Available,another vintage variant of the Stancor A-3801 OT?

Express, Liverpool, Rocket, Dirty Little Monster, etc.

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RJ Guitars
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Available,another vintage variant of the Stancor A-3801 OT?

Post by RJ Guitars »

I found this Halldorson S-81 35 watt output tranny on eBay. Although I try to keep a lot of stock in vintage trannies, at some point I don't need any more and somebody here might want it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Early-Vintage-N ... SwjVVVzQ9h

From the specs it looks a lot like the A-3801 but I can't say for sure although I would guess that it would sound great in an Express.

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geetarpicker
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Re: Available,another vintage variant of the Stancor A-3801 OT?

Post by geetarpicker »

Looks like it's similar in size to a A-3801 though it doesn't appear to have the unique 3 layer core that is unique to these.
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Re: Available,another vintage variant of the Stancor A-3801 OT?

Post by RJ Guitars »

Thanks GeetarPicker... I am a little concerned about how rusty that core is but I figure it could probably be salvaged.

It's curious how many of those old 35 watt trannies have the 4, 8, 15, 500 ohm taps. I wonder if that was a standard spec for some piece of equipment back in the day? It doesn't say what the input impedance is but if it's 6.6K then that adds to the weird coincidence as well.

I have a couple Triad S-60 OT's that appear in every way to be identical to the original grey A-3801's that I have... apparently all of the these were manufactured in Chicago but I can't say if that is significant or not.

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Re: Available,another vintage variant of the Stancor A-3801 OT?

Post by Richie »

There are a few that are the same as the Stancor A 3801. Merrit made one, Also Thordarson 24s57 I believe is the number,just going off memory..:) I'd have to look up number info and cross them. But some are exactly the same, with different names or Brand names. I think Triad also made one.
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Re: Available,another vintage variant of the Stancor A-3801 OT?

Post by rhinson »

geetarpicker wrote:Looks like it's similar in size to a A-3801 though it doesn't appear to have the unique 3 layer core that is unique to these.
that's the butt stacking of the laminations in 3 distinct sections in a 3801. this hallodarson transformer looks more like a radiospares stack with regard to number lams stacked/oriented together. rh
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Re: Available,another vintage variant of the Stancor A-3801 OT?

Post by RJ Guitars »

This ran it's course on eBay and nobody bought so it relisted for about half the price and I took it. When it got here it was really ugly. I've cleaned it up and we'll see if it sounds decent once I can get it into an amp. It does not look like my Stancor trannies and it might be about as poor of a tranny wind job as I've seen for a factory unit. I'll let you know if anything noteworthy comes of it.
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Re: Available,another vintage variant of the Stancor A-3801 OT?

Post by RJ Guitars »

Here is a photo of the box. I'm not sure how they vacuum sealed stuff back in those days but I don't see much evidence of any special packaging.
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