Gibson Mercury II
CAUTION
LETHAL VOLTAGES PRESENT THROUGHOUT THE CHASSIS
1) Background
A project in this state would usually be past help, but this one's a bit special. I got it from Buzz Elliott up in Cumbria. He sold it on behalf of a friend who'd owned it since the 1970s. You can hear Buzz on stage with Hammerhead on his youtube channel at
https://youtu.be/yHPkkeujRIQ . He's on the left in the band photo.
This is the gist of what he said about the Mercury.
...In the mid 1970s the other guitarist in my school band 'Eight Hertz' aquired the amp from another local band called 'Rue & The Rockets'. They had bought it from Jimmy Henshaw who played with Carlisle 1960s band 'The VIPs'. We used it for about five years, after which my friend stopped playing regularly, and the amp was put in storage. Unfortunately, over the past 25 years it has deteriorated into quite poor condition due to being kept in various unsuitable places such as attics, outbuildings and garden sheds etc.....
... The speakers in the cab are the same ones that were in when it was bought by my friend, but we do not know if they are the originals. They are still working and sound loud and clear. The speakers are Celestion G15C 50W 55Hz bass resonance.....
Above: Fast forward to 2009
In 2006 the Cumbria based 'Times & Star' published a follow up article in it's Timeline series after Jim Henshaw saw this 1977 photograph of Eight Hertz on stage in the previous week's edition.
...Only an observant musician like Jimmy Henshaw would notice in last week's picture of group Eight Hertz that one of the guys was using his old amp. "It's the one I used when I played with The VIPs during the sixties and the one that Jimi Hendrix plugged into on his UK debut," remembers Jimmy...
Alastair Duncan and John Fisher's web site www.fenderstrat.co.uk (no longer available in 2020 unfortunately **) had a very interesting section about Jim Henshaw that described a VIPs' gig at the Scotch Of St James club in London on September 26th 1966. Having read several conflicting accounts of the gig, it's safest just to say that Chas Chandler took Jimi Hendrix along to the Scotch, where he borrowed Jim Henshaw's amp (this one) and sat in with the band for several numbers. This was probably his first public performance in the UK.
**Edit 2022: Hopefully someone will put fenderstrat.co.uk back up on the web at some point but, meanwhile, web.archive.org captured an htm copy of the whole site on Dec 2nd 2016 at
https://web.archive.org/web/20161202080452/http://fenderstrat.co.uk/
Fifty years later, Rod Harrod, who actually managed the Scotch at the time, describes the evening in his book "Jimi Hendrix 50 Years On - The Truth" (PROmpt Press 2016). He lists the songs that Jimi played that night, including Summer Time Blues, Wild Thing, and Hey Joe.
In "Eyewitness Hendrix" (Carlton 1999) Johnny Black has the same event occurring on the 27th of September.
Sadly Jim Henshaw died in 2007 after a long and well respected career in the music and electronics business. The VIPs' music is still very much available though. Amazon have a compilation CD, with 28 tracks of studio and live recordings (also available as an MP3 download).
Thanks also to 'juckreizdelmenhorst' for the YouTube post at http://youtu.be/yoTAdGFqoh8. Walter Johnstone would probably have been the drummer on this recording, not Mike Kellie.
23rd March 2010
Thanks to everyone who got in touch and a special thank you to Brian Atkinson who sent this email. The references to the electronics won't make much sense until you read the rest of the page, written some time ago.
Hi my name is Brian Atkinson From Carlisle. during the late sixties / early seventies i was employed by JP Dias Ltd music dealer in carlisle and remember the gibson mercury amp you are repairing, i repaired it many times after Jim Henshaw had parted with it. I can confirm that Jim did the mods to it. The transformers are indeed selmer although at first the gibson mains trans powered it till a big burnout in the output stage took the transformer as well due to someone trying the old silver paper round the fuses trick. The amp probably had been run without a speaker cab connected as the octal bases had "tracked" between heater and anode pins 2and3.The re build included new mains trans mc murdo octal bases screen feed and grid stopper resistors but can't remember if i fitted the caps they sound like the 32 mF 500 volt 500 mA caps that were used in the selmer tv100 type amps.I haven't seen this amp or it's duplicate which belonged to frank kenyon for years although i am still in touch with one of the "sister" amps previous owners. As for the speaker cab i would be shocked to discover Jim had fitted the 15" celestion spider frame speakers which probably came from a vox T100 cab(2x15") or from 2x vox T60 cabs which had a 15 and a 12 in them.As i recall the knobs were all black apart from the power switch that was red.Don't recall any problems with that type of power switch but i liked the idea of it.The 10" driver from the cab was a sealed driver for high frequency use and there was a crossover in the cab which i may still have !! For some reason i think the cab had 4 x 10" celestion drivers that marshall used but maybe that was the "sister" amp.Hope i have been some use and feel i should mention Jim was very much a local music and Electronics Hero looked up to by all the local musical beginers like myself and by established players Sadly missed !! R.I.P jimmy! Regards Brian Atkinson
As Brian points out, Frank Kenyon also used a Mercury setup. I wonder where that is now.
14th October 2010
Another thank-you to Brian and Keith Jefferson for coming up with this photograph of The VIPs on stage at the Star Club in Hamburg. Jim is seated at the keyboards on the right with his Mercury in the backline. Frank Kenyon is standing in front of his matching set-up.
Greg Ridley is on bass on the left, Mike Harrison is on vocals and Walter Johnstone on drums. Greg eventually joined Steve Marriot, Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley in Humble Pie while Mike went on to sing with Spooky Tooth.
LEFT and BELOW: YouTube post by Станислав Табацкий (Stanislav Tabatsky ?) showing both Mercuries on stage in a 1966 French TV appearance.
Buzz has very kindly looked into the amp's history a bit more.
Hello again Chris, I have been trying to do a little research regarding the Gibson Mercury and I can confirm the following:-Steve Wilson (Eight Hertz) owned it from 1975/6 until you purchased it. I originally thought that Steve got it directly from 'Rue & the Rockets', but he tells me that he actually got it from a family band called 'The Macauleys', who appeared on the UK Television show 'New Faces' round about 1974/5, I've tried to find out info' on the net about the 'Macauleys' on this programme, but to no avail.The rest of the story is pretty much as I told you:- that they purchased it from 'Rue & the Rockets' who used to use one either side of the stage, (we used to call them the Gibson pyramids), and they got it from Jimmy Henshaw, I'm not quite sure of the dates that the amp changed hands............
I've tried to track down The Macauleys too and, although there are New Faces contestant lists, they're incomplete.
2) ANYWAY...
Whatever the ins and outs of who owned / played through it, the Mercury is still an interesting amp and well worth the effort of getting it going again.
This is going to get complicated now because it isn't actually a standard Mercury inside the box. Over the years the power section has been rebuilt as a typical 4xEL34, 100watt job. Output valve bases (including two extra ones), electrolytics, mains and output transformers are new. The choke is original Gibson.
UPDATE: See Brian's email above
When was it first modified ? I don't know but it was probably after the Hendrix session.
The pot source/date codes indicate early 1964 so the original amp must have been made after this and I can't see anybody, especially a working musician, stripping a very expensive, one/two year old import.
One of the replacement caps is marked with the rectangular RS logo (instead of the Radiospares flying man) and I don't think this appeared until 1971.
According to the Celestion website, date codes on the speakers (26LG and 29LG) could indicate the 26th and 29th of December 1962 or the 26th and 29th of November 1997. Since December 26th was a Bank Holiday (Boxing Day) and the factory at Ipswich apparently didn't open until 1968, that would make them 1997. The other LG possibility (November 1974) would have the day code after the letters, e.g. LG26.
The 1997 dates don't tie up with the change of ownership so, unless the codes are wrong, there's another mystery. I contacted Celestion (very helpful people) and they said that there have been occasional anomalies in the stamps, so 74 couldn't be ruled out. "...after all, it was the seventies" (their words not mine).
The electrolytic supplying the preamp is marked P 74 02 (Feb 1974?) and the two larger Erie caps are AYN KB 706 (June 1967?). The Eries look fairly worn and were probably second hand when they were fitted.
3) The whole chassis has been sprayed with grey primer at some time, probably to stop the rust. Nice to know somebody cared. Bugger to get off though.
It wouldn't be too difficult to put the speakers back to normal but there wouldn't be any point. The originals wouldn't handle the power anyway and it would destroy forty five years worth of history. (Have a look at section 16 to see what happened next)
4) When it was new the speaker cabinet would have had one 15" and one 10" CTS/Jensen driver with a crossover. The normal output power of a Mercury was 35W so the originals obviously had to go when the amp was modded.
Replacements are Celestion G15C 15" rated at 50W each (see update in section 1)
Part of the tuning port has been cut away next to the old 10" position and the hole in the baffle has been almost blanked off.
The back of the cabinet is in two parts with a tilt-back leg recessed into a centre strut.
5) This rig hasn't been used for a long time and the whole thing is too far gone to just switch it on. Apart from dire state of the mains wiring one of the screen grid resistors has been running hot and burnt off the printing. Right next to it is a hole melted through the heater wiring. It's possibly an old short that's been pulled apart.
Unfortunately, history or not, a fair amount of wiring will have to be replaced before it's safe to use.
The most worrying things is the mains on/off switch. See section 9 below.
The existing switch is rated at 3A at 110V A.C. or 1A at 250V, although 250V operation wasn't an option on the original amp. A new switch would be favourite given the state of it. The original fuse holder has been changed to a 20mm version mounted in a grommet (presumably to clear the new mains transformer) but the original Leecraft 125v neons are still there.
6) Gibson Mercury Schematic
This is what survives of the original circuitry. The shaded area is Gibson. The rest of the components are modifications.
The LDR R27 was missing altogether with no hope of finding another one. It's probably no help to anyone but this worked:
Lamp: T46 filament indicator lamp. 22 x 4mm. 24v 20mA.
LDR: Token Electronics PGM5537-MP. 16 - 50kohms. 100mWatt. 540nM. 150vdc.
This is what the original would have looked like.
7) Clean Up
The front panel was a lot worse than it looked in the 'before' pictures at the top of the page. Most of the plating was sitting on top of rust and it was just falling off. It's surprising how much of the screen printing survived. Shame it got into this state but, hopefully, it won't get any worse.
A big problem is trying to find some replacements for the missing control knobs. They were made by Rogan (who also made knobs for cookers). They measure 28.5mm across the circular part and fit split, 1/4", 24 spline shafts. There are seven missing altogether including the red one that fits the power switch.
8) Output Valves
The four EL34s came out some time ago so I'm not sure which one went where but, judging by the damage to the base, valve d was in the socket where the screen grid resistor shorted out. One of them's also missing a lug.
The AVO test results should be: Ia = 75mA, mutual conductance = 11mA/V
Test settings were: VA = 250V, VS = 250V, VG = -13.5V
Valve a: Mullard xf3 B5G1; Resistance C-H (hot) 24M; Ia 76mA; gm 9.6mA/V
Valve b: No markings, no date code; Resistance C-H (hot) 15M; Ia 69mA; gm 9.2mA/V
Valve c: Mullard xf3 B5F4; Resistance C-H (hot) 2M; Ia 79mA; gm 11mA/V
Valve d: No markings, no date code; Resistance C-H (hot) 25M; Ia 76mA; gm 8.5mA/V
The cathode to heater leakage in valve c doesn't really matter in this circuit as there's very little potential between them.
9) Power Switch
The worlds most complicated on/off switch, made by CTS. The source code stamped into the metalwork indicates a manufacturing date of September 1963. This ties in nicely with the early 1964 pot codes.
Gibson used a four way switch designed to work with the USA mains system. The Mercury handbook explains it's operation.
"A convenient switch has been provided for performing a total of three functions, turning the amplifier on and off, putting the amplifier in 'Standby' and selecting the proper polarity of the power source which reduces the A.C. hum and other extraneous noises to a minimum. In the 'Standby' position the amplifier is kept 'warmed up' and ready to play at the instant the switch is advanced to the 'On' positions. Two 'On' positions have been provided. The hum and hiss levels on one of the 'On' positions will be noticeably lower - this is the correct 'Polarity' for using the amplifier.....
.....In locations of extremely high noise levels, clipping the 'Ground Clip' to a grounded object will greatly reduce objectionable noise and hum....."
What the switch does in practice is couple one or other of the incoming power wires to the chassis via a capacitor. The user selects the switch position which gives the least hum and noise. This feature isn't needed with the UK mains system.
The incoming mains power is controlled by a single pole, single throw unit at the back of the assembly (the third contact seen in the photo isn't connected to anything inside the switch).
Removing the rear section reveals a steel plate and a pressed-on actuator.
Below the steel plate is a three pole, four way, ceramic wafer switch which takes care of the HT switching and mains polarity selection. The moving contacts are held between two rotating plastic mouldings which are welded together. Apart from pulling the wafer off the spindle, this is as far as dismantling can go.
10) Mains Wiring
Since the mains wiring was so badly corroded, it had to be replaced. The paxolin voltage selector was broken, it was missing the selector link and it had been hard-wired to 245V. Since the transformer is bigger than normal, the selector link would be vulnerable sticking out of the cabinet, so the mod isn't a bad idea. The transformer itself comes from an old Selmer amp. (see update in section 1)
Eventually hard wired it to 245v and fitted a plain cover. The other wires are still there if anybody wants to change it.
11) Indicator Lamps
The neon indicators are the original Leecraft 'Snaplite's rated at 125V, 1/3watt. Both were suffering from brittle insulation on the connecting leads and one lead actually fell off when it was moved. The orange lamp also had an open circuit resistor.
The only way in is to cut around the body at the lead end.
Left: One new 47k resistor later, plus some new wires, and they're all Araldited together again.
The existing neons can be run from the 125V mains tap using the TX primary as an autotransformer.
12) Electrolytics
The old Erie 32uF cans are rated at 500V and 500mA ripple. They both read OK for value on a bridge and seemed to respond to reforming.
Both cans have dents that don't match the clamps, so they must have been around the block a bit before. (see update in section 1)
13) More Rust
The top of the chassis was so badly corroded that painting it seemed to be the only sensible option. The rust has been ground off and the bare metal primed with zinc based, cold galvanising paint. On top of that there are two coats of grey primer and a gloss coat. The transformers were removed and painted separately but the top mounted valve bases were just masked off to avoid disturbing the wiring. Chip Foose might not have been impressed but it hasn't turned out too badly and now everything can go back together. It would have been a lot easier to strip the whole thing back to bare metal and powder coat it but that would have meant stripping out all the vintage wiring.
14) Switch On
After an earth continuity and high voltage insulation test, the amp (minus valves) was powered up gradually with a Variac over several hours to give the capacitors a chance to reform. It's worth remembering that the DC voltages will be higher than normal if the valves aren't in and drawing current.
The good news:- The power switch worked and the HT started coming up.
The bad news:- Turning off the power to go and make the tea produced a loud clunk and instant darkness as the mains RCCB tripped out.
The culprit was that d****d power switch again. It was fine moving clockwise but wear in the detent mechanism was allowing the internal contacts to short out when moving back to the off position. The result was a short between the HT section and mains neutral.
(Long pause for jumping up and down and swearing a lot)
It worked again for a while after a strip down but, unfortunately, it didn't last. The standby circuit is now diconnected for safety (not necessarily a bad thing) but the indicator lamps still work as normal.
15) It Works!
Tested through a 2x12 cabinet, this thing is loud and definitely vintage. No extreme top end, but a good thick sound. It seemed to clean up a bit after ten minutes or so of playing, so I guess it's burning off ten years of damp and decay.
The main problem was a very loud background hum, eventually completely cured by re-fitting the two screening plates around the pots.
The chassis is held in the cabinet by four 'spire' or 'U' nuts. The originals are long gone, so these are M5 replacements obtained from ADI Components in Derbyshire.
EDIT 2022
1) A couple of mods needed for a Class 1 Portable Appliance Test (which it passed):
#The round Bulgin mains input connector has been changed to an IEC type which was designed for this particular opening.
#A steel mesh cover is fitted to the rear panel to keep body parts out and protect the valves.
.jpg)
2) The Erie electrolytics lasted about a year before one started to leak. They've been replaced and the wiring's had a general tidy-up. The amp's been in regular use as a test rig and it's performed without problems for years now.
3) The tremolo works with a new, made up LDR and it has a footswitch socket on the back panel.
16) Cabinet Tragedy
Thought it was time to have a closer look at the cabinet. Big mistake!
This must be the most unlucky cabinet in the world. What looked like part of Hunstanton* beach falling out of the bottom was actually the remains of the plywood after the woodworm left. They probably left when the floods arrived to saturate the bottom four inches of their home. Oh well. Put the kettle on.
* For our international reader(s) ...
'Sunny Hunny'. West Norfolk's favourite seaside destination on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
17) OK. So it's next year and the Sun's out again. Time to get back to it.
First step was to burn the bottom panel and cut away all the rotten ply in the sides.
Meanwhile, the bottom of the speaker baffle was soaked in wood hardener before gluing the layers back together.
Had a look for replacement plywood but came across the old problem. Sixties cabinets were made from 3/4" ply which isn't available anymore.
The modern version is 18mm in Europe and (so I'm told) 23/32" in North America. That's about 18.3mm.
In this case, genuine, old fashion 3/4" (that got wet) was well over 19mm and that caused problems butting new and old sections together. The base panel doesn't matter, but the new side patches needed an extra layer of veneer glued on.
LEFT and BELOW: All back together after a lot of late nights and bad language. And before you ask, no, I wouldn't do it again !!!!!
(Edit 2022: Probably would)
The bottom has the original covering refitted.
Below: Reunited with the head. How can something take so much work and still look the same ?? The wheels make life a lot easier.
18) Managed to lose part of a toggle catch that holds the amp to the speaker cabinet. Good news for a change, you can still buy them.
Good Hand UK Ltd
Unit 16 Twizel Close
Stonebridge
Milton Keynes
MK13 0DX
Tel: +44 (0)1908 221151
Sales E-Mail: sales@goodhanduk.co.uk
Web: www.goodhanduk.co.uk
1x Toggle Latch With Adjustable Clip, Form A, Steel, Size 100kg. Part No. GH-47.1420601
They don't do the right latch plate, but that's fairly easy to make.
