Ta.dots wrote:my god that's a beautiful amp.
I figured I should get over my fear of tubes and have a go at removing and re-inserting them. And then I figured while I was at it...
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64 Blackface Bassman (now with pics)
Moderated By: mods
Well that was certainly worth doing. From those pics someone just wrote this up for me
Looks nice! Here's what's apparent from these pics:
1) cathode bypass caps original. You may leave them if you like the way the amp sounds. If one channel starts acting funny down the road, that would be the firs thing I'd be looking at. It's unlikely that both channels' bypass caps would go down at the exact same time.
2) Screen resistors and grid resistors on power tube sockets have both been replaced. But you knew that already. This is good preventative maintenance.
3) You have one of the later "chocolate drop" reddish-brown caps. It's about the fourth large cap from the right, immediately east of the orange Mallory tubular double cathode bypass cap. It's a .1, and it's the coupling cap between the first and second 12AX7s in the "Bass instrument" channel. Lots of people don't like these caps, but a single one won't make a bit of difference. You could change it to something nicer if you wanted, but I'd leave it alone. If I had a whole amp full of them I might consider changing them, but even then, maybe not. I'd definitely leave it alone in this amp since you like the way it sounds. Don't want to upset the balance!
4)The rest of your caps are the vaunted Mallory "blue hot dog" caps. Some people just rave about these-- I think they're good, but I don't buy into the notion that they're anything special. Don't get me wrong, I'd leave them there, but to me they sound like old orange drops-- which is not a bad thing at all, just very 'neutral.' They won't impart color like, say, an old Astron paper-in-oil cap would. I have a few of them sitting around. I know it's really anal, but I decided to try something else for the last two coupling caps in my Deluxe... I put mojotone "vitamin T" oil filled caps in there, and I liked what they did. But the blue Mallories are good caps. I suspected my old ones had drifted anyway, so it was maybe not a fair fight.
5) Your amp is VERY clean inside. This thing spent most of its life indoors and out of the basement, so to speak, and doesn't look to have ever been overheated. Lots of time the cloth insulation on the twisted pairs of green filament wires that go from tube to tube will turn dark when it gets hot and/or moist. Yours is still a bright, vibrant green. Doesn't mean anything, but it's nice to piece together the history of your amp.
6) Are those two pemcil dates on the chassis behind the "bass instrument" channel's pots? Maybe dates when the amp was in for service? (cap job?) If so, that's good to know when the amp was last serviced. I make a habit of writing the date under the cap pan whenever I do a cap job. Should the amp end up in someone else's hands, they will then be able to find out how old the caps are.
7) I see the three-prong cord has been added and grounded with a lug to a PT chassis bolt. This is good.
8 ) I can see that the bias cap has been replaced with a recent production Sprague Atom. This is good. It means the rest of the caps under the "doghouse" under the chassis have probably been replaced, too. But you knew that already.
9) The original rectifier diodes are there. These may be old Selenium rectifiers which aren't as durable as modern silicon diodes. If one should happen to fail, it will fill the room with foul-smelling and mildly toxic smoke. Should you want to replace them preventatively (I would be inclined not to bother, but I'm not as scrupulous as some dudes), then you could use regular silicon 1N4007 diodes.
10) Other than that one mysterious white wire, the amp appears to be immaculate, in "serviced-but-original" condition! The way you want it! I'd say you did really, really well. Without looking inside, it's hard to know what you're getting, so vintage amps can sometimes be a crapshoot. This one is the way you want it!!!
Shabba.
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benecol
Was that "thetaman" (not sure how to type a theta character - looks like a row of 000000000s) over at offestguitars? He's a true don, that fella.James wrote:Well that was certainly worth doing. From those pics someone just wrote this up for me
Looks nice! Here's what's apparent from these pics:
1) cathode bypass caps original. You may leave them if you like the way the amp sounds. If one channel starts acting funny down the road, that would be the firs thing I'd be looking at. It's unlikely that both channels' bypass caps would go down at the exact same time.
2) Screen resistors and grid resistors on power tube sockets have both been replaced. But you knew that already. This is good preventative maintenance.
3) You have one of the later "chocolate drop" reddish-brown caps. It's about the fourth large cap from the right, immediately east of the orange Mallory tubular double cathode bypass cap. It's a .1, and it's the coupling cap between the first and second 12AX7s in the "Bass instrument" channel. Lots of people don't like these caps, but a single one won't make a bit of difference. You could change it to something nicer if you wanted, but I'd leave it alone. If I had a whole amp full of them I might consider changing them, but even then, maybe not. I'd definitely leave it alone in this amp since you like the way it sounds. Don't want to upset the balance!
4)The rest of your caps are the vaunted Mallory "blue hot dog" caps. Some people just rave about these-- I think they're good, but I don't buy into the notion that they're anything special. Don't get me wrong, I'd leave them there, but to me they sound like old orange drops-- which is not a bad thing at all, just very 'neutral.' They won't impart color like, say, an old Astron paper-in-oil cap would. I have a few of them sitting around. I know it's really anal, but I decided to try something else for the last two coupling caps in my Deluxe... I put mojotone "vitamin T" oil filled caps in there, and I liked what they did. But the blue Mallories are good caps. I suspected my old ones had drifted anyway, so it was maybe not a fair fight.
5) Your amp is VERY clean inside. This thing spent most of its life indoors and out of the basement, so to speak, and doesn't look to have ever been overheated. Lots of time the cloth insulation on the twisted pairs of green filament wires that go from tube to tube will turn dark when it gets hot and/or moist. Yours is still a bright, vibrant green. Doesn't mean anything, but it's nice to piece together the history of your amp.
6) Are those two pemcil dates on the chassis behind the "bass instrument" channel's pots? Maybe dates when the amp was in for service? (cap job?) If so, that's good to know when the amp was last serviced. I make a habit of writing the date under the cap pan whenever I do a cap job. Should the amp end up in someone else's hands, they will then be able to find out how old the caps are.
7) I see the three-prong cord has been added and grounded with a lug to a PT chassis bolt. This is good.
8 ) I can see that the bias cap has been replaced with a recent production Sprague Atom. This is good. It means the rest of the caps under the "doghouse" under the chassis have probably been replaced, too. But you knew that already.
9) The original rectifier diodes are there. These may be old Selenium rectifiers which aren't as durable as modern silicon diodes. If one should happen to fail, it will fill the room with foul-smelling and mildly toxic smoke. Should you want to replace them preventatively (I would be inclined not to bother, but I'm not as scrupulous as some dudes), then you could use regular silicon 1N4007 diodes.
10) Other than that one mysterious white wire, the amp appears to be immaculate, in "serviced-but-original" condition! The way you want it! I'd say you did really, really well. Without looking inside, it's hard to know what you're getting, so vintage amps can sometimes be a crapshoot. This one is the way you want it!!!
Yeah that's the one. I was even thinking "should I bother posting this over at offset?", but doing it was probably a smarter decision than buying the amp.benecol wrote:Was that "thetaman" (not sure how to type a theta character - looks like a row of 000000000s) over at offestguitars? He's a true don, that fella.
Shabba.
Given the year, the circuit and the condition; this is basically the best possible amp I could have bought from the BF and SF range. It's lame but there are definitely some mojo points for having "Fender Electric Instrument Company" written on it rather than "Fender Musical...". I'm not a "all post CBS equipment is nonsense" type or anything, but it has that bit more of a "this is the real deal as far as fenders go" attachment.Mike wrote:I bet you're happy as a clam after that.
Shabba.
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benecol
Offset is funny (as in peculiar) - I had an intonation issue with my Jazzmster, posted a clear, concise, non-noob description in the tech thread and got the square root of fuck all replies; bought the vibrochamp, and thetaman (and a few others) were lovely. Can be strange over there; not trying to re-ignite any "fuck offset" hate, but sometimes the attitudes there can remind me of the attitudes that caused the schism from the FDP in the first place.James wrote:Yeah that's the one. I was even thinking "should I bother posting this over at offset?", but doing it was probably a smarter decision than buying the amp.benecol wrote:Was that "thetaman" (not sure how to type a theta character - looks like a row of 000000000s) over at offestguitars? He's a true don, that fella.
In some ways the site is great. There are a few (I'd say about 5) posters that I've notice who generally steer clear of the general nonsense and bring the science. One guy is building a custom guitar and doing a great pictorial, and this thetaman guy is dropping the amp science.
I saw a thread yesterday titled something like "bigsby porn" and these were the two guiars in it.
Fuck. Amber. Switch. Tips.
Some guy got a thn skin blonde with gold guard. It had a stock white switch tip and there were pages and pages of talking about getting the amber one on there. It was like this...
I think the white one is the right one to have, but an amber one would look ok I guess. On the bgsby guitars above it's just nonsense. Obviously it's a small thing and it's personal prefernce, but it's an odd community for that sort of thing. They're very obsessed with vintage correct on everything, like that paper cap on fullerplasts guitar. I think it's all a bit odd but it's a fairly harmless odd I suppose.
I don't really go there often, but for knowledge like I got about my amp, it's a great place to have an account.
I saw a thread yesterday titled something like "bigsby porn" and these were the two guiars in it.
Fuck. Amber. Switch. Tips.
Some guy got a thn skin blonde with gold guard. It had a stock white switch tip and there were pages and pages of talking about getting the amber one on there. It was like this...
I think the white one is the right one to have, but an amber one would look ok I guess. On the bgsby guitars above it's just nonsense. Obviously it's a small thing and it's personal prefernce, but it's an odd community for that sort of thing. They're very obsessed with vintage correct on everything, like that paper cap on fullerplasts guitar. I think it's all a bit odd but it's a fairly harmless odd I suppose.
I don't really go there often, but for knowledge like I got about my amp, it's a great place to have an account.
Shabba.
I'm fairly indifferent to it really. I can be a little obsessive over things that don't really matter and I suppose it's just their communities way of doing the same. The snobbery that goes with it can get a bit annoying and make it hard to get involved in the forum. It actually seems like an odd place when you read through it, the mixture of drooling (possibly the most used smiley is this 
) and really not being interested creates a not very comfortable atmosphere.
) and really not being interested creates a not very comfortable atmosphere.Shabba.
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Mike
- I like EL34s
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Ta for the new signature line, mate.
I'm live and let live, they can wank all over their rebranded Duo Sonics, amber switch tips and fake capacitors all they want, but attempting to justify it as anything other than tossery is just pathetic. There is nothing aesthetically pleasing about dressing up a capacitor inside your guitar.
I'm live and let live, they can wank all over their rebranded Duo Sonics, amber switch tips and fake capacitors all they want, but attempting to justify it as anything other than tossery is just pathetic. There is nothing aesthetically pleasing about dressing up a capacitor inside your guitar.
I ws going to put a fender logo on my squier musicmaster. But the reason for that was I was refinishing it with a matching headstock and other than make one yourself you can't really get a squier one. I've no problem with having squier written on it.
When I took my jazz box to try out the bassman with (original topic full circle) the guy really liked it, and said something about putting a gibson logo on the headstock because it has the lawsuit shape. I joked along with him about it, but I was thinking "No. It's a Ventura, not a Gibson. The fact it's nice does not mean it needs a Gibson logo on the headstock."
When I took my jazz box to try out the bassman with (original topic full circle) the guy really liked it, and said something about putting a gibson logo on the headstock because it has the lawsuit shape. I joked along with him about it, but I was thinking "No. It's a Ventura, not a Gibson. The fact it's nice does not mean it needs a Gibson logo on the headstock."
Shabba.