This '78 Princeton Reverb just needed a little tightening up before it hit the road. I installed a grounded AC cable and removed the dreaded Fender "Death Cap." Everything needed a good cleaning inside and out, and the bias circuit was adjusted for its new power tubes. Its preamp tubes were the USA made originals, and like most tubes from the Cold War they still worked just fine... ok, better than fine. A great little amp that makes traveling to the gig a breeze.
'68 Fender Super Reverb - The Legend of Little Joe
At some point in the late 70s or early 80s there was a failed attempt at repairing Little Joe, so he was left in pieces in a cold wet garage. Where he sat, and waited... for decades. When he was finally rescued by our friends in Casino Queen they knew they had stumbled onto something cool, but how cool? How about 1968 Drip Edge Fender Super Reverb with original factory JBLs level of cool? How about all original American made RCA preamp tubes (that still test great) as bonus cool? With a lot of love, some late nights, and a gallon or two of mold killer a bell-like chime finally cut through the decades of grime and neglect. It turned out that some poor soldering skills in the power supply and a wrong (really wrong) fuse were what had forced Little Joe to live in the garage in the first place. The damp had caused some warping of one of the speaker cones, and there is a slight rub that is slowly getting better. Hopefully we can avoid a recone on this classic speaker, and Little Joe will go down as one of those legendary barn finds you tell your grandkids about.
Vox AC30tbx - Bad Timing
This Vox AC30tbx had a serious case of the "I ate my power tubes" in the middle of an outdoor concert. That part's not unusual. AC30s are known to be hard on their tubes. What's weird was how. The legs of both bias resistors were sheared off at the PCB. Because apparently that is a thing that the laws of nature and physics allows. Metal can decide to just opt out now. Some new resistors and a fresh quad of EL84s were the solution. We also changed the cut control to function as a master volume. It's an easy mod that is just as easy to reverse. It's a good experiment for those that want the classic AC30 sound, but don't want to sacrifice their hearing.
Fender Pro Tube "94 Twin" - Shaken, Not Stirred
The Fender Pro-Tube "94 Twin" is a feature heavy beast that was the result of some Fender engineer deciding that the regular Twin just didn't weigh enough. Seriously, I'm pretty sure the cabinet is made of lead reinforced concrete. This particular amp was having issues with it's power tubes. The customer reported lots of snap, crackle, pops, and he wasn't wrong. It had been re-tubed and biased in the past, but those tubes soon gave up as well. I pulled the chassis from the cabinet expecting a long haul, but the problem was revealed almost immediately. The mounting hardware on half of the power tubes was missing. When played, the cabinet vibration was causing those two tubes to flap around wildly. I replaced the missing screws and applied thread lock to all the socket mounts. The amp didn't get any lighter, but it sure sounded better.
Fender Bassman 70 - A Little Goes A Long Way
The customer had purchased this vintage Bassman 70 with plans to clean it up, and while it initially worked fine, once he got it home it would only produce noise. The source of the madness was a missing nut and washer on the bias control pot. Without the nut the pot was no longer making contact to the chassis/ground. One little bit of hardware had thrown off the whole amp. I locked down the pot and biased the new power tubes. I also gave the front panel pots a good cleaning. Some people don't care for Fender's ultra-linear amps, but this one had a nice solid clean tone that was exactly what the customer was looking for.
Music Man HD130 - Rejuvenation
Things weren't working quite right, so Rian from These People Here decided it was time to spiff up his Music Man HD130. This particular amp started it's life with the older 12AX7 phase inverter. At some point in the 70s (remember those?) it was updated with the newer solid state drive board. Someone had replaced the power tubes and tried to bias it using the older method. With the solid state board installed you can spin the old bias pot like the wheel of a tall ship avoiding the Kraken and it won't make an ounce of difference. The tremolo effect needed some coaxing as well. We replaced the toasted EL34s with the correct 6CA7s, set the bias properly and the difference was immediatley noticeable. 130 watts of spacious, clean tone. Turns out it makes a surprisingly good bass amp too!
Fender Hotrod Deluxe - Retube and bias
Fender Hotrod Deluxe
I once had a previous employer tell me "all you know how to do is change tubes." I wasn't bothered so much by the fact that he was wrong (my lasagna making skills are unstoppable.) It was more that he somehow thought of the most common and requested bit of maintenance work as unworthy. It would be like telling the mechanic at Speedy Lube "all you know how to do is change oil" without realizing that there were multiple nation wide franchises doing millions of dollars in business all for providing a basic and much needed service. Anyway, all I did to this Fender Hotrod Deluxe was change its tubes.
Marshall DSL401 - Bridge Rectifier Disaster
Marshall DSL401
At some point in its history, someone replaced the notoriously lacking bridge rectifier with an EVEN SMALLER ONE! The resulting heat was enough to melt the hot glue supporting nearby caps which ran across the board and out the tube socket. Glued the tube to the socket and the socket to the board. Also toasted the nearby channel switching relay. Wave soldering is why we can't have nice things around here!
Carvin X100 Series III 212 combo. Low voltage supply rebuild.
1983 Carvin Series III
1983 Carvin 212 combo. Needed the low voltage supply rebuilt. A common issue with these amps as they age. Everything else was in amazing condition, right down to the hard to find original foot switch. Someone truly loved this thing. A sturdy, American made, 100 watt tube amp for a fraction of what you would pay for a new Fender or Vox import.
Thermionic TE-01 - Bad Transformer Replacement
TE-01
Now it gets weird! Late 90's home-brew tube overdrive pedal. Built with parts salvaged from a 12v wall wart! The majority of components are EPOXIED to the case. This is maybe not the safest pedal ever produced.... But it sounds too good for that to be a problem!
