Part 2 - Fender Silver Face Super Reverb Restoration
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2023
- Part 2 of this 3 part series on a partial restoration of a Fender silver face super reverb.
Webpage: www.bradsguitargarage.com.au
Facebook: bradsguitargarage
Instagram: / bradsguitargarage
Equipment:
Soldering:
Pace MBT station w/SX100 & PS-90 handpieces
Hakko 474 w/815 handpiece
Hakko 936 w/907 handpiece
Hakko FX-888D w/FX-8801 handpiece
Quick 861DW hot air station
BOFA fume extraction unit
Loctite Multicore solder (C511 / 362)
Test Equipment:
Fluke 11, 175, 177 & 179 handheld DMM's
Tektronix 2236 analog oscilloscope
Rigol DS-1054z digital oscilloscope
BK Precision 4017A sweep / function generator
BWD 160a function generator
HP 6236B triple output DC power supply
Kyoritsu 3132A insulation / continuity tester
Video equipment:
Overhead cam: Panasonic HC-V785 w/Audio Technica AT9946CM mic
Handheld cam: Panasonic DC-G85 w/Olympus M.Zuiko Pro 12-40mm f/2.8
On location cam: Panasonic DC-GH5s w/Panasonic-Leica 9mm f/1.7 & 12-60mm f/2.8
Capture card: Magewell HDMI USB
Editing: Adobe Premiere Elements
Hand Tools:
Wiha, Felo, Stanley screwdrivers
CK & Engineer cutters / pliers
RS Pro wire strippers
Sidchrome & Gear Wrench spanners, sockets & shifters
Veritas planes & chisels
Materials / Consumables:
JJ's / TAD electron valves
Elixir / Ernie Ball / D'Addario / Rotosound strings
Electrolube & DeoxIT cleaners, lubricants & chemicals. - Наука та технологія
Rebuilt a CBS era twin a while back,. The owner did not want to pay for stripping and restoring the insulation so gave me the amp as payment for other repairs. I built a turret board with the turrets in exactly the same positions as the original crap board and was able to use some of the original components. The guy who bought it is delighted to have an amp which does all it should do without all the fizzing and buzzing. Personally I think eyelets are great for boot laces but have no place in a reliable amplifier. All credit to you for persevering with this kind of stuff!
Ha ha love the Chernobyl reference. Thanks for the quality vids.
You are my new favorite tech. I plan on adding a bias trim pot to the balance pot like you did on my 76 Super Reverb.
Re: treble cap eyelet, both high DC but that wax can partially bypass the plate resistor.
Regardless, that tack soldered solution was a flimsy bandaid.
WRT bypass waxing = smoother sound :)
Your vids are great - it's like we are in a parallel universe -> Old Fender boards with eyelets are cheap junk. I've lost count of the number that I've had to clean up, frustrating business. I'm pretty fussy / obsessive like yourself and it really is a case of fixing something that is a broken design. In this case I would have been tempted to just replace with a proper fiberglass turret board -> you'll get fast at it after a while :) As usual, nice work! You should build a few amps of your own, you've got a very broad skill set. The hourly rate is usually worse (LoL) but sense of satisfaction much better.
Brad - you are a better man than me. I can barely watch this without thinking "I'll clean it on my own time!"
That's kinda what I ended up doing. Never again, though.
I dig ya. I'd rather just refuse the work until it can be done right. There's NOTHING cool hardcore or keeping it real about keeping your gear broken, shitty and nonfunctional.
It would be easieer to build a new board.
Our friend, Lyle said you've been hammered work wise. I hope matters have become more reasonable and that you have some time to yourself.
Your thorough approach to cleaning up the board is admirable. But as you stated the previous technician had made a complete mess of it and I am surprised that the amp didn’t self-destruct. The owner of this amp will have a better than new amp when he gets it back from you.
I used to have a girlfriend with the nick name 'Sucktivity'... man I sure do miss her!
Great vid, great work as always! Unfortunate the budget wasnt there for a full rebuild.
Really is going to look better inside than out. 👍👍
Fist in the air when you dissed the Fender coax. I loathe that crap.
Cool start Brad, God there's loads to do and clean..! You've got a lot of patience my boy..Good job so far..keep going..Ed..uk.😀
"little elephant foot of solder" 😂
HF mate. What an effort! I’ve a SF twin that’s remarkably similar here atm and have come to the same conclusion. I’ve got it working and sounding ok after the butchery that had gone on but I’m giving it back with the caveat that it needs waaay more work to sound like it should. Their call.
A great amp in this condition deserves a complete rebuild and a new cabinet. But I get that the cost would probably be in the thousands. Breaks my heart to see......☹
At the very least I would have hoped that the owner of this amp would spring for a new repro faceplate, but Brad didn't mention it in his part one assessment. I could even live with broken knobs, or cheap non original replacements, if I had to; but that face plate is horribly oxidized and nearly illegible. I assume the pots and jacks would have to be unbolted from the front panel anyway in order to give the metal a good cleaning and remove oxidation and schmutz from both the steel chassis and the brass grounding plane behind it, so wouldn't be that difficult to change the faceplate.
Good amp to own if you can do it yourself.
Great video, but I DO NOT envy your job; I learned how to solder with machines like you have in electronics class back in 89 to 90. But this is a nightmare. Best of luck.
"Sucktivity" 😂😂
Well done Brad.
I am just wondering if it would be much less work to install a new board, like a Hoiffman board. I have installed several of his, and he has great products and customer service.
Man have I been in this situation before 😔
I pick these shitters up cheap and refurbish them for fun. I'm not charging myself $60 an hour though hahah. Hand on heart it would take me about 8 hrs/1 day to do that amp inc. the full strip, de-wax and re-pop. I find that bit is the easy part.. the inevitable gremlin whack-a-mole chasing shorts, bad tubes, leaky caps, power and output and reverb tranny problems, bad pots etc etc etc has in many cases soaked up weeks .. 100% agree they are absolutely not worth it unless you're doing it yourself for free.
What a fucking nightmare.
I guess that amp was in a fishing boat....
Really interesting video. Have you considered other solvents for removing wax - Carbon Tet or Hexane which might be more effective that isoprop ?
customers used to look at me as if there's something wrong with me when I had to repair stuff by cleaning conductive shit off circuit boards :/
Im really trying to wrap my head around what the wax was suppose to do on the boards because its obvious that they will wick into other circuits and cause alot of problems ,WTF were they thinking,Im in a bad mood because I replaced the output jack on this fender Strat with a floyd rose ,and the trem just whacked off and had to set it up again ,fuk a floyd rose trem
So, they had problems with VERY conductive boards early on due to humidity.
The wax solved that problem in the mid-term, but over the years presented a new, different problem.
Not humidity, but contamination related.
They kinda solved it, then didn't. But hey, got 'em past warranty periods, didn't it!?
The more things change....
Would it be more cost effective to replace the waxed nightmare of a board with a new one and return the original with all of the vintage components for a future collector?
I did a Rivera era Super Champ a year ago. It took hours to get rid of all the wax and dirt.
Probably about 1/3rd more time to do a new board, but it's always up to the customer.
I can measure Gig Ohms with a sense & send meter, but a tera Ohm is 1000x higher than a gig-Ohm and the GR resistance bridge can measure leakage like that. We used to pour pure ethanol into the car's gasoline tank to remove water. Isopropyl alcohol pretty much is ethanol and some water. If you don't buy 97%-98% pure ethanol you avoid paying a very high liquor tax that is assessed on pure ethanol. Who drinks 98% pure grain alcohol? Or who drinks it more than once? It burns and numbs at the same time.
Isopropyl alcohol is a whole other molecule. Here, denatured ethanol is sold as "methylated spirits" with methanol and bitterants added to make it poisonous and less palatable.
How about using pressure cleaner or dynamite to clean that filthy thing? 🤪
Did Fender add the wax hoping to damp proof the eyelet boards? Does anyone know the history behind it? I heard Leo was very cost-concious, sourcing materials and components.
Leo was gone by the time of The Great Waxing.
It was intended to keep moisture out of the board so it wouldn’t warp.
It still warped.
And over time the wax gets enough gunk in it that it becomes conductive.
Leo wasn't really involved at this point in the company unfortunately
There’s a non working silver face bassman for sale. I was trying to see how little I could get it for. Not sure I should bother after watching this…
If I were doing it for myself as a love project, I'd grab it in a heartbeat.
But with pesky things like trying to be profitable, it definitely sucks a bit of the fun out of the long winded restoration jobs, I'll admit.
@@BradsGuitarGarage True, I wouldn’t be getting it to just flip it. I am a sucker for rescues and strays. I may haggle a bit more but when the tubes don’t heat up according to them and I can see a picture with the filter cap board hanging halfway off the chassis…we will see.
Yikes that’s brutal. I’d offer the cost of the transformers and buy the amp for parts or send it back to the owner. Those kinda jobs all ways seem to have picky customers that will be back in a couple weeks because of the slightest hiss
An extra advantage of using isopropyl alcohol on eyelet boards and other things is that if you cut yourself, you're less prone to having to get a tetanus shot or getting a mersa{msra} infection aka "flesh-eating" disease. You've truly got a mess and challenge on your hands mate. One of the worst cases I've seen. Your commentary and explanation are exemplary.