The Unbrokenstring Crew is amazed at the tough life that this tweed Fender Blues Junior has endured. Yes, it doesn’t work at all. Can we bring this poor thing back to life?
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Brian salvaged this amp from the curb in front of a house in North Carolina while volunteering in the cleanup following Hurricane Florence in 2018.
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Water damage is clearly evident on the tweed fabric, with stains and mold inside and out. The glue holding the fabric on the amp has failed, particularly on the bottom half of the cabinet.
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Starting from the bottom up, we use hide glue to stick everything back down. The lacquer coating on the tweed fabric has saved it from completely disintegrating.
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We are employing hide glue because it is not water based; we don’t want to make the wood cabinet swell any more than it already has. The hide glue can be easily cleaned up afterward, even after it dries, with warm water and a rag.
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Here, we’re removing the chassis. Fortunately, the rust is not too bad on this chassis.
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Someone has been here before, and they probably didn’t have a Fender employee badge.
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Too much heat and rework has destroyed the plated-thru holes in the circuit board. We can repair this.
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The connections (called ‘nets’ in circuit board parlance) are restored with small bits of stranded copper wire, tinned and soldered in place.
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The heart of any tube amplifier is the output transformer. It bridges the gap between high voltage power, tubes, and the loudspeaker. This HiPot (high potential tester) is measuring a complete failure of the insulation between the primary plate circuit windings of the output transformer and the secondary loudspeaker windings. Surprisingly, the loudspeaker is fine!
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Hidden on the back side of the chassis, the output transformer has lived. And Died. Alone. In The Dark.
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Fortunately, The Unbrokenstring Crew has a supply of original parts for boutique Fender amplifiers and clones, from Texas Amplification stock. This nice example of original Fender iron fits perfectly on this chassis.
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Testing the 6BQ5 / EL84 tubes, on the other hand, produces a light show. The purple glow is ionized gas inside the tube, and the blue lights hitting the paper behind the tube are beams of uncontrolled electrons.
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The red filaments are the only colors that should be there. After these pictures were taken, I had to replace the socket adapter on my TV-7U tester because it melted internally. The rest of the tester is fine and was re-calibrated – with a new socket adapter.
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After the light show from testing the tubes, each section of the amplifier is tested separately, in order to discover any other collateral damage from either the water or the failed output transformer. This amp will be Good To Go once the glue dries!
.Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom!
CONTACT – David Latchaw EE
281-636-8626