Chasing Gremlins | '65 Fender Super Reverb Pt 4

[@alexwoolridge94aw]

Man, you need to keep making videos like this. Perhaps it will show those who think amp repairs should cost $5 that they are indeed labor intensive and sometimes just boring cleaning that takes time, which costs money.

[@velutumbra]

Yeah, maybe seeing the "what", "why" and "how"s, people stark taking the profession seriously. Weirdly, the complainers are the same people that would laugh at old people for believing that in the morning shows the "chefs" are cooking in real time.

[@goodun2974]

The inner sleeve of a Switchcraft style 1/4" female jack is *crimped* to the ground plate and terminal behind it. When the jack is 50 years old and shows signs of oxidation elsewhere, I don't really trust that there won't be oxidation and tarnish at that crimp point; I clean the metal thoroughly where the rolled over edges of the crimp meet the grounding plate/ terminal, and I solder that seam. The crimp has probably relaxed a little bit in the preceding decades, as cold worked metals do, and the phenolic wafer insulators may have compressed a little bit, loosening everything up. Since you didn't mention it in detail, I can confirm that if somebody has bent or misaligned the grounding-finger (leaf switch) of a shunting-style female jack, realigning the parts so that they work reliably is tricky and difficult, and sometimes next to impossible. Even running a piece of sandpaper through the contacts to clean them can knock the switched jack out of alignment if the sandpaper is too thick or you pry the parts just a little too far apart in the process. Newbies attempting this for the first time should probably practice on a loose jack held in their hand before trying it on a jack which is installed in the amp.

[@Happy_Broom]

Gremlins! Tough Dogs! D S! DSL100HR with R8 and R9 shorted to the trace from C24/R49 to R11. Smoked R49 to death in low power mode. Blew fuses 2 and 3. Ends of R8 and R9 factory installed pressed tightly against the trace. Heating and cooling eventually breaks down the insulation. Fender Princeton Reverb II with Orange White Brown Gold 4 band 39.1 ohm resistors installed at the Fender factory when Orange White Brown with a +/- 5% tolerance 390 ohm resistors were spec'd by Fender. Eventually shorted 6.2v zener for the switching supply fed off the bias supply to ground in turn barbequing the bias supply and vaporizing the 6V6's. Someone forgot to check the resistor values before using them.

[@scottwilcox6313]

Awesome, just awesome. These longer videos are a treasure trove of information. It's how you chase down issues, which is so interesting to watch. Keep the great content coming.

[@oldguy5381]

Happy Friday every one, enjoy your weekend.

[@martinreid1740]

Saved this for my Saturday nights viewing, keep the videos coming and with such a high standard of work, that's the way all amp repairs should be done.

[@Satchmoeddie]

As much wax as I purged from a mid 1970s Princeton Reverb's eyelet boards, maybe we should start making Fender scented candles as a sideline. Those shunt contacts are some sort of a carbon/brass/bronze/silver blend on those jacks. Sometimes I use a General Cement burnisher to clean them up, but often it's best just to install a new jack and be done with it, especially when stuff has been bent. Somewhere, whoop, there it is, I have an old Schaller cable tester that you plug each end of a cable into and LEDs indicate if the cable is any good. It seems cheaply made for Schaller, but it still works, and it's been around a dozen or so shops since the 1970s.

[@Satchmoeddie]

Rottenstone in a mineral spirit soaked rag makes a nice abrasive compound. Be sure to rinse it all out before putting the jack(s) back into service. I never had any concerns about Lyle's use of a 1/4 inch ratchet and sockets to tighten those nuts up. Lyle has a very highly functioning brain and knows how to apply the proper torque. I use small 1/4 inch ratchets myself. Mine fold up and make spinners, but I could very easily strip nuts or twist off bushings, and my brain barely functions at all.

[@alexdeleon7135]

This is certainly the format to showcase, Lyle. I do not mean to belabor the point, but is more interesting to watch your process(s) than to just hear about what had to be done. After this Super, I hope you can demo that new (Lyle-esque) Murray pickup. Enjoy your weekend.

[@BradsGuitarGarage]

Top procrastination fuel. Thanks again, mate.

[@PsionicAudio]

My evil plan is working… …tomorrow.

[@trbr1799]

Great cleaning detail and instruction, Lyle. Many thanks!

[@milanberic9212]

So many components that provide opportunity for degradation and failure over a half century of use. Gaining the knowledge to troubleshoot and resolve. Amazing work. Thank you

[@briansilcox5720]

That is pretty interesting about the leaky dc in the board. Learned something new today, thanks! Good reason to keep the Fender in a relatively dry environment if not being used. I imagine the heat of normal operation keeps some moisture at bay.

[@ToddRichmond]

we all love a Semantic Quagmire (I think they played Coachella this year)

[@bottomkitchen250]

Interesting trick with heating the eyelets to evaporate the isopropyl.

[@Flycam01]

Just weighing in on the video length issue… I really enjoy the short ones and these up to an hour or so. The three hour live sessions are too much for me to sit through, but I do tend to skim those later. In short, what you do works so I have no complaints. There’s way too much value in what you’re doing to stick to a single format.

[@johnburns5783]

Love these longer videos Lyle, but watching them is wasting valuable drinking time at the pub 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@brianmorton4127]

My 69 Bassman has been cutting out just like that. Haven't used it for a year because of that.

[@goodun2974]

BTW, Lyle, you mentioned in a previous video about trying unsuccessfully to use "Teflon" (PTFE) plumber's tape to make a better seal on the cap of your alcohol bottle so it wouldn't leak; I tried soaking a strip of PTFE tape in some denatured alcohol and although it turned from white to translucent/transparent almost instantly, it does not seem to be affected by the alcohol otherwise. I'll leave it in there overnight and see if it dissolves like yours did.

[@jutukka]

It is quite funny that in guitar amps the same connector type (1/4" phone plug/jack) is used as both guitar input connector where there is practically a zero mA current situation, and as a speaker output connector which should be able to pass through several amps current and often 20-100W power to speaker.

[@michaelfuller34]

That’s it! Choke up and put it in play!

[@jonnybeck6723]

Gee weeds, ya had a whole Passel 'a gremalinos there kimo-sobby... ...but great and beautiful work was and is always worth the watch (Thanx)

[@sempercompellis]

Hey Mr Psi....hope all is well with you. I see you have been releasing a lot of "tip" videos where you show the world some of the things you have learned over the years....I watched your reverb tank video and while it's quite informative, I hope you can one day talk about something you didn't cover in that video....viz; how you would personally set up a tank in your amp: what kind of base, where to screw the tank to that base, where to put any rubber grommets, ...etc etc..... just an idea whatever you decide...thank you for the videos you have done...great stuff

[@cheeze_pizza]

Loving the longer format videos! 📻

[@TheMachinefish]

You cant leave us hanging like this.

[@brooks1700]

legendary ASMRtist lyle caldwell

[@jdl2180]

I thought he was going to be working on a tone King gremlin 🤔

[@Joshua_Stephens]

Excellent Video. Thank You.

[@chrisfit]

Oh jeez a cliffhanger episode! Were you able to sus out the hum in the reverb? Having the same issue with my BFDR.

[@sgt.grinch3299]

Good morning Lyle.

[@MichaelSmith-rn1qw]

When you were driving the alcohol out of the eyelet which had the resistor that you couldn't remove, weren't you concerned about overheating the resistor due to the length of time the soldering iron tip was in the eyelet? I like these longer form videos, great teaching tool.

[@PsionicAudio]

Not really. If it was noisy I would have replaced it.

[@camielkotte]

I love it. That thud on stby is also on my tr ri65. Could it be the reverb transformer? Btw, you put a tube out of V1/2(?) which was microphonic in to the trem/reverb? Can that be cause for thuds? I did the same tube switching in my TR 65RI

[@PsionicAudio]

Stay tuned re: thuds. Not the preamp tubes.

[@cigarettesmokingman9471]

Is there a reason more people don't use 63/37 solder? Is it inappropriate for this type of work?

[@PsionicAudio]

Personal preference. I don’t like it with eyelets/turrets but it’s great for PCB.

[@maxvockner]

Unbend😂. Bend it back