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Post subject: 82'ish Princeton Reverb II Refresh
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 7:13 pm
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I am looking to clean up my PRII, it has a few crackles and pops.

I plan on getting new tubes, as well as a speaker, and thinking about giving the solder a once over, although this is not a strong suit of mine.

Any recommendations on Tubes and a new Speaker?

Relatively new to refreshing an amp, so any/all input is welcome.


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Post subject: Re: 82'ish Princeton Reverb II Refresh
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 11:01 am
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The "crackles and pops" that you mentioned may or may not be tube-related. An amp that age is likely ready for servicing, especially if it's never been on a technician's bench in the past. At a minimum, I would replace the cap can and inspect the remaining electrolytics for serviceability (the latter are aluminum-cased Mallory's and generally last forever). As well, check all the carbon-comp resistors for evidence of thermal fatigue and replace as necessary. Clean all pots and the contacts of all jacks and switches with Caig De-Oxit or similar product. Solder joints should be checked for signs of fracturing and reflow all that are found to be marginal. I favor vintage NOS tubes in my own amps but there are several contemporary brands which are acceptable. Power tubes should be replaced as a matched pair, correctly biased for optimum tone and service life. As for a replacement speaker, again there are literally dozens of options. Kendrick's Blackface 10 would be a good choice for traditional Fender tone, as would be the G10C/S from WGS. If you prefer the classic alnico tone, there's Weber's 10A125, Jensen's P10Q, or Celestion's Alnico Gold 10. A good, economical compromise is something from Eminence -- say, the Copperhead or the Ragin' Cajun. For safety's sake, make damn sure that the power cable is properly grounded, especially at the plug end.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: 82'ish Princeton Reverb II Refresh
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 11:30 am
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Another change for these amps is to move the side mounted reverb tank to the bottom. I had one come through the shop that the customer wanted modded.
I found a site devoted to these amps @
http://www.stratopastor.org.uk/strato/a ... I_hub.html
They had a lot of good ideas and it sounded a lot better when completed. I don't remember exactly what I did, but take a look at the site for some good ideas.


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Post subject: Re: 82'ish Princeton Reverb II Refresh
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 9:55 am
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The Electro-Harmonix 6V6GT is a good tube. Be sure to check the idle bias.


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Post subject: Re: 82'ish Princeton Reverb II Refresh
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 1:53 pm
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Resoldering the joints is a way low priority and in any case will be 99% wasted effort. I'm in touch with hundreds of PRII owners and while I obviously can't rule out the idea you've got a bad solder joint, you would be the first to tell me about one. I wouldn't be surprised if simply wiggling the tubes in their sockets (to clean up the contacts) makes most of your problems go away. If not, swop in a known-good 12AX7 in position 1,3 or 4. Then try new power tubes.

BMW2002 is right about biasing... here's my page about that... skip to the end for a simple guide

http://www.stratopastor.org.uk/strato/a ... ebias.html

These amps are all over 30 years old and, as retroverbial says above, changing out all the electrolytics is a good idea as a matter of routine in order to make'em sing for the NEXT 30 years. .

Thanks Tim for the link to my page!

Moving away from reliability issues, the single biggest step-up in tone you can make is to change the speaker.


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Post subject: Re: 82'ish Princeton Reverb II Refresh
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:51 pm
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You've got some invaluable info, stratopastor.

Thanks for weighing in and posting the link to your site.

8)

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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