Fender London Reverb - How Did This Happen?

Where to begin? The ribbon connector repaired with Cat5 cable? The solder pads that burn off with the slightest heat? Maybe the switches inside pots. Or the pots inside switches. The pot/switches that flip chips and relays three boards away. The two mid knobs on the second channel? An entire separate circuit just for the LEDs?! The cable that seems to only connect chassis ground to chassis ground?? What does this amp want from me?!?! Oh man, why don't you just stop it? This is too big for you, you know that? Who did this, who did that! It's a mystery! It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! Fender don't even know, man! Don't you get it? You want the truth? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!

The 1980s were a weird time that made people do weird things. The Fender London Reverb is one of those weird things. I'm just glad I made it to the other side of this one. Was it worth it? Only me and the voice inside my coffee maker know for sure.

Fender Princeton Reverb - Ready For The Road

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.

Fender HotRod DeVille - The 60 Watt Flame Thrower

The old joke about the Hotrod series is that Fender installed a second on/off switch that they mislabeled "volume." At 1, the amp is basically off. At 2, it peels the paint off the walls. To make the amp a little more user friendly and bring the overall gain down we swapped 12AT7s into the first two preamp spots. We also replaced the "volume" and "master volume" pots with 250k audio taper. We replaced the "reverb" pot with 100k linear taper. The end result was a much more mellow tone with a nice warm reverb that you can turn up without sterilizing farm animals at 100 paces. 

Burriss BTS 38 - Free Breadsticks!

Part hand wired boutique JTM clone, part pasta dish, this Burriss BTS 38 has some serious lead dress issues that were causing all sorts of oscillating. I replaced the failing preamp tubes, properly biased the power tubes (too hot!!) and rearranged the wiring in such a way that it no longer screeched like tap-shoes on a slate floor. In an attempt to achieve a "more Vox-like" tone I removed the presence control (negative feedback.) While nothing sounds quite like a Vox except a Vox, the result was the nice, chiming, clean headroom that the customer was looking for.

'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.

EHX Russian Big Muff - Part II - Gear Abuse

My second EHX Big Muff of the week and third this month! These must have an expiration date or something. Anyway, this was purchased online and when it arrived it (SURPRISE!) didn't work. It's battery connector had been "repaired" with scotch tape. Most of the pots were replacements that were incorrect values...  also...  It had been "wired" with hot glue.  I'll let you go back and read that sentence again. Hot. Glue. On the wires. There should be a government agency that steps in when this happens and removes gear from harms way.  I replaced all three damaged pots and mismatched knobs, and wired them up with good old fashioned solder. I also drilled through the case and installed a 9volt DC jack. The PCB board was intact, so it fired right up and sounds like a Muff should. Fuzzy!

EHX Russian Big Muff - Back From The Dead

This EHX Russian Big Muff had been relegated to the parts pile, but made for a good rainy day project. I completely replaced the cheap, floss thin ribbon wiring. Also added a true bypass switch, 9volt DC jack, and a fair amount of the snapped off components on the board.  I was as surprised as anyone to hear it roar back to life. "Built like a tank" was never more true. Best of all? It can be all yours! Check it out on my Reverb store.

Ampeg BA-115HP - There's No Keeping a Good Bass Amp Down

Here's a St. Louis made Ampeg BA115hp sitting beside its much bigger and much older brothers. A few cracked solder joints on the preamp board and a good cleaning were all that this old workhorse needed. Its owner bought it used around 8 years ago. I expect that in another 8 years I'll be cleaning it again. 200 watts of solid, portable, classic bass tone.