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Post subject: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 8:21 am
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This came in for a tune up before sale. It’s been through a house fire, hence the different cosmetics. Its not the only trouble its seen. But that’s what preserved it in the mostly pristine condition its in. The power supply caps have only a faint dimple of stress. The fuse holder was replaced and one SG resistor.
The speakers aren’t matched, but are period.

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The complaint was that the standby switch didn’t work and neither did the tone controls. I replaced the standby and went looking for tone problems.
First I found a broken wire to a filter cap ground. This one goes to V1 & 2. While it didn’t hum, there would be crosstalk between the unfiltered plates of V1,2 and sounded terrible.

Image

After fixing that, better sound, but still have no tone controls.
Then I found the Mid control ground had never been soldered to the case of the pot. With no ground reference, the tone controls have nowhere to send unwanted signals.
It had been bent down, but didn’t touch and was never touched with an iron. 50 years old before it had a chance to sound good.

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Post subject: Re: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 9:23 am
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Tim, you may want to change-out that selenium rectifier diode in the bias supply for a modern UF4007. Those old rectifiers can be toxic, if damaged.

Would love to hear the amp, once restored. :)


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Post subject: Re: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 9:49 am
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BMW2002Ti wrote:
Tim, you may want to change-out that selenium rectifier diode in the bias supply for a modern UF4007. Those old rectifiers can be toxic, if damaged.


+1

And the smell is unforgettable!

:shock:

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: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 12:25 pm
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I would love to go through it and spec it out. BUT, its mostly original and this is an amp where that means something..
At sale time, that's more important than safe.
I did find that Fender QC was not at fault on the Mid pot.
Back when, someone reolaced the original 25K with a 500K. From the back, it looked like the other pots until I took the knob off. It has a splined shaft, so it wouldn't be original. Yer off the hook, Fender. You would think the modder would have noticed the tone controls didn't work
But why was it there in the first place? Was ths some kind of mod back in the day?


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Post subject: Re: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Thu May 25, 2017 3:35 pm
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That looks amazing even w/o its Tweed. Hard to believe they didn't know it had those kind of issues. A nice easy fix.


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Post subject: Re: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Thu May 25, 2017 11:51 pm
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Some new linen and grill cloth -- properly aged for vintage vibe -- would make that amp a stand out in any collection.

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: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 7:25 am
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Aging tweed cloth is much easier than black tolex. I like to stain the inside of the cab prior to covering and lightly "fade" the outside after it's covered.

UN

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Post subject: Re: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 9:22 am
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Beautiful job, Greg!

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 7:14 am
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That's a nice job.
I just hope this one will get that kind of TLC for some golden years.


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Post subject: Re: Troubled Old 59 Bassman get a little luv
Posted: Sun May 28, 2017 1:25 am
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Just put a bug in your client's ear when he comes to fetch the amp.

:wink:

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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