63 fender pro, fix or sell?

[dmartn149]

I got a (broken) 63 fender pro amp from an add on Craigslist for virtually nothing. The seller said that he was told it had a bad power transformer. It is also missing the faceplate and grillcloth and the brown tolex was painted black a long time ago.
I am not sure if I should try to fix it, or just put it on ebay as is. I think fixing may be over my head. I have not been able to find any "how to" info on the internet. But on the other hand just unsoldering the old and soldering in the new seems easy enough.

Any advice?

[otto pärt]

Sounds like a major restoration project. How do you feel about restoring the cabinet? Assuming the PT is all that's wrong, and you can find a face plate?

[dmartn149]

I'm pretty sure I would never restore the cab, but I would like to have the amp work. The problem for me changing out the pt is that there are lots of wires, some with the same colors, and not being an electronics guy, I don't know how to tell which one will go where on the new one. When I installed a digital thermostat in my house,there were lots of wires, but the instructions were very explicit as to which wire goes where. I'm not sure that a new pt will have those kind of instructions.

[cminor9]

You could try replacing the PT, but in the state you describe I'd be surprised if that was all that was wrong. So that leaves you with a chassis and an output transformer. And a warped fiber board with a bunch of old dried up caps. And maybe a worn out speaker.

Not a lot to work with. Especially if you aren't an electronics guy.

Someone might want to lovingly restore it for historical purposes. If I wanted that amp, I'd just build one rather than restore what little there is left of the amp. 1963 was a transition year. If it's a blackface, someone might want to restore it. I'd put it on ebay in that case.

If you want to replace the PT, that's not so bad. Assuming you get a hammond transformer the colors are fairly consistent (01 - More Info for item P-T290DX). Black and White are the primaries, hook them up to the line in (black = hot, which is the side with the fuse). The pair of yellow wires will go to pins 2 and 8 on the rectifier tube, and the the pair of red wires will go to pins 4 and 6 on this tube. The two green wires go to the filament heaters, pins 2 and 7 of the first octal tube socket. The other wires (red with perhaps a yellow stripe, green with a perhaps yellow stripe) go to ground. If there is a blue wire, that goes to the bias supply (usually a small board with a capacitor and a couple of resistors and a diode).

Before you do that, make sure there is no voltage present on the large capacitors. Test the voltage on them to ground. If you aren't sure which side to test, test both. These can carry a charge that can kill you and if you don't heed this advice and properly discharge these caps then your fate is in your own hands. Proceed with caution and hope it works out for you!

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

I got a (broken) 63 fender pro amp from an add on Craigslist for virtually nothing. The seller said that he was told it had a bad power transformer. It is also missing the faceplate and grillcloth and the brown tolex was painted black a long time ago.
I am not sure if I should try to fix it, or just put it on ebay as is. I think fixing may be over my head. I have not been able to find any "how to" info on the internet. But on the other hand just unsoldering the old and soldering in the new seems easy enough.

Any advice?

Boy, I wish I had a bunch of repair jobs here where just swapping out the PT in a BF or SF Fender amp was it!
Not including pulling the chassis out and putting it back in the cabinet, it really is only about a 20-30 min job.
If you have very little cash in it, you should try to fix this thing.... why?
Because in the many many years I've been doing this I can't remember if I've ever had to replace a PT in BF Pro.... they are really good trannys.
I wouldn't be suprised to find out it has bad tubes and a failed filter cap, not a bad tranny.
Even if it does, Heyboer and Lenco make killer replacement iron for these amps.... check MOJO
And you can get clone face plates, have it recovered and end up with $1000 amp.

[dmartn149]

Thanks for the advice. The guy said that he'd played this amp most of his life (dad bought it new) then one day he was playing and it started to hum, then smoke, then nothing. So do you think it's likely that something else went that took out the PT?

[Jazz P Bass]

Fender restoration

Retube it.
I bet it will sing!
You really ought to take it to a tube tech.
And a tolex guy.
And he can redo the grill.

[dmartn149]

The tubes are 12ax7 & 6l6gc, same as my Acoustic g60t so I gave the Fender's tubes a try in the G60 and they all worked. When I turn the power switch on (on the fender) I don't even get a light on the pilot lamp.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

The tubes are 12ax7 & 6l6gc, same as my Acoustic g60t so I gave the Fender's tubes a try in the G60 and they all worked. When I turn the power switch on (on the fender) I don't even get a light on the pilot lamp.

Did you check to see if the fuse was still in or blown?
Typically a bad power tube or filter cap will also take the main fuse out.
Keep poking around.

[dmartn149]

cminor9, I just checked the wire colors on the pt and here's what I have: 2 black (fuse and power sw.) 2 bluegreen (to the lamp) 2 red (to small board [ss rectifier?]) 1 red w/blue st. (to the same small board) 1 r/y & 1 g/y both to ground. If I order a pt will it come with the leads marked/tagged? I'm assuming that the colors will be different.

I know I could take it in and have a pro do it, but I really like to learn how to do these things myself.
anyway, thanks again for all the help/education

[dmartn149]

the fuse and it's cap were mia. I took one out of an old Peavey PA that I have. I didn't check the power switch yet.

[dmartn149]

I was just looking at Angela instruments' website. It says that Hammond pts come with a hookup diagram. I might go ahead and order one after I confirm that mine is the problem.
Thanks guys!

[Prairie Dawg]

I was just looking at Angela instruments' website. It says that Hammond pts come with a hookup diagram. I might go ahead and order one after I confirm that mine is the problem.
Thanks guys!

Here's your power transformer hookup diagram.

Secondary

Green-green 6.3v filament.
Green-yellow filament center tap (optional)
Yellow-yellow 5v filament for rectifier
Red-red high voltage
Red-yellow HV center tap

Primary
Black-black 120v primaries

This'll do about 90 per cent of power transformers that are built to EIA standards.

Teddy Weber's got a power transformer for that beast that has some interesting extra features but the color code's pretty much the same.

https://taweber.powweb.com/store/022798sch.jpg

Carry on, Airman.

[SoK66]

Make it a long-term project and restore it. Along with the same era Concerts & Bandmasters (essentially the same amps with differrnt speaker configuratins & OTs) these are great amps. As Bruce pointed out, a new PT is a snap to install.
It may not even need one. As for the black painted tolex, read a post awhile back where a guy was able to remove all of it with repeated applications of duct tape. Said it eventually cleaned up to near perfect condition. IMHO, no one makes a good repro brown or blonde tolex these days so it's almost essential the original stuff be retained.

[Prairie Dawg]

Make it a long-term project and restore it. Along with the same era Concerts & Bandmasters (essentially the same amps with differrnt speaker configuratins & OTs) these are great amps. As Bruce pointed out, a new PT is a snap to install.
It may not even need one. As for the black painted tolex, read a post awhile back where a guy was able to remove all of it with repeated applications of duct tape. Said it eventually cleaned up to near perfect condition. IMHO, no one makes a good repro brown or blonde tolex these days so it's almost essential the original stuff be retained.

That was me. I got Gorilla tape from the hardware store. I laid down one strip, then another on top of it, and rolled it with a seam roller, which is a small hand held wood or bakelite roller. I really laid into it and then peeled it up. It took about twenty hours of work and several rolls of tape but I got most of the black paint off of my brown Pro.

It was well worth the effort.