St George Amp tremolo not working

[suryabeep]

Hi everyone,
I'm thinking about getting a St George combo amp I found on my local CL for $100. It's made in the 60's in Los Angeles, but the owner says the Tremolo doesn't work. Is this an easy fix? Is it worth it? There's not a lot of info about these amps out there, so I figured I'd ask you folks. Sorry if this isn't the right place to post, but I don't know where else to ask.
Thanks!

[thermionix]

Tremolo is usually an easy fix.  Bad tube, bad cap, in the case of many Fenders bad optoisolator.  Never heard of St George amps.  Can you find a schematic for it?  In any case, if the amp sounds good, it's worth $100 even with no trem.  Be prepared to do a cap job on it, remove ground cap(s), and add a 3-prong AC cord.

[suryabeep]

I can't find any schematic for it, but the owner posted some pics on CL. Is a cap job difficult to do, or would I be better off taking it to a tech?

[PRR]

> Is a cap job difficult to do, or would I be better off taking it to a tech?

Is it your plan in life to be an amplifier technician?

If so, this is a clean place to start, but it may need a LOT more work before it will gig reliably.

While there is some mystique about the Massey amps, they seem to have been made as low-price shelf fillers, for buyers who could not afford Fender. Meaning there is not enough up-side on this to justify a paid technician. I'd do it, if it was here, if you paid me a lot more than it is honestly worth.

Eyeballing your picture, the can-cap and the two "Black Beauties" should IMHO be replaced sooner rather than later (when they fry a tube). The far-right black cap with red end is probably shot (this could be your immediate problem as it appears to bump the gain of the trem oscillator). There will be more.

[Fender3D]

...Eyeballing your picture...

A few cents more, and you'll replace remaining resistors, caps and diode, too...

[thermionix]

I'd start with just the electrolytics and see where I am from there.  There were two series of Sprague "black beauties" (to the best of my understanding) and the later ones are much more reliable, like orange drops - poly-whatever film, with the earlier ones being paper and foil, same as "bumblebees" but with different printing.

I ended up spending some time last night reading about Ray Massie.  Interesting.  Apparently he worked with Leo in the late 40s, then Rickenbacker for a while, before starting Massie Electronics.  St George was a music shop that contracted Massie to build some amps for them.  People seem to like them, though they don't sell for much money.

Chassis pictured looks well-made, but only a few watts.  Probably a good recording amp.