A nice lady from Rossmoor Leisure World in Walnut Creek, California gave this to me after I fixed her cable TV.
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A nice lady from Rossmoor Leisure World in Walnut Creek, California gave this to me after I fixed her cable TV.
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17 users commented on " Pedersen Parade "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackSorry, the pictures weren’t centered. They are now! By the way, I thought there was a comment here. It’s gone now. I think someone wanted to know if this unit works and if I was thinking of selling it. Well, it worked perfectly the last time I tried it in 2003. None of the tubes overheated, there was no hum or noise (60 or 120 hertz) and the fidelity was quite good. I connected it to a bass guitar cabinet with a 15 inch Gauss woofer. Also, I understand that capacitors can go bad and cause a catastrophic failure. (smoke and fire)
With that in mind, I would never leave the amplifier on and unattended. I played the last part of “A Saucer Full of Secrets” by Pink Floyd. After this little photo session, the Pedersen is going back into my sock drawer after being wrapped in several plastic bags. And no, it is not for sale. I guess I’m just an old fuddy duddy.
Tube amps rule.
I wonder what that came out of?
Do you suppose it was a console cabinet?
I was watching this sexy Fisher stereo tube amplifier on Ebay and it kept going up in price – way out of my meager price range. It was one of the ones with the ‘center channel’ and it also had a ‘reverb in and out’ that was bussed together with rca jumpers and had all kinds of input and output options. SIGH!
Oh well.
Maybe I’ll find a free one or one from one of those behemoth console stereos from the fifties or early sixties. Hopefully a Philco.
I’m quite sure this amplifier has never been installed in a console. There are no brackets or screw holes where it could have been mounted. Copy this url into your browser:
http://www.hifilit.com/hifilit/Pedersen/pdq-3.jpg
If you are able to see the picture, there is a Pedersen Parade W-20 shown. It is slightly different. There are two 12AU7 tubes instead of a 6C4 and 12AU7 and the speaker terminals appear to be mounted on the output transformer. I think this unit was meant to be used with a preamplifier or “control” amplifier that has a switched AC outlet. The W-20 power cord would be plugged into the switched outlet on the preamplifier and be controlled by the power switch on the preamplifier. I hope this answers your questions.
Will you give me your professional opinion on devices for converting vinyl and tape to digital formats? There’s this DAK thing that looks perfect (picture & description at):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23242879/
but it’s so hard sifting through the online material and… can you help?
Was this dak guy real? You would have known all about him I guess
There’s also dak.com of course
Thanks!
Mr. EdgeEdge and all other NLand fellahs should have thoughts on this vinyl & tape to digital question too? I didn’t mean to advertise here
I ran across a Pedersen Parade amp and Pageant Tuner/Preamp installed in a huge Philco console at a thrift store. Not wanting the hassle of dealing with the console, and the store’s being unwilling to sell me just the Pedersen stuff, I informed a fellow vintage Hi-Fi enthusiast, who bought it. There are pictures here:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=230967
I’m sure he would be interested in selling it. I was unable to find any info on it other that this site and the one linked to above. Pedersen Electronics was located in Lafayette, CA, just down the road from Walnut Creek.
I’d be interested in any further info about the company.
Chicks, I guess there were several variations of the circuitry as my unit has a 6C4 on the input and your photo shows a dual triode as the first stage. Take a look at http://www.hifilit.com/hifilit/Pedersen/pdq-3.jpg and it is different as well. Notice the speaker output terminals are mounted on the output transformer.
Another interesting tidbit is the person that gave this to me actually lived in Lafayette, California where Pedersen began as a company. Also, I have the original packaging for the amplifier. Unfortunately the name “Pedersen Electronics” is only on the packaging tape used to seal the box and most of it is worn off.
Hi. My dad, John McConnell designed that piece, and as far as I can tell, all things (Rudi) Pedersen. I have little information on the company but I do own original, prototype and rebuilt examples, especially of the W-15’s and PRT preamps which live for vinyl by the way and if you are into that, and having gone this far and at the risk of immodesty, a top shelf rebuild job on these can have you in the company of the most coveted vintage or modern exotica money can buy, no kidding. Working, (though not aggressively for the budget) on a modern stereo version of the preamp…
Thank you, Libertyworld, for that comment. Sorry I didn’t respond sooner!
Libertyworld, a year ago you wrote: Hi. My dad, John McConnell designed that piece, and as far as I can tell, all things (Rudi) Pedersen. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have some paperwork referring to Pedersen as where my dad, L.E. Kramer, worked maybe 1949-51/52 or so. I would like to know more about the outfit. Dan Kramer, Fresno CA deekay@deekay.com
Dan Kramer said, in August 17th, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Libertyworld, a year ago you wrote: Hi. My dad, John McConnell designed that piece, and as far as I can tell, all things (Rudi) Pedersen. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have some paperwork referring to Pedersen as where my dad, L.E. Kramer, worked maybe 1949-51/52 or so. I would like to know more about the outfit. Dan Kramer, Fresno CA deekay@deekay.com
Really… That’s great.
Unfortunately, I have nothing about the company except some original product sheets, the W15 prototype & a vinyl system using their rebuilt preamps & W-15’s, A VPI/Clearaudio table & Tannoy speakers that I would put up against anything made today this side of $100K, and I’ve heard many expensive systems in my day. The preamps were cathode coupled, grounded grid units, the W15’s were among the first, possibly THE first commercial versions of D.T.N. Williamsons’ landmark 1947 design offered in the USA, exactly as he laid them down. I usually use the lower power tape output of the preamps which greatly simplifies the signal path, using only 1.5 triodes & still gives phono EQ.
Thank You for commenting! I really like vintage hi-fi, probably even more than before. As I’m getting older (just turned 59),I seem to be more attracted to old technology. I was very lucky to have worked in Rossmoor Leisure World in Walnut Creek, California. There was lots of old hi-fi and stereo gear there. I remember one gentleman had a perfect set of what I think were JBL C60 Sovereign 1’s and a McIntosh amplifier or receiver. I bought my Klipshorns from another Rossmoor resident and a very nice lady gave me her old Fisher XP-10 speakers which unfortunately I ruined trying to install new midranges.I bought a really nice pair of JBL 2118H (8 ohm version) 8 inch speakers thinking I could simply replace the existing midranges in the Fisher cabinets. I had already done it before with RadioShack 8 inch speakers.They were okay, but I wanted to see if the JBL’s would sound better. What I didn’t know is the version of JBL 2118H speakers that I received are a little more than a quarter of an inch larger in diameter due a decorative ring of brushed metal around the outside. I later realized that JBL had a line PA speakers called “Cabaret” and in particular the model 4612. The speakers I got were from this model or similar. When I tried to install a JBL speaker into one of Fisher cabinets the slightly larger rim wouldn’t clear the opening in baffle. I thought I could simply file or saw the opening. That was a mistake because ended up ripping the grille cloth which seems to be glued to the baffle.I think the hole in the baffle is too large as well and would leak air, reducing the the performance of the woofer. That was last year. Now I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the perfect Klipsch Cornwall 1 speakers I just purchased on eBay don’t get damaged in shipping!
As far the Pedersen power amplifier goes, all I can remember is this lady, a retired school teacher from Lafayette, California, now living in Rossmoor, spoke with Rudi Pedersen. I think she told me she purchased the W-20 A amplifier new from Pedersen in the 1950s also in Lafayette, California at that time.
Just for information here links to the JBL speakers that caused me a lot of grief:
A regular JBL 2118H:http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Normal-JBL-2118H.jpg
A JBL 2118H with decorative ring:http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/JBL-2118H-with-decorative-ring.jpg
A few things for the record – I’ll try not to wax prolific here. I would be very surprised if anybody besides Svend (Rudy) Pedersen were involved in the design of the Pedersen Electronics pieces – at least the circuits. My dad was very fussy & a perfectionist & pretty much an electronics genius from an early age. He moved into instrumentation design after Hi-Fi & after a few side trips into other things like designing with 2 others the scanning electron micrososcope @ Cal Berkeley.
As far as no noise in the unit – that makes sense – there shouldn’t be any – there are some stories behind that.
The retired school teacher angle also makes sense – my mom (Svend’s wife) was a teacher @ Acalanes High School in Lafayette (but never moved to Rossmoor so it must have been a friend).
I am digging deep into the interwebs to attempt a 2nd W50 channel to match the one I have. I could also part with mine I suppose as it’s not doing me any good in the attic but I’d really like to find a match if possible. Is anyone out there?
2nd attempt….1st went into electronic nether-land.
Rossmoor Leisure World ? Boy, if that don’t say “hoity-toity”, I don’t know what would. Wife was a nurse there in the mid-nineties, and I was the maintenance lead there until just before she was hired. BTW, she and I met at Michael Anthony’s, when I was playing with the Friends Band. I know this is off-topic, but reading this blog brought back some very good memories of simpler times.
So, to my question….finally. I want to build a tube amp specifically designed for a harmonica. What type of txformers are most suitable for a tube amp. And, if you know this, is there a difference between a regular ole run-of-the-mill txformer, and an Audio txformer?
Is Diamond Syl’s still there? The drive-in (er, flea market I mean)?
weatherman, i never especially liked klips. the ones i had were tinny but maybe you had better ones. i love family tapes. maybe i’ll get into tubes. i used to have a bunch of carver.
While practicing a dance routine for the Mayor’s float for the Founder’s Day parade, Tom injures his knee. Ben, who has invented a “Brainerator”, a device that converts simple talk to intellectual talk so that he can understand what Tom means to say, has had enough of the gang’s silly antics, and, under the advice of Xenon, joins a secret intellectual society called the S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S (The Super Mentally Advanced Really Truly Intellectually Endowed Society), easily passing their initiation. But when he brings the S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S to the garage, the S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S make fun of Ben’s friends due to their being average in terms of intellect, which eventually upsets Ben, who then sabotages their “No-Brainerator”, which the S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S had made so that they could make fun of his friends, and quits the S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S and then reconciles with Tom at the Founder’s Day Parade. app, but Tom and the others become interested in Hank’s new food item, the Taco Spaghetti Burger (T.S.B.). A passerby finds it delicious, and soon the gang converts the garage into a restaurant. Ben gets upset and parts ways with Tom, recruiting Rhonda to promote the app. When the T.S.B. wanes in novelty, Tom and the gang start suggesting other ingredients for Hank to mix up, and they continue to have success until Ginger takes literally what Tom said about people drinking toilet water if they thought it was cool. The patrons get sick and start vomiting all over the garage. Tom rushes to the diner to apologize to Ben. Afterwards, the patrons visit the diner to use the bathroom although many do not make it to the stalls, much to Rhonda’s dismay.