My unfinished Beacon Four Niteshade audio preamp

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robtram

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
  • I like to collect and restore vintage tube gear
My unfinished Beacon Four Niteshade audio preamp
« on: 9 May 2025, 02:31 am »
Hello ACers,
                 Really hoping to get some info and help on this. Bought a bunch of stuff fro a friend of the late Blair and this was included. It is the preamp he talked about and was pictured in his post. Does anyone else have one of these?  It has two printed circuit boards that are not completely wired to the rest. Most of the tube section is wired. I assume it is a dual beacon 2 with the other circuits for. Volume control and input selection. It would be great to get this going.
    Thanks in advance.
Robert




















robtram

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
  • I like to collect and restore vintage tube gear
Re: My unfinished Beacon Four Niteshade audio preamp
« Reply #1 on: 9 May 2025, 02:56 am »
Sorry about the upside down pics. Guess I shouldn’t try to do this stuff so late at nite.

Robert

Ericus Rex

Re: My unfinished Beacon Four Niteshade audio preamp
« Reply #2 on: 11 May 2025, 05:11 pm »
I can't help you out with your question, but maybe can offer up some advice on what to do with what you have.

To my knowledge, Blair didn't design his own circuits. He used circuits found in old publications.  If you're able to spend the necessary time, you might get lucky and find what he was copying. Could take 2 hours, could take 2,000 hours.

Looking for another Beacon owner who could help you is a good strategy. Just know that many of his offerings were one-offs in one way or another. In other words, it is possible that no two Beacons were the same.

If, in the end, you're unable to build the exact Beacon, or the schematic therein, you have most of the parts there to make a preamp using another circuit. If I'm reading your pics right, you have four 6SN7s (a fav of Blaire, iirc) so you could find a mu-follower circuit online. You'll likely have to adjust the power supply circuity a bit.  The red PCBs are for remote-controlled volume and relay-based input selector. If you don't have the accompanying remote you may want to scrap those PCBs. They'd need a separate power supply anyway.

The good news here is that you already have the most expensive parts; transformer, choke, chassis and tubes. You should be able to make a good, traditional tube linestage preamp for not much more money.

Good luck!

robtram

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
  • I like to collect and restore vintage tube gear
Re: My unfinished Beacon Four Niteshade audio preamp
« Reply #3 on: 12 May 2025, 06:57 pm »
Yes that's what I was thinking. I could ditch the remote volume and relay switched inputs and concentrate on tracing out the tube circuitry. Thanks for the advice.

WGH

Re: My unfinished Beacon Four Niteshade audio preamp
« Reply #4 on: 12 May 2025, 07:50 pm »
... you already have the most expensive parts; transformer, choke, chassis and tubes. You should be able to make a good, traditional tube linestage preamp for not much more money.


Yes that's what I was thinking. I could ditch the remote volume and relay switched inputs and concentrate on tracing out the tube circuitry. Thanks for the advice.


I was wondering if AI would help. Enter in all the parts you have with model numbers and ask AI to make a preamp. Kind of like making a meal with the ingredients on hand.

Mike B.

Re: My unfinished Beacon Four Niteshade audio preamp
« Reply #5 on: 13 May 2025, 01:00 pm »
Blair had a tour of one of his simpler preamps for members here to try. It was a 2 tube model with no remote. The phono plug input on the back provided power for the tube heaters. Correct voltage was supplied by a over the counter plug in supply similar to a laptop power charger.

richidoo

Re: My unfinished Beacon Four Niteshade audio preamp
« Reply #6 on: 13 May 2025, 02:24 pm »
Looks to be in good physical condition, so it's probably a simple fault.
You don't need to document the circuit topology to diagnose a basic tube amp fault.

Probe power and signal paths, verify parts health, especially fuse and main electro PS cap. Make sure all caps are rated 400V.
Since both channels are dead, it's something they have in common, like PS, volume/mute, etc.

I'm sure you can find someone to help you if needed.