When I picked it up it felt light, and it was missing a jack or something from the front panel so I was kind of suspicious as to if it had any chance of still working, but regardless it was inexpensive and would still look cool if nothing else.
I learned a long time ago that it’s a good idea to take old things like this apart before plugging them into the wall. As I started to pull the chassis from the case I was disappointed but not surprised to see the tubes were missing (the lightness I noticed earlier made me suspect this might be the case).
…but then I noticed this slip of paper…
This piece of equipment hadn’t been gutted, it had been painstakingly restored into a solid-state device, complete with documentation!
I was really taken-aback by this. Not only had someone treasured this device enough to put-in the considerable effort needed to convert a piece of tube-based electronics to solid state, they cared enough about whoever might wind-up with it in the future to document their work and embed it inside the machine. Moreover the conversion was so thoughtful as to preserve as much of the original components as possible, making it virtually indistinguishable from the original form from the outside (aside from loosing some weight).
I went over the work to make sure it was safe to apply power and then plugged it in. Flipping the main switch the pilot light bloomed on and no magic blue smoke was released. I haven’t had a chance to confirm that everything still works yet (the output isn’t enough to drive a speaker and I didn’t have an unused amplifier handy at the moment) but given the included documentation I’m confident that even if it isn’t quite functional, I could repair it.
As you can see, it makes a lovely addition to the console.
I felt compelled to share this because the experience renewed some of my faith in humanity. Knowing that there was someone who did a thing like this, seeking no credit, compensation or attention and in all likelihood something nobody would ever know besides themselves made me feel a little less alone.
Jason J. Gullickson, 2026