Fender Princeton Chorus Input Jacks

This solid-state Fender Princeton Chorus is an awesome little amp, but the input jacks were worn out. A call came into the Galactic Headquarters of Unbrokenstring. Could we help? Yes we can!

This unit was actually made in the USA, and the city of Los Angeles has duplicated the work of UL/CSA, for a fee, of course. Is this a great country or what? Let’s get to work!

I took a picture to document where the RCA plugs on the spring reverb tank belonged when it came time to reassemble the unit. My memory isn’t what it used to be.

Nice to see that someone cared at one time.

Separate cable pairs come out of the chassis for each loudspeaker. Nobody has touched this in a while!

Today’s mission objective is to fix this. You can read my earlier rants about plastic input jacks and international safety approvals. But, to keep this amp original, we will go back with the authentic Fender part.

Here’s the amp on the bench. WARNING: Tech Porn To Follow

This top view shows the usual single-sided circuit board found in a lot of consumer gear. This amp is pretty clean inside!

Get your knobs off.

Some folks have asked about the felt-covered sockets I use. Here is a closer picture of the one I will use on this faceplate. The faces of a set of sockets is ground flat on a bench grinder. A square scrap of felt from the fabric department is super-glued to the ground face. When the glue is dry, an Exacto knife liberates any felt that is not glued to the socket itself.