tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

[DesertRose]

Ok. I've decided to quit asking so much questions.

called the amp tech and he suggested a amp overhaul for old vintage amps. Caps, tubes, rect, whatever .. all change + bias.
He also said that a normal fixture will do if I've a tight budget.

Any one says just a normal repair is better ?
Thanks

 

[WhoFan]

Re: tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

depends...... whats wrong with the amp, and what type and year are the amps you are talking about?

My 65 Fender Deluxe was not working when i bought it.... i paid $200 to get it retubed and added a few small parts to it, as well as a new AC cord..... then a few months later i had to take it back in as it was extremely noisy and running really hot.... so they changed a lot of caps in it... they also had to retube it as a Cap or something else was allowing too much voltage to the tubes.... new tubes gone in about 20 hours of playing time

 

[jeremy]

Re: tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

in vintage amps, the more you change out, the more you kill any collector value.

when changing componants in an old amp you should be very selective. if a cap aint broke dont replace it, that goes for almost anything.
dont let some use the shotgun approach and swap everything out.
ive known of guys who would "overall" an amp and basically pull the valuable old carbon comp caps out saying they were shot and put new poly caps in, then turn around and sell the comps for top dollar. it can be a shady thing when some one you dont know starts playing inside a vintage amp.

i had a good freind of mine work on my bf dlx and we took some old comps out and he was basically swindled out of them by another guy we know who is a jerk anyway, but i just reinforced my thoughts on the subject.

 

[DesertRose]

Re: tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

thanks for all the info guys.
Really ..
My amp is a 1981 fender twin reverb amp. as I mentioned in the other thread the volume keeps fluctuating. So told the amp guy and he said that an overhaul would be the safest and would put the amp into "showroom condition".
Because by getting one part casually fixed, another problem occuring is possible.

so I'm seeking advise which is the safest, just a casual repair like retubing/bias and forget abt it or overhaul the thang and risk valuable old carbon comp caps and stuff taken out for nottin'

 

[WhoFan]

Re: tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

in vintage amps, the more you change out, the more you kill any collector value.

when changing componants in an old amp you should be very selective. if a cap aint broke dont replace it, that goes for almost anything.
dont let some use the shotgun approach and swap everything out.
ive known of guys who would "overall" an amp and basically pull the valuable old carbon comp caps out saying they were shot and put new poly caps in, then turn around and sell the comps for top dollar. it can be a shady thing when some one you dont know starts playing inside a vintage amp.

i had a good freind of mine work on my bf dlx and we took some old comps out and he was basically swindled out of them by another guy we know who is a jerk anyway, but i just reinforced my thoughts on the subject.

when i had the work done to my all original 1965 Deluxe non-reverb i used a tech that was good, but not the best vintage guy... but he takes a few weeks while the best tube vintage amp guy takes months.... but i thought ahead and asked the tech to give back all the old caps and stuff.. so sitting in a bag in the back of my amp when i picked it up was all the original parts.. i still have the original parts anyways...

 

[ES350]

Re: tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

For starters, just get the filter caps and big power dropping resistors under the cap can changed out. I wouldn't usually change the the blue tone caps in an older BF/early SF, but you probably have the chocolate drops anyway in an '81 and they can be improved on (Mallory, OD polyester, etc). In some cases, some of the carbon composition resistors in the preamp and phase inverter can get way out of tolerance or get noisy---you can still get carbon comps replacements to keep the chassis cosmetics if you wanna, even Allen Bradleys.

A vintage amp with leaky filter caps and burnt out resistors is an all-original boat anchor...

 

[Farkus]

Re: tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

I am having some issues with my BF Bandmaster (vibrato not working, some odd noises, etc) and I'm wondering also what the best course of action is. While I don't want to ruin the value of the amp, I also don't want it to blow up and be a paperweight either. How much will new caps/resistors effect the value?

 

[ES350]

Re: tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

Well, we are talking about a mid-60's Bandmaster head and a '81 Twin---no offense, but these are not exactly investment grade amps and probably never will be. If it's a component that is not associated with tone-shaping and it isn't working properly, fix it with the good stuff and enjoy the amp. There was a school of thought that advocated replacing all the electrolytics in the amp, which is probably not necessary (and that's where some of the tone stack caps for sale out there prolly originated). There are some replacement components that are probably deemed more 'vintage-acceptable', like Sprague filters over the IEC stuff, Mallory 150's over the OD polyprops, but if it doesn't work, it's really not worth anything...

 

[DesertRose]

Re: tube amp overhaul ! Gd or no gd ?

Thanks guys. cuz all things have a life span. So if the caps and resistors are out cold, they have to be changed. But if they're still usable, then there ain't need for change.
To avoid being con into believing that the caps and stuff are changed, i think I'll just stick with normal repairs as in tube change and bias. so Forget abt caps and transistors/resistors.