1966 Fender Deluxe Reverb Amplifier Repair And Restoration

On the Bench today, this remarkable vintage Fender amplifier.

[@fenderstratguy]

That provides some really lovely tones. I love a compressed, thick sound, and that's what I hear there. It even sounds good in my little computer speakers.

[@ejoey64]

Awesome sounding! Great job!

[@guitarmedia9171]

Thank you Granville guitars.....For, Just another great informative video, for some of us do it yourselfers.

[@GranvilleGuitars]

fred sweet - It's my pleasure. Just sharing the things I find interesting.

[@OnTheEdgeNow]

Sounds great. Good job.

[@alanpickering4497]

smashing -enjoyed your playing too

[@GranvilleGuitars]

alan pickering - Thanks very much. I sincerely appreciate your kind remarks.

[@UToobSteak]

KZbin's algorithm is so jacked. How am I just finding this channel from a 3 year old video. As informative, knowledgeable, and entertaining as you are, you should have way more subscribers. Well, on the flipside, I get to be one of the first 5,000. Lol. Good video, sir.

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Warren B - Thanks very much for the kind remarks. I'm really not interested in monetizing my videos. I make a fair living doing repairs. I love what I do and sometimes point a camera at it. If folks like it, then I'm pleased.

[@saint6563]

Most impressed w/how quite it is! Well done. TY

[@grewejames1]

Nice amp. Job well done. Interesting watch. Thanks!

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Jim Grewe Thanks very much. When a nice vintage amp is this clean inside I just have to stick a camera in there.

[@vidarragnarsson4020]

Incredible awesome tone really enjoyed watching that video I love seeing old amp restored I have an early 80s Marshall that took a fall I would love to have someone like you fix it for me

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Vidar Ragnarsson - Ship it to me.

[@SeattleScotty]

Really cool video! I have the same amp - minus the reverb unit - and it is a great amp!

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Scott Billingsley - Very cool! I personally think the non-reverb amplifiers have a better tone.

[@MariJu1ce]

Sounds perfect

[@jerrymcgeorge4117]

Very informative! I'm going through my own '66 BFDR that has a very similar story as yours. It was stored for many years in a family's closet in an area of the USA with high ambient humidity. I've recapped the amp and done the same three prong conversion as you. Any badly drifted resistors or leaky ceramic caps were replaced with as close to original equivalents as I could find. It sounds great, but has odd crackling, static overtones when the amp is pushed, particularly with a humbucker guitar. Chopsticking doesn't reveal any bad connections. I touched up the solder joints on all the ground leads and got a bit of impreovement. Tubes are all good, any bad tube sockets were replaced. Stumped....

[@goodun2974]

Two possibilites: 1) bad plate-load resistors ; 2) the wax-impregnated circuit board may have become conductive due to moisture absorption. Try changing the plate load resistors first; if the noise gets louder as you increase the volume then the problem is probably *before* the volume or tone controls. If that doesnt fix it, you'll need a new board ---- somebody does make new boards for these, i believe they're brown phenolic instead of waxy cardboard.....

[@stevesuv]

well done

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Steve Suveg - Thank you, sir!!

[@1Dcorace]

The numbers were probably pretty tight because they were selling really well at the time of production and old inventory was low. Fender didn't throw anything away, even to the point of mixing and matching components to use up existing inventory.

[@TheFRiNgEguitars]

Armor all suks! :) Looks and sounds fantastic! That extra braided ground wire had to go, agreed! Your solder work looks good enough to me, that you should be confident to solder to the original eyelets.. just clean re-tin and resolder, looks cleaner and will never fail.

[@GranvilleGuitars]

TheFRiNgEguitars - many thanks for the kind remarks. I appreciate it. That technique of installing new capacitors really has nothing to do with confidence. It has more to do with my desire to leave original things original. Some of the things in a vintage amplifier for instance very thin solid core wire can develop issues and breaks if it's moved around too much. In essence, it's way too easy to make work for yourself. In addition, as I mentioned in the video a future technician will find it very easy to replace those caps when the time comes. I don't always use this technique. Sometimes enough of the other components in that general vicinity need to be replaced that I will happily clean out original turrets and do all new soldering. In my line of work I have a responsibility to vintage amplifiers (not their owners) to leave originality in place when it doesn't compromise performance. We have a duty as custodians for the next generation of owners to leave things alone when possible. I have, on occasion completely gutted vintage amplifiers that have been destroyed by previous "technicians". You can check out some of my other videos for proof of this. So, I basically have no fear when it comes to pulling things out if it's necessary for performance reasons.

[@TheFRiNgEguitars]

Good points friend, and very thoughtful about looking ahead to the future.

[@pauldavis6356]

I had one of these '66 Fenders. I sold it in the 80's (ARRRGGG). Subsequently the guy's house was robbed and it got stolen . 🥵

[@dirknickerson9660]

that amp is remarkably quiet

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Sideshow Green Country - Yeah. The good ones usually are.

[@williammckeown4768]

Thanks for sharing this. What did you do to clean up the cabinet? It looks really good. Also, not bad playing :-)

[@GranvilleGuitars]

William McKeown - non-ammonia Windex and a vegetable brush.

[@hobbydude1808]

Great sounding amp. Looking into modding a Musicmaster Bass amp to make it sound like a Tweed; I think the Dlx Rvb BF is the Holy Grail of amps. Thanks for a cool video.

[@chrisbirch4066]

I love the sound and am wondering what amp can give me this sound . Anything modern or do I have to search for old ones?

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Chris Birch - it's hard to beat the Fender Reissue series amps. With careful tube selection and the occasional speaker swap they can give you most of the same tone on a budget. Silver face amps are terrific and can be acquired fairly cheaply compared to their black face counterparts. Just look around and plug into everything you can. Let your ear be your guide.

[@bmwilson79]

Thanks for taking us along for the ride! Great job. The tone you pull out of it is choice! What guitar are you playing? Btw, your playing sounds great too!

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Brian Wilson - Thanks for the kind remarks. The guitar I'm playing in this clip is one that I no longer own. It was a mid 90s fender made in Mexico Stratocaster that I had fitted with a anodized aluminum pick guard and Lace Sensor Holy Grail pickups.

[@bmwilson79]

@@GranvilleGuitars Sweet! Thanks for the reply. I have a 90 MIM. A friend gutted it and it has all American components now, but I have fallen out of love with the pickups. Lace Sensor Holy Grails might be somewhere in future.

[@thomascowan1825]

HI Scooter, I noticed you used 20 mfd @500vdc instead of the 16 mfd 450vdc. Is there much difference between these values ? Just curious. Really enjoyed your presentation. Love to see more !

[@Bbendfender]

It doesn't hurt to go up a little on the mfd on the big electrolytics.

[@charlespeck886]

4 uf and 50 V, uf insignificant but 50V extra when voltage surges at start helps to not have a melt down.

[@whatsstefon]

@@charlespeck886 Especially these days where our mains voltage is higher than it use to be.

[@scaryperson27]

I am also curious to know if there was any motive behind the extra 4uf on each cap. I know with solid state power supplies, the extra capacitance allows for smoother power to the rest of the components.

[@BillMcGirr]

Great video and clean work. I'm curious...why did you j-hook the caps under the doghouse???... Instead of removing the old leads and soldering the new ones directly to the board. Not a criticism at all...just wondering if there is a particular reason. Thank you for the video.

[@GranvilleGuitars]

BillMcGirr - thanks for your kind remarks. Each job is different. If the original solder joints are solid I like to leave them in place and make those little eyelets to preserve them. Also, someday when the caps again require replacement the job will very quick and easy.

[@lisamerrittjohn]

Can you recommend a repair tech in the Yakima Washington area. I have some vintage Fenders that I want looked at.

[@GranvilleGuitars]

WhyAmIAmazed I personally don't know anyone. Anyone else care to chime in and help??

[@BorjaTG]

Which tubes does it use? Nice job! 😊

[@GranvilleGuitars]

Borja TG - 4 12AX7, 2 12AT7, 2 6V6, 1 5AR4

[@mariablekas6370]

Amp sounds great! Thanks for sharing your repair. I am wondering why you only checked the heater wiring on the output tubes and not the preamp tubes as well? Or did you but only the power tubes were reversed?

[@GranvilleGuitars]

maria blekas - I did check the heaters for the 9 pin tubes. They do not need to be reversed because as those tubes are dual triodes, they are naturally hum bucking.

[@koolbreeze8698]

How long will a overhaul like that last before needing another overhaul

[@GranvilleGuitars]

kool breeze - No way to know for sure, but the work done should last as long as the parts hold out.

[@fenderstratguy]

Come on Scooter....please tell how you cleaned up that Tolex

[@GranvilleGuitars]

fenderstratguy - Not gonna do it.

[@monelfunkawitz3966]

Coming from an old blues player… Baby wipes and pledge. I don’t know if this guy used same thing but it’s what the old guys use

[@scaryperson27]

@@monelfunkawitz3966 Do you play the blues because you couldn't ever get your tolex clean?

[@monelfunkawitz3966]

Audio Everywhere Cant say I have. But I did learn some Boston songs after I spilled a beer on a Bogner amp and for three weeks it sounded like a spitting image of the guitar for We're Ready no matter where you set the pots.

[@fenderstratguy]

@@GranvilleGuitars Alright, then I will keep using my old standby way: Windex and a ScotchBrite pad. Gets Tolex looking pretty good.

[@fenderstratguy]

When you put caps in, is it being too anal to rotate them all the same so their values are facing out? So they are easy to read? I think it's just smart. 16:40 that looks like what you did and I like it.

[@GranvilleGuitars]

fenderstratguy - That's how they are in the Deluxe. It's a matter of how Fender wired the supply. You can't just rotate a cap (particularly a high voltage power supply cap) for looks. In the Blackface/Silverface realm the larger amps always have the first node totem poled. That's the way it is.

[@fenderstratguy]

​ @Granville Guitars I didn't understand that really, but I'm sure you know what you are doing. I'm just a noob in here to learn.

[@curtisprice9806]

You said the electrolytics have a shelf life, but didn't give any amount of time that is.....It's 2019 and so that would make these caps over 50 years old!! Well hell yeah they need replaced!!

[@GranvilleGuitars]

curtis price - Well, of course 50 years is well past the expiration date. Typically we like to change them after 15 to 20 years max. Of course it all depends. I've seen model production caps leak much more quickly.

[@curtisprice9806]

Thank you! That is what I have been told also (20). I have heard that the LCR electrolytic caps used in the 70's super leads I have are discontinued. Do you have a recommendation to what companys' caps I could use to take their place? Thanks

[@GranvilleGuitars]

curtis price - I generally use F&T for all electrolytics these days.