Complete 80W power amp section from Laney GC80 tested working

Keefy

I recently acquired a Laney GC80 combo to upcycle into a valve amp. The power amp is in working order and it seems a shame to just strip it for parts. The filter caps appear fine and there is none of the hum you would expect if they had started to fail. I am offering it here for anyone that wants to use it as the basis of a project, or maybe to replace the power section in a dead solid state combo. I will provide a copy of the service manual but you will need decent electronics skills and probably some metalworking ability too!

£25 delivered in the UK.

ICBM

You could build that into a plain casing and make a perfect pedalboard power amp.

These are extremely rugged and reliable amps which also sound very good, and loud for that generation of solid-state - the original combo it came from is comparable to a 50W 1x12" valve guitar amp. The power transistors and heatsink are over-engineered for the output power, and even the rectifier has a heatsink - that would be rare to find nowadays. If anyone's worried by what looks like a bulged end on the filter cap nearest the heatsink, it's just the plastic cover having got a bit too warm - a lot of them are like that but I've never seen the cap fail.

Jetfire

ICBM said:

You could build that into a plain casing and make a perfect pedalboard power amp.

These are extremely rugged and reliable amps which also sound very good, and loud for that generation of solid-state - the original combo it came from is comparable to a 50W 1x12" valve guitar amp. The power transistors and heatsink are over-engineered for the output power, and even the rectifier has a heatsink - that would be rare to find nowadays. If anyone's worried by what looks like a bulged end on the filter cap nearest the heatsink, it's just the plastic cover having got a bit too warm - a lot of them are like that but I've never seen the cap fail.

That sounds awesome! 

Keefy

ICBM said:

You could build that into a plain casing and make a perfect pedalboard power amp.

These are extremely rugged and reliable amps which also sound very good, and loud for that generation of solid-state - the original combo it came from is comparable to a 50W 1x12" valve guitar amp. The power transistors and heatsink are over-engineered for the output power, and even the rectifier has a heatsink - that would be rare to find nowadays. If anyone's worried by what looks like a bulged end on the filter cap nearest the heatsink, it's just the plastic cover having got a bit too warm - a lot of them are like that but I've never seen the cap fail.

That's exactly the sort of use I had in mind. I meant to say, I have traced the back panel cutouts to help the buyer mark out their enclosure for drilling and cutting.

Also I double checked and the plastic end caps of the capacitors are both flat, you're just seeing a reflection of a ceiling light!

ICBM

Keefy said:

I meant to say, I have traced the back panel cutouts to help the buyer mark out their enclosure for drilling and cutting.

From memory, although the original chassis is cut out for the whole rectangle of the heatsink, you could actually just drill for the bolts and fit the heatsink to the outside - with some thermal paste on both sides of the chassis it will still work effectively enough. That would make the enclosure work much simpler.

Keefy said:

Also I double checked and the plastic end caps of the capacitors are both flat, you're just seeing a reflection of a ceiling light!

Even better . Funny how you get optical illusions like that...

Keefy

ICBM said:

Keefy said:

I meant to say, I have traced the back panel cutouts to help the buyer mark out their enclosure for drilling and cutting.

From memory, although the original chassis is cut out for the whole rectangle of the heatsink, you could actually just drill for the bolts and fit the heatsink to the outside - with some thermal paste on both sides of the chassis it will still work effectively enough. That would make the enclosure work much simpler.

...

That's true, I actually thought it had been made that way until I took the module out.

Keefy

Powerful bump