@DaftFader 556235 wrote:

What make is that?

Elizabethan Audio – well known in the 1950s/60s for guitar amps and reel to reel tape recorders. They did not survive too long after the 1970s as Japanese equipment was becoming cheaper and more portable most of their stuff was basically Philps designs but in a different type of box (Philips dealt with this issue by still making pretty cases but getting Sanyo to provide the insides). The construction definitely reminds me of Philipa kit of that era…

This catalogue was still with the amp and turntable….

Elizabethan Audio catalogue 1972/1973 – a set on Flickr

ELPICO

Elpico amps were made from the early 1950s by Lee Products (International) Ltd of Elpico House, Great Eastern Street, London EC2. By 1958 they had become Lee Products (GB) Ltd, Elpico House, Longford Street, London NW1, and by 1965 they had moved again to 10-18 Clifton Street, London EC2. They became Elizabethan Electronics at the same address by 1968. The company seems to have ceased trading by circa 1970, probably due to strong competition from abroad.

We assume that the Elpico brand name was derived from an abbreviation of Lee Products Company (L-P-Co). Other brand names used were Dulci, Princess and Elizabethan. Key markets seem to have been radios & record-players, but various small Elpico amplifiers were made as PA units or to amplify record decks and tape recorders. These were capable of being used as guitar amplifiers and some were pressed into service as such, notably by Paul McCartney and Dave Davis in the early days of the Beatles and Kinks respectively. Most such units are seen in a two-tone green/cream finish, which suggests that they were made in the mid-late 1950s and early 1960s at which time most amp manufacturers used similar colour schemes.

@Pat McDonald 556316 wrote:

Ah, now you know the secret…

I quit gaspers in 2009 due to the cost and health concerns but in those days especially hand rolling and pipe tobacco was was sold in metal tins ideal for storing small components (and making screened boxes for audio and RF kit). in the Post Office/BT not only could you smoke in the staff room (not allowed in battery rooms due to explosion risk nor in equipment rooms as smoke might knacker the equipment).

Also in the 1970s the Dutch Government raised the taxes on manufactured cigarettes but not hand rolling tobacco, so encouraging more folk to “roll their own” (also transferrable skills to other smoking mixtures..)

I nearly considered getting a pipe quite recently but decided against it as one of my older friends spent a fair time in Addenbrookes (he checked out clear and he has quit recently and he is our dads age group..) and all the other lot seem to have season tickets to the local NHS units..

@Dr Bunsen 556319 wrote:

This thread made me think of this, in a good way of course! 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIU6ItODX0c

coincidentally one of the maintenance team has left a LCD TV screen next to the comms rack downstairs – I assume its been taken out of service as defective but I was thinking if its just the backlight out that might be fixable 😉