1966 Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker Combo
- Preamp transistors: 2N3391 and 2N3393
- Output transistors: 2N2148 and TA2577A
- Rectifier: Diode bridge
- Controls: Reverb Channel: Volume, Treble, Bass, Rate, Depth, Reverb. Normal Channel: Treble, Bass, Volume
- Speakers: two 12″ Jensen Special Design ceramic-magnet speakers
- Output: approximately 25 watts RMS
The days when a kid would break out the soldering iron and take on a serious electronics project just for fun are largely behind us. Back in the ’60s, though, that’s how many an aspiring musician acquired his own precious guitar amplifier, as was the case with this Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker 2×12″ combo.
Those who remember the pre-smartphone days of kids getting their hands on physical tools and components and actually building something will get a sentimental twinge from a story like this. For several years – decades, even – the dominance of the chip and the unfathomable power of digital technology have sidelined nearly everything analog, which has also put an end to the “project” aspect of building electronics yourself – for all but the geekiest throwbacks among us. There was a time, however, when electronics project kits were relatively commonplace, advertised in Popular Electronics, Electronics Hobbyist, Electronics Illustrated, Radio Electronics, and even the back pages of Guitar Player (after 1967). And when it came to ready-to-go kits, Heathkit was king.
Guitar-amp kits were first mentioned in Heathkit’s 1967 catalog, which was published in late ’66, when these became available. The cover boasts “Over 250 kits – world’s largest selection,” with products including shortwave radios, console organs, televisions and hi-fi, amateur radio equipment, myriad electronic test instruments, and more. Not all were available in kit form, though that was Heathkit’s modus operandi. And among the many DIY offerings were, on an accompanying insert, electric guitar kits using Harmony chassis with hardware and electronics that you installed yourself, plus two well-equipped solid-state guitar amplifiers, including the TA-16 Starmaker.
Standout features of the TA-16 include its pair of Jensen 12″ Special Design speakers, two channels with tremolo, reverb on one (using an actual Hammond spring pan), and 25 watts of “EIA music power,” as amps were often described in the day – something akin to RMS and a nod to Electronic Industries Alliance standards – versus the “60 watts peak power” also mentioned in the specifications, a.k.a. the amount not to be exceeded before it blew up.
“I think what drew me to the Heathkit was price,” VG reader Mike Patterson tells us of this amp. “The kit retailed for $129.95 when my parents bought it for me for Christmas in 1966. I spent the rest of the winter trying to assemble it. My soldering skills left a lot to be desired, so it ended up taking quite a while. After several trips to the Heathkit store in Columbus, Ohio, I completed it in the spring of 1967.
“I don’t remember too much about building it, but the instructions were very clear. Every part was labelled, and there were even life-size line drawings of each part to compare the actual components to. I do remember that it didn’t work the first time I fired it up, so Dad took it to some friends who were into electronics. They couldn’t figure it out, either, so I sent it back to Heath, and when it came back, a note with it basically said the whole amp was one big cold-solder joint. So really, Heath built the amp.”
Heath was founded by Edward Bayard Heath in 1911 as the Heath Aeroplane Company, based in Chicago. By ’26, it was producing a kit-form airplane known as the Heath Parasol, a light aircraft popular with amateur fliers. Heath died when a test flight crashed in ’31, but the company carried on in the airplane, parts, and test-equipment business right through World War II, at some point relocating to Michigan. Under the ownership of Howard Anthony, it forged on into the second half of the century as a specialist in electronics equipment – eventually in kit form and largely on the back of a popular Heath oscilloscope kit, thanks to Anthony’s bulk purchase of surplus wartime electronics components. In ’54, Anthony was also killed in an airplane crash, after which the company rolled on under the ownership of Daystron, Inc., and then Schlumberger Limited. Both pushed the business further into consumer electronics, maintaining a strong line of test equipment, broadcast, and radio-related kits for hobbyists and budget-conscious professionals.
Heathkit’s debut line of solid-state guitar amps and the Harmony guitar kits marketed as their partners lasted through the 1968 catalog. The Heathkit business was discontinued in ’92, though the Heath Company continued manufacturing educational and lighting-control electronics; occasional kit ventures have arisen under its umbrella over the years.
Patterson’s use of this amp largely followed the script conceived by its makers.
“Mostly, it was basement jams,” he says. “Then, in the late ’70s, some friends bought an old Victorian house with a finished attic. We hauled everything up and left it there, then we’d get together seven or eight times a year for weekend parties.”
The TA-16 kit arrived on the cusp of what many guitar-amp manufacturers were seeing as the transistor revolution, and its solid-state status was certainly promoted as a selling point (while making the kit more affordable and arguably easier to assemble than a tube amp with similar features). The nature of solid-state amplification, however, also worked to the detriment of this combo’s performance over the years. In addition to producing a very different tone from tube amps when segueing into distortion, the square-wave spikes of large output transistors can quickly take their toll on speakers.
“It’s been a good amp, but its main weaknesses are blowing speakers and blowing diodes in the bridge rectifier circuit,” says Patterson. “The speakers are replacements from the ’70s and are supposed to be stouter than the originals. They’re on their third re-cone (laughs). I still have the original speaker frames and motors, and they’re on their fourth re-cone.”
Full-DIY kits for solid-state guitar amps are hard to come by today, though several companies offer good-quality kits for a range of tube amps, from re-creations of classics to several more-original designs. For its own part, this 58-year-old Heathkit combo continues to soldier on, though its best years are arguably behind it.
“In 2023, I took the amp to get a cap job and its tremolo circuit fixed,” Patterson says. “Even with a new op-amp that I supplied, it took eight months and the tremolo still doesn’t work. They installed beefier diodes in the rectifier and did a few other things I hadn’t requested. It’s now quieter than ever, and might even be louder. But the mojo’s gone.”
This article originally appeared in VG’s January 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
