How to repair a Vintage Fender Deluxe reverb tube guitar amp Noise Smoke D-Lab 

He's an amp tech, a comedian, AND a lush! ;-) Seriously, Terry - you are the MAN!

3 videos on vintage equipment in a row is like having Christmas. Keep on the good work, Terry. I wouldn't mind seeing repair videos for all the amps you have laying around.

Terry, I worked for a music store in the 90's and our rule was all used tube amps got new caps before they went on the sales floor. Very few ever came back with complaints.

All hail D Lab,Uncle Doug and Brad the Guitologist.

Good work Terry. You changed out exactly what I have changed out on my Fender amps. Bring on more vids.

Enjoy your videos Sir. Your simple explanations I'm sure are a big help for a beginner.

I've got a 72 twin reverb that's started to blow fuses...using 3amp sloblow for years ,now it's time to give it a look thru....

These are so fun to watch.

Awesome Job Terry .......Guitar tube amps is the stuff

I commented on the Vibroverb, so ditto! Love ya Terry! Keep em' comin'! Thankz

That is my amp! Thanks Terry! Can't wait to get it back!

Another home run. I'm glad to hear that you have a big pile of amps to repair. More videos for us :o)

It doesn't matter if they are vintage amps or old Grundig stereo receivers, before applying any power to gear that has been sitting forever, shotgun all of the caps for safety's sake! Black Beauties are some of the most notorious caps ever produced. Love these videos, Cheers! It's time for a glass of vino! de SVØXBH/9

These are great videos!

Love this guy! Thanks for the video!

Very nice Terry. I had one of those (and a SF Princeton Rev) until last October. Both were temporarily in my bro's barn up in Northern California and the barn burned down. Big bummer; I owned both of those amps since the 80's and one had an Altec 417 and the other a JBL D120 speaker. Both AB763 amps. After the fire I looked at them and there was nothing to salvage. The tubes had melted and collapsed in on themselves from the vacuum.

I love the deluxe reverb. The blackface Deluxe Reverb is one of my most favorite amps of all. It just needs a master volume and it would be perfect. LOL

look forward to more amp videos

Great vid. Thanks for your time. I get some Fender amps through the shop that have the waxy perf board and this also seems to be the source of many intriguing noises. Do you have any advice on how to deal with this? I have taken to "baking" the affected areas with a heat gun to drive the acidified wax away from the HV terminals with some success. I insert a new layer of insulating material between the the top and base boards too. This can make a big difference. It is very humid here in UK and this is a recurring fault. Such a pain as the noise is akin to actual component failure, (eg: cap breakdown). Apologies if you have covered this in a previous vid. Dave.

looks good

Vino time in CA is 3PM!

Hi Terry! It's nice to see those USAF soldering skills at work! I do the 1 ohm cathode resistors, too! I use the military type when I can get them. Question: What is the plate voltage? I'm curious about the plate dissipation.

Hi Terry, very late to the party here, but I have a question. At 1.39 you show the bases of the 6V6s. What is the story with the two little ceramic disc cap from pin 5 to ground? They've been disconnected but I can see the remains of a lead on pin 5 that seems to match. I note you removed them, but do you know what they were about? Earthing out high frequencies on the control grid? Whaaaa?

i did not catch what B+ was to base the 30-35ma bias setting. the reissue i have on bench is at 406 B+= 24ma@70%

Nice!

Thanks Terry!! Hey, what became of the speaker noise?

Hey Terry, new subscriber here thanks to the guitologist also your videos are like crack to a junkie hahahaha love them. Those ceramic disc caps that were attached to the tubes, why were they cut off on one end and how come you removed them.

hi... love your vids. dealing with an '16 reissue dlx rev .. makes garble noise aft bout 15 min.got new JJ's before it hit my bench. appears on both channels. looks pristine ...nothing acts up when tapped both parts and tubes. do you have insights on this pcb series? going to test section by section the old fashion way . are the stock polyester coupling caps in the PI problematic /or PI plate resistors?

You have made more sense in this amp repair to me than any other demonstration I've viewed so far. I have five twins ,one super , four champs, two pro reverbs, two bass mans with cabinets and a deluxe reverb. I need work done on most of them.

I’ve got one of these, it’s a 79. It’s got all new caps. The amp sounds fantastic! But.... The bass is a bit fuzzy when pushing the amp and the treble is a bit ice pick like. Cant turn the treble past 2 and the bass past 4 Any ideas?

Terry would it ever be worth connecting two meters across both 6V6's at the same time to see if they are flowing the same current? Love your lessons - you're preparing me to work on my January 1965 Blackface Deluxe Reverb with a bit more confidence!

Great job. Terry! your always a hoot to watch . liking tube theihter too , but why not camouflage the coat hanger a little. hee,hee

Hi MrTerry. Do you work only with audio equipaments? Regards from SP Brazil.

Why were the bypass cap leads clipped off...?

do you think you could check out my 65 reverb ? It was humming, & it started smoking could’ve been the dust or a bad tube

So what is the proper ma value for this amp? I have been told it is between 22 and 28. Thank you

I understand that the SNOZZERAMUS Ungar soldering iron is getting its own movies. They're called The Ungar Games... (I'm sorry; couldn't resist [wink!] the bad pun).

I just wondered what you charge for amp repairs? Is it an hourly rate plus parts? Or, by the number of units? Piece work.

Terry! You got out ol’ snozzeramus without the sound track! I am SO disappointed! :-)

That screen resistor must have been screaming just before it broke in two !! :-) :-) It couldn't stand the feeling of the power supply cap leaking and some of the old leaky coupling caps electrically leaking. :-) :-) Terry have a good day !!! John A Bellas KC2UVN

what is the B+ form the ma setting for the 6V6's ??i am into a lot of 6V6 rigs.

nice.

Did you post finished product?

great vid!!! did you try the Columbia crest merlot yet?

hey uncle doug, my amp is picking up a high rf frequency i think its from a nearby cell tower and it picks up around 4000hz, do u have any tips for this kind of issue???

Holy crap! You can do stained glass with that soldering iron!

great video, my question on 1966 fender deluxe reverb amp all original do you really need to change a two plug to a three prong plug

Hey bro. I have a hot rod deluxe DeVille 3. I changed power tubes. Changed rectifier tube. Other pre amps are quite. It keeps blowing a fuse. What u think it could be? Resistor??

What value bias cap did you use, I'm struggling to find an 80/75v. Did you use an alternative?

Hey there D-Lab -- quick question. I just talked to my local fender repair guy; I need to replace my power tubes and my vibrato channel preamp tube in my DRV reissue. It was made in 2006. I bought it 2011, and the vibrato channel preamp tube needs to be replaced, as does the phase inverter tube (he recommended that as well) and the two power tubes. Just to be sure if you can tell me, the phase inverter tube is the one on the far left, just next to the power tubes, correct? As well, the the tech repairmen said that the amy is factory biased and shouldn't need to be rebiased if I put a matched pair of power tubes in. Can you confirm? He said I could bring it in if I wanted to, but it's not necessary with the reissue amps these days. I can't seem to find any schematics ore tube layouts for this amp, version AB763. Someone at the factor forgot to put on the amp the production date as well; had to call Fender to find out when it was made. How will I know i the amp needs rebiasing? Will I hear anything? And do certain tube brands produce different tones? I'd like a little fatter tone, rather than a more trebly one, which seems to be what it's putting out, or maybe it's just me. I was just going to put in some JJ's. Got one preamp in my Blues Deluxe and it sounds fine to me. Love your videos; fun to watch, and the wine must be good as well. Cabernet or Merlot? :-)

A good wine... Is Rioja or Ribera Duero...?

At around 1:40 of the video, I saw caps soldered from ground to the Grid? And later in the video, they are not there? Did someone install caps and you removed them?

Terry, The current shunts make a lot of sense. Why doesn't Fender use them from the factory? Just curious.

Were are you from I had mine worked on and it hums a bit and makes noises at time I would like to maybe call you and you could give me some advice it's a 68 model

Hi, terry I'm no expert but did I see a ceramic disc capacitor with only one connection at around 2min 15 seconds in or am I dreaming?love all your vids.My early 1960s AC 30 hums pretty well. Cheers Rob from England....

What is the wattage value of the 1 ohm shunt resistors? I may have missed that in a previous vid or am I a bit off base. Thanks Doc Terry!

Personally, I like to douse my smoking 'Verbs with chardonnay

One question, but first sorry for my English because I am Croatian. I have read many literature about guitar amps and many advise that the input jack, potentiometer metal part and speaker jack should be isolated from the chassis, but on almost every factory amplifier the metal part of all the jacks and the potentiometers are attached directly to the chassis. I worked the amplifiers with isolated metal parts and directly connected to the chassis and I did not have any noise in either case. What is the truth? However, I would like to work by the rules. Greetings from Croatia (Europe)!

Hi Terry! I wonder if you could help me out. I own a fender deluxe Reverb reissue, and something went wrong with its Reverb. The Reverb function keeps going on and off on its own. I already took it to a technician that exchanged all the valves, but that didn’t solve the problem. According to the guy, the tank, caps, cables, filters are all fine. Do you have any idea what might be causing that? Every time the Reverb fails, the amp starts sounding badly... floppy... please, show me the light!! Best regards Osvaldo, from Brazil!

Fender Princeton

haaaa!!!! not the wine again!!!

What is your day job?

TERRY! put out electricity fire with WINE? hmmm, alkeehol to put out a fire. If you drink enough wine, I guess that makes sense. lol

You shunt be biased!

Your wife sounds like mine.

120 hz humm

So you missed work to go on a "Fender Bender"...LOL

32mv seems awful high for 6V6......

If you got a wife, you got a day job…jus’ sayin’