Inside the Time Capsule 1968 Super Reverb (Silverface) 

That's so cool man

Matthew Scott Pawn shop scores were the best back in the day when pawnbrokers didn’t know what they had and were just glad to get their money out of it. I snagged a 1980 (year I graduated HS) Fender Precision Special for $350 in 1990 and still play it because it THUNDERS. Weighs twice what the new ones weigh (boat anchor!) but 10 times the tone. It becomes “vintage” next year. Great to see you young whippersnapper types keeping guitar music alive. Rock on!

doug should be installed as a national treasure... seriously!!

He's amazing!!

Good point.. wasn't thinking

It's been a great ride man

Comment aged like fine wine. Over 200k subscribers now!

There is no such thing as an AB763 transformer as far as I know. The transformers used were the same between the blackface and silverface units, and only substituted a different tube rectifier.

I can direct you to a client of mine that posts to youtube…...and his recent posting is my work......the amplifiers are all me along with his wah…..he supplies the talent. Look up : ZACK WIESINGER = GUITAR FUN TIME

I have been overhauling his amplifiers over the past year, and the posting is a combination of a super reverb that's been modified by me which he lays flat on its back on the floor in front of him.....and he uses a bf Princeton facing him that I modified. But in his stage set up....he uses 4 to 5 amps in an array, and I had to build him a distribution box and buffer amp pre-amp so he didn't loose gain or signal running all the amps together. My client truly channels Jimi Hendrix.....he has maybe 10= years of postings on youtube...check him out. SO most of the recent posting within the last 2 years are my work with his amplifiers

I know this is an old post, but people are still reading, so I must express my difference of opinion. A 5U4 rectifier draws about 50% more heater current than a GZ34/5AR4, so I would never use that one in an application with a vintage power transformer. The GZ34 offers a slow start-up current flow, and more voltage to the plates, for a cleaner tone that people want in Fenders. It's far more reliable than a 5U4 and was the spec for the blackface circuit. Again, sorry to call you out on this, but people are reading, so...

@@cloudconnect No you are wrong because they used the same power transformer where the "spec" was either rectifier tube...depending when it was issued. The power transformers are over designed and not running at the fringe where it would be critical. PLUS being that they used both with the same power transformer, you are not aware of factory service bulletins that went out to dealers and "authorized" service facilities, they issued a change from the GZ-34's back to the 5U4's to drop the plate voltages.......but that never reached every amplifier as it was issued as a recall notice. Just when the amps came in to be serviced. They were technically suppose to strike the cabinet sticker for the tube chart and note it there when the application happened. When you look at a schematic, the numbers and them as a reference on the paper, were for that particular amp they used to draft that paper in that moment of time....and peculiar to the tubes in it in the moment. There are manual that come with bias probe devices where they sampled amplifiers for reference and its used as a suggestion for the bias device. The amplifiers they sampled, again, were peculiar to the tubes in the moment. SO the figures are just all crap. You should never use those "spec's" You bias to the particular tube in the moment and bias to 70%. The Groove Tubes standard was to grade tubes and then match them......which spread across the industry. Biasing has nothing to do with that other than if you had a bunch of random tubes you could eventually find a pair if its a 2 power tube amp and where they would both be within a reasonable balance when measuring the bias current draw on each tube......and you could even really get lucky and find a very balanced pair out of the random tubes. The grading factor deals with how the tubes tend to saturate and break up while in service. One end of the range was an early break up & saturation where they get juicy, and the opposite end of the range is where the tubes stayed clean longer before maxing out into saturation & break up. SO you need to understand the application as to the performance relative to how you play and what you'd want in the performance aspect.....if you are playing down and dirty blues.....you'd want early saturation & break up and the juice as opposed to staying clean way on up dialing up. >>>>>>BUT you also have to understand tubes. I come from a back ground where my father was an RCA dealer and thus we used RCA products, and hence using RCA tubes...you referred to the RCA data books for RCA tubes. If you used GE tubes, you'd refer to the GE tube data books. Every manufacturer issued their own tube data books. Generically they were all similar, but it would be like using a chevy manual to apply to a ford.....you just wouldn't do that in practicality even though in the gross sense they would BOTH be cars with 4 wheels and motors and transmissions. Hence looking at a Fender schematic and the numbers and values....are NOT the "spec's" you'd use when applying tubes to the amplifier, you have to use the tube manufacturer's specs from the tube data book for that tube manufacturer you are using to tube up the amplifier. SO its not a point of getting higher plate voltages because of the Fender numbers on the schematic for plate voltages.....the plate voltages are affected by the power rail and hence the rectifier tube and the BIAS setting !! SO in the case of RCA power tubes...6L6's, the RCA book has them at 400 volts on the plates as the target voltage as maximum voltage, and there is a screen voltage reference.....and the heater voltage reference. These were all for optimum performance from the RCA tubes for reliability and longevity. TUBES are like incandescent light bulbs of the day....rated in hours for life span......because the technology of the heater filaments is similar. Fender in the tweed era and 50's ran the amps per the tube manufacturer's date book spec's. BUT in the tolex era they ran up the amplifier operations over the manufacturer's data book spec's, playing a numbers game to inflate power output numbers as a marketing ploy. They didn't want to deal with warranty issues and tube issues and pre-mature failures causing warranty claims and thus costing the company money to cover the failures. Fender amplifiers were NOT PERFECT nor flawlessly manufactured.....hence they issued service bulletins when they discovered flaws that needed correction......you just don't hear about that end of things as its not mentioned in any guitar publications. ALL tube will draw their highest draw on start up and if there is a flaw in the heater circuitry of the tubes...it will cause HEATER FLASH, but that is why the power transformers are OVER DESIGNED. Heater flash is a momentary situation on start up and NOT something you would want to be happening in a tube. BUT you can run the tube till it burns out.....but it technically wouldn't necessarily last its rated life span. Fender issued the 5U4 service bulletin to bring down the power rail voltage for tube life as to bring them all down toward the manufacturer's tube data book specifications, considering a proper bias situation !

The difference in power transformers is relative to the heater wires and if there are 2 or 3 wires coming out of the transformer. THE 3RD WIRE WOULD BE THE GROUND REFERENCE and thus grounded. If its 2 wires, then it would have the 2 100ohm resistors running off the 2 wires to ground at or near the pilot lamp on the chassis. The 2 100 ohm resistors would act sort of like fuses. I usually don't find them burned, but I often find them physically broken....the body of the resistors cracked !!! Later Fender amps used a balance pot as a substitute for the 2 100 ohms resistors that functioned the same way but being a pot, they labeled the control as a HUM BALANCE control......which was to compensate for tubes in the later era as they were technically obsolete in the grand scheme of the electronics industry and the manufacturing lines were not being maintained properly as they were being phased out as they wore out or broke down from lack of proper maintenance......they were no longer supporting the vacuum tube technology in favor of solid state as it was the direction of the industry. Just as today, through hole technology is giving way to surface mount technology and through hole is being obsoleted.

liquid tape is used for tool handles or electrical insulation.....sold at major hardware stores and Walmart.....probably cheaper at Walmart. Once you crack the jar open make sure you seal it tight as the solvent that makes is liquid tends to evaporate off fast and it gets thicker in viscosity.....but stored.....it does tend to evap out and eventually dry up with the lid on...with age

Needs frets

E flat

Above post edited with date code info

There is a saying in the amp world that an amp sometimes sounds the best right before it is about to die. I think you have to trust your tech, but always get an explanation as to what was done, so that you can question it yourself, or get a second opinion.

@@GCKelloch , great tips, great ideas, thanks!

GCKelloch , OK, I ordered the 6 foot and 10 foot G1 from Musician's Friend, that's where the Rapco website offered to take me to buy it. I guess these are balanced guitar cables, the typical guitar cable is unbalanced, as I understand it. I guess it will be OK to use these G1 cables as my normal guitar cable for any guitar and guitar amplifier. Thanks for the tube advice, my ex best friend actually has my old fender twin reverb, it's not worth the old hassles to stir up right now, so I'm shopping for a brand new re-issue instead. I'm leaning towards a brand new 59 bassman reissue. I noticed that the fender.com website has this Bassman 59 combo amp listed under guitar not under bass. Is it safe to play a bass guitar through this 59 bassman Reissue? Is it just common knowledge? when I was a kid we screwed up a couple of solid state practice amps by playing bass guitars through them. That's part of the reason I'm choosing to buy a brand new 59 Bassman Reissue, If it maybe gives me the flexibility to play a bass guitar through it on occasion, without risking permanent damage. My second choice would be a brand new re-issue of the 65 super reverb. I originally thought I was going to buy a brand new fender 65 reissue twin reverb this year, which is 85 watts, double the wattage Than the Super or the Bassman reissues. From watching RU-vid videos elsewhere, the current trendy thing to do seems to be lower wattage for easier recording volumes and living room playing volumes. Maybe the public is getting old and likes it quieter? I'm getting old too, So I can't knock it. The reissue fender Super Reverb and the 59 Bassman are both 2 ohm outputs, Which I think the lower the ohm output, the cleaner sound. So the twin reverb re-issue has a 4 ohm output, so not as clean, but it's a trade off for half the wattage but double the clean sound, I think?

@@GCKelloch , After a few dead ends, here is the best link I found for RapcoHorizon.com: www.rapcohorizon.com/product/165/g1-inst-14-14 They do not sell from this website, instead I had to click on “Buy from Dealer” and it offered 5 choices, so I was most familiar with Musician’s Friend: www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/rapco-horizon-standard-guitar-cable/336010000000154?src=3xvbn01#productDetail First I did 10’, then repeated the steps for the 6’. I don’t like it that the Musician’s Friend web page did not call it G1, but this was the link from RapcoHorizon. I am sorry that I mentioned balanced/unbalanced. I thought I saw it mentioned during my RapcoHorizon search, maybe for their studio cables. Now I do not see it on these two web pages.

GCKelloch , OK, thanks for the valuable insights on the G1 cables and the Bassman re-issue amp, much appreciated!

A fan would be great. Twin reverbs are a. It harsh

Interesting. Love johan

Agree that Tung Sol makes great 12AX7 and JJ for power tubes. I also dislike JJ preamp tubes for character, but they are reliable. Have to disagree on the GrooveTubes generalization. They are rebranders, meaning you could have Chinese, Russian, or even some very good quality NOS tubes with GT labels on them.

yes, its an aftermarket plug-in.

This is some good advise right here. Only thing I would vary on is to remove the grid-to ground caps on one end only, as the final step in the blackfacing process. If the amp doesn't have oscillation issues, take them all the way out. If it does emit some squealing at high volumes, then re-attach the end you unsoldered. This is amp tech work, though.