformer etc.
point is, I could likely buy a Henry or an Alpha for what a modded and
updated 220 would cost. I am so glad that i have my SB-220 with the
Dahl transformer, etc but am not sure that I would spend what it would
cost TODAY to do it again..
hmmmm?
--
chasm@texas.net k5dam Houston, TX
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other
people's money.
- Margaret Thatcher
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