Amplitude Audio

I'm always grateful to have people entrust me to restore their vintage gear like this 1969 Fender Bassman. It's pretty cool to open the amp up and have it bone stock with nothing changed since it left the factory. The original filter caps and bias board components have been upgraded with new parts but I was apparently too busy working on it to take a photo of the new filter caps.

I've made minor changes to the amp by converting the pre-amp to AB165 specs and the power amp to AA864 specs - making it the Bassman it always wanted to be but never was. A new 3-prong power cable, new tubes, and a handful of new components to replace out-of-spec parts were also installed. The tolex was peeling off in a few places, so it was glued back and given a full deep clean to make it (almost) look like it just came from the factory. It's now healthy again and ready to rattle walls and windows like it did back in 1969.

Guitars! We also do some work on guitars like pickup swaps and set-ups. This Suhr Thornley JM came in to get some new Thornbuckers and a Suhr single coil installed. Sounds amazing.

Check out this gem! An amazingly pristine 1966 (late 1966) Fender Deluxe Reverb came to the shop for an overall amp health evaluation and good once over. It contained original(?) or close to original tubes - a Telefunken GZ34 rectifier, Italian-made 6V6s and a variety of Philips, Admiral and Radiotron pre-amp tubes. When was the last time tubes were made in Canada? The amp even has the snowman 8 potentiometer k***s - IYKYN. The filter caps were non-original and a small piece of tape inside the doghouse cover indicated that the amp was re-capped in 1971.

The first order of business was to replace the two-prong power cable with a 3-prong power cable, remove the "death" cap, and re-wire the PT primary eliminating the polarity switch. New F&T filter capacitors and 3-Watt Vishay resistors replaced the old components in the doghouse. All the original, cardboard-housed cathode bypass caps were replaced with high-quality Vishay electrolytic caps. The power tube screen-grid resistors were pretty baked so new 3-watt Vishay resistors were installed and mounted off the side of the tube socket to prevent further heat damage. All the components on the bias board were replaced with new components and I also removed the 6.3 v heater center tap and replaced it with heater balance resistors.

The final step was giving the amp a good cleaning, inside and out. I removed the brass grounding plate and cleaned it and the interior of the chassis to ensure a good ground connection. The other grounds in the amp were similarly cleaned. I was concerned that some or all of the original tubes might have been past their best before date but I was wrong. ALL the original tubes worked great and the noise floor on the amp is extremely low. This amp sounds AMAZING!

Mesa Monday - The Mesa Dual Rectifier Road King. Probably the most unnecessarily complicated amp I've ever come across. I've seen vehicle user's manuals with fewer pages than the one for this amp.
It came in with two of four channels not making any sound thanks to a few transistors that were shot.