# Kent a-160 help



## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Good morning,
First time posting here.
Picked up a w a Kent a-160 amp off kijiji. It’s Canadian made and I’m having trouble finding any info on it. It’s a smaller head running two el84s, two 12ax7s and a smaller type preamp tube. the problem I’m having is that it has no marking on it that say what impedance cab to connect. I found only one set of pictures online from reverb. It showed what I think is an 8 ohm speaker. Though I can’t assume it’s the right speaker. 

Anyone have any idea what impedance cab I should use?
The output transformer only has “12 45 DHY5” written on it.

Does anyone know anything else about these amps?
wattage, sound quality, anything?

I have run across other Kent type amps, but they were made over seas, were 4 ohm and I’m not totally sold were the same company.

last question.

The speaker jacks on this thing are RCA type. I’ve never seen that before.
There two. I can only assume the left is the normal jack and the right is for an extension cab.
Has anyone run across RCA speaker jacks before.
They are not connected together. Each jack has a separate output transformer wire running to it.
I will include a bunch of pics. The set will be of the only one I found online. Mine does not have the front grill cloth anymore (for now)
I’ll post more of my own head, however the are identical, except of course I don’t have the cab.


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

I think that Kent was just a brand name slapped onto a lot of cheaper dept store musical gear made in various places. The output would be either 4 or 8 ohms...just try both and see which you like better.

Here are some instructions on how you can figure it out, but I wouldn't bother 

Output Transformer Impedance


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Welcome to the GC forum. I have fond memories of Kent amps and guitars. IIRC, they were distributed through Simpson-Sears in Ontario.

Some of the early Fenders used RCA jacks for the speaker connection.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Hey thanks guys. Pretty sure the speaker in pic is an 8ohm. I’ve got a cab I can rig for that, so I’ll start with that and give it a try. I figured these were probably a department store brand. Paid very little for it, so no huge loss if it isn’t amazing. 
If that’s all those rca plugs are, I can solder that up pretty easily. 
I’ll give it a go this weekend and let you know if it catches fire.
Probably need to replace some, probably all capacitors.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Good Luck with it!

Any chance of some pics of inside the chassis? Thanks.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Will do. I’m just packing to head out to the cottage. I’m bringing it with me and will crack it open again tonight for some inside shots.


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

I believe it's a Pepco made amp. Made in Montreal. Check this site: Pepco tube amps: History


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

SteveAppleton77 said:


> Will do. I’m just packing to head out to the cottage. I’m bringing it with me and will crack it open again tonight for some inside shots.


I will be heading to my camp near Atikokan on Monday. You anywhere in that area?


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

KapnKrunch said:


> I will be heading to my camp near Atikokan on Monday. You anywhere in that area?


Actually sort of. I’m out in Thunder Bay. Our camp is on the sleeping giant. Not right next door, but considering how big Canada is that’s pretty close!


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

SteveAppleton77 said:


> Our camp is on the sleeping giant.


This would pair well with the trip to your cottage...


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

greco said:


> This would pair well with the trip to your cottage...
> View attachment 319130


The Sibley Peninsula, aka" The Sleeping Giant", is a well-known landmark, but still... there's no excuse for calling your scaffolding business: "Sleeping Giant Erection". (As some clown in the Kakabeka area did.)


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

A few inside and one outside pic. That one preamp tube is a 6AT6. Never heard of it before


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

SteveAppleton77 said:


> A few inside and one outside pic.


Thanks for the pics. Much appreciated.
PTP at its finest!


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Plugged it in this morning, unfortunately no joy. Powers up. Looks like tubes are heating up, but it was pretty bright where I was. But no sound other then some scratching when I move treble and bass. No scratching when volume moved. I’ll swap out some tubes to see if I have a bad one. Some look original so after 55 years could be a bad one. Going to change out the caps too.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Ok I take it back. I gave it one more try. I made sure the tubes were all in place, fired it up and voila. Not an overly loud amp. Nice clean tone though. Still though, I’ve gotta imagine this thing should be louder then it was. Very little break up. Hmm still think new tubes and caps will help. An 8ohm speaker seems to do the trick.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Forgot to mention. The tremolo effect is not working at all. I don’t have a foot switch for it. I tried plugging in a short patch cord and connecting the tip and ground to try and simulate a switch closing and completing the circuit. No idea if that was a stupid idea or not, but either way it didn’t work. Guess I’ve got a few things to figure out.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Three-prong on it? Not likely. Be careful, eh? Long way back to the Regional Hospital.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Ya gonna swap that out now that I know I works.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

KapnKrunch said:


> Three-prong on it? Not likely. Be careful, eh? Long way back to the Regional Hospital.


Good advice! 

You made me think back to when I was a teen, pretty much alone at a lake cabin, when I had a skill saw kick back on me. Got me right across the thigh. Cut my jeans wide open for about 9", but just barely broke the skin on my leg. About then, I realized I was at least an hour and a half away from the closest hospital. One of life's lessons I carried with me from then on.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Lincoln said:


> Good advice!
> 
> You made me think back to when I was a teen, pretty much alone at a lake cabin, when I had a skill saw kick back on me. Got me right across the thigh. Cut my jeans wide open for about 9", but just barely broke the skin on my leg. About then, I realized I was at least an hour and a half away from the closest hospital. One of life's lessons I carried with me from then on.


No shit. my jamming buddy on the other side of the village cut his inner thigh with a utility knife and didn't make it across the lumber yard before he blacked out. Luckily the guy on the forklift saw him go down. 

And get this: I was talking to my neighbour just an hour ago when his niece went by on a quad, lost control and we saw her slam into the water truck they were using to fill the pool. Helmet strap cut her chin. To the hospital for likely stitches and a scar for life. Poor thing. Thank goodness for the helmet -- the way she hit! Be careful. 

EDIT: three stitches and scar won't show. And not the strap. The helmet was on properly


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Those Japanese oil filled caps are problematic. Could be responsible for the lack of trem and even low signal.
I don't think these break up all that much, and not terribly loud, but should be loud enough to bother somebody nearby. 
The trem tube could also be responsible. Whichever one tube that you can remove and the amp still makes sound will be the trem tube. (seem to recall the 6AT6?).
Also, try the other speaker output. They are 2 different impedance outs. Can't recall if 4 & 8 or 8 & 16 ohm. They don't label them.
The correct one should be a bit louder.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Wow good info JB. You sound like you’ve dealt with these before. A new set of tubes should ship tomorrow. Hoping to order a new set of caps in the next day or two, but they will probably take a bit longer as they’ll be coming fro the states. 
Would you or anyone else here think changing resistors is worth it? I know old caps get leaky, but I’ve never heard anyone say the resistors go bad after a while.
May do potentiometers too, though annoyingly they aren’t labeled, so I’ll have to try and test them to see what they are. 
Any idea what wattage these things are? Just from it’s size and lower volume I was guessing 10ish watts


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Old carbon comp type resistors may sometimes drift upward in value. If not more than 20% high they should be fine. Any resistors that read low probably have something in parallel and you should disconnect one end and re-check. It's extremely rare for a resistor to go low in value.
If you get it all functioning right, the resistors are likely ok.

I think 10watts is ballpark, maybe even a bit generous for these.
Was there a 12AX7 and a 12AU7 installed? I thought I may have a schematic but I must have been thinking of some other model.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Interesting that you ask. There’s two 12ax7s but someone wrote on the chassis in front of one of the tube sockets “12au7”. So I’m guessing one was a 12au7 and got swapped out for a 12ax7.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Capacitor questions. I’ve got a handful of ceramic disc caps and I’m really not sure of the value. They are labelled .01M Z5U. I assumed that was .01uf, but the .01uf I looked up were super small compared to what I’ve got. They other one is .005. No units. Pictures attached of course. 
The other ones (different amp) is a large 100MFD 150 electrolytic and a smaller 100uf 50 electrolytic. I assumed MFD was uf, until I saw these two. The MFD is rather larger then the uf. Any ideas. Don’t want order caps until I know for sure what I need.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Great pics! Thanks for posting them.

What is the FR10 and similar? 

The "symbol" on the upper and left one (sort of) looks like a diode...but I'm only guessing as these are new to me.


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

jb welder said:


> Those Japanese oil filled caps are problematic. Could be responsible for the lack of trem and even low signal.
> I don't think these break up all that much, and not terribly loud, but should be loud enough to bother somebody nearby.
> The trem tube could also be responsible. Whichever one tube that you can remove and the amp still makes sound will be the trem tube. (seem to recall the 6AT6?).
> Also, try the other speaker output. They are 2 different impedance outs. Can't recall if 4 & 8 or 8 & 16 ohm. They don't label them.
> The correct one should be a bit louder.


Indeed, all the oil filled caps should go. If they haven't failed yet, they will.


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

greco said:


> Great pics! Thanks for posting them.
> 
> What is the FR10 and similar?
> 
> ...


They are diodes greco. The stamp to the left of the diode stamp is a manufacturer symbol I believe.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

nonreverb said:


> They are diodes greco. The stamp to the left of the diode stamp is a manufacturer symbol I believe.


Thanks!


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Great I was actually going to ask about those too. They are actually out of an Ace-tone 301 I got from the same guy. Changing out caps on that one too. Hopefully the I can find new diodes to replace if these are toast


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Anyone have any idea on the ceramic disc caps?


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

SteveAppleton77 said:


> Anyone have any idea on the ceramic disc caps?


well, Pepco used a lot of them. They have a tendency to be micro-phonic. Some techs remove them on sight. Tap on them with your chop-stick and see if they are noisy?


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Ya I was just gonna pull them all. It was the value I was unsure about. 
.01M ?
And 
.005
I’m just not sure if that’s .01uf and .005uf


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

I don't recall ever seeing a ceramic disk type go bad. It's extremely rare.
I'd replace microphonic ones like @Lincoln said.
There must be reasons for their use in certain positions. To replace them 'on sight' is a bit presumptuous I think. 
Consider all the vintage Fender and Marshall amps that always use them in specific circuit positions. They kept using them for some reason or other. Not just for cost purposes.
Yes, those .01 and .005 are uF values.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Well frankly leaving them in would save time. I’ll re cap all the others and chop stick the caps. Hopefully there still good.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Following this thread with interest.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Finally got parts in and have started changing everything out. 
I’m a little confused how to add in the three prong cord. Any ideas?
I had read that it involved sending the hot wire from switch to fuse and removing the “death cap”.
I have two .047uf caps both to ground. One off the on/off and one off the fuse. Are they both death caps. 
Could use help!


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Ok after looking at it.
The hot wire joins in at the power switch. Then to an unused tab on the rectifier socket that’s leads to a black wire off the power tranny and the pilot light. There is a 0.047uf cap to ground at the switch.
The neutral wire is going to the fuse then on to another power tranny black wire and the other side of the pilot light. As well a 0.05uf (haven’t changed that one yet) to ground.
I’ve seen a few diagrams, though nothing exactly like this, that would seem to suggest

Hot wire -> fuse -> on/off switch -> black tranny wire/pilot light.

Neutral wire -> pilot light/other black tranny wire

green of course to ground lug on tranny

Am I close? 

If this is right/close, I’m not sure what to do with those two caps. Are they even death caps? This thing has an actual standby switch not one of those fender ground switches.

Again any ideas?


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

SteveAppleton77 said:


> Hot wire -> fuse -> on/off switch -> black tranny wire/pilot light.
> 
> Neutral wire -> pilot light/other black tranny wire
> 
> green of course to ground lug on tranny


Yes, you are correct about the wiring. 
And remove both caps that go from AC line to ground (at fuse holder and at power switch).


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

That’s great!!!
Thanks!!
It’s all I’ve got left to do. I’m excited to see if it works.


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Ok,
New caps , new tubes and three prong power cord.
fired it up and am seeing life coming back into this thing.
tremolo works perfect now.
The only thing wrong now is low volume and the volume control doesn’t next to nothing.
it sounds like it’s stuck at maybe half way.
volume from 0-8 is all the same, maybe half. That’s including off. It’s hard to say half without knowing how loud this amp actually is.
from 8-10 there’s actually a slight decrease in volume. Very slight. As well the treble control, which was unresponsive as well, starts to work a small amount.
I did spray contact cleaner into all the pots prior to trying it again. The first time I had tried it, I found the volume, treble and bass were very scratchy.
Thinking a few bad pots? I had worried it was possibly the output tranny as the volume was low, but as I seems to have no control of the volume or treble I’m leaning to pots.
What do you guys think? Seem like the right thinking?
Any other possible things it could be?
Also for funny re did Tolex and put some fender style grill cloth like it originally had.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Following with interest. 

Nice work...Congrats!


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Thanks!! It was a lucky find!


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Ok so after a little trouble shooting. My volume and treble pots test fine. The grounds test fine.
there’s a bright cap on the volume pot. Looks pretty old. It’s old colour coding. Looks like about 7500pf.
if it was bad could it cause the volume to be unresponsive and stuck about 1/3-1/2 volume?


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

volumes on the left treble on the right. Bass just out of view on the right


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## SteveAppleton77 (Jun 26, 2020)

Absolute success!!
A bad bright cap on the volume. Changed out working perfect. Sounds fantastic! A great clean machine with a touch of crunch at the top of the volume. And Canadian made. Well mostly.
I’ve got a jtm45 and a tweed deluxe (kits of course) so a clean amp is a perfect addition.
Thanks all for the help again!
I’ve got one more amp to redo, so I’ll be back I’m sure.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Yay!!


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