"Hand Made In Hornsea By A Professional"

english_bob

A professional what though? Does it just look bad or is it actually dangerous?

Gassage

Is this the first Cleartone Conversions amp? It bears all the hallmarks of the great man.

english_bob

It's from a Facebook buy and sell group. I couldn't work out how to link to a single listing, just the group page which is mostly legit. Seller reckons it's one of five he bought from said unnamed "professional".

ICBM

Potentially dangerous, but hard to be sure at that picture resolution.

The mains wiring isn't compliant with regulations. The earth connection appears to go to a terminal on the transformer instead of a dedicated chassis bolt. It appears to have a pull-out mains voltage selector, which I'm fairly sure is no longer allowed even though it's in the neutral line. The fuseholder is also wired the wrong way round with the live connection to the outer terminal. None of the mains connections are sleeved (whether or not you agree that they should be!).

Aside from that the overall workmanship is shoddy and it's potentially unreliable - insulation tape on what appears to be the speaker connections is very poor.

If these are being sold commercially the vendor could find themselves in serious trouble.

english_bob

Yikes. Now I'm wondering whether the group admins ought to know about it.

Not that they'd be responsible for anything that happened, but I wouldn't want it on my conscience...

DJH83004

Come on IC don't be too hard, at least it has got ironing flex for the mains cable 
Seriously, it is a very poor piece of workmanship on all fronts and to be avoided.

ICBM

It's probably worth suggesting that they politely inform the seller that he could be opening himself up to legal trouble. By selling things like this commercially without the proper certification (I think) he's breaking the law as well as opening himself up to a Public Liability claim if anything goes wrong.

@jpfamps, @RiftAmps and others will know for sure. I only repair amps not build, but I wouldn't want anything like this to be sold through the shop I work for even second hand. I've just refused to take on the sale of an old amp which has been badly repaired in the past exactly for this reason.

english_bob

ICBM said:

It's probably worth suggesting that they politely inform the seller that he could be opening himself up to legal trouble. By selling things like this commercially without the proper certification (I think) he's breaking the law as well as opening himself up to a Public Liability claim if anything goes wrong.

@jpfamps, @RiftAmps and others will know for sure. I only repair amps not build, but I wouldn't want anything like this to be sold through the shop I work for even second hand. I've just refused to take on the sale of an old amp which has been badly repaired in the past exactly for this reason.

I've messaged the group admins. The guy selling the amp is not the builder, but while the authorities will appreciate the distinction the lethal current won't.

robinbowes

It might be worth a punt at that price, even if you end up completely re-building it. Got to be worth that for parts?

ICBM

robinbowes said:

It might be worth a punt at that price, even if you end up completely re-building it. Got to be worth that for parts?

What price?

If it's any more than the value of a second hand Heritage G12H-30 then it's too much. The rest is just junk, old salvaged parts mostly. Might be worth having for project work or lowest-possible-cost repairs, but of no monetary value.

robinbowes

It's on FB for £150. Presumably, the speaker, OT/PT, and valves are worth something?

ICBM

robinbowes said:

It's on FB for £150. Presumably, the speaker, OT/PT, and valves are worth something?

The speaker is worth about £75 - although that one is likely to be worth less since it has what looks like a couple of soldering iron burns in the magnet cover.

Whether the other parts are "worth" anything depends on your application. It's unlikely they have any cash value - they may be useful to someone, but then you've got the work of removing and testing them. The valves might be worth something if they're more or less new, or more valuable old-production ones.

MartinB

Gassage said:

Is this the first Cleartone Conversions amp? It bears all the hallmarks of the great man.

It can't be one of his.  All three knobs are the same!

Bygone_Tones

That is not a Heritage speaker, its an original circa 1970 to 1972. Don't get excited though, most of them are in poor condition thesedays and actually worth very little.

ICBM

I think you're right . I was too busy looking at the mess in the chassis . If so it would figure, since most of the other parts are about the same age!

Judging by the sticker just visible on the frame (behind the cable) it may have been re-coned, too.

jpfamps

Indeed that is pretty poorly built.

Most of the major safety issues have been covered already.

Also there seems to be quite a large hole in the chassis right next to the power valves!!

If the box was nicely made then it might make a good starting point for a project (assuming the speaker is OK), but it isn't so I would avoid.

Bygone_Tones

ICBM said:

I think you're right . I was too busy looking at the mess in the chassis . If so it would figure, since most of the other parts are about the same age!

Judging by the sticker just visible on the frame (behind the cable) it may have been re-coned, too.

  Well spotted, yes very likely reconed.

ICBM

jpfamps said:

Also there seems to be quite a large hole in the chassis right next to the power valves!!

I think you're right - ouch. This is like the amp I've just refused to sell through the shop, where if you put your hand in through the back panel, you can directly touch the PT secondary terminals and the rectifier diodes which are tacked onto them…

I think that raises it from potentially dangerous to actually dangerous.

jpfamps

To be fair they didn't say it was assembled by a professional electronic engineer, just a professional!

Sassafras

Professional assassin?

english_bob

Hm. Messaged the mods on the FB page at 10 this morning, no response since, and the ad's still up so I've posted a comment on the listing itself and linked to this thread. Assuming the seller doesn't know his amp is dangerous (otherwise why post gutshots?) but not sure if I'm going to get grief...