Phoenix Gold Phorum

Just bought a m-50 with the serial # 1 on it off E-bay. Says that it has never Been powered up before since 1993. The thing is immaculate. Talked to alster in Portland , he says I should change the caps in it because they have a shelf life. Even though it has never seen power in 20 years. I would like to get your thoughts on this. The original box also has the # 1 serial number on it also. It should be shipped to my house around April 7 th. I will take a closer look at it. Hard to believe it was the first M-50 to come out of the Portland factory. Alec from Alster says the owner back then gave a few of them out to his close friends! Pretty wild stuff , if it is legit I'm not quite sure if I should power this bitch up or not. Love to hear some comments!

Nice score. From my understanding the same guy had a few other serial number 1s.

I would have the caps changed for sure. Now, whether to use it or not is up to you. The thing is, you power it up once then you can no longer honestly say that it's not been powered...the value to collectors drops way down.

Then again, I've never been a true collector. I had a rare car (1 of 3) and I drove it. Actually I raced it at the track. It was fun, but I pissed off a lot of purists. That's something that you need to decide for yourself.

don't power it up before the ps caps are replaced.....................

Yeah I was planning on Alec in Portland change them out , so that's in the works already !

That is 1 sweet amp!

Personally, i would not power it. Its gone 20+ years without and stayed prestine. Why change that? There are plenty of M50's out there to use if you need one to run.
Keep in mind, I am a collector. Like Vwdude said, once its powered one time, the collector value drops. That is the premium YOU paid when you bought. Other M50's could have been had for less money.
If you want to run it, i will trade you another, used M50+ more(amps or cash). In the end, its yours to do with as you please!

LL

I will definitely think about that offer for sure. I'm not the collector like a lot of people on this site. I have a lot of phoenix gold amps , but I like to use them. So trading it is definately an option for me . But if I have Alec change the caps , will that hurt the value ? It still won't have power to it !!

Thats a good question. There are 2 schools of thought on that. Some people prefer a collector amp (or whatever) to be untouched and never opened. This might be the scenario where it is worth the most. The other half say the caps should be changed if for nothing else than to protect it from damage of electrolytic fluid on the board.
Personally, i am not so anal as to need it 100% OEM, as long as it is done professionally with OE looking parts.

LL

We'll Alec built these amps when he was at PG , and pretty much does factory work . But I totally get what you are saying . I'm not going to put power to it, I just need to figure out what amp or amps I want to trade for it! That would be pretty cool if someone sat on this for another 9 years and made it 30 ! Let this thing get to the house and I'll figure out what I'm going to do. I wonder if a MS 2125 trade would be a decent trade ?? Just throwing it out there !!!

I'll bet there's a collector out there willing to trade a pristine m50 plus cash for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

While I'm not a collector, I can appreciate the idea and would probably trade/sell it in your case.

it is the #1 m50...its my buddy who sold it(ive known this guy since 93). he also has/had the #1 rt66 for sale recently

and for what its worth he also has the proto m50...check out the silver heat sink

Well actually that is true , but he sold this M-50 to a guy in Alabama a couple months ago , then this guy figured it was too nice to use in his install , and put it back up. Still never powered up !!! He wanted someone to have it that could appreciate it. ( which I do ) but the more I think about it , I don't want to be the one that puts a end to this sweet ass amp. I would rather trade it to a collector and get something I can actually use and not have this in my mind the whe time. Don't get me wrong, not asking to trade for a junker. Would like to get a clean amp and yes OLD SCHOOL PG.

So was this friend of yours friends with the owner back then ? Alec tells me the the owner back then gave some amps to his close friends.

my buddy was the original owner, technically it was his dads. if memory serves me correctly, my buddys parents had it mounted to a wall back in the 90s up till the shop closed down in the early 2000s. it sat in his garage till a few months ago when it was sold on ebay. im assuming the guy you got it from was the buyer.

i got confused alittle bit, but remember he did sell it on ebay. so as far as i know when he sold it, it has never seen power, unless the seller you got it from hooked it up.

my friend is the one that has a few #1 pg stuff, including the #1 nib bass cube(which i offered him 300 bucks and he said i already had a nib cube)and #1 octane amp(not for sale)

i also know he has the proto basscube, mx3, octane scroud, and of course m50

I totally agree with the guys! Have the caps done, it would be a shame to have a leaky cap cause damage to a piece of art like this. Congrats on the buy! I wanted to click the buy it now so bad I could taste it, but I have bought 5 other amps in the last few weeks, and don't want my wife to hang me by my nads!!

Thanks for the replies and advice. I recieved the amp , and it is a beauty. I think I will get the caps done, I have a MS 250 that needs done also , so I will get both of them done next time I head to Portland to fish. Still thinking about trading it eventually. Thanks again !!

Nice amp. Off topic but this Alec in portland. Is he in portland Oregon? I live in Tigard and need someone who knows what they are doing to repair a reactor. Thanks for the help.

You wont find anyone more qualified to work on these old PG's. Alec is a longtime PG employee and continues to work out of the Portland OR area, the home of PG!

LL

As far as I'm concerned he is pretty damn good. I'm taking 3 more amps in to have him re- cap them. He is the closest to you on the West coast to boot. There is a lot of guys on this site that can do it , but you can drive to Alec's house. I usually wait till the Salmon get in at Portland then just make it into a fishing trip / Amp drop off. Lol he worked at PG FOR 18 years is what he told me.

How do I get a hold of him. Is he on the forums?

yes he is on here but has his own site as well.

http://phoenixgoldrepair.com/