Rootbeer Audio

This 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb came into the shop for intermittent reverb and a general check-over before some recording sessions. While it was mostly original (or at least had almost entirely old American tubes), it already had new filter/cathode caps, and a reverb-on-both-channels mod. Aside from that, it hadn’t seen much work and had been toured heavily for a few years.
It received a new fresh set of Eurotubes 6V6’s (I reused the OG American ones for their other amp I will post soon) for longevity and reliability, new carbon comp plate resistors for most of the preamp (there were some frying bacon sounds), three new coupling caps (3 were leaking), and a few tube swaps. Sometimes an old tube still works relatively well, but it may be a bit too rattly/noisy for a V1 (first preamp tube) position, so I can swap it for say the tremolo oscillator, and repurpose the trem tube (also OG // American) for the V1. I did end up needing to replace the phase inverter and V4 with new 12ax7’s from Eurotubes.

The reverb issue was due to a bad pan (more specifically, the output transducer was intermittent), so it had to be replaced. While I have seen some different pans in these amps, this one had what I believe was a “1” which is short decay. I had a few in stock, but I purchased some options I didn’t already have (3-spring and 2-spring long, medium, and short decays). When the amp was ready for pickup, we compared the various pans and the “2” (2-spring medium decay) pan was the favorite. Enjoy the amp Kurt!

A Fender Pro Jr. —-> this smaller counterpart to the blues jr came into the shop with its original tubes and some complaints of noise. Upon testing I noticed V1, the first preamp tube, was microphonic as hell, and the original power tubes were nearing the noisey//inconsistent stage of their life. Like many of the modern-ish fender combos, the line in the sand for any repair is whether you “drop”/dismount the PCB (which has the pots, jacks, etc soldered directly to it) or leave “well enough alone”. Often the issue is a broken input jack or something that makes the decision for you. But in this specific case, since it has its original nearly-20-year-old filter caps, a wonky input jack (but functioning), and the owner plans to keep it for the long haul, we decided to go all-in.
After the usual cleaning//tightening of everything (especially the baffle —- if you have an amp that remotely resembles this, check those screws in the corners that hold the baffle in!!), the amp received new F&T filter caps, new JJ el84s, a new preamp tube (V1), a new metal switchcraft input jack, and bias. This small (but deceptively loud with two power tubes) amp is ri ri ri ri rippin!¡!¡!Enjoy the amp George and Julian!