Carlsbro GLX80 (made in UK)

nikitasius

Roadie
Messages
118
Hi folks,
Recently i was looking for a 12" housing for a 12" speaker. Cause wanna buy Celestion F12M-150 for my boss.

I found cheap in +- pretty good state amp, carslbro glx80 which is rated 80W use 220v transformer.. (i’m on 240) and have celestion G12-1755 speaker. It cost for me 60€. Also i got switch which i can plug into boss and have more controls 🤓

Speaker is pretty nice btw, it’s like G12T-75 Marshals used in 1960 cabs, but it’s custom made for carlsbro and have 4Ohm (3.48 measured).

Preamp is pretty good in clean and shits in distortion. Guess due bad rails, there are 1v difference between + and - rails. Poweramp rails are straight and have 0.05V delta between.

Poweramp is working good (built in 1994, guess!), but pulsation on power rail is 0.5V (idle) upto 0.7V (playing), new power caps could fix it.

Actually i use that ampli as is and.. it’s pretty good with boss. I use jc120 output. Tried jcm2000 return but jc120 return in boss seems more balanced. With these settings i can’t use IRs in boss so all current stuff is tuned for G12 speaker. Once on FRFR i will apply my IRs.

In next upgrades i plan to change power (install 240V toroid), keep preamp (change old caps), change power section (install fast rectifier & better caps and LDOs for 18v and 35v rails ).

Poweramp will be replaced with AB poweramp on lm3886.. highly probable.

UK engineers.. damn heat it:) voltage drop via huge ceramic resistors, old school (cheap, inefficient and bad).

Transformer is buzzing 🙃
Static idle noise is pretty low btw.

If someone wanna buy old solid amp be ready to swap all electrolytic capacitors especially if there are heat resistors near by. For 60€ it’s a great 80W ampli for your guitar (and mine too).

Thermal interface is like new lol, nothing with modern pc paste which dries in 1-2y.

As a bonus it have spring reverb 😎

Ampli as is

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Switch + sonicaps installed
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An ass
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Again
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Speaker
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PCB
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Transformer
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Power transistors
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Spring reverb
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