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Arbiter Powerhouse battery powered guitar amplifier demo



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Acquired this late 1960's early 1970's Arbiter Powerhouse battery powered guitar amplifier.

I haven't serviced it yet as such( Hence the 100Hz hum, also played to close to the amp etc.), but couldn't resist powering it up and rattling a few riffs through it.

I've powered it up using a single PP3 size 9V battery
( The amp would have been powered originally using 2 x PP1 6V batteries in series, those are now obsolete).

That was relative easy, as I connected the plus terminal and the minus terminal from each connector to the PP3 9V battery.

(the other two terminals are used as a series circuit in combination with the on/off switch, for anyone who has the same Amp, you'll see two blue wires from each battery terminal, connected to the on/of switch)

I used a Vintage early 1980's Satellite junior budget guitar.

The Amp incorporates an early audio output IC ... TBA810S
And will operate from 9V to 14V DC

(Those early TBA810S audio output IC's where mostly used in TV audio amplifier circuits in the late 1960's up to the early 1980's)

As the amp's input voltage is being "starved" by around 3 volts, it develops and interesting Fuzz type clipping mode / overdrive.

Interesting small vintage amp made by the legendary Arbiter Electronics Ltd / Sound City, London based company.

(Not to be confused with any current Arbiter or even Dallas Arbiter named company, as that has nothing to do with the original company , they've seized to exist as such decades ago).
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Audio
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