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| Bell 2122 Working Again! |
When I was in 4th grade I listened to this amp playing classical hi-fi from a FM Tuner in Chatham NJ. Years later I took it to college with me as a freshman. The next year I upgraded to real stereo. The Bell worked until a few years ago when the power supply had the dreaded 'Hummmmm....' of a bad filter capacitor. A quick Internet search led me to a post by someone else who had one and I acquired a nice copy of a 1948 Sams Photofax for the unit. This year an internet search led me to Ampmonster, an Austin TX guitar amp company that had a good write up on restoration of the Bell. With this site and the photofax I made a list of parts needed to redo the amp but when I opened it up yesterday I tested the caps and found many of them to test close to value the electrolytics were bad though. I took a 220uf and clip leaded it in parallel with the HV filter and the hum went away and the 2watt resistor connecting the two filter sections opened with some sparks and a small amount of escaping smoke. An old replacement resistor was found and seemed to run cool so I wired the cap in for a more permanent temporary fix which will allow me to play with the amp a bit if desired. Some DeOXit sprayed into the controls seemed to help and the tubes were tested and one bad 6SC7 (dual triode similar to the 12AX7 in a metal octal package) tube was replaced.
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| New Filter Cap in place |
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| Sticker inside bottom plate |
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| Rear panel |
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| Pair of 6V6's |
