A100/147 questions?

[Sweet Pete]

This newly acquired rig needed some TLC. Nice overall condition cosmetically and a few little common issues for a '60/'67 combo.
I thought it hummed the usual amount on startup for it's age,and was surprised to hear nice top end with the tone control on the preamp backed off from bright.
Leslie 147 was in need of belts,a P15LL speaker and a motor service.Working as intended now.Still on it's shipping skid!

Were the early A100 benches a little different? No 'inlay' matching the music desk on this one? Sides shaped different too?
How does one get the back outside corner fastener into the AO35? Missing? No, I found it in the bottom.
Or is it the one from the reverb tank up top that's missing? Might be a different size?
I'll bet backing off the lower tank fastener will enable the top to go in.....what order to do both though? LOLOL.

AO35 seems duller than the AO44? The driver in AO44 is transistor and has more bandwidth or treble gain?
A quick look under the hood showed no signs of work...try new caps there for sure!
A fair amount of hum compared to both of my AO44's!

Peeling back the genny cover reveals someone has for sure been in here!
Nice clean work,not as fat a C3 chorus as the '63.
Will clean switches,had the perc cut out momentarily.

Now that I have a 'recapped' genny to compare to my other consoles,I have a better idea of what this does to the overall sound.
All 8's is almost over the top,and explains why the tone control is backed off. Nice key click through a stock V21 though!
Nice and smooth to the ears,haven't metered the outputs.

And of course my one mod.Spot the wire? Volume drop on perc normal? Gone.
Overall this rig is ready to play,will fuse the tranny's and get some PS caps in those amps.

[markm]

Were the early A100 benches a little different? No 'inlay' matching the music desk on this one? Sides shaped different too?

Nice set. I had an early A100 in the 3xxx serial number range many years ago. I don’t recall seeing inlay on any A100 bench. I thought the A100 benches stayed the same throughout the years. The other A100-series cabinets and benches were different, of course.

Mark

[Sweet Pete]

Thanks markm,

The bench with my '63 has scrollwork 'inlay'.
Pattern matches that of the music desk 'piping' inlay.
Also, the sides look a different profile.
The 'on' light lens is larger than the '63.
Must be an 'early' AO35,guessing the necklace springs were only in the very first A100's?
Speaker and tank are mid '60?
Type IV tank in '60?

Overall the wood is tighter grained than the '63.
Subtle but different.

Pedalboard plays great too!Nice and tight and quiet.

[enor]

My A-100 bench (a UK made '68) looks just like this one, no "inlay".

[andyg]

I've never seen an A100 bench with inlay either, Pete, but there again enor and I are on this side of the pond and would have come across UK and Antwerp built A100's for the most part. We usually got 'plain Jane' cabinets - anything else would have been a special order or, more latterly, a personal import from the USA.

No doubt someone over here will now post a photo of their inlaid bench, just to shut me up! :D

[enor]

No doubt someone over here will now post a photo of their inlaid bench, just to shut me up! :D

Yeah, but I'd rather like to see one ;)

One of my organ service clients has a US made A-100 in his studio. The difference in perceived quality between that cabinet and mine is absolutely staggering - it looks like the wood for that cab would cost at least twice as much as my UK one. But alas, it doesn't have an inlaid bench.

[Sweet Pete]

Both are mahogany,one redder than the other.
Lids,sides,fronts, all different. Three years or so apart.
Looks like in '63-'64 the E100 bench was also the A100 bench?
It has the 'scrolled' out pattern with 45% corner cuts.
'60 A100 has a bench lip edge similar to the later H100 bench lid edges.
that style was still on benches at least as late as '70.
I have a 1970 mahogany H111 bench,a beauty!


Boring trivia for most except collectors who notice the differences.
I have yet to see a 1959 A100,with wood cheek blocks and smooth vibrato dial.
In pictures only I have seen one with a necklace reverb spring.
It didn't take long to get the A100 to market after Laurens announced his retirement.

One could buy an 'entertainment' console in 1960 with television,record player,radio.....
so why not put amps and speakers in a console,heck the M3's are flying out the doors.....
the beginning of 'corporate consolidation'.
The A100 did better than the 1961 Dodge......those were tough years.

[markm]

Boring trivia for most except collectors who notice the differences. I have yet to see a 1959 A100,with wood cheek blocks and smooth vibrato dial. In pictures only I have seen one with a necklace reverb spring.

Pete - Love the boring trivia and bench pics, thanks. My A100 was a '59 with smooth vibrato knob and necklace reverb. I'll dig up some pics. To my knowledge, no A100 ever came with wood cheek blocks, but I could be mistaken.

Mark