1947 Kiesel Amplifier, Gothenburg, Nebraska
This is a rare little amp made by Kiesel and owned by Ken Haas of Reverend Guitars. It was made only in 1947, in Kiesel’s hometown of Gothenburg, Nebraska. In 1948 he moved to California, eventually changing the name of the company to Carvin (a blend of the names of his two sons, Carson, and Gavin).
This was an amp usually sold with a matching lap steel. This amp is in black MOP (known as “Processed Pearl Lumalith”), and is in excellent condition for an almost 75-year-old amp. Considered a “Student Amp”, the 1947 version was different from either the S6 or the S8 student amps – it is a one-year-only amp with a unique circuit. Some higher-end Kiesel amps shared the circuit designs of Dickerson and Oahu, but I couldn’t find the 1947 Gothenburg circuit anywhere (after a lot of researching).
Probably delivering 3-5 Watts through a 6” Qual-Nichols AlNiCo speaker, the circuit utilizes 4 tubes: a 5Y3 rectifier, 6C5 and 6SF5 preamps, and a 6V6 output tube. It has two inputs and an on-off switch. That’s it. No need for volume or tone controls; you have those on your guitar, right?
The amp is completely original. I suspect the tubes may even be original.
The circuit is very simple and uses a minimum of components. Here is a drawing I made of the circuit design. As far as I know, this is the only documentation of the circuit design available. I can’t find another anywhere.
“IF HUM OCCURS—REVERSE PLUG”
I modified the amp with a three-conductor power cable for safety (and so you don’t have to reverse the plug).
The electrolytic filter capacitors were original to the amp. I replaced these with higher voltage new units. I changed the first filter cap from 30 uF to 40 uF. I also replaced both of the 75-year-old coupling capacitors. The input jacks were corroded and were replaced. Everything else was left as is. All 4 U.S.A. manufactured tubes tested strong on my TV-7D/U. Amazing.
The bias was checked using the cathode resistor drop method. The plate voltage was 254 VDC and the drop across the 300 Ohm cathode resistor was 11.0 V. This equates to a 73% dissipation, or 8.8 Watts.
The amp sounds good, with minimal distortion, even at maximum volume.
