CHAMP ELECTRONICS -" THE VINTAGE VALVE AMP HOSPITAL"

NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND

THE RE-BIRTH OF A 1962 SELMER TRIUMPH REVERB AMPLIFIER

Sometime back in the summer of 2009, a gentleman contacted me asking if I would be interested in a Selmer 300 Echo Unit and a Selmer Triumph Reverb Amp, but the amp was in chassis form only; no cabinet and no speakers but there was a replacement reverb tank that I could have with it.

I like collecting/restoring all my Italian Geloso amps and designing/making all my crazy projects but.....I am not really bothered about collecting anything else. However, I know a man who does like collecting stuff.....especially Selmer! It is my friend and Webmaster.....Steve. I put the two of them in touch with each other and the rest as they say......is history!

Steve, now being the owner of the 300 Echo and the Triumph Reverb chassis (which is quite a rare Selmer Amp), asked me to deal with all the electronics on the amp and source some speakers for it. He also commissioned my other good friend Bob (Kingsbury) of Kingsbury Joinery Services to make a replica cabinet for it.......based purely on the information gleaned from the 1960's Selmer catalogue entry!

The rest of the story is simply told in all the photos. Enjoy the read. 

Cheers, John.

The replica cabinet made by Bob and using as a guide only an old catalogue which detailed the dimensions!








The chassis now in it's new cab along with two nice Elac 8" drivers that I had sourced for it....probably sounding better than the three original 10" x 6" elliptical Elacs! At this point I have not done any work on the chassis.








Yuk.......here we go again!


















One wrong knob! Shame.....I don't have anymore of these left!








This amp had had some strange modifications done to it in the past. No bother though......pretty much all that needed replacing and sorting has been done here in this photo.








As above.








Completely finished here along with a new power cable.








And the fitting of a Euro power socket.....as requested by Steve.








The reverb tank that had been supplied by the seller was not the correct impedance type. I therefore had to buy this replacement full-sized Accutronics tank. I also added two in-line floating jack sockets to enable the use of foot-switches for both the tremolo and reverb on/off. Far better than having the leads permanently hard-wired as they were originally!








All done!








Although the original front cloth is not available anymore and the two-tone blue/grey is not quite the same shade as the original Selmers.....I think she looks pretty smart and cool nevertheless!

"I certainly will John. What a great little amp this now is, and what a transformation from the very sad-looking chassis in the cardboard box that I handed over to you a few weeks ago. 

It sounds very similar to the Selmer TV12, which has always been one of my favourites, but it has the added advantage of a bit more power and also in-built reverb. It doesn't get much better.......

The many hours of hard work that yourself and Bob put into this project has resulted in an amp which I am very proud to own. Many thanks to you both!

Keep up the good work! 

Steve"

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