JMI Vox AC30 Repair Pt.2 - My Most Daunting Project Yet!

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

This video is quite long, lots of me just figuring stuff out but I decided to upload it anyways as it shows the journey. Next videos will be all action! I am toying with the idea of chopping them up to be a lot more succinct at the cost of showing the full process... TBD. I film everything, hundreds of gigs already filmed for this series to comb through!

[@ernestschultz5065]

J-hooks are perfectly fine. A time honored technique in the US Navy.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

My 2 cents - Mechanically sure, but they're ugly and the reason people do it is to be fast. It's not a better technique than redoing it properly, it's just faster and strong enough to be acceptable. It also stops you from using shielding around the wire to protect from shorts / wires touching in this case.

[@Guitar5986]

@@YeatzeeGuitar I generally agree. But I've heard it argued from the other side that in some cases a j-hook is preferable. Such as very tightly populated circuits where removing the original solder & wrapped wire leads is likely to cause component damage (caps, resistors, socket pins). I pretty much always want to remove the original solder & components entirely. But I would be lying if I said there hadn't been a few times that it would have been less invasive & better practice to use a j-hook.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

@@Guitar5986 totally fair!

[@ampyamps]

Ok so what’s wrong with this amp? Don’t trust that layout you found. Trust the original solder joints in the amp. Change as few parts as possible. Get a peak atlas ESR70 cap tester and check the electrolytics. If they test fine, leave them in. Sometimes the magic is in how these parts drift over time. Especially the carbon comps. Those wima caps, if they aren’t leaking DC across them, leave them in.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

@@ampyamps that's the plan!

[@ampyamps]

Do you have a copy of Stephen Grosvenor’s Service Engineer’s Guide to the AC30 book? Highly recommended. It’s excellent.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

Yes, just arrived!

[@vintagetubeamplifiers]

Every Vox I see getting worked on seems like a disaster inside. Vox, as well as Mesa, are two brands I do not look forward to ever having to fix for a customer.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

Haha quite a lot going on, split between two separate areas. It's a beast to even just maneuver! I'm excited as it's a dream amp of mine, but it's gonna be some work for sure.