Fender-Made WHITE AMP | Service and Repair 

Nice to see a young person full of enthusiasm and knowledge of these old amps. Nice relaxed presentation style too. Keep it up 👍🏻😎

Thanks for explaining about the death cap. Was always a mystery to me.

It can often be bad changing the original filter capacitors unless they are on their way out. New capacitors don't hold up as well with life span, averaging around 5-10 years. Old ones are just higher quality. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Good work!

Uncle Doug recommends that the hot wire from the AC cable not be attached to the base of the fuse because if the amp is turned off with the switch and you open the fuse cover, the exposed end of the fuse will be hot. Also, the incoming ground wire should be soldered to the chassis because securing it to the nuts on the transformer is an unreliable connection and can loosen causing loss of ground. The incoming ground wire should also be left longer than the black and white wires so that if the cord gets pulled out the ground is the last to get disconnected.

Amp sounds great

Wait, youtube just recommended this channel and if I got it right, this channel is about amp repairs? Because, being honest with you, that is a very cool concept, great job!

Yeah, these input caps is dangerous.. One time I didn't remove or replace it. Repaired transistor amp and at the test, that cap blows up, putting its guts on metal case, that wasn't grounded.. My laptop, that was plugged in as audio source, get mains voltage through internals and died. After that, I always, replace input filtering cap first.. Laptop repair cost me time, new HDD, few transistors, smd resistors, two ICs audio decoder and headphone amp.. And new audio wire because old one get burned ground connection wire inside.. Thanks for the background story of the amp! 👍

I love the way you solder. Are you using leaded solder.? Great work .

I really hope one day you will service an old Vox AC 100 - the Beatles-Stones-And-So-On-Amp that made the ear bleed back in the days :-) (just bought one - hääh-whaat??)

What sort of guitar are you using for the tests? Like the way it sounds :)

I had a really late production White amp. Mine had blue molded caps… why did I sell it again??

There's something about watching people doing amp repair that I find very calming.

you have such a nice calming soothing voice ......................music to the ears!!!

I was an electrical technician in the military for 22 years. You are regularly teaching me things about amp circuits. I wish you decades of success and growth.

Colleen, your 3-wire installation approach is spot on. The only improvement you can make is when sizing the three conductors coming out of the AC supply cable. It adds a margin of safety to strip about 8" of cable jacket, and then shorten the hot and neutral wires to 4" long. This creates 4" of extra length of ground wire in the chassis. The reason for this is if the AC cable is somehow yanked hard, the hot and neutrals will break before the ground does. This can prevent the chassis from becoming live at mains voltage. I've been told that it's 'extra work' to do this, but any little increase in user safety is good.

Well done! I do agree that a full replacement of all capacitors are in order for a unit of that age. That being said, I highly commend you for communicating with the owner; and fulfilling his wishes. It really demonstrates your integrity as a tech. I look forward to your next episode with great eagerness.

Thank you for explaining what the death cap is. I see people talking about it but never have said why they call it that

I just found your channel a few days ago and i love it!!!!

Explaining the how and why/theory is really helpful and cool.

I don't work on guitar amps, but you did the 120V AC wiring correctly. That's the safest way to wire it.

Neighbor: When you switch your career to AMP repairer Me: At one time when I was watching internet girl Fazio

Your videos are so fun to watch, it takes me back to when I was studying audio engineering building preamps I forgot how fulfilling doing repair/build work could be. Thanks can’t wait to see more!

At 4:30, the "death cap" does not need to completely short-circuit in order to put dangerous voltage on the chassis ---- they are often sufficiently "leaky" electrically to energize the chassis and shock you if one hand is on the guitar strings and the other touches a grounded object (or if you are standing barefoot on a concrete slab ---- pure danger! Even damp slippers can conduct to concrete; I found this out the hard way as a kid). I often plug newly acquired amplifiers into a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) wall outlet of the type usually found in modern kitchens and bathrooms, and if the death cap is bad it will probably trip the breaker built into the outlet. Always best to add a grounded power cord and remove that capacitor; if somebody insists on keeping that circuit as original as possible, then at the very least one should convert to a polarized AC plug and ensure that the death cap is connected from the neutral line of the power cord to the chassis and not from the hot to the chassis. "Ground polarity" switching should ideally be bypassed, but if the customer insist on keeping it active then the death cap should be replaced with a modern "XY" safety capacitor, which are typically rated for a 1000 volts or more.

OMG - I knew a guy here in Britain who would fly to America, buy an old car and drive across the states. He visited Chess studios and this old black guy sat outside loved his knowledge of music so took him to a garage and gave him some stuff. He had a 'White' amp that at the motel took half an hour to come on (as a valve electronics guy myself my head was screaming "NO!" when I heard this) but he said it crackled to life and had *THE* Chess tone he'd heard on his records since childhood.

Been doing repairs for 18 years and I have seen a lot of things in my time. It takes a certain type of person and mindset to do this type of thing and you definitely have what it takes. Great videos keep em coming!

Colleen, you absolutely rock! You have a beautiful way of thoroughly explaining what you are doing and why? Your God given, soothing timbred vox is also a big plus. Love your 'less is more,' & 'if it ain't broke, then don't fix' approach. These are TLC units, and there is a balance as to the original parts relationship to one another; All modern parts sound different than the old ones and I just don't get why? But all the way down the line from mics to phono cartridges, you will find that vintage audio equipment, speaks a much better clear and present language. Cheers!😊

Hi, So happy to see a young person with knowledge to repair, and restore vintage valve equipment. All strength to ya elbow gal! The man from Sheffield

Where were you 35 years ago when I had a Gibson GA 300 that needed to be rebuilt.Thanks for letting us hang out, Keep up the great work..😁😁

I use the same grounding scheme when doing the u-ground plug mod to vintage amps. When building an amp, I use a dedicated screw terminal that I like to solder to the chassis as well. And I'll admit that I'd never heard of White amplifiers until today. Cool project!

Only since you asked.. the proper way is to wire to the switch first, then to the fuse. The reason for this is if someone grabs the fuse without the amp being unplugged the fuse is still live. This way, with the power switch off, there is no power to the fuse for sure. That's how it was explained to me PS. Love how you show the actual soldering repairs!..For some reason I can watch someone solder all day. I guess that's why I like amp building so much, it's relaxing.. :)

I do the same but use a high wattage iron to solder the ground wire to chassis when possible - I think the white line was envisioned as an alternative for non fender dealers where a fender deaer was in town already -- like epiphone and gibson -- but it never went as far -- and yes a tribute to forrest from leo ...

Came here on a recommendation from Brad the Guitologist. Seems that you're doing good work here, so I've subscribed ...

The safest way is always the best choice. Good job!

Amazing channel, love watching your videos. Please keep up the great work.

NO! NO! NO! Replace *ALL* OF THOSE CAPS! I DON'T know what your testing them with, BUT THERE BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The camera loves you. I predict a bright future for your channel.

Excellent video, Colleen, featuring an amp that I have heard of but never personally encountered. To greatly reduce the risk of damage due to retention of the original filter caps, the owner might want to use a current limiter while playing it. Current reduction would be negligible and the slight voltage reduction might actually be helpful. Thanks for posting :)

Great video! The most amazing thing is how technology evolved, which can be seen in the size difference between the older and the modern filter caps. Regarding the death cap, have you ever considered using a Y capacitor? They are intended to fail open and are used in power supplies everywhere.

whats a good price for that Staco auto-transformer? I'm looking at a L1010VA, and they're asking $450. what do yo u think?

She likes Fender amps, she has a dog and She Knows Stuff!

Your power cord configuration is 100% correct. Putting the power to the switch before the fuse, makes no sense. If you have a switch fault where the switch remains on somehow, or shorts out. Fuse can do nothing. Fuse always comes first. That's my opinion anyway.

Your presentation is detailed and informative. The amplifier (white) has an interesting story. 🎸🤘👍

Why no vacuum out the chassis I know vintage and all but all that dust?

That is so cool! 😎 Never heard of the White amps, but I love my 5F2-A build. Bravo on NOT replacing caps that don’t need it. If the value is close and it’s not leaking, I think leaving them alone makes sense. Especially for preamp cathode bypass caps.

It's nice to have more amp repair content. Uncle Doug, Guitologist & D-lab need more knowledgeable company as yourself.

Just so amazing, God Bless and Protect you!!!

You should save the old caps you take out, clean out the inside and put new ones insidethe paper tubes. People that want original looking caps love them.

if the filter caps physically look fine and there is no his and hum or other strange ghost noises happening i would keep playing it with those filter caps too!

I have just found your channel, very interesting and well presented and with your recommendation I’ve also started to watch Uncle Doug. A nice job on the white amp, I agree with the way you went about the repair, keeping it as original as possible. The way you replaced the power lead makes sense to me and that’s how I think it should be done, great work keep posting.

Channeling your "inner Uncle Doug" with the notepad! I like how you've modernized the approach with a pen instead of pencil!

Nice work! I really like how in these more recent videos you take a bit more time explaining things like the death cap and drawing up examples. Especially since you now have a bigger audience of people who may not know these things already. Me included haha. Keep up the great work, excited to see more videos!

Cool amp. You asked about how others ground the chassis. I ground them with a dedicated small chair lug as close to the entry point of the power cord as possible. I no longer use transformer screws for a ground point because the weight and years of vibration of the PT will occasionally loosen a nut. Personal preference.

Maintain the Mojo. Perfectly stated.

P.S. I love watching Uncle Doug also ! I sure wish he had been my algebra teacher !

I appreciate your honesty in regards to the re-cap. At the end of the day, it's the customer's call. Not everything needs to be 100% road ready. It really depends on what they want to do with it and what it means to them. If I went to a guitar amp museum and saw a bunch of chassis's with F&T's in them, I'd be disappointed.

Your mains circuit of fuse, then switch, in that order, is spot on. As for the filter capacitors, there is nothing indicating that failure is imminent. A watchful eye and periodic testing will tell the owner when they need to be replaced. I agree with leaving the originals installed.

Technically the ground conductor should be secured to a fastener that can’t be undone from outside the chassis. I’d personally earth it to the star point in the amp if one exists, and the signal and chassis earths are bonded.

Really clean sound, no hum, no crackle.

Neat piece! Because you asked and there aren't a lot of us that have weighed in yet: both of the 5F1 circuits I built do exactly what you said with their three-prong wiring. Ground to a transformer bolt, live to the fuse, then to the switch, then to the primary, neutral to the other side of the primary. I've always kind of assumed it matters less for AC circuits than for DC circuits, but it's a painless habit to be in, and I'd guess it's probably how modern standards bodies recommend or require anyway.

I've seen one case where someone replaced the filter caps but recovered them with the original cylinder.

Great video Colleen. Myself I would have restuffed the filter caps as uncle Doug does on historic amps. As you know caps have a lifespan whether they are used or new in the box. I just bought a big box of new old stock parts with about ten beautiful Sprague 3 value can caps. More then 50% tested leaky on two of my high voltage testers, an old Heathkit C2 with neon bulb and a Sprague telohmike T04. I’m sure they will reform bringing them up slowly over time to full working voltage. To me it is not worth risking transformers when you can make it look cosmetically original. If the customer is going to play regular, it would be the way to go, if they just want a museum piece you can get away with what you’re doing. The 58 year old Brownface Bassman I just did all the filter caps were puking electrolyte but tested ok. The owner wanted a reliable gigging amp so he wanted any failure point replaced. Guess it depends on the scenario of usage. Great methodical work as always. Mike

I'm so old I can't see we'll, is that a girl fixing amps? 🙂

Wow nice amp really enjoy your new channel. In one Uncle Doug episode he took the old filter caps out of the Tweed amp he was working on, took the paper covers off of the filter caps, and put the new filter caps inside the old filter cap housings using a wooden dowel glued to each end with a hole in it for the wire to go through, making sure of course that the positive and negative was going through the correct side. Thereby changing the filter caps and making the amp appear as if it had never been worked on.

I am praying for those Triad transformers as I type. It seems the customer knows what can happen if those 60+ year old caps gives up the ghost. I agree with the way you install a three prong line cord. I disable the accessory jack on the Black and Silverface amps too. The polarity switch makes a great terminal for the neutral side power transformer connection if you only use 1 of the 3 lugs. Thanks for sharing this awesome little amp with us! I’m building a Deluxe Reverb right now.

Totally unrelated, but, listening to you speak for a while, I wonder how your singing sounds, if you do sing (I have a feeling you should).

No leaky caps??? That's what you call a unicorn! Great work

I too have a '56 White that I found in a pawn shop in the early ' 90s for $17. It had a hang tag that said 'As is'. I turned it around and noticed that the power tube was just rolling around in the bottom of the cabinet. Anyway, I bought it, got it home, plugged the tube in, and VOILA, it sounded great! I still play it to this day. I love your videos, how they're so informative, and how you don't cut any corners. Nice work, and please keep making them!

Thank you for sharing your work on this awesome amp. Awesome learning video.

You work with vacuum tubes!! Your cool factor went up 1000x

I have one of these that I got back several decades ago and I love it . Replaced one 8 uf filter cap ! That is all it has ever needed ! As far as the power cord , I put my toe in water , see which way plugged in I get a sizzle by touching the chassis ( with my bare toe in grounded water ) and mark the polarity with a sharpie . Then I always plug it in with the neutral and hot in the polarity that did not get the sizzle . I should just break down and put a three prong plug in it ( Some day ) !!! It sounds fantastic to be sure!

Hey Colleen, where does everyone get stickers and spray can with backwards writing on it?! I’ve been looking for some “ti-xoeD” forever! Oh yeah, love the channel, you rule!

Hi, thanks for your nice channel. I would do the new power cord in this order, hot wire - switch - fuse, for maximum safety. That way when you switch off, the fuse is safe too.

the billie eilish of amp repair

Uncle Doug and Aunt Colleen are my two favorite vintage amp restorer techs on YT!

Just discovered your channel this week and I really appreciate what you bring to the table. Thank you so much for making easy to follow videos that also explain your repairs. As an amp enthusiast and beginning builder, having a video that explains amp circuitry is much easy to follow vs my amp repair book. Thank you and keep up the great work!

8:23 ............and this is how the real pros do it : use a lighter for the heat shrink tubing! I like that !!! ;-)

Protect the circuit! # 1 rule.

Hey thanks so much for the shout out Colleen. You are the COOLEST! I just sold my White amp, i miss it already.

Neat, never heard of this amp before now. Way cool. I like that you’re keeping as many original parts as possible. It sounds really good too.

I guess I missed it, what was the original reason a “death cap” was used? Great video! Thanks

Very informative, but you knew that hehe. Awesome job

The a/c hookup is exactly like I do it. I would have checked for proper bias on the 6v6. I've found the bias is a little too hot for the 6v6. Good job. 😀

Damn that's a nice tone 12:47

I have installed 3 prong cords in the same preferred manner as you note on a couple of SF Fender champs and a late 60's Traynor Reverb Master. How important is the difference in the grid leak resistor value (220k vs 270k) and does it lead to any discernable tonal/audio difference? ...just curious. That amp sounds great cranked up!

I take it that's a Strat you played through it. Sounds great!

She's very beautiful.

I highly recommend that you find a Sprague TO-5 or TO-6 capacitor analyzer for testing caps. Modern ESR meters are useless for checking caps which have to handle a few to many hundreds of volts. Old leaky caps might still work to some extent, but the leakage current and ripple will wear down the power transformer eventually and add undesired heat and stress which will further age everything. 60 year old filter caps are certain to be leaky and/or will have badly dried out electrolyte and no longer function properly as capacitors. I've been doing this for nearly 50 years, so I am speaking from experience...Better be safe than sorry...!!!

Nice fix. The input jacks with those shorting tabs can be a source of noise that can drive you crazy and yet be the last place one might look for the problem. The director of EE here were work brought in a Modern boutique tweed that was generating occasional noise (ha, much like the noise when you removed the jack and flexed the jack tip connector). We were looking everywhere for that noise, substituting tubes, flexing wires, re-flowing solder joints and then an old amp tech here pointed us to the shorting jack. A little flexing of it fixed the noise. It just needed a little more tension onto the jack tip connector. Very good show! Thanks.

I love these repairs as you explain the logic behind what you do Thanks from the UK

How about those carbon composite resistors... especially on the HT..? I think those should be replaced either way...?

Same here for a 3 wire cord ... Also I have done your method of back twisting stranded wires onto each other for over 35 years now ....... My mentor Eustice Faulk showed me that back in 1980 or so .... I got my first tube scope from him back 1991 or so .....Keep up the great work ....

Hi. Super thankful for the RU-vid algorithm putting this in my suggested videos. Very cool to see such a unique amp. Now I'm watching your other videos and I appreciate you sharing your skills and knowledge. Add one more to your list of subscribers and thank you for doing these videos. 😊

Thank you. I love your vids :)

When I was 17 in 1967, a friend of mine brought one of these over to my house and said it was a "Fender." It was in brand new condtion. I said no its not a Fender, its gotta be a Japanese amp because I'd never heard of these amps. That amp turned up all the way just screamed beautifully without a fuzz box. I tried to buy it off him and he wouldn't sell because it was his Dad's. It was only decades later I came up on the Forrest White amp story. I tried to build a Weber same circuit as the White, but it sounded terrible, came with cheap chinese components and never sounded good no matter what I did or what speaker I put it in. I think the speaker they used was a big part of the sound, and unlikely there's anything similar now.

I love How her workplace actually looks like a functional everyday workstation rather than something Out of a catalogue.

Greetings from a fellow amp tech. Each of us has our own style.......so we all have opinions. The bias resistor can get toasty, so I'd like to see it spaced a bit further from the cap to keep it from drying out.........but that's just minor stuff.

Hi Colleen. I’m an electrical engineer from London and your 100% correct the way you have connected the mains lead in this video. There is fantastic content is your videos and I thoroughly enjoy watching your repairs.

I'm on a journey learning about how amps work. Your videos are perfect for me. Your presentation style is also excellent. Cheers!

I have literally never seen anything on these in real life. Only a picture in a fender book. Fascinating

I build just about everything I use regularly in my life. Old cars, computers, guitars, tools... I just get a major buzz out of it all but I haven't gotten around to building amps or pedals yet for some reason and they're kinda how I make my living! Stumbling on your channel has been really educating and is really making me want to finally scratch the itch!!! Thanks for the great videos! :)