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Baldwin Amps up and running


HarryO

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After a week long project I've got the Baldwin monoblocks up and running. Each amp uses a quad of 6L6, 2 x 5AU rectifier tubes, and a 6SL7. All this stuff with Will Vincent and Erik Mandeville got the blood stirring for more old Baldwins running. They sound very nice. Powerful, smooth, clear, excellent range, and best of all cheap. Typical of the old Baldwins is the heavy old iron and beautiful cosmetics. At least to me they're beautiful.

Glenn Long, AKA Baddad here on the forum from Indy and I picked up a couple of old Baldwin model 45 organs and parted them out for the amps. Tons of 6SN7 tubes on the generator board. 19 pairs if I remember correctly in each organ. I sold half of my 6SN7's and paid my part of the project. BTW, Baddad bought one of the stereo Baldwin amps from Will Vincent and it's a heck of an amp. It gave this little project a nudge to get it going.

They still need cleaned up, re-tubed, and set up but they're up and running in grand fashion. Thought I'd show off a couple of pics.

Harry

EDIT: Thanks to Will Vincent who was invaluable in helping with a bias issue during the revamping of these.

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Tx guys.

I've found a very easy way to take off the oxidization from the metal and bring them back up to new looking with very little work and little expense. It leaves the scripts intact and doesn't harm anything. 5 minute job to bring them up shiny and pretty.

Harry

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Tx guys.

I've found a very easy way to take off the oxidization from the metal and bring them back up to new looking with very little work and little expense. It leaves the scripts intact and doesn't harm anything. 5 minute job to bring them up shiny and pretty.

Harry

Harry,

So what's your process to clean up the metal?

BTW, nice job. I had one of Will's Baldwin amps and loved it. The bass dynamics were amazing.

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I tried polishing one up with polishing compound but it left uneven spots in it. The only true polish I had laying around was a bottle of Maguires PlastX clear plastic cleaner and polish. I use it on dust covers on my turntables. It takes the oxidation off of them and hides swirls and scratches. I tried it and it immediately turned my paper towels black with the oxidation. I wiped down a good size spot and cleaned it off and the metal really stood out. I used Old English lemon oil to recoat the metal and help remove the film left by the Maguires.

Harry

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Thanks Jay,

Yes they are the ones I got from you. They're the original RCA metal 6L6 just like McIntosh originally used. Great sounding old tubes just ugly black metal. Way overlooked in the preferred sounding tubes. They're not worth a lot but have a good sound. I've been sitting on 10 RCA NOS 6L6GC tubes just for something like this. After I run them a week or so I'll clean them up good and re-tube then.

Harry

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