Repair Vintage Fender Silver face Vibro Champ guitar amp Change Filter Cap + setting Class A Bias

Nice clean Fender Vibro Champ. Comes from the original owner. The amp was rather weak and noisy. Fresh caps, tubes and bias should do the trick. I really enjoy working on the Champ series. The very basic design that sounds great. Masters of sound engineering. Fender really knew what they were doing back then. Wish I could have worked in that factory! This was pretty much a standard restoration. No big surprises. Plays like the day it was made. Good for another 30 years. D-Lab specializes on Fender amp repairs. I also enjoy repairing vintage Ham tube equipment. These days, I am very backlogged. Please be patient with me. I still have a day job as well as managing this repair business. Was a hobby at one time! haha

[@bobblum5973]

A lover of fine wines AND fine solder! Kester 63/37 is the best!

[@fostexfan160]

A restorative work of art! A pleasure to witness. Great video

[@marsmediapro]

And, another olden Fender geetar amp brought back to life. Thanks, Terry!

[@electrolytics]

Good Stuff. Thanks for all the great videos.

[@kdawgtv1333]

I have this same amp and it just died today started smoking and tube looked on fire. It was my great grandfather's. I'll have it repaired and hopefully she last long enough for my son another generation.

[@edwardhannigan6324]

Hey Terry, nice to see the old ones getting fixed..😀 Great job and informative as usual..Thanks for sharing..Ed..u.k..😀

[@seanhershey3390]

Quite the intro...I miss my little 78 Vibro Champ

[@jdmccorful]

Nice work. Thanks for the look.

[@bkbinj6320]

Nice repair Terry.

[@Tonetwisters]

These are great little amps. Tone city.

[@douro20]

The output transformer was made by Rola (EIA code 285). It's possible it came off of a Rola speaker.

[@oscardelatorre]

all the amp people i think i could trust live so far away!!!

[@Ivan-ey4cd]

Nice Video! I have a same Fender Vibra Champ, one day Im going to fix the Vibra effect and a deep sevice! , meanwhile I keep fixing some vintage turntables and old receivers. Regards!!

[@wesleymorris1]

I always use 470 in my cathode biased amps with 6v6 tubesbut I use jj 6v6 tubes they can handle a little more abuse, I tried to bias it with larger resistance but it always sounds slightly different. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe thats why 6v6 tubes only last 6 months to a year, but I also practice and play every day. I'm going to experiment alittle more. I always get good tips and tricks watching your channel. Thanks d lab

[@CatsElectronics]

Beauty

[@tubeDude48]

That jingle you play at the beginning is WAY TO LOUD!

[@sempercompellis]

watching you clip that blue Ajax cap made me shutter- those are 30 dollars on eBay - for a single cap

[@lucancherby]

That old transformer, having a gap to avoid saturation, could be use as a choke if you use the primary

[@corneliuscrewe677]

I was just given what I thought was a very early drip-edge Silverface Vibro-Champ from my brother in law. Unfortunately, whoever had it before him physically cut the bottom of the chassis out and riveted in the guts of some other mystery amp, half of which was wired in with speaker wire. Very disappointing.

[@marshallwelchel7218]

You must had forgotten to clean you camera lens, seemed like you had a little skim on your lens! Oh well! Made things look a little blurry! Thanks! ❣👁👁🙏

[@BenPrevo]

Hi from Dublin Terry -- just wondering after you cooled down the bias what plate voltage did you end up with ?

[@mila8400]

Hey Terry, congrats with your educational explanation ! Won't you mean 47 in place of 25 milli-amps at 12:05 ? Thanks

[@scottbc31h22]

That OPT did not come out of a Hammond organ. (Maybe some other brand but not a Hammond.) Hammond did not produce any single ended amplifiers. All of their power amps were push pull. Besides, The Hammond Organ company used very high quality transformers.

[@DeadKoby]

The Brown film or Blue Film caps found in Fenders are always referred to negatively. I am yet to find any "leakers" in those... so what is hated about them?

[@1inDnile]

Have you any info on Selmer 50watt bass\treble bass and guitar amps

[@joeycigar63]

Hello Terry. Could you please tell me what the cap across the grid and cathode of the power tube does? Have yet to find a clear explanation. Thanks, JC (at least I think it's across the grid and cathode)

[@mikkorintala2969]

where i can find same kind soldering iron.

[@audiotechlabs4650]

Hey Terry....where to get that OP transformer? I used to use Classic Tone, they are no more so.....? I need some new ones. I want to put a class A tube circuit in a SS Marshall 10 watt combo amp but I need the transformers. Can you help? Love from NW Colorado. Thanxz

[@jagtone]

Hey, Terry. I've got one of those, and one mod I really feel helped with noise was to rewire the heaters wit a twisted pair and virtual center tap to ground (IIRC a pair of 100 ohm resistors). I think of that as a "why wouldn't you?" kind of mod. Any reason you didn't?

[@tomk1tl39]

I was kinda curious about that too !

[@don8859]

The anti-mod crowd is ridiculous. Modding my champ is the best decision I ever made. I need to do the ground lift MOD because I’m running my champ through a 2x10 + 1x15 Stack. Sounds awesome but inherent huM is pretty noticeable.

[@jonathanhorne6503]

Do you have a link for the magnifying lamp and stand. I like the form factor of yours and i cannot find the same type.

[@patlaw53]

Apparently they're no longer available.

[@jefffree6990]

Thanks! Is that a 1969 model? circuit #? Looks like the new cap values used are 40 40 20 20 , while originals were 20 20 20 20. How does that change things? which 2 were tied together? I'm doing a 66 model and trying to understand the differences

[@jimbucket2996]

Hi Terry, I have that same amp I need to go through. Do you think you can point me in the right direction for a new filter cap? Part number and where to order?

[@BenPrevo]

AES tubesandmore

[@rayvoorhies7180]

I thought D-Lab preferred making custom filter caps with a Tube socket and capacitors?

[@OldWhitebelly]

I think he'll do that with a can cap that is hidded within the chassis like with many radios, but when it's going to be visible he'll use a repro can. I could be wrong.

[@russellhltn1396]

If only there was a way to clean up that faceplate. The current condition really dings the value. Doesn't have to be perfect, just better.

[@pneumatic00]

Buy a new repro one, except blackface. Big improvement! The layout is the same and circuitry of the amps are identical.

[@dhpbear2]

6:38 - Terry! You showed Snozzeramus' 'best side' throughout his appearance. Was this intentional? :) * the chip in Snozzy's ceramic sleeve was hidden.

[@d-labelectronics]

New element has been installed, No chips now

[@dhpbear2]

@@d-labelectronics Snozzy'll last forever!

[@IndianaDoug]

Third! 😆

Terry, I never hear you say, "Capacitor" you always say "Cap or Caps"? Could you answer why that tendency to say "Caps"...¿por favor? Thank you.

[@wadereynoldsgm]

He's also been known to say capacitater instead of capacitor too. It's just slang to say cap maybe because it's shorter and easier to say and write and because many people in electronics have used that slang for years. Same reason many say pot instead of potentiometer, I suppose.

@@wadereynoldsgm Slang or laziness? I'm not a teacher etc...but as man who speaks several languages(English my native) I notice that we, as Americans, tend to speak in abbreviations or slang in the common. Listen to our parents and/or grandparents how they spoke, eloquent full thought out phrases and not like the past 50+years. This rush, rush, hurry up pop culture vernacular speech!

[@wadereynoldsgm]

@ Both, I suppose. I tend to agree. I have noticed that as years go by, people around me are less tolerant to verbosity, which I enjoy, if for anything, clarity when communicating.

[@_-_Michael_-_]

I’m so early. But wait, no one cares. Lol...