any way to visually identify Fender Ultralinear OT's?

[jerryjg]

Short of identifying Fender ultralinear X-Formers by date codes( by the way, anyone have a link to Fender X-former datecodes), I was wondering if there is a way to visually identify a Fender ultralinear Transformer as opposed to a Regular Fender Transformer on Silverfaced era fender amps? This is cause Im hunting for a silverfaced amp, and do not wanna be stuck with one of the ultralinear X-fromers passed off as a regular amp. Sometimes theres no serial numbers left on amp. I havent had any success finding pics of Fender transformers. Anyone know what year those ultralinear transformers were made and on which models. I believe it was twins, Vibroverbs and some others from '76 on through 80? .

 

[Rich_S]

Re: any way to visually identify Fender Ultralinear OT's?

Go to the Fender Amp Field Guide. Click the link for the Silverface Twin. At the bottom of the page, there are links to schematics. Compare the output transformer circuits of the "100 Watt Twin Reverb Schematic" and the "135 Watt Twin Reverb Schematic". See how the 135-watt version has five wires coming out of the primary side? The 100-watt version has only three wires. That five-wired beasty is the ultralinear output transformer. I thing it's restricted mostly to the 135-watt versions; the Bassman 135 has it, too, as does the Super Twin.
There were also 135-watt Quad Reverbs and Super Six's, all basically Twins with different speakers.

Perhaps by studying these schematics closer, you can find legible part numbers for the transformers, but it's late and my eyes are too tired to do it now.

But if you can learn to recognize the primary wires exiting the OT housing, you may be able to tell just by looking.

It also looks as though the 135's were made 77-82.