How to repair 62 Fender Princeton Tube guitar amp smoked power transformer bring it back to life! 

I love watching these old fender amps being repaired.

Being a retired amptech your channel is THE BEST channel on RU-vid for content of its kind.

I had a 64 princeton. My uncle Dave "fixed" it for me once. Shocked the hell out of me when I touched my strings. Thanks uncle Dave. Dork. I got a permed mullet out of it though.

Terry, your an asset to the Tube Amp Community!!! and a Treasure!!!

If you can’t stop Tony playing then you know you’ve fixed it.

Bless you for sharing your wisdom with us and always providing great educational videos. You are a Humble and Honorable man.

Out of habit I realized I was holding my breath while those solder fumes were going up at the camera😂 Great repair video!

Fantastic! Thanks for making a longer video and now beginning to step up and actually show your work and teach! Outstanding! Much better! Please keep it up! The longer, the more teaching, and the more work shown, the better! THANKS! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I know Uncle Doug and many other amp techs will be heartbroken that Classic Tone Transformers went out of business too!

I sure appreciate your sharing your knowledge with novices like myself. Thank you !!!!!

I never played a guitar. But you make me want to rebuild my first tube guitar amp. Enjoy the Tony C test of approval at the end

Nice riff from Tony. Great job from Terry, as usual.

Happy birthday to your mom Terry!!

Another excellent video Terry, always a pleasure to watch you at work.

I have never seen a transformer burn up. Thanks for finding some new and interesting failures to cover.

Great vid! Happy Bday to your Mom!

Those burned out transformers could well become the only source of replacements in the future. As the production of new replacements becomes uneconomic, I believe there will be a demand for originals to rewind for the people who continue to want proper amps.

Another great vid from Terry....if/when you ever retire, you will not have any problems getting bored for sure !

Happy Birthday to your Mom! Great video as always....

When your playing makes the squirrels go for the trees :)

Terry reminds me of expert pet doctor Granville Bennett from the James Herriot stories. The worse the animal, the more Granville wants the case!

Terry, I had a fellow band mate way back in 1980 or '81 that bought a Princeton with a crappy cabinet. He had a local cabinet maker in San Antonio build him a replica cabinet in birds-eye maple, and had the amp worked over as well. But as a sometime woodworker, that bird cabinet was to die for. Not a bit of Tolex, just the gorgeous wood. Sorry for multiple comments, but perhaps that feeds the algorithm twice? Still love your channel, and thanks.

My pro reverb trans spewed out all over and still works.

Man you do nice work, I’ve learned so much, can’t thank you enough for sharing. 10/10

Always fun and informative watching your amp repairs. Whenever you say "snozzaramus", even when it's not in frame, I hear a deep maniacal laugh... :-)

Another great video Terry. Thank you. Mercury magnetics are too expensive to get to Australia. Thankfully, Hammond has a local distributor here, and I have found their products to be excellent and very diverse.

Awesome refurb, Terry! always fun to hear the 'Snozzesaurus' audio clip. You know stuff's getting real when that's on.

Very nice Tony! Dime that volume and back off the guitar volume to clean it up! That was beautiful

Terry, I've been a fan since well before you repaired my '59 Fender Deluxe chassis; very nice job on this one, as always...

Bummer that ClassicTone is going under! At least here in Brazil we have Schatz, who makes replicas of most tube amp transformers, and also do custom ones (my Honeytube amp uses a custom O.T. from them).

Sounds very good! Greetings to the guitar man!

Nice job..the power transformer went on my '67 Ampeg B15N recently ..Luckily ,Chris was able to re-pot the the original transformer...

Nice job, Terry

Good job Terry.

Thx for nutha fine repair! Curious, about the filter caps. Your are correct, in that Fender never put a 70/40/40mfd in such a an early small amp.Your unit looks like a 6G2 chassis ; orig spec was 30/30/30. I wouldn't be surprised if the excess filter value contributed to the transformer's early demise. I also agree with the high moisture being a factor.

Nice repair and information with expert tips..Awesome channel..Ed..U.K..😀

Better than NEW thanks to U : )

I’ve been a fan of your channel and work for a while now Terry and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve built one Tweed 5E3 and loved it. I always suspected from some comments you were a USAF trained guy. I would be interested to know more about what you did in the service. I was trained at Keesler AFB, and then served 3 years at Minot AFB in the 70’s. One of my instructors had the best description of an amplifier circuit... makes big stuff out of little stuff 😆

Hammond has a great line or Fender spec replacements. I used their PT in my ‘57 tweed build.

MERCURY MAGNETICS Terry!!

Portughoul! That's the first time I noticed that ... ha!

15:30 when you soldered that 1 ohm resistor to the tube socket pin, it was really thin. So much it looked like it broke free when soldering the other end to the chassis. Towards vids end it still looked thin....

Tony!! You riffin' out some Hot Tuna? Expecting a huge bass line to come in behind ya there.

The Snoz don't take guff off'a old/cold solder make sure to keep that hungry Iron fed

Funny thing T man, when I was a youngins, CDs beat rekees, got rid of vinyl. Solid state beat tubes, hated distorted tube stuff, went transistors. Still prefer digital and solid state, but oh that old time tube sound with vinyl snap crackle and pop, lol. On the other hand, an old restored tube AMPEX RtR, reelers are still fantastik! Perhaps you'll restore a nice Ampex reeler someday... ?

Terry the Fendermeister

I know all the vintage amp guys would rather see you test the blue molded caps before removing them, and only take them out if they are indeed leaking or out of spec.

I love your videos. Any chance you could ever do a video, even if just a discussion, with Uncle Doug? I love his stuff as well. I watch you both. [EDIT] And I think I am right in the middle of the average of your ages. But that is a state of mind! :-)

I hope that epoxy never turns loose. I'd hate to have that metal pot moving around that close to the terminal board.

squirrel stole the show at 26 minutes in....i own a Princeton 65 and appreciate the vid KC7IVJ

Are you from Battle Creek mi!?! I’ve been watching your channel for a while now and never knew!! I’ve got a 5150 that’s acting kinda funny.

Where do you get the $6 clippers? I bought a pair from China and they broke the first time I used them. Love your videos!

So who will we get transformers from now that Classictone is going away? I depend on you and Uncle Doug and others to let us know of changes and how to deal with them. If you have another supplier/manufacturer for transformers, lets us know. Great repair of this jewel, and of course having Tony tickle the strings to let us hear how she sounds. Love from NW Colorado. Thanxz

I had that same set of wire cutters for several years - i used them for a few build and misused them much more than i've seen you lean on yours. But then one day i figured they'd be perfect for trimming my strings during a re-string. wrong. that wrecked them

Hi there, I watch your channel all of the time I love your humor I also have a "snozarimus"!! for heavy solder joins. I have just completed a Princeton Reverb amp AA1164 and it sounds great, I now have the bug and want to build a 62 fen... clone similar to the amp you have just repaired . Can you tell me what schematic is appropriate for this build. Regards Tony .. Aus..

Did I see a black squirrel in the yard at the very end of the video? Rarer than a 62 Princeton!

I sure hope that's not Mrs. D-Lab's toothbrush!

Maybe that 70uF filter cap did in the transformer?

26:33 ...... GO Mr Squirrel..!!! 🙂

What is the difference in the 12AX7 LONG Plate compared to short Plate? What did you use on the bottom of the bias pot to make it not more on the chassis?

Does Hammond have direct replacements for Fender and Marshall? Last time that I checked into Hammond (years ago), their output transformers had weird speaker taps. Did they ever fix that, as in simple 4,8,16ohm taps for use with a normal 3way switch?

Yes to hell with originallity and collectabillity f that. Thanks for makeing it safe and sounding Great again. (Collectable shit on that way overpriced crap. Just make it good and playable again. Usability Is much better than crap and GREED Terry U do very good work thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Relax, sit back...light up an Old Ghoul......muah ha ha.....!

Mojotone has made in USA drop in replacement power transformers for popular Fender amps including the blackface Princeton. Not sure how good they are or who makes them.

Just found your channel and subscribed! I have a '68 Dripedge "Blackline" Pro Reverb. Love it but the background hiss and sputter are getting worse. I'd welcome thoughts on where to start looking. Thanks.

It looks like you have the power switch on the neutral wire. Is there a benefit to doing it that way?

Mercury Magnetics or maybe Heyboer for replacement transformers?

I recently did a dumb thing and smoked the PT on my 1980 Deluxe Reverb. I have a Hammond drop in replacement on the way. Do I need to change all the caps under the cap cover when I install the new PT?

Terry, it is a shame about Classictone. However I really like Hammond transformers for these jobs and building clones. They offer a wide variety for these old fenders. There are others too but hammonds perform well, they are labeled great, won’t break the bank, and offer a huge variety of replacements. They are easy and fast to get from Mouser.com.

im having a similar situation. i have a smell out of mine and dead audio not even a hum. but its old 1961 so i figured just musty old smell from being in old storage. my tubes and pilot light still light up. would that happen with a dead power transformer? if not i have to loot at the output section.

Hammond do replacements for Fender not sure which ones ? I was looking at there site a few weeks ago and noticed replacements for fender amps.

what tube pin and the pin's function did you connect the 1 ohm resistor to ground for bias measurement, the cathode?

Nice amp cradle! Can anyone point me in the direction of plans to make this particular design of cradle?

I am a bit confused about ClassicTone because their website is still up and running, with no mention of anything at all? Hammond basically has the same models

Hammond has a full line of transformers. Antique Electronics stocks them

You did not twist together the heater supply and HT leads to the rectifier to reduce hum, as they were originally? Was that intentional, or an oversight ?

Getting transformers from New Sensor may be problematic for a while since their transformers were made by Magnetic Components and their sister company Marvel.

Mercury Magnetics are the best transformers IMO.

People with vintage amps shouldn't be running them on 120 volts when they were designed for 110-115 volts, it's a common issue these days when a lot of power coming out of the wall is sometimes 125 or higher.

The leads on the OT look new. Is that a replacement OT?

Where did GHOULARDI come from? PORTUGHOUL! Big Chuck is getting close to 88 years old, Ernie Anderson died long ago. Dick Goddard died recently at 89 of Alsheimers.

This is probably not the best place to ask this question but I recently got a fender oil can echo /reverb 3 it looks a lot like the inside of one of these amps it a 1968 more question is does this one have the death cap?

Hwahwahwahyahyahyahyayakyakyakhyak Hyakyakyak. Snozeramis to the rescue again.

Couldn’t you just cut the red/white instead of connecting to a terminal strip?

I supposed the information is too "sensitive" to publish here .. But does anyone have any suggestions: How much would you charge for such a repair? Parts mark up? Labor rate? :-)

what about mercury magnetics tone clone.

Could you find a specialist to rewind that original transformer? Be nice to keep the matching codes even if you’d have to wait while they did the work.

What is the wattage of the Snozeramus?

Lindstrom are expensive cutters

Hello, was wondering, if you accept amp,work in this vain,to be sent to you ,obviously I can send you all info but up your alley, and was very curious, about be a customer, any way, love your show, d,lab coffee mugs, good merch lol, take care

At 9:38 we get to hear Ghoulardi! At 11:48 wouldn't it be better to twist the two center tap wires together then solder them to the chassis? Excellent idea on using a double ended screw post terminal board for all those wires. They won't be going anywhere but where you solder them. Like the wire dressing you did in the chassis because it should eliminate any induced hum. All in all you have excellent restoring techniques Terry . I guess that's why I appreciate all your amp repair videos! Sad about Classic Tone going bye, bye. Oh, and happy birthday to your mom! Steve

I still don’t agree with replacing the output tube grid coupling caps. They should be tested at their rated voltage, and replaced if they fail. Yet, it’s not me doing the work and if the customer is happy, that’s what matters. Thanks for sharing your work Terry!

Chuck Berry is still alive?

Cool. You turned it into an export model.

Sure hope the owner gets the original PT rewound, or at least holds on to it and keeps it with the amp.

Hello! where Can I get an iron like that? how can I search the web for it?

Mercury Magnetics over hyped and over priced garbage. Marketing lies telling gullible people that their power cords will give superior tone - absolute snake oil. Shame!