PL 400 series 1

GMEAD

GMEAD

New Around These Parts
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Apr 20, 2024
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I recently bought some PL amps at an estate sale. One of which is what I believe to be 400 series 1 (4 fins). It works perfectly with the exception of dim lighting on the VUs. Of course after doing some reading I'm a little concerned for my speakers. It's very clean inside and may have new caps and a new looking board. Could you please identify the board and tell me if this amp has been upgraded sufficiently to trust to run my speakers without burning up the drivers that are no longer available?
 

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I have a 4 fin 400 which has darkly tinted meter lenses. Dark enough so that without directly viewing the original incandescent bulb filaments, I could not tell that they were lit. Bright white LEDs on a White Oak lightboard overcame the dark tint.

Is that a date stamp on the top left corner of your board?
 
You are in dangerous original/unmodified equipment territory. The board and the amplifier are very clean, but are all original and likely 45 years old.
At a minimum, you should add a DC Protection Relay/Delay Board to protect your speakers. It is cheap insurance. You can install it yourself if you are handy with a soldering iron. Or, some of the techs on this Forum can do it for you.

Where are you?
 
mlucitt said:
You are in dangerous original/unmodified equipment territory. The board and the amplifier are very clean, but are all original and likely 45 years old.
At a minimum, you should add a DC Protection Relay/Delay Board to protect your speakers. It is cheap insurance. You can install it yourself if you are handy with a soldering iron. Or, some of the techs on this Forum can do it for you.

Where are you?
Click to expand...
I'm in Western Washington. I have a guy that can fix anything and he's affordable. I was thinking of getting the Dual Mono board kit from White Oak as that's supposed to be the cure all so I think I'll probably order that and a light kit and leave it unplugged until it's installed. Thanks for the ID on that board.
 
GMEAD said:
I'm in Western Washington. I have a guy that can fix anything and he's affordable. I was thinking of getting the Dual Mono board kit from White Oak as that's supposed to be the cure all so I think I'll probably order that and a light kit and leave it unplugged until it's installed. Thanks for the ID on that board.
Click to expand...
mlucitt said:
You are in dangerous original/unmodified equipment territory. The board and the amplifier are very clean, but are all original and likely 45 years old.
At a minimum, you should add a DC Protection Relay/Delay Board to protect your speakers. It is cheap insurance. You can install it yourself if you are handy with a soldering iron. Or, some of the techs on this Forum can do it for you.

Where are you?
Click to expand...
So are the DC Protection boards available from source's other than White Oak? I seem to be having a communication challenge with them.
 
They just took a lot longer to respond to my email than I expected. All is well now.
 
GMEAD said:
They just took a lot longer to respond to my email than I expected. All is well now.
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Hi Greg, I try to be very prompt but my day job and government get in the way very often. And we are in peak season for the government activities as we are 1 week away from annual town meeting...
 
Gepetto said:
Hi Greg, I try to be very prompt but my day job and government get in the way very often. And we are in peak season for the government activities as we are 1 week away from annual town meeting...
Click to expand...
Those pesky day jobs. I understand. No worries. Actually the extra couple days gave me a lot better understanding on where to start this process.
 
GMEAD said:
Those pesky day jobs. I understand. No worries. Actually the extra couple days gave me a lot better understanding on where to start this process.
Click to expand...
.

A week ago, I got off a nine day cruise in the Caribbean. I made it a point to be off-line. I didn’t want to let the world know the house was empty. It can be a struggle to keep up with everything. I went straight from the cruise ship to my Houston office and started a class next day. I try to keep stock at the Houston office, where I average over 100 nights year. Retirement is looming later this year. No doubt that will free up some time to catch up.
 
Retirement is looming later this year. No doubt that will free up some time to catch up.
Ha! When you retire, you are working for a new boss, and that guy is a pain in the ass.
 
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