Ampeg 57 Mercury dump-pick

[maine_Jim]

Found this recently at our town recycle center ( we call it the dump), so I guess you would label this a dump-picking find. I was pretty surprised when I saw it and quickly loaded it in my car. For those not familiar with this type of thing, a vintage 1950's tube amp is quite desirable. This is a 1957 Ampeg Mercury M12 and is a rare one especially with the drizzled paint front and condition wise it is about excellent. Quite a rare find and worth a few dollars.

 

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[A2coins]

Awesome find those are very collectible good save . Love the post

 

[maine_Jim]

You might also call this a "Jackson Pollock" amp with the drizzled paint front! Gotta love those old tube amps. You wouldn't believe some of the things I have found at this place. I could post something like this about once a month. Maybe there should be a section here for treasures found at the dump! Just another example is this, I once found an Acoustic Research AR-1 speaker there. Same way, just sitting there on the ground. I kept it for a few years until I had to sell it. I posted it on Craig's list and had offers come in from all over the world. Here is a link to one that is on ebay right now, not mine but similar...I should have waited a few years to sell it as the price of these have doubled since I sold mine!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Acoustic-R...370248?hash=item1a3b14d348:g:BsIAAOSwwrtZxBQ6

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on a very collectible find. People in the music world will pay a very nice penny for that one.

 

[gheenoe78]

Wow. That's about a $2,000 guitar amp you found there. Incredible. I'd love to find an old vintage amp at a thrift store, yard sale or junk pile some day.

 

[neodetectorist]

Nice find.
I have a classic Ampeg Gemini II I believe is from 1967. Still have the original foot switch and old style reverb box using springs.
Cant beat the sound they produce. Like my amp, they are going for just under 500.00 if you can find them.
Surprised someone through it out.
If this was a guitar amp forum I would vote banner.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Sweet find, congratulations!

 

[coinman123]

I have a friend who plays guitar, I will ask him sometime what he knows about that amp, but it certainly looks like a great one! Imagine the music to come out of those speakers during the birth of rock and roll, cool to think! Awesome find!!! The best music related thing that I found at my dump's swap building were some decent speakers and a John Lennon album. Your find is infinitely times cooler though, and worth many times more than anything that I have found there.

 

[Indiana Mark]

Awesome!

 

[WaterScoop]

Awesome find and even more awesome is the condition of the amp.


Congratulations!

 

[jewelerguy]

oh man that's awesome

 

[maine_Jim]

If this was a guitar amp forum I would vote banner.

Coins do seem to dominate the discussion here along with metal detecting. I like those hobbies and spend much more time on them than dump picking but I actually find a lot more treasure at our town dump than all my hobbies combined.

Maybe I'm just lucky and have a town dump where people toss out lots of interesting things. Among my many dump finds are a few coin finds including silver commemorative dollars, an Indian Cent collection on a 1930's coin board, a state quarter whitman folder that was full of quarters (really full? why?), a large cent on a silver chain, and strangest of all there once was a box that was full of both rolled coins and loose coins (about $100 worth). They were dirty, I just put them in a bucket with water and ammonia. After about 5 minutes I dumped out the water and after they were dry poured them through the coin sorter at my bank, no problem! People toss out bicycles if they have a flat tire...the list goes on and on!