I have a 68? Bassman that hasn't been serviced in over 30 years. I love these Bassman videos. They've taught me so much about my amp and when I finally get it serviced I will know so much more about what's being done. Thank you.
Well put down once again Lyle... 80% of the TONE comes from the output transformer and the speaker(s), not caps, diodes, resistors and so on... Even tubes play a minor role in tonal experience. Thank you for your greatly informative videos, it's a pleasure to watch them!
I had a long talk with Bob Rissi (fenders first amp engineer) and he said exactly what you said about Leo. Build it simple.... easy to work on....and save money 💰. Thank you for the great vids.
Hello there, this is a great video of what to do and what not to do, The cleaning of things is a Major part of a Well functioning electronics, keep the great videos coming, Cousin Figel
There are two CZcamsrs who's videos I instalike before the video starts cause I'm certain I will enjoy the content. Yours and Ted's from the Twoodfrd guitar repair/restoration channel. I can't begin to explain just how much I appreciate your channels. But at the very least I can say, Thank you!
Yeah Ted is awesome as is Lyle and Brad from Brad's Guitar Garage. Quality work, top-notch knowledge and all shared with honesty. It's YT at it's best.
I have to say, that’s how I have always felt too and it’s SO nice to hear another tech say it. If you want it to work, it needs service. Otherwise put it on a shelf and let it rot unused. The originality argument is pure ridiculousness.
I like the look of new filter caps in an amp. That tells me I don't have to worry about them for a while. Another reason not to stuff new electrolytic capacitors into the shells of the old ones: it takes longer. And therefore the bill will be higher.
I totally agree about the "disguise" the new components, I know that Uncle Doug does it. Another reason I can think is that for any reason you need to change the value of a component the next tech will not see that.
You take pride in your work, no stinkin old caps are going to stand in your way. And I agree with you of course. If people want them completly original just put them in a shelf and play something else.
What were those magic words that started appearing on radios, televisions, record players, tape recorder and amplifiers in the 1960s? "WARNING NO USER SERVICEAVBLE PARTS INSIDE". And they were pretty proud of stuff being, "SOLID STATE, too, (for a little while, anyway).
Lyle have you considered using electrolysis to remove rust and or plate the chassis when they're in terrible condition? It's not terrible difficult and thinking back to that terrible chassis with loads of rust a few videos back, I thought it may work a treat to first remove rust and then plate. Especially when you're doing a complete de-construct anyway. Just a thought.
That was one dirty amp. I've seen the inside of a lot of tube stuff and this is is definitely one of the worst. The eyelet board looks like it took on water. But then I did get a strobe light going once which had been partly underwater; I had to replace one diode, both of the electrolytic capacitors and a few of the film capacitors to get it going. And that had a PCB in it.
OK curious, what are the added 220k resistors on the plate of PI that are going to tag strip for? Can't make out where they are going to, and just unusual where they are at, guessing it was a mod previously done?
I noticed that you're using metal films for the dropping resistors instead of metal oxide resistors. Do you care to comment on your thinking there? Thanks, I learn lots and enjoy your vids!
The originals used CCs, so almost anything would be better than those. I also use MOs for this, but in the past two years parts are not always in stock. So while I love the Panasonic and Koa Speer MOs for this too, not all the values needed have been available. These 2W MFs from Vishay have all the values needed and are overrated for their places in the circuit.
Yeah, though aside from quality (which doesn't always correlate to cost) people over mythologize this. I see people on forums just rolling tubes. I see other techs, like myself, choosing Chinese or Slovakian tubes for cathode followers, choosing tubes for low microphonics, maybe only using long plate preamp tubes in heads, etc. A well selected set of current production tubes IN A GOOD HEALTHY AMP can sound every bit as good as $1000 worth of NOS tubes. Slightly different, but still just as good. A lot of the NOS mythos seems to be left over from a few decades back when the NOS tubes available were a lot more numerous, so you could sort through and find a bunch of good ones. These days, that $200 tube is likely to be noisy. Because we're getting towards the bottom of the barrel. And a pothole on the way to a $35/night gig is just as likely to kill a $200 tube as a $20 tube. Save expensive tubes for studio/home use only, unless youi're just leaking money.
I wouldn’t think people would pay more for a vintage car with the 40yo dry rotted tires than one with brand new tires why do we put so much value in dry rotted filter caps in a vintage amp??🙄
You can see tires, so folklore and snake oil don't stick. You can't see electrons, so the folklore and snake oil stick easier. These amps are coveted because of how they sounded with brand new parts in them. They weren't worthless piles of crap until they aged to a certain point and suddenly started sounding good. Unfortunately I think that as fewer and fewer people are becoming educated and experienced with analog electronics, the folklore and snake oil are finding more and more welcoming homes.
I think the people asking to have the old sleeves on new caps tells you where their priorities lie - being concerned with hipster vintage status because the components “look original” and not in playing a good sounding, well functioning amp.
To be honest, I don't really understand why some people are so caught-up with trying to maintain the so-called "vintage-mojo" of an amp if their idea of doing so involves leaving old, leaking-capacitors in circuit and not replacing them with new ones, it seems like people equate "vintage-mojo" with excessive noise, hum, his, motor-boating, parasitic oscillation, and other abnormal behaviour of electronic circuits, they don't realize that when these vintage amps were made they were made for making music rather than to be kept in some glass cabinet, never to be used.
Lyle, not to be nit-picking, but how hard is it for a reputable amp tech to turn a knob from low to high and back to find out where 12:00 is without saying 'I don't know where 12:00 is' because the knobs may not be installed right? This surprises me to no end when people on videos say I don't know where 12:00 on a potentiometer is. Just a thought to maybe leave this out when commenting on the settings. It's just as bad as watching demos with a guitar that the presenter doesn't know it's out of tune and continues with the video like he doesn't hear it (or worse, he doesn't know it's out of tune).
Are you talking halfway for the wiper position or half way in between max resistance and minimal resistance? You can easily find an approximate half way for a wiper by the distance it can travel in either direction. But a wipers half way is rarely 500k on a 1meg pot. Every pot has a different tolerance and slope.
I set the knobs to what the numbers indicated was noon then was working from the back. The knob wasn't on the pot corectly, so its numbers did not correlate with the actual position. I then turned it to about halfway but I was sitting behind the amp and could not give an accurate "o'clock" number. This reputable amp tech filed that away as a minor thing to address later.
Some people take that “the parts all need to be original or it won’t have that magic” attitude to ridiculous extremes. My theory is it has to do with this thing that is elusive and, at the same time, in very high demand: Authenticity. Lots of musicians (mainly guitarists) crave authenticity. They willingly spend gobs of time and money chasing after it. And when they eventually acquire it (for an arm and two legs), they wonder why their wonderful and impressive vintage gear is not so easy to play, doesn’t sound that magical, and is noisy and unreliable.
Please allow me to retort. At least concerning whether or not the caps should be placed in the old sleeves. Because the argument isn't whether they should be replaced or not. They obviously should because the amp won't work otherwise. However, there is a space for preserving the look of a historical item. This is common in the automotive world where people desire to have that slice of history replicate the original as best it can and still remain functional. You will see old looking radios that have modern internal parts. I don't think this is inherently wrong or evil. As forward thinking as Leo fender was, I cannot imagine that he thought his amps would become such an important part of American historical legacy. Some of these old amps have transcended a simple device to amplify guitar tone to a part of history. There's nothing wrong with preserving the look of a historical item. If some techs don't want to do that, then that's okay too. The customer can choose what tech to go to. I believe that each approach is perfectly valid depending on what you desire to get out of your amplifier. If you want to play it but preserve as much history as humanly possible, then a restoration may be in the cards for you. But if you desire something else or desire to change the circuit, feel free. Neither approach is inherently flawed.
You know what?, I reckon those people so fixated on preserving an amp's "vintage-mojo", rather than replacing old and worn-out parts, are most likely Toan-deaf....lol.
I have a 68? Bassman that hasn't been serviced in over 30 years. I love these Bassman videos. They've taught me so much about my amp and when I finally get it serviced I will know so much more about what's being done. Thank you.
Well put down once again Lyle... 80% of the TONE comes from the output transformer and the speaker(s), not caps, diodes, resistors and so on... Even tubes play a minor role in tonal experience. Thank you for your greatly informative videos, it's a pleasure to watch them!
I don’t like silly either. Servicing amps are more important than original parts.
Such an interesting point about amps being designed to be serviced easily. I wish everything was made that way.
I had a long talk with Bob Rissi (fenders first amp engineer) and he said exactly what you said about Leo. Build it simple.... easy to work on....and save money 💰. Thank you for the great vids.
and "save money" still meant overbuilding by 20% and not building things designed to fail!
Haven't watched one minute yet, but already I've learned something and you got even more of respect!
Hello there, this is a great video of what to do and what not to do, The cleaning of things is a Major part of a Well functioning electronics, keep the great videos coming, Cousin Figel
There are two CZcamsrs who's videos I instalike before the video starts cause I'm certain I will enjoy the content. Yours and Ted's from the Twoodfrd guitar repair/restoration channel. I can't begin to explain just how much I appreciate your channels. But at the very least I can say, Thank you!
Thanks so much. I think you will enjoy December’s episode of Technical Difficulties…
@@PsionicAudio I'm sure I will, but now I'm really looking forward to it lol!
Yeah Ted is awesome as is Lyle and Brad from Brad's Guitar Garage. Quality work, top-notch knowledge and all shared with honesty. It's YT at it's best.
@@PsionicAudio What? You've managed to get Ted? Nice man! He's a real artisan.
I was going to ask about replacing those diodes on your preview video of this amp. Then I forgot, and you answered my question anywaway :)
Cool amp. Bassman is a personal favorite.
Conclusion of this service, I'll bet, is going to be epic😃😎👍
Excellent teaching
"Get the funk underneath it" sounds like a song!
I have to say, that’s how I have always felt too and it’s SO nice to hear another tech say it. If you want it to work, it needs service. Otherwise put it on a shelf and let it rot unused. The originality argument is pure ridiculousness.
F (forward-thinking)
E (electronics)
N (needing)
D (dynamic) &
E (ethical)
R (repairs)
I like the look of new filter caps in an amp. That tells me I don't have to worry about them for a while. Another reason not to stuff new electrolytic capacitors into the shells of the old ones: it takes longer. And therefore the bill will be higher.
I totally agree about the "disguise" the new components, I know that Uncle Doug does it.
Another reason I can think is that for any reason you need to change the value of a component the next tech will not see that.
If there were 2 amps for sale . An all original and one with all new parts I would pick the new parts for sure
Who ever takes off the dog house anyway? You did a great job cleaning up around the bias circuit
Vinegar soak works well for rusted parts.
Where do I find contact info? Trying to get my quad reverb serviced. Love this channel by the way.
You take pride in your work, no stinkin old caps are going to stand in your way. And I agree with you of course. If people want them completly original just put them in a shelf and play something else.
What were those magic words that started appearing on radios, televisions, record players, tape recorder and amplifiers in the 1960s? "WARNING NO USER SERVICEAVBLE PARTS INSIDE". And they were pretty proud of stuff being, "SOLID STATE, too, (for a little while, anyway).
Lyle have you considered using electrolysis to remove rust and or plate the chassis when they're in terrible condition? It's not terrible difficult and thinking back to that terrible chassis with loads of rust a few videos back, I thought it may work a treat to first remove rust and then plate. Especially when you're doing a complete de-construct anyway. Just a thought.
For anyone concerned about "original parts"...which is better - sound or no sound?
Excellent, top-notch reasoning for not using the paper cap covers. Besides, they can also remain with the amp, like hang tags with a guitar.
That was one dirty amp. I've seen the inside of a lot of tube stuff and this is is definitely one of the worst. The eyelet board looks like it took on water. But then I did get a strobe light going once which had been partly underwater; I had to replace one diode, both of the electrolytic capacitors and a few of the film capacitors to get it going. And that had a PCB in it.
And the 4th (and main) reason 0:59: I repair amps for people that play them. Not idiot collectors who don't...🤣
Do you bring new capacitors up slowly with a variac? "Form them" And what are your thoughts on that?
No. Totally unnecessary.
@@PsionicAudio Thank you for clarifying that.
OK curious, what are the added 220k resistors on the plate of PI that are going to tag strip for? Can't make out where they are going to, and just unusual where they are at, guessing it was a mod previously done?
Stock in the AB165. Local feedback on the plates. More on these in the next video.
@@PsionicAudio thanks, that's very interesting, looking forward to it.
I noticed that you're using metal films for the dropping resistors instead of metal oxide resistors. Do you care to comment on your thinking there? Thanks, I learn lots and enjoy your vids!
The originals used CCs, so almost anything would be better than those. I also use MOs for this, but in the past two years parts are not always in stock. So while I love the Panasonic and Koa Speer MOs for this too, not all the values needed have been available. These 2W MFs from Vishay have all the values needed and are overrated for their places in the circuit.
Do different tubes, brand or quality, actually make a difference in tone or just in toan?
Yeah, though aside from quality (which doesn't always correlate to cost) people over mythologize this.
I see people on forums just rolling tubes.
I see other techs, like myself, choosing Chinese or Slovakian tubes for cathode followers, choosing tubes for low microphonics, maybe only using long plate preamp tubes in heads, etc.
A well selected set of current production tubes IN A GOOD HEALTHY AMP can sound every bit as good as $1000 worth of NOS tubes. Slightly different, but still just as good.
A lot of the NOS mythos seems to be left over from a few decades back when the NOS tubes available were a lot more numerous, so you could sort through and find a bunch of good ones.
These days, that $200 tube is likely to be noisy. Because we're getting towards the bottom of the barrel.
And a pothole on the way to a $35/night gig is just as likely to kill a $200 tube as a $20 tube. Save expensive tubes for studio/home use only, unless youi're just leaking money.
Check out "Evapo-Rust" it's magic chemistry that removes rust better than anything I've ever seen. (And I'm a lot older than you ;)
?I'm in the market for a Vox and I want the warranty. Would recommend an AC15C1 @799 or an AC30S1 @899?
15
@@PsionicAudio TY
I wouldn’t think people would pay more for a vintage car with the 40yo dry rotted tires than one with brand new tires why do we put so much value in dry rotted filter caps in a vintage amp??🙄
You can see tires, so folklore and snake oil don't stick. You can't see electrons, so the folklore and snake oil stick easier.
These amps are coveted because of how they sounded with brand new parts in them. They weren't worthless piles of crap until they aged to a certain point and suddenly started sounding good.
Unfortunately I think that as fewer and fewer people are becoming educated and experienced with analog electronics, the folklore and snake oil are finding more and more welcoming homes.
Are CE can caps as good as original Mallory’s?
Nope. WIsh they were, but nope.
I think the people asking to have the old sleeves on new caps tells you where their priorities lie - being concerned with hipster vintage status because the components “look original” and not in playing a good sounding, well functioning amp.
which circuit it is ?
To be honest, I don't really understand why some people are so caught-up with trying to maintain the so-called "vintage-mojo" of an amp if their idea of doing so involves leaving old, leaking-capacitors in circuit and not replacing them with new ones, it seems like people equate "vintage-mojo" with excessive noise, hum, his, motor-boating, parasitic oscillation, and other abnormal behaviour of electronic circuits, they don't realize that when these vintage amps were made they were made for making music rather than to be kept in some glass cabinet, never to be used.
Lyle, not to be nit-picking, but how hard is it for a reputable amp tech to turn a knob from low to high and back to find out where 12:00 is without saying 'I don't know where 12:00 is' because the knobs may not be installed right? This surprises me to no end when people on videos say I don't know where 12:00 on a potentiometer is. Just a thought to maybe leave this out when commenting on the settings. It's just as bad as watching demos with a guitar that the presenter doesn't know it's out of tune and continues with the video like he doesn't hear it (or worse, he doesn't know it's out of tune).
Are you talking halfway for the wiper position or half way in between max resistance and minimal resistance? You can easily find an approximate half way for a wiper by the distance it can travel in either direction. But a wipers half way is rarely 500k on a 1meg pot. Every pot has a different tolerance and slope.
I set the knobs to what the numbers indicated was noon then was working from the back. The knob wasn't on the pot corectly, so its numbers did not correlate with the actual position. I then turned it to about halfway but I was sitting behind the amp and could not give an accurate "o'clock" number.
This reputable amp tech filed that away as a minor thing to address later.
Some people take that “the parts all need to be original or it won’t have that magic” attitude to ridiculous extremes. My theory is it has to do with this thing that is elusive and, at the same time, in very high demand: Authenticity. Lots of musicians (mainly guitarists) crave authenticity. They willingly spend gobs of time and money chasing after it. And when they eventually acquire it (for an arm and two legs), they wonder why their wonderful and impressive vintage gear is not so easy to play, doesn’t sound that magical, and is noisy and unreliable.
Too bad Leo didn't use turret boards.
Please allow me to retort. At least concerning whether or not the caps should be placed in the old sleeves. Because the argument isn't whether they should be replaced or not. They obviously should because the amp won't work otherwise. However, there is a space for preserving the look of a historical item. This is common in the automotive world where people desire to have that slice of history replicate the original as best it can and still remain functional. You will see old looking radios that have modern internal parts. I don't think this is inherently wrong or evil. As forward thinking as Leo fender was, I cannot imagine that he thought his amps would become such an important part of American historical legacy. Some of these old amps have transcended a simple device to amplify guitar tone to a part of history. There's nothing wrong with preserving the look of a historical item. If some techs don't want to do that, then that's okay too. The customer can choose what tech to go to. I believe that each approach is perfectly valid depending on what you desire to get out of your amplifier. If you want to play it but preserve as much history as humanly possible, then a restoration may be in the cards for you. But if you desire something else or desire to change the circuit, feel free. Neither approach is inherently flawed.
But, but, but Lyle... You're changing out the tone diodes! (Sigh... The things people fetish over...)
they have not realized the difference between sound and audio yet ...
You know what?, I reckon those people so fixated on preserving an amp's "vintage-mojo", rather than replacing old and worn-out parts, are most likely Toan-deaf....lol.
Without those original diodes you.have recklessly removed all the ripple mojo and danger mojo..