1959 Electro m-8E

The ELECTRO brand was an offshoot of the much more well known RICKENBACKER company, and this M-8E circuit was released under both brands simultaneously (although with different cosmetics). What we have here is essentially a similar design to the 1950’s Tweed Fender Champ. They are both Class A Single Ended 5 Watt circuits with a tube lineup consisting of: V1 = 12AX7 (Preamp), V2 = 6V6GT (Power Amp), V3 = 5Y3 (Rectifier). Both of them also lack any tone controls, have a single volume knob, and have a small cabinet with one 8” Jensen Speaker. Earlier M-8’s have the more unusual 6AV6 in V1 instead. The ELECTRO circuit does have some noticeable differences from the Champ, including the absence of: any Cathode Bypass capacitors, treble bleed capacitors, or negative feedback. It’s a perfect amp for Garage Rock Revival, Blues, Roots, or Rock. It’s especially suited to the recording studio due to its small size and reasonable volume levels.

This amp was DOA, with a blown filter cap can, blown speaker, and wrong power tube type installed. It was also missing almost every screw and washer - even on the baffle board. This guy needed everything that could be done in a restoration. The cap can was replaced with a new vintage spec CE brand multi-section 40uf/40uf @ 450V, 25uf/25uf @ 50v type unit. All new chassis screws/nuts, back panel screws and baffle board screws were installed. A new Jensen C8R 25 Watt 8” Speaker was installed to bring new life to the cab. The original speaker could not produce any notes above the 12th Fret and sounded like garbage - literally. I also put a couple of mods into the circuit to help bring a bit more gain and fuller/brighter frequency response to the amp. The 6V6GT was bypassed with one of the 25uf 50V sections of the cap can (full range frequency response/higher gain), and the V1b cathode was bypassed with a 1uf 50V film cap (treble/upper mid boost). The volume control had a 500pf 500v Silver Mica treble bleed cap added to increase brightness, especially at lower volume levels. They really brought the amp to an elevated level of tone that wasn’t there to begin with.

The original RCA 12AX7 and RCA 5Y3 tested great and were kept in place. For the 6V6 power tube I pulled out a period correct NOS RCA 6V6GT (Hammond Organ Reprint) type unit from my stash as it was perfect for this amp. Final tube lineup: V1 = RCA 12AX7, V2 = NOS RCA 6V6GT (Hammond Organ Reprint), V3 = RCA 5Y3. The Cathode Bias was adjusted and cooled down to bring the Plate Dissipation to a conservative %80 with a B+ of 310 VDC. The cool bias is a bit off the cuff for me but it just sounded right for this amp.

A correctly sized 1A 3AG fuse was put in replacing the over-rated fuse that came with the amp. A new 3 prong AC cord was installed and a 3 terminal tag board strip was put onto the OT so the OT secondary wires could be soldered in place rather than floating to the speaker tabs directly. A twisted pair of quick-disconnect speaker wires were then run from the tag strip to the speaker. There is less chance of damaging the delicate OT secondary wires this way compared to the original setup. Lastly the death cap was deleted for safety reasons. This is a fantastic sounding amp perfect for cranking all the way up.