Anyone into Fender amp restoration? ‘66 Vibrolux

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øøøøøøø
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Re: Anyone into Fender amp restoration? ‘66 Vibrolux

Post by øøøøøøø » Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:25 am

Wow, those finds do still exist!

Crazy good buy.

You don’t need a scope to service that amp.

Your course of action is mostly right, but maybe overkill.

Replace the electrolytic caps in the doghouse, and the bias filter cap on the daughter board near the pilot lamp. Save them in a ziploc bag in case you ever sell, bc they’re provenance that can increase sale price a touch. You can also do the cathode bypass electrolytics if you want, but they’re probably fine and pose no danger to the amp if bad.

Check bias.

Don’t touch anything else.

Fire it up and listen. 99% chance it sounds amazing. If it hisses way too much, side eye the 100k plate load resistors in the preamp stage.

Do as little as possible to it, and enjoy it. Those are fantastic amps

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JSett
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Re: Anyone into Fender amp restoration? ‘66 Vibrolux

Post by JSett » Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:31 am

Brad is totally right there, these don't take much to bring up to spec.

I have needed to replace the carbon comp resistors on the input jacks on a few blackface amps I've owned as they can drift and get noisy...which then gets amplified many times over before it hits the speaker. So worth checking those if there's lots of noise.

I hope you have somewhere you can crank it a little...these sound utterly fantastic breaking up a little.

FWIW, I paid $2600 for mine, fully serviced, last year so $1000 is insanely good value.
Silly Rabbit, don't you know scooped mids are for kids?

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Re: Anyone into Fender amp restoration? ‘66 Vibrolux

Post by TheCappy » Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:33 am

øøøøøøø wrote:
Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:25 am
Wow, those finds do still exist!

Crazy good buy.

You don’t need a scope to service that amp.

Your course of action is mostly right, but maybe overkill.

Replace the electrolytic caps in the doghouse, and the bias filter cap on the daughter board near the pilot lamp. Save them in a ziploc bag in case you ever sell, bc they’re provenance that can increase sale price a touch. You can also do the cathode bypass electrolytics if you want, but they’re probably fine and pose no danger to the amp if bad.

Check bias.

Don’t touch anything else.

Fire it up and listen. 99% chance it sounds amazing. If it hisses way too much, side eye the 100k plate load resistors in the preamp stage.

Do as little as possible to it, and enjoy it. Those are fantastic amps
Exactly what I was looking for, thank you. I just want to make it safe ( 3 prong and remove death cap) and reliable. No need for mods or anything crazy.

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Re: Anyone into Fender amp restoration? ‘66 Vibrolux

Post by TheCappy » Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:37 am

JSett wrote:
Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:31 am

I hope you have somewhere you can crank it a little...these sound utterly fantastic breaking up a little.
Oh yeah. My noise band practice in a finished basement and we can get loud. My deluxe reverb doesn’t cut it most times.

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Re: Anyone into Fender amp restoration? ‘66 Vibrolux

Post by øøøøøøø » Thu Mar 09, 2023 10:31 am

Yes, the 3 prong and death cap removal are a must.

Save the original parts 🙂

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Re: Anyone into Fender amp restoration? ‘66 Vibrolux

Post by MechaBulletBill » Thu Mar 09, 2023 10:52 am

JSett wrote:
Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:31 am
I hope you have somewhere you can crank it a little...these sound utterly fantastic breaking up a little.
if i could crank my SF vibrolux at gigs/rehearsal then i could probably eschew all pedals. truly it's THE sound, to me. i'm sure a well-serviced, earlier black panel model will sound at least as good.

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Re: Anyone into Fender amp restoration? ‘66 Vibrolux

Post by TheCappy » Thu Mar 09, 2023 11:26 am

MechaBulletBill wrote:
Thu Mar 09, 2023 10:52 am
JSett wrote:
Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:31 am
I hope you have somewhere you can crank it a little...these sound utterly fantastic breaking up a little.
if i could crank my SF vibrolux at gigs/rehearsal then i could probably eschew all pedals. truly it's THE sound, to me. i'm sure a well-serviced, earlier black panel model will sound at least as good.

The SF has more headroom than the BF (or so I hear) depending on year. So you’d probably really have to crank that thing.

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