never mind

[Regis]

I am refurbishing a 63 non reverb Deluxe that belongs to a friend of mine. New caps, AC cord, couple new tubes, one or two other fixes.

Instead of the 250pf/.1/.047 or .033 or .022, it has a 500pf, two .047's, and what looks like a 1mf coupling cap in both channels. It's possible the period has faded away on them, I can't tell.

The power amp caps look equally strange.

I've attached pictures, are those .1mf or 1mf caps?

I was checking it out after the refurb and it didn't seem like the bass control worked on either channel, but after listening carefully they were working but only affected the bass minimally. That's when I started looking at the preamp caps.

If some of you could look at the pics and give an opinion, please.

The amp does sound great after the recap and refurb, at least to my taste. It overdrives really sweetly. The owner plays a lot cleaner than I do though, and having a bass control that is more effective might be good for him. Me, I always zero out the bass control when driving a Fender hard anyway.

Something else, there are no 1.5k grid stoppers on the power tubes, apparently this was at a time when Leo didn't want to spend the money on the resistors.

Should I add the grid stoppers and change the caps, or leave the amp as is?

Damn Leo anyway, what was he thinking back then?

[Twist]

I would use the original fender tone stack values (250pf, 0.1uf and 0.047uf). You can short across the 6800 ohm resistor located on one side of the bass control with a wire. This will make the bass control more effective. Of course it will strip some of the mids out. You might compensate for that by replacing the 0.047uf with a 0.022uf cap. Also go ahead and put 1,5k resistors on the inputs of the 6V6's. I don't think you'll notice a tonal difference from the 1.5K resistors. Good Luck !

[52 Bill]

Instead of the 250pf/.1/.047 or .033 or .022, it has a 500pf, two .047's, and what looks like a 1mf coupling cap in both channels.

It looks like the two treble caps (250pf) are different types. Are they both the same value? I'd guess that one has been changed. The three caps look like they are 250pf, 0.047uf and 0.1uf. Normal values for Fenders of that era.

I've attached pictures, are those .1mf or 1mf caps?

I've seen these before, they will measure out to be 0.1uf. Lable misprint, I suppose. If they were 1uf they would be at least twice that size.

Something else, there are no 1.5k grid stoppers on the power tubes, apparently this was at a time when Leo didn't want to spend the money on the resistors.

If you look at the tube sockets, both have pin 1 grounded. This is unusual for a Fender amp. I'd say that someone may have removed the grid stoppers at some time, although I have seen some of the smaller amps come without them from the factory.

Oh yeah, another thing is the phase inverter plate resistors are both 100k instead of the normal 100k/82k set. And what capacitance and voltage rating is the bias supply filter cap? It looks small and under rated to me.

[Twist]

I believe you have a AA763 chassis. Pins 1 and 8 on the output tube sockets were soldered together from the factory. Why they did that I don't know. Pin 1 has no internal connection on a 6V6. It looks like all the tone caps are original even though one is a different color. There are no 1 uf coupling caps, I'm sure their 0.1uf. I would convert the driver circuitry to a Deluxe AB763. The bias supply cap is 25uf @ 50volts. I always replace it with a 100uf @ 100 volt. Make sure you watch the polarity when you replace it.

[dai h.]

fwiw, I looked some Deluxe chassis pics I had and I would say 52 Bill is probably correct (in that the caps are probably misprinted) judging by their relative size (which appears the same as the pics I have on which are marked the correct "0.1uF" value).

[Regis]

Guys, thanks for the replies.

The treble caps are 500pf.

The schematics I found said the bias cap is 25/50, that is what I put in. I think I have a 100/100 I could replace it with.

I can do the 100k/82k in the bias section.

I was thinking about putting a .022 or .033 cap in to enrichen it up some, I've done that before and liked it.

thanks again!!

regis

[Dave Curtis, dB AudioTech]

It looks like you wired the Hot & Neutral on the new AC cord the same as the old one; you should change it so the neutral goes directly to the tranny and the hot goes to the back of the fuse and then through the switch to the other tranny wire. IOW, don't fuse or switch the neutral.

[Dave Curtis, dB AudioTech]

Another thing: Check the convenience outlet for proper polarity. I've lost count of how many Fenders I've had to rewire that on. I think by '77 or so, they finally caught on.

The neutral should be on the 'wide' slot (silver screw), hot on the narrow one (brass screw). If this one doesn't have a polarized outlet with a wide and narrow slot (it may not), I'd advise disconnecting it or marking the neutral side of it somehow. You can find an Amphenol 3 wire outlet for it, but they're pricey.

If you're doing this for a friend, you do want it to be safe.

HTH,
Dave
Master Electrician