How to Un-Mod a Fender Deluxe Reverb King kobbler Disaster repair

Here is the all time great butchered up Fender amp! A fellow in Texas sent this to me to remove a terribly performed modification. The amp was full of unsafe loose circuit boards, held in by zip ties, electrical tape, buggers, whatever the guy could find to create the catastrophe. I have never seen documentation of this crazy mod and really gets me to wonder why y would do this to a classic tube amp. A very fun project for me. The amp is now operating. I still have some clean up to do, replace a few more components, test with a reverb tank. Then I will ask the owner what else he desires. After that is complete, I will feature part 2. I hope you enjoy this joint adventure by D-Lab and the Kobbler! Always interesting what you will find. TD

[@halbertking2683]

Dan Torres , cobbler extraodinare, for sure. Take the lawnmower to it and start over. Radio Shack pc boards with electrical tape, what a mess. Mr D, your doing your customer a great service by removing that mess, I salute you,sir.

[@mfowler8808]

That definitely was the work of Dan Torres or his crew. Back in mid 1980's I had a Super Texan mod done to my silverface Super Reverb which I still have and reworked myself after I got it back. It has those Radio Shack PCB's for relays and shielded cable running every where zip tyed down and extra transformer to supply the regulated voltage for the relays. What a mess just like this one.

[@PeterDad60]

I purchased a hot rodded Marshall JCM 900 MkIII in White Tolex and full stack of JCM 900 1960A and 1960B speaker cabs. After a couple years the sound would cut out intermittently. A friend said shut it off and get it repaired. The repair tech was very very good. He has two shops, one in Manhatten and the other in Lindenhurst, Suffolk County Long Island which was nearer to where I was living. He told me the hot rodding was incomplete and asked me if I wanted him to complete it or return the amp back to stock. I said return it back to stock. When I gt my much loved JCM 900 MkIII back home I never liked it anymore! It was not the same. Gone was the long violin like sustain and 35 foot high wall of Marshall Roar and distortion that I had grown accustomed too. The real kicker is this. There was never anything wrong with that amp. It was my purchased new 1992 Made in China Bullet Stratocaster that had a loose jack which caused the intermittent dropping out. Oh what a heartbreak! I had sold my all time favorite rig all because of a loose input jack on a guitar. It was my first electric guitar BTW. So I do forgive my not realizing the loose input jack problem until after I got the amp back home and it still dropped out sometimes while playing. I had purchased a Peavy Windsor 100 watt all tube head as a backup and funny it had the same intermittent dropping out problem That's when I realized it's the guitar, not my tube amps! I still have this Strat and after spending over 40 hours of effort in leveling the fretboard it now plays as good as any guitar I have. Since it's from 1992- that's 27 years old now, it actually has a real nice tone and the wood on the neck has aged and darkened, she's beautiful! Nothing has ever gone wrong with this Start after the loose input jack, well I did need to WD40 the pots as they were making static noise when turned. That cured the static and I play her a real lot. She plays and sounds great. So there is that to console me. -Peter

[@PeterDad60]

I'd get another Marshall JCM and Full stack of 1960A & B cab's but the first one caused hearing losses so I'm not in a hurry to go completely deaf at my age -69. Also finding a tech to hot rodded it into a real fire breathing amp is a concern as well. Lastly we are moving and our new house has 3 churches very close as in two are right across the street and the third is just a little further than a Micky Mantle home run from our door. I'm actually looking at smaller amps for this reason. Small enough to crank hard but not loud enough to annoy anyone. I have qty (4) Four of 5 watt tube amps and a mess of 15/20 watt SS amps and 15 and 40 and 60 watt tube amps which are all too loud now. -Peter

[@jenniferwhitewolf3784]

Don't know how I missed this video when released.. Terry, this is a gem of a video. Thank goodness it ended up with someone like you or Uncle Doug, capable of bringing it back to proper glory.

[@djfrank59]

Amazing! I get some nightmares in my shop, but this one takes the cake! I've never seen such a hack job on a Fender as this one. Some people shouldn't own a soldering iron or a drill LOL :)

[@williamsquires3070]

I’m glad you put the 5U4 rectifier tube back in; not only is it the right part, but it doesn’t stress out the amp or filter caps with the sudden-on B+ that you get from Silicon diodes. 😋

[@Burgoseletronica05]

I Love your videos Mr. Terry. Greetings from São Paulo Brazil.

[@richardweinberger6302]

That's a tremendous short course in circuit checking for all of us kobblers . Great video, Terry!

[@scottroberts3801]

Wow, that almost looked like complete wiring from one device shoved into another. Great job putting it back to how it should be.

[@halbertking2683]

Dan Torres strikes again. The Radio Shack circuit boards with electrical tape. Wow.

[@eetechtom]

When you get to the point where you think that many mods are necessary, you’re better off buying a different amp.

[@jimgiordano8218]

or pedals.

[@PhuketMyMac]

Exactly

[@diegozordan6376]

An excellent job as always Terry! Thank you to bring back that beast to the stock circuit, greetings from Argentina, I'm thinking in send you a cabernet sauvignon wine box from here 🤣

[@luthravin4774]

You brought that amp back from.. not near death but Zombie land!! Great work!! The things people can come up with in amp modding!!

[@jeffbrooks7246]

Great job - like untangling a ball of yarn for the Mrs. The crowning moment of King Kobbler for sure.

[@jerrymcgeorge4117]

You're a patient man, sir. Nice job!

[@chokkan7]

Another great job, Terry.

[@KC9KEP]

Back in my high school days, I re-wired a Super Reverb by copying a Marshall amp scheme. To make it even better, I took the tone shaping PC board from and Ampeg amp (it had three EQ settings) and piggybacked the PC board on top the Super Reverb capacitor dog house. It must have added another 4 tubes to the amp. The musician that was using the amp passed away several years back so I don't know where it went. I cannot imagine if someone ever wanted to service it would have thought! It did produce the absolute fatest tone you could imagine! It was great for the punk-rock at the time.

[@Wildman9]

Mr.Fender, (Terry) can fix anything the old cobbler messes up.What a waste of time and money.If you don't know what to do have FLab fix it.Tremendous video Terry thanks for all you do.😎🎸👍✌

[@hpelisr]

Great work restoring that amp.

[@tomk1tl]

Nice job Terry......you must have spent quite a bit of time on this and good that you went to the Fender "layout". I would have pulled the remainder of my hair out working on this amp.....looking forward to Part Deux :-))

[@Finom1]

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us!!!

[@gabrieltudor6165]

Wohoo, back to tube guitar amps, love it !

[@metalcavy33]

Great video d lab

[@preiter20]

When King Kobbler visits, I have to stop the video and grab a drink and a snack.

[@johnsimms3957]

Good job Terry! Instead of letting a cobbler cobble my amp I'd just put a pedal in front of it.

[@Blueguitar007]

I always thought this too.

[@Bigjoedo66]

Another good video Terry!! The previous owner should have picked a different amp, not a Fender blackface or silverface amp for "Gain", Glad the current owner is returning it to stock.

[@jasoneyes01]

I'm sure that's a Eureka meth cobbler limited edition with the television tv tube flyback conversion.

[@johnpick8336]

Terry/D Lab Masters pf the Electronic Universe !!!

[@gaylen8467]

wow Terry....Great job

[@idahovintageelectronics3589]

That was a great job! I used to dislike the Illinois Capacitors. But they were bought out by Cornell Dubilier, and the newer Caps are wonderful!! Just a little FYI.

[@Wizardofgosz]

Mr Carlson LOVES them.

[@brich2929]

Terry: you might want to add (Part 1) in the title description!

[@fiddlix]

Why people want to modify a classic circuit such as the deluxe reverb is beyond me. You did a good days work by putting this amp back to stock. There are a few minor mods that are totally reversible that I have done with great success on the deluxe reverb such as reducing the size of the output coupling cabs to cut out some of the fluffiness in the base when you turn the volume up but other than that leave classic Amps like this alone.

[@keithmcneil1180]

You said the choke was the reverb transformer. Lol. Seriously though I've seen modded amps like that come across my bench and it's such a disaster. Good on you for bringing it back

[@keithmcneil1180]

Those arent the stock knobs either by the way. Those look more like musicman knobs

[@63stratoman]

Wow! Someone certainly “Rectum Fried” this previously wonderful amplifier!

[@charlesshaw9090]

Great restore job. I can’t find part 2.

[@pneumatic00]

Good candidate for buying one of them repro front panels in blackface style. And please Terry; do the 100K 2-3 watt metal film plate resistors!

[@jessferrera3155]

That may be the most kobbled - up amp of all time Can’t believe it was done to a vintage Fender Deluxe Lucky for this amp, it found its way to D-Lab where it will get un-kobbled and put back into fine working condition

[@VIDS2013]

In the 1980s, a '71 Deluxe Reverb was a common amp, and not very desirable.

[@ChrsGuit]

Probably wasn't vintage when this was done... I'd say late 80's-early 90's. Those IC caps were big then. Silver Face 70's amps were pretty cheap back then...

[@jimeb2jim256]

Crazy cob job.

[@stephanc7192]

Well done

[@robertburke7231]

I am a kobbler , thanks for the info DLab...

[@mooferoo]

Oh man, techs must see some really scary stuff on modded amps sometimes.

[@waynewayne3709]

We sure do!..

[@Tremolux59]

I would not be surprised to learn that this was a Torres mod.

[@cosmicray007]

Omg, that was the original Dumble by Alexander D. ; )

[@ericmorrison794]

You have angered the cobblers.even if they ruin an amp and burn down their house they want respect.great video

[@carlburgess9635]

Sooom did your old Oscope grow legs and walk away? Thank for your videos. Carl

[@mobicus1]

Nice work removing the stink from that amp! It must have been someone's "learner" test bed... I guess we all start somewhere, but safety should hold a higher priority with some folks when these experiments are released into the wild. Cheers!

[@goodun6081]

Rick McKenzie, I bet it would have been quite the smoke show if the electrical tape on top of those flying circuit boards had softened and slid off from the heat of the amp in operation, and the circuit boards had contacted the metal foil shielding on the inside top of the cabinet.

[@mobicus1]

@@goodun6081 Big smoke and bright coloured lights too! Until the electrical breaker trips , anyhow :)

[@chakathewolf]

What a mess! I was doing cleaner work than that when I was fifteen.

[@donaldfilbert4832]

OMG !! That "mod" is going to give me nightmares !!!

[@strangequark420]

Superb!

[@Pstaines439]

WOW, that really was a 'special' mod. Surely that was done in the 80's by a metalhead.

[@ImBlueHeavenBound]

I absolutely agree with you about reinstalling the 5U4, however for people that don't understand why, you might want to go into a little bit more detail on that for them, about inrush current

[@d-labelectronics]

Yes, I agree, will post a vid on this subject

[@daveb9370]

The Smegulators are there to balance the off axis power regulation of the Kenuter valves.

[@johnhbox7767]

I generally use a guzinter.............one guzinter the other job dun

[@centraliafuckcorruption]

very good

[@eliezerriveraperez3810]

Great job,I got tó say!!!!

[@captcdd]

Looks like Watts Tube Audio website is down. Any idea where to find the chassis layout like shown..

[@dinein1970]

Someone thought they were Alexander Howard Dumble...

[@chrisoman2195]

dinein1970 his name probably was cooter

[@donstewart368]

Some have the nerve to get on the internet and try and defend this.

[@markicarusschochenmaier4307]

4:30 in, my thought are to gut the thing right down to the bone, get the schematics, and rebuild. start fresh. Now back to the video.

[@wegert1]

Very impressive video, you make it all look so damned easy. How long did you actually spend on this one? Thanks as always.

[@matthewf1979]

I hate it when people do this. Just build another freaking amp. What a grade A 💯 CF!

[@czgunner]

Around 15:40, what is that flashing light on the board seen just under/behind your yellow lead?

[@Robert-xn3jb]

What a mess! You are a brave one....

[@rciancia]

Really nice job Terry !!! Question for you. When you were checking the vibrato, at 15:44 in the video, I observed a flashing light on that eyelet board coming from an Orange Component which appears to be half covered in Shrink Wrap or electrical tape. I expect this is some sort of OpAmp or something. Looks like to goes to the plate of one side of the 12AX7 . Can you cover that in the next video and explain how that works ? Would love to know more about that and how it works.. Many thanks my friend. You've done an excellent job as always. Ron

[@cpycior]

That's the optoisolator. search this page for the word 'roach' robrobinette.com/How_The_AB763_Deluxe_Reverb_Works.htm

[@TonyFf986]

Oh God no, another Frankenstein Reverb from the 80’s!

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Immediately I imagined an 80s dude with permed mullet going for that Bon Jovi BS

[@vladimirlemajic1597]

Hi from Serbia.I have one hand made Deluxe reverb but when I turn on tremolo voolume go down.What can be wrong?

[@thedevilinthecircuit1414]

Is there a reason why you don't verify the proper fuse in the amp before you first apply power? I always do, just as a preemptive strike.

[@RobertKohut]

Nice!!

[@donnyboy911]

love the mods(LOL=not)...been cheaper to get a diff amp...modded a champion 600 like that. full tone stack, pres,and master..why..it seemed fun( for a recording engineer that liked the tone )

[@JasonTHutchinson]

Was there ever a followup video released?

[@Yupppi]

I tried to find the part 2 but was unsuccessful!

[@paulcargo4233]

Nice freakin job sir...

[@garyeggleton1142]

Terry, I believe that the output transformer on a Deluxe Reverb has a 6.6k primary impedence and would easily take 6L6 tubes with a bias adjustment, but you are trying to go back to stock....that was a horrible mod job lol

[@robgreene1776]

Yet more confirmation of this truth: "Just because you can do ________ , doesn't mean you SHOULD".

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

"Whaaaaat the hell is this?!" -- Kane, _Alien_ Don't lean too close to all those tentacles!

[@fredpgeiser728]

Sacrilege! In 1998, someone brought a heavily modified BF Bassman with the “Marshall nuker” mods. I also have a friend who had a Bassman 10 with a sloppy mod.

[@Sctronic209]

Can’t find part 2

[@docjeffry]

How long did it take you to make Mr. Cobbler?

[@richiehall4207]

Thats one of those messy booger amps :)

[@micheliodice686]

Is it "lots tube audio" at 9:05??

[@jamiboothe]

I am watching this for the second time, and am simply wondering why the cobbler did not just build an amp from scratch, with all of his "brilliant" ideas.

[@alvarofalcon7136]

Great video but the original knobs are missing.

[@Gerardo.GarciaGarcia]

Another great video Mr. Terry!!! And give us your contact information please! May I'll need your tech service. Greetings!

[@robertcalkjr.8325]

Thanks Terry! That amp looked like a meth head was tweaking on it!

[@brd400]

What a freaking mess this looks like it’s going to be wayyy harder than troubleshooting. I think I just would’ve bought another one myself! An unmolested one

[@dhpbear2]

That Heath 4225 appears to be 'post-kit' :)

[@d-labelectronics]

Yes, That is a Heath built unit

[@Wizardofgosz]

I guess there was never a part 2 to this?

[@BruceNitroxpro]

Seems like you still understand the words, "common sense," as it is might scarce nowdays. Illinois Capacitor is now part of CD, and is a good cap. All the old style caps can be ditched and replaced as they are not "ready for the new era." LOL I would love to see you check all the components as this unit was modded by a butcher.

[@chrisoman2195]

Bruce Nitroxpro the guy that did the mods is a deet da dee

[@Beizeiten78]

Good god. That poor amp. If anyone can save it, Terry can.

[@jpalberthoward9]

Crack pipe in one hand, soldering iron in the other. 497 tattoos and 3 teeth. Thinks a complete sentence means doing all of the time with no parole. I get to undo stuff like this all the time living in Vegas, but never quite this bad. It looks like Moe called in sick that day, and Curly was in charge. They can do some real nice work on guitars too. I could make a video on acoustic bridge reglue jobs that would bring tears to your eyes.

[@DeadKoby]

I'm not a fan of modding vintage amps... if you want a hot-rod amp, why not buy a kit version and build a new hot rod? I just did a 74 Twin on my channel.. very nice for clean tone.

[@fredfabris7187]

The question I have is.... if you wanted a deluxe why would you buy that one?

[@paulanalco5037]

Rivera mod??

[@howardrose8481]

I’m going to have nightmares about this.

[@HazeAnderson]

Looks like he rigged that thing to mine for Bitcoin. 😂

[@donstewart368]

In some countries they would cut your hands off for doing this to an amp.

[@elliotbradley]

vibe-ray-tow... lol

[@donnyboy911]

*** anyone dealing with reissue dlx rev...the output tube caths are grounded via : yellow wires>front control pcb cables> pots >to chassis......???really? old school was soldered next to the socket on the chassis...too easy

[@simonkormendy849]

Geez, I'm lost for words, but.....whoever did all those mods to that poor Fender amp, that never hurt anyone, obviously must have been one of those "certified" electronics engineers that passed all their exams and etc, and got all their certificates....that's no way to treat a Fender amp.

[@stephenhookings1985]

Pruning :-)

[@Rialas]

Modded by Mr Mesa Boogie. Lol.

[@fredfabris7187]

RIALAS It probably was one of his early works of art and Was worth a fortune. Now it’s just worth as much is a deluxe reverbThat somebody remove the mods from and covered up the drill holes

[@Rialas]

fred fabris Possibly although, one man's Rembrandt is another man's Picasso 😀