New (to me) Electro E-12

[milo]

It has been quite awhile since I posted here, mostly due to work, but I figured some of you may be interested in my newest amp and may be able to shed some light about it or learn something more about this model. I couldn't find much with searching the web other than it appears that this was sold as both a Rickenbacker and an Electro. I ran across another person online who owns the Rickenbacker version and it seems to be the same specs except for having the heavier silver Tolex that was used on the old cases instead of the almost linen paper like brown covering that the Electro has.

Near as I can tell this is a 1966 based on the speaker and pot date codes of late 1965 and a couple of capacitor codes from around February of 1966. It also came with a free spider and old wasp nest from down south.

Anyway, below are some pictures. She sounds great other than the tremolo tends to fade out after a few seconds. I suspect a possible leaking cap or two since I've never seen the black tubular caps that are part of the trem circuit. The cap can looks original and there's no hum and the bias electrolytic was changed out at some point in time. Does anybody happen to know what values were used for the various blue tubular caps? I measured the pots and they all seem to be 500k which seems out of line with most of the circuits I'm familiar with, and the controls seem to have most of their action within a fairly narrow sweep.








Free wasp nest:

[libratune]

I believe (from what I've come across) that this model was phased out in the early '60s. I doubt if the speaker and those black caps are original to the amp. The pots also could have been replaced.

From what I've heard these amps have great tone, especially with a 12" alnico speaker.

[admin]

A nice find, Jeff. Thanks for adding it to the RRF collection. Perhaps you could register it as well.

[Aclempoppi]

To me, the blue Paktrons and the Black Beautys look to be original. Could you tell me the Rickenbacker Model. Thanks, Art

[milo]

Art,
I was thinking the same thing, and I do have a few observations that I'll add later in the post, but to answer your question I'm pretty sure this is an E-12. I think Rickenbacker made an equivalent that had a little bit heavier silver cover material as I ran across a tech who says he has a completely original Rickenbacker version from 1964 with untouched solder joints or cord.

I just pulled the black caps and they are Aerovox. Replacing those has fixed the tremolo. As near as I can tell there are only three solder joints on the board that I know for sure have been touched, everything else on the board looks factory or like it hasn't been touched with an iron in years.I have to admit that I haven't seen the non carbon comp resistors in anything that early (everything else I own is old Fender). Fender seems to have started using the blue molded caps around 1961 or 1962 and they seem to transition out around 1967-1968. The two-section cap can is a GE that says "30-40MFD at up to 450 volts" and is date coded the 13th week of 1966. The solder looks original on that can, too, and it would have had to have been replaced years ago if it isn't original. Other than the pots and speaker (and what I'm assuming was 1966 on the black caps) I can't find anything else with date codes. The speaker nuts don't appear to have ever been removed though I'm guessing that less than ideal storage conditions could also have oxidized the threads if it was replaced in the '60s or '70s. The leads have been unsoldered in the past to the speaker due to the cathode bias cap having been replaced and the output transformer being soldered directly to the speaker with no jack.

My question for everybody else after looking through the registry is how are people dating these amps? I see one that is listed as a 1960 and that one has a 1959 speaker in it which would make sense. It also has the older style metal flip handle whereas most of the ones I see pictures of have the black plastic and metal strap like Fender went to around 1964. The handle on mine isn't quite as sturdy as on my Fenders and it appears to be original. Everything else seems to be listed from 58-61 yet there are sure a lot of 1965 Jensen C10Q speakers in these amps and I would expect to see a couple of different models or years if they are all replacements. The owner of the 1964 Rickenbacker version said his has a blue label Jensen C10Q dated to 1964. My serial number is 3194.

I do plan on putting it in the registry once I find time to shrink the resolution down on the pictures I took. It's a great sounding little amp and for $200 I couldn't be happier.

[johnhall]

This is a B9A. The E-12 was the extension speaker-only using this same size cabinet.

I have a twin to it.

The serial of your looks something like 31XX, whereas mine is 3436.

The schematic is here:

http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/b9a.pdf

[milo]

Thanks a lot, John.

I guess having the correct model name/number helps out when looking for info as all the searches I did came up with this being an E-12. Now I just added to the wrong information on the net.

Were these still being made in 1966 or is my guesstimate of the year of manufacture off?

[johnhall]

The B9A appears as late as 1969 on price lists but is gone by 1971. (The 1970 list is not in our customer service binders I just found out).

[Aclempoppi]

Neat amp!!! Appreciate the responses from you guys!!! Art

[electrofaro]

Now I just added to the wrong information on the net.

Ah, don't worry - that is just the thing with internet, it turns wrong information into the truth. Like wikipedia - you can add total humbug as long as you can link to a few decent sites where the humbug is mentioned. At least in this thread the correct info is present, and maybe a mod can add the B9A to the title of the thread?

Got to love these old amps - please post a video of it playing a Rickie through it!

[kiramdear]

[libratune]

Here is the source of what appears to be misinformation about the amp that the OP believed was a model E-12, which according to the man who knows best is actually a model B-9A. Scroll down about 2/3 on this page: http://jzu.free.fr/rick/amp/MB.html

There you will find the following verbiage along with photos of the model of amp depicted on this thread:

E-12
"The speaker is a 12" Jensen, S/N 220522 (hence 22th week of 65). The amp size is 18"W x 15"H x 8"D and the controls were four inputs, volume, tone and tremolo. This amplifier has a twin brother at Rickenbacker's private "museum", whose speaker S/N is 220533."

B-9A
"The first B-Series were mid-sixties amplifiers. You will find the schematic on RIC's web site. Electronically, it is an M88 plus vibrato in addition to the volume+tone pots, and four inputs, featuring the classic 7025 and 6V6 at the preamp and power stage respectively."

It appears that if the above descriptions were combined and attributed to the model B-9A, and the E-12 was identified as an extention speaker cabinet, that would set the record straight.

[johnhall]

I note a few more errors on that page as well. Unfortunately, I think it's been orphaned.

[milo]

There are actually quite a few places on the web where these are listed as a model E-12, including several of them in the Registry here. Once John posted the correct model number I found just as many in the Registry under that number. I got the wrong model number from the seller and armed with that info it was easy to follow a trail of many of these with the same error.

Either way, I now know the correct name and won't make the mistake again and I have a schematic. It's a great little home amp and I'm happy to own it. Unfortunately, I think it sounds better with my Esquire than it does with my 360WB or 1984 model 350.

Thanks again for the help.