Crate Vc 5310 re-wire

[Suburbanite]

Hi, Ive recently got hold of a crate vc 5310, an amp that I had played before (loved the sound) and was looking out for, I all ready knew about the issues they have (valves mounted directly on to pcb) and all though mine has 1 minor fault (a rythmical record like scratch and hiss, which I'm fairly certain is to do with the effects loop as any thing plugged into it makes it a lot worse,{need to find a way to bypass it}) I'm thinking about re wiring it before any other issues come up,

Any way, what i'd like is some advice on whether I can wire point to point on top of the pcb or whether I would need to re mount every thing on a new board,

Also I noticed that some one managed to get a schematic for this amp and was hoping I could grab a copy,

any help would be gratefully recieved,

This is my first project on a valve amp, but I'm competent with a soldering Iron and comfortable with working around electrics/tronics

[ricach]

I've actually thought about doing the exact same thing with my Crate Palomino V16. Not because of any issues it has now, but more because I want to alleviate any future problems with heat related stress on the pcboard from the tubes. I'm also told at high volumes the tubes can get very microphonic. Probably because of their horizontal orientation up in the very confined space above the speaker.

My initial thought, though, was to just to remount the Power tubes on the bottom of the chassis (so they can hang vertically) and then wire it back to original points on the pcboard. I need to pull the chassis out first to see if this is physically possible. I decided I'd rather not do a total rewire if possible - save that fun for a homegrown project instead.

[Suburbanite]

That would make more sense

I wonder if you could get extension leads for the valves, then you could just plug them in,

[ricach]

I'm not sure what you mean by extension leads. My plan was to mount valve sockets onto the chassis (cut holes), unsolder socket from pcboard, then run wires from the socket to the pcboard.

I guess I could also leave the socket in place and solder the wires directly into the socket. I won't know any of that until I crack open the chassis.

[Suburbanite]

must be a way to wire up a lead with the same valve pin layout, and then plug it in, meaning you wouldn't have to solder any thing, I've been told that a lot of crates don't like having an iron near the pcb (or Valves)