Rebuilding the 68 Custom Deluxe Reverb | Part 4 : First Power Up & Playing Test

[@BrianOddi]

That's a work of art. Makes me want to buy a 68 Custom Deluxe Reverb rip out the chassis and mail it to you. It's worth whatever it costs. What attention to detail....Bravo.

[@KKMcK1]

I absolutely love the look of those fiberglass turret boards. So neat and clean and tidy!

[@matthewf1979]

I'd die for that noise floor. That's the advantage of a revised layout. Shortest runs of wire, vastly improved lead dress and a ground loop free ground scheme. It also sounds great!

[@oldguy5381]

Oooooh that’s purdy. So far it sounds like you got it going your way. And no Magic blue smoke very impressive. And A/C paid for 👍

[@malcolmhardwick4258]

Beautiful work !!

[@richclayton5785]

Beautiful build! Sounds great too.

[@oldtonedog1]

Beautiful, beautiful job!

[@krisharrop3764]

Leo is smiling down on you Lyle!

[@cuspclub]

Great work. Really enjoy your videos and your attention to detail. Love Fender cleans. I use an old Showman head but would love to have one of these someday.

[@glenndavis6793]

Beautiful work

[@TVtubeamps]

Murder by Numbers! Great work Lyle as always. 🙏

[@wrekkingcru]

♫ Once you have got a customer whose willing Someone who has an amp all torn apart You can accomplish something even thrilling To turn a murdered amp back into art Though many other amp techs only butchered And manufacturers designed a mess The one who has the knowledge and the skillset Can work their toneful ways to pure success Though it was murdered by others - 1, 2, 3 You can redesign it all - like that amp should be Murdered by others 1, 2, 3 It so pleasing to turn - what was dead into beauty... ♫

[@PsionicAudio]

Chuckle. Thanks, man!

[@danielsaturnino5715]

All amps you work on souns great to be honest... do you have any video on a marshall valvestate amp? Thanks

[@badbrad]

How much do you charge for one of these rebuilds?

[@MAMTROTH]

Love watching all your videos, especially diving into deluxe reverbs. I feel like I learn a lot, and understand and appreciate the circuit more. Do you or anyone else here have any idea why a Deluxe reverb would have a pretty loud idle buzz, with both channel volumes off... that goes away only when pulling v4? I cant figure it out for the life of me..

[@PsionicAudio]

Thanks. First, swap V4 and V5. Buzz gone? Bad tube in V4. If not, disconnect reverb cables and set Reverb pot to zero. Buzz gone? If so, bad tank, bad tank wires/connections, or bad 12AT7 in V3. Buzz still there? Look for DC leakage at the input side of the 3M||10pf cap. Very common, at least on pre-'83 DRs. Report back.

[@MAMTROTH]

@@PsionicAudio Thanks so much for the response, I really appreciate you taking the time! I tried swapping v4 and v5 - No change. I tried turning off and unplugging the Reverb - No Change. I will Check for DC leakage when I get an opportunity.

[@efsglass]

Really excited to see and hear the tremelo defeat and nfb switch mods!! Curious, can you set reverb on a relay vs having the entire audio signal running out and back the entire length of the foot cables? I know my local builder of New Vintage Amps does his reverb this way.

[@PsionicAudio]

Call me please. Thanks.

[@mattjohnson6916]

Those Nichicon caps, are they UCA line?

[@PsionicAudio]

I don't remember and I haven't had enough coffee to look up my BOM. ;) When choosing radial filter caps, I sort for the value and LS, then the cap with the longest life at 105/125C at the highest DC rating possible, then look at ESR and Ripple stats. Then I make sure the physical dimensions are suitable. To make my life easier, I only choose Nichicon and Panasonic as manufacturers to choose from, though Rubicon etc are also fine brands. I just don't want to drown in options.

[@mattjohnson6916]

@@PsionicAudio Thanks! I’ll have to start browsing around on Mouser, comparing products, and putting together a BOM or parts to try. I’ve been playing around with drawing up a circuit board layout for a 70’s Laney Supergroup and I’ve taken to heart to advice on using radial caps due to the unknown nature axial cap availability and reliability in the future, so I’m adapting them to this circuit board. It’s a long-term project, something I probably won’t get around to seriously working on until next year, but I wanted to start getting an idea on capacitor dimensions before drawing anything out.

[@aussie_philosopher8079]

Hey im thinking of buying a vintage super reverb at some point in time and just curious before doing so....with all the great vintage inspired and in some cases direct replica of vintage components /parts can a vintage amp be restored and enhanced so it still has it's original magic and beyond ? P.s amazing wiring it's done like a Dr z Nice!

[@PsionicAudio]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/foCQkHWjl52pqJY And this is wired way better than a Z. ;)

[@malcolmhardwick4258]

How many hours does it take to wire all this up ?

[@guitarguru4492]

I want one!

[@philandcatherinemuzio9476]

This is such a well thought out rebuild! Great job! Am I correct that the normal channel is now a bf super and the vibrato channel a deluxe w/o bright cap plus your rear panel variable mid pot? So if someone sent you a deluxe chassis with good transformers etc, what would this conversion cost approx?

[@PsionicAudio]

Yup! Still pricing this package. These first two took longer than later ones will. And I'll be charging these clients what I would charge later clients once I have the process more streamlined. But it will be in the neighborhood of $1K with parts. I can also mod the existing amp for better sound and reliability with the same voicing and mids pot. That package is $350 as of this writing.

[@philandcatherinemuzio9476]

Ball park pricing for the two packages is reasonable. Thanks. I look forward to finding out final pricing and when you’re ready to accept a chassis. What state are you in, if you don’t mind me asking?

[@PsionicAudio]

TN

[@paulcargo4233]

Have you calculated the plate dissipation for this amp how does it compare to the original (the one you started with)

[@PsionicAudio]

The same. Used the existing transformers, did the standard DR filtering and bias supply (though more elegantly). No need to change the things that work.

[@imanalien2222]

Sounds fantastic, and my miles don’t vary from yours. Only play Fenders bf and sf. I own a 68 custom, really like it, tho custom ch is useless to me as is. Is this just a one off mod or are you offering this mod out of your shop. I’m in ATL… so not too far.

[@PsionicAudio]

Well, this is far beyond a "mod" - though I do mod stock 68s to sound more like this. Fully rebuilding is more expensive - I'm trying to figure out exactly how expensive. These two were good lessons for me, as far as designing it for of assembly. Future ones will take a good bit less time - and the owners of these two amps will be charged as if I had already ironed out all the kinks. For example, I had to do a lot of measurements on the stock chassis to plan out the board placement - the owners of these amps aren't charged for that time, or the board design time. But I need to figure out what the turnkey price on a rebuild is, after subtracting time these took for learning* on my end. * Not learning how to build a Deluxe Reverb - learning ways to make more than one, efficiently. I have some board layout ideas that might speed future builds. Being efficient without cutting any corners is the goal.

[@imanalien2222]

@@PsionicAudio when you get pricing settled I’m certainly interested. Maybe different options?! Getting my 68 a bit closer to a handwired amp (at least the important stuff) will make me feel a lot better about hard gigging with this amp, and leaving the twins at home. Mine isn’t noisy like many claim, but things like taking the pots off the board, re-orienting the leads from the pcb to tube sockets, re-grounding the chassis by separating the power sections , etc will sure it up and help prevent overheating and other bad stuff down the road. With the proper tweaks this amp can be a real keeper -as I think you’ve shown here!

[@pauldavis6356]

Make yourself a 1/4 " dummy plug.

[@fiddlix]

Fender should be ashamed.

[@rickluke1747]

Fender build an amp for 300 and let it sell for 2k.

[@kendipietro6855]

From what I can hear, you have thoroughly and completely embarrassed Fender, assuming they have the capacity to be embarrassed.

[@PsionicAudio]

They want you to buy the new modeling amps.

[@RadioDeadAir]

@@PsionicAudio I've been trying to find a reasonably priced 65 DRRI to convert like this, but the used market is clogged with those damn Tonemasters. It's like a 5 to 1 ratio.

[@peterdadswell7998]

@@RadioDeadAir I find that interesting. So many on the market but their so good " so they say" lol

[@kendipietro6855]

@@PsionicAudio, Rob Robinette posted the following meme regarding modeling amps. robrobinette.com/images/Guitar/Other/Amp_User_and%20_Dog_Handling.jpg