r/VintageAmps

My dad was a fanatic audiophile. He died in 2000 and left me his sansui amplifier. I’m using it with a technics turntable and sound will cut out at times and there’s static and a slight distortion of sound. To put it short, it’s struggling. I’ve cleaned it with d5 and I’ve been gentle on it but I’m still having issues. I am really keen to keep it—I know sansui amps are high quality and this one is either from late 70s or very early 80s,
No later. He used it with massive floor speakers that are long gone. I’m looking for advice on how to get it working and sounding better. Do I need to take it somewhere? Is she cooked? Am I hurting her further by trying on my own? I’m using bare wire onkyo speakers but I’ve heard sansui creates really warm tones and only does well with certain speakers. Don’t know about the ones I’ve got. I’m wondering how to 1. Know if my sansui can be repaired / brought back to its glory and 2. What speakers should I consider to pair with this amp should I get the amp working at high clip again.

I hope this is the right venue for some advice. Is this sansui even worth it or should I give it up? (I’ll keep her just to look at her and remember my dad suppose if I have to).

Hi everyone!

I’m excited that we m finally getting time to dig into an amp and some speaker cabs I picked up a couple months ago.

-Fender Bassman 50 head
-Fender 2x12 cab (huge! Not pictured, I’ll have to get photos later)
-small 2x12 cab

Project is to clean up the head and the smaller cab. I’ll likely clean up the big cab as well, to sell (I don’t need such a giant cab). If needed, I can seevice the amp, or consider some mods (presence knob?)

I decided to tackle building the small cab first. I was told it was a vintage Bassman cab - anyone have an idea from the photos if that’s true? AFAIK the tolex, fiberglass insulation, hardware, and solid pine build seem to be indicators it’s a Fender. The grill cloth and any labels/logos were all missing.

While I’m waiting for new grill cloth to come in the mail, I went ahead and disassembled the cab, filled the screw holes (many were loose/stripped), glued ripped tolex spots back down, scrubbed the tolex and all the rust off the hardware, and put it back together. Hardest part was getting a former owner’s band’s logo off the top. It had two older Celestions in it, but I installed two new G12M greenbacks (my dream speakers - I’m pretty excited), and re-wired them (in parallel so I end up with 4 ohms). I got it all back together.

I seats of just enjoying it while I could, I decided to go forward with disassembling the amp to check things out. Trying to determine the date - depending on the chassis stamp, or the stamps on the components inside, it could be a few different dates (components would indicate either 74 or 75?).

The wiring inside…. It looks like *someone’s* been intro his amp before. Compared to photos of other Bassmans, this looks quite messy. Oh, and there’s a “mystery 1/4” jack” going to the back of the chassis that I don’t see in any photos of other Bassmans.

I got to try out the amp before I bought it, and everything was functional. At this point I have to decide if I need/want to do any service on it, or just leave it alone.

If anyone wants to share some knowledge or observations, I’d love it!

In particular, I’d love to have some thoughts on:
-Proper ID of the cabinet.
-Proper dating of the amp.
-if anyone can tell what mods might have been done to the amp circuit - and what that mystery jack is all about.
-If it looks like I should do any service with the circuit of the amp other than cleaning.