Legit Fender amp pedal
- Thread starter ChrsGuit
- Start date
jhaneyzz
Well-known member
Repost this in teh following thread:
I like the idea.
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
You need to beg, borrow or steal a tube amp to play through. I love my pedals but I'd give them all away if I had to choose between them and my homemade DR504....
Barry
Well-known member
No, not even close!
jhaneyzz
Well-known member
Eventually I need a tube amp…
PunchySunshine
Well-known member
I've been trying to avoid this my whole life!
jimilee
Well-known member
I love my fender tube amps. The Blackstar is pretty metal though. I have a box ac12n I traded for. Plugged it in once just to make sure it works. I’m ready to bust out some Beatles if I need to though.
Guardians of the analog
Well-known member
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
When I started playing they didn't have solid state amps. About a year after I got one, I turned on the old tube amp and was floored by the depth and shimmering tones.
I gave the solid state amp away
ChrsGuit
Active member
I think I should elaborate a bit more... I like playing with tube amps... Sometimes they break. If yours fries live during a set, how do you finish? Sometimes a buddy wants me to track something at his home studio really quick, but taking all my gear over is a pain, and I hate using Emulators/modeling tech... So a little box like this would be quite handy, especially given how the Peace Hill is a legitimate tube-powered preamp.... See what I mean? Not a total replacement, but a handy backup amp
PunchySunshine
Well-known member
When I was starting to get serious about playing was during the late 80s. I would usually play jazz so solid state was perfect. The lighter the gig bag the better my back! My buddy played through a mig50 and I could never come close to his toan. Always left a hole in my heart.
I am taking the dive into tubes this summer.
ChrsGuit
Active member
You can get into the vintage Silverface stuff for a reasonable price. I'd probably watch older PCB amps from the 90's-2000's because they are probably in need of capacitors and starting to have problems... 20 years is about max on caps before an amp needs overhauled... Some old Fenders are pushing 50 years or more
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
I'm recapping, and replacing the diodes on this 47 year old Fender Bassman Ten. It's 50 watts of *blazing* Fender tone. The old mallory's still sound fantastic! I was surprised when I opened the cap cage and saw they were original. For someone in this group it's not hard to spec and buy the caps, just be sure they're drained before you touch them and resist the urge to just clip the leads and twist the new ones in.
Desolder them and put the leads into place and solder. There's a LOT of vibration in a powerful amp like this and the leads can crack and snap if not securely soldered. A small dab of silicone will also help keep smaller caps like the ones in the picture from wandering around. A dab will do ya, in another 50 years someone else will thank you for not goober-ing the whole cap in.
You can also reform caps in older amps, and there's plenty of verbiage about that on the www. I'm rebuilding this amp to be a player's amp, not a cork sniffer, so out go the older caps and diodes. https://caps.wiki/wiki/Capacitor_Reforming
The amp was stored in a beauty salon, so I'm replacing the stinky tolex which is coming off at all the edges anyway, the grill cloth is trashed too. Chassis straps were rusted and/or missing so new straps. Tubes test fantastic tho! The casters were seriously cracked, and one was missing the wheel, one of the speakers (4 x 32 Ohm in parallel = 8 ohm) was replaced with a 16 ohm, that was wired with polarity reversed and the surround was blown to smithereens which isn't surprising considering it was going in when the other three were going out.
At some point in time this amp had a scented candle on top which spewed wax into it, and it eventually made it's way to the tops of the caps and resistors in the input section. eeewww..... what a mess.
Older amps can have their problems, that's for sure, but they also have that magic.....
On the other end of the scale I have my 1968 drip edge fender deluxe reverb, which is in pretty good shape considering it took a ride off the back of the truck when the moron driver decided to move while loading up. doh. "Oops I forgot...." Tiny little bend in the faceplate was all it did.....
Last edited:
vigilante398
Authorized Vendor
The tube amp project I was working on didn't pan out, but I have another one on the bench. If you don't have a tube amp by the time I get that verified, I'm forcing you to build one.
I built a couple of tube amps but sourcing parts is so expensive and down the line all my diy amp sound worst than my monoprice 15watt amp xD if you want to get in tube amps for cheap you can't go wrong with that one
vigilante398
Authorized Vendor
It looks like the coupon to get that amp at $190 is expired now, but it still is a great deal on a very reasonable amp. I have one under my bench right now waiting for me to find a use for it, as well as one of their 5W combos in my daughter's room to be "her amp".
My current amp project involves forcing a Soldano SLO preamp (both channels, footswitchable) onto a 15W power amp and doing it all as cheaply as possible. About 90% of the components on the board can be sourced from Tayda and the others aren't hard to find or expensive. Transformers will always be expensive, but I got a set (PT+OT+choke) from Musical Power Supplies for under $200. By the time I get the cabinet and speaker the full amp will probably come out to more than double the price of the Monoprice, but it should be a much better amp and still targeting a cost of around $500, which is still a bargain for a (humbly) well-designed and well-built 1x12 combo.
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
My fifty watt Marshall model 1987 plexi I built ten years ago, a total of $650 with Mercury Magnetic iron. Guarantee this sounds better! And it's a labor of love, 'cuz I get to show off these pictures
Can't put a price on that!!!!!
ChrsGuit
Active member
I've got one as well... I bought it "broken" for $600... Turns out the Reverb tube was bad and it was making a continuous raspy reverb splash/ gurgle in the background... A Quick swap and away I went.
I swapped the TypeV speaker (or whatever it's called) for a Celestion G12-65 Heritage, which really gave the amp a cooler, less brittle sound... I have a decent collection of old Fenders myself, but every one of them had original caps spewing their guts and some had original RCA tubes.
Attachments
ChrsGuit
Active member
This 1969 Bandmaster Reverb is a killer sounding amp. I bought it and a late 70's MV Bandmaster Reverb from a collection. The old gearhead that had them passed away, and they were liquidating his assets. He worked as a service tech on the road and accumulated some KILLER gear over the years. Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville was cruising through town for the Asheville guitar show and bought the 67 Bassman and bandmaster drip edge amps that were also in the collection. It's amazing how mint they were.
I talked to the Carter guys because I recognized the amps at their booth at the guitar show...
