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Post subject: I bought a Vibro King!
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:33 pm
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A question for all the VK owners/users out there. Is it normal for the vibrato to "tick" when engaged? I am looking to buy one locally and it has a ticking that increases/decreases in speed along with the speed setting on the vibrato.

The amp is actually brand new and on the dealer's showroom floor. They sent it over to their tech to look at before I buy it to see about this ticking. The tech is talking about changing the value of one of the caps to compensate?

Just want to be sure before laying thousands of $$ down on this amp.

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Last edited by Powdered Toast Man on Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 6:58 pm
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the vibroking service manual says the clicking is caused by the neon bulb being too close to the LDR's. i read about it being common issue but fixable ??? i don't know . my king wont arrive until mid week. i bought a used one. cant wait!


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 1:43 am
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There are many discussions about it on the web.

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?d ... ber=677601

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=57201


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 3:22 pm
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stratele52 wrote:


Yeah I was asking about the Vibro King, not the DRRI. But thanks.

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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 3:27 pm
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Powdered Toast Man wrote:
stratele52 wrote:


Yeah I was asking about the Vibro King, not the DRRI. But thanks.


Yes I know,

IMO, VB is less popular and we don't hear about this amp than DDRI, but maybe same Vibrato issue ?


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 5:49 pm
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I had a DRRI and I am well aware of "the tick". It wasn't a big deal to me.Maybe some VK owners could throw in their two cents for this particular amp? Also is there a VK club?


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 1:14 am
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jeffp wrote:
I had a DRRI and I am well aware of "the tick". It wasn't a big deal to me.Maybe some VK owners could throw in their two cents for this particular amp? Also is there a VK club?

They are lots lots of DDRI owners complains abouts "the tick ". See me link 14 march


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:59 am
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what have you decided toast man? my vk will arrive on wed afternoon. cant wait!


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:22 pm
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jeffp wrote:
what have you decided toast man? my vk will arrive on wed afternoon. cant wait!


I bought it. The store sent it over to their tech who did some kind of mod to the trem circuit. "Changed a cap value" is what they told me. The tick is still there but less prominent. Also the intensity knob doesn't do anything until around 5. The trem is not the best I've heard on a Fender amp, but seeing as I rarely, if ever, use it I figure I won't notice much.

The amp is a 2012 model. It's been hanging around the showroom since then and they cut me a wicked deal just to be rid of it. :D

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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 4:10 pm
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congratulations! same here kicks in about 5. still checking it out but i think its all good! i reall couldnt afford a new one. i have only a ser #3648. no letters anywhere. on qa sticker nothing. Gc story is origional owner bought it new in 07 and sold it back in Dec 2015. ??? except for one small tolex tear it was exc cond. sounds great!


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 5:39 pm
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Cool man, congrats!

Interesting experiment - I plugged the VK into the the speakers from my 59 Bassman which is loaded with Weber speakers. Holy crap, does it sound amazing! However I would never think about putting Webers in the VK simply due to the weight. The VK is already 72 lbs and I know for a fact the Weber 10A125 is quite a bit heavier than the Jensen P10r.

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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 5:53 pm
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Do you have access to a schematic for the VK? This is the common cap "fix" for ticking vibrato sections. Originally posted by RG Keen"

Sharp tick in vibrato oscillator: On neon/LDR Fenders, on the neon bulb side of the module there is a 10M to one side of bulb, 100K to the bulb; from the 10M straight across the board is the gnd point of the LDR. Put a 0.02 mfd cap from 10M/bulb to the ground point. This works by filtering the output of the oscillator.

The Weber 10A125 is one of the best 10-inch speakers I've ever tried. And that includes the OEM CTS alnicos and US Jensen P10Q.


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:04 pm
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BMW2002Ti wrote:
Do you have access to a schematic for the VK? This is the common cap "fix" for ticking vibrato sections. Originally posted by RG Keen"

Sharp tick in vibrato oscillator: On neon/LDR Fenders, on the neon bulb side of the module there is a 10M to one side of bulb, 100K to the bulb; from the 10M straight across the board is the gnd point of the LDR. Put a 0.02 mfd cap from 10M/bulb to the ground point. This works by filtering the output of the oscillator.

The Weber 10A125 is one of the best 10-inch speakers I've ever tried. And that includes the OEM CTS alnicos and US Jensen P10Q.


I've done some research on the VK "tick" issue and the problem is that the classic fix of adding that cap is that it's already there. Also the fix of unwrapping the bug and moving the leads apart (or whatever) doesn't work on later VK models because at some point Fender switched from a single bulb to a dual bulb design. Apparently the VK's trem design is different than the traditional Blackface trem. Here's a pretty good write up about it:
https://psg.com/~dlamkins/lamkins-guitar/music/article/vk-trem-fix

And yeah, the Weber 10A125 is a awesome speaker. Of the 4 speakers in my Bassman I've got a pair of 10A125's and a pair of 10F150's. Combined those speakers sound so awesome it's RIDICULOUS! However those 4 speakers added probably 10-15 lbs to my Bassman over the Jensens. Such that I compared the two and the VK stock is about the same weight as my Bassman. Sooo, I wouldn't dare add more to the VK's bulk. :(

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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:18 pm
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Cool! Thanks, for that link. A 50+ year-old problem...

:lol:


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Post subject: Re: Vibro King vibrato question
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:24 pm
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Yeah, you'd think by 2016 they'd have figured out how to make a trouble free tremolo in a $4000 amp, but what do I know? :lol:

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