Comment

Comment by carverman on January 22, 2011 at 8:57am

I would think that if you hotwire  right into the volume control, you would need to disable the local oscillator and IF

tube in order to prevent stray radio stations from bleeding in on the volume control.   Pulling out the appropriate

tubes would help, but most 5 tube radios are transformerless and the filaments run in series from 115volt line

current.  Grounding the o/p of the detector diode (if it is not a tube) just before the volume control would

kill the radio signals, but you would need to know which circuit track or wire (in the case of a wired chassis)

to ground out. 

Comment by John Wendell on January 21, 2011 at 7:32am

David...I learned when I was young that you can hotwire strait into the volume knob of any old radio and be able to play your guitar through it...its trial and error as to which posts to tie into...but it's always worked for me....then you can turn the dial to where its not receiving any music, but still get some white noise...then you can fiddle with it, cut the antenna or something to get it to quit receiving any signal at all, have done it many times but never known exactly what I did to get it to quit receiving.....hope that helps a little

Comment by David Davies on January 6, 2011 at 1:08pm

Thanks carverman.  I decided to put the works in a cigar box and keep it as a radio. Thanks every body also for your input I do appreciate it

Comment by carverman on January 6, 2011 at 8:49am

Most tube radios don't have all the tubes necessary to make an amp.  Lets say a 2 to 5 watt amp which is the

capability of the output stage of a tube radio.  While the audio stage is usuable as it is, the RF tubes...RF oscillator

and hetrodyne tube and the IF (intermediate frequency) tube are not that good for guitar input stage.

What you need is a medium or high gain dual triode such as a 12ax7 (which can run off 6 volt heater as well)

and the caps/resistors necessarity to make it a a preamp.  Doing a equalizer circuit (bass/treble) is not

that easy for a tube radio, so you would only be able to do a preamp stage (1 meg input impedance) and

an connect it to the existing radio volume pot.

Comment by li'l Stogie Amps & Guitars on January 3, 2011 at 2:52am

My first guitar amp was from an old zeinth radio it can be done. but this project is not for a beginner like I said before there's alot of hazzards here even possible death by shock even when unpluged.a input jack on the right radio with the right tubes and transformers can be installed between the tuner section and the volume control side of the radio,thus not compromisizing the fuction of the radio.

Comment by David Davies on December 31, 2010 at 9:40am

Saw the post thanks for the advice

Comment by David Davies on December 31, 2010 at 9:18am

Use as a tube amp