Klemt Echolette S... (cont.2)

[notea]

Hi, well...I found something yesterday, feel stupid about this but i didn't notice that Reverb Duration was a push-pull pot!
So when the pot is pulled the echo is working! a bit weak maybe do to PH5 but it's working!
- i'm gonna a send it anyway to Bobby for a complete overhauling and i will do a report.
-Mickey, for reconditioning heads Bobby charges 30 euros each.

Nick

[Mickey]

Hi, well...I found something yesterday, feel stupid about this but i didn't notice that Reverb Duration was a push-pull pot!
So when the pot is pulled the echo is working! a bit weak maybe do to PH5 but it's working!
- i'm gonna a send it anyway to Bobby for a complete overhauling and i will do a report.
-Mickey, for reconditioning heads Bobby charges 30 euros each.

Nick

Hi Nick,

Pulling that switch to "on" clears up one mystery! You said one playback head measured shorted and the other open circuit. Now with that shorted head in the on position what is it's resistance? If it reads approximately 1K ohms but you still don't get a clear echo signal then I would think you may have other faults as well.
What worries me is that you send the heads to Bobby and then find that you still have other problems. This could end up an expensive exercise so as I often say "make haste slowly". I understand that you are enjoying delving into electronics and your Echolette but unless money is not an issue you may end up spending a lot of money for little result and then feeling very disappointed when you end up aborting the project.
Regards, Mickey

[notea]

Hi Mickey, yes you're right it's better to send the unit. i thought at the begining that i made a good deal, bought it 200 euros thinking i'ld have to change a couple of tubes..
Now i hope i'm not gonna end up with more than 200 euros of repairs. 400 euros is expensive but still "reasonable" for this type of machine, especially an old version. The echolette is all packed and will be sent tomorrow.
Now to continue with bad luck i missed an other purchase, an Echolette M40 this time to go with my NG51 for less than 200 euros on ebay and supposingly working,and guess what it doesn't!..
So i might create a new thread in this forum hoping somebody knows about this amp, but one thing at the time..
Cheers Nick

[oc disorder]

Well it's still cheaper than this
Fulltone Tube Tape Echo TTE - Thomann France ( €1,555 )
Interesting to see the resale value in 10 years time of both ! (if anyone in the world has any money left !)
I meant to ask before does yours have Jack socket inputs or Din.
The one I have been sending the pictures from is ,well was a din input.
It seems to have a different batch of resistors as you may have noticed.
Yours has the colour bands on the resistors where mine has a numerical value printed on the resistors.
Wonder if there is some way of telling the manufacturing date out of curiosity.
Hopefully yours just needs the replacement head and repair/alignment of the bias circuit.
I think the switch location must have got lost in the tangled threads of the earlier postings !
Hopefully you heard hiss and "clunky" noises as the tape went round with the quiet echo.
If this is the case the record level is low which would be what I would expect.
Anyhow best wishes for your patient to have a full recovery...and let us know how it turns out.

[Mickey]

Hi Nick,
Sad to hear that you are sending it of to Bobby. You'll have missed out on the rapture and satisfaction of achieving a goal which to me would have been priceless. Of course there may have been other constraints preventing you from proceeding further.
When sending it to Bobby ask him to include a detailed description of the faults which you could then post on this forum. If you explain to Bobby what you were trying to achieve, mentioning this forum and those who have assisted you, I am sure he will gladly provide a detailed analysis, he is a very kind and understanding person.
It's been a pleasure corresponding with you and I hope you will gain lots of enjoyment when you use the Echolette in your music.
Cheers, Mike

[notea]

Hi everybody,

the unit is finally back home and this is a recap of the job that Bobby did on it:
- The playback head 4 was defective
- he replaced the rectifier
- a recap job (6 caps)
- 1 tubebase was defective and he changed it.
- the tone pot was also defective.

the unit is now fully working, it produces quite a lot of white noise which i guess it's normal for it's a vintage effect.
Thanks Mickey,Oc and other forumers that assisted me through this troubleshooting.
Cheers Nick

[Mickey]

Hi Nick,
That's good news.
Maybe you can answer a few questions, the tube base would have been a nasty repair as would the tone pot. I am particularly interested in the pot replacement so I ask would you be able to attach some photos of these repairs.
You are quite correct in saying that the unit is noisy, they are compared to the SS items for sale today and having sold a number of these as well as Copicats I have had a number of buyers question this noise issue. From my own playing experience I have found that the noise is more of a problem when playing at home in the bedroom than when playing in a live venue.
Enjoy your Klemt Echolette NG51!

[notea]

Hi Mickey,
yes you're right, i don't know for the tubase it's curious there is one lug missing when i look at it and i don't remember it was broken, maybe he changed it because of the black deposit as if it was a bit burnt..
The tone pot looks the same, here is few pics of the repair.
Few questions come across my mind,
-should i demagnetize the head to improve the sound a bit, is it really worth it? cause i'll have to buy the device..
-To have more headroom, i just have to altered the resistor of the input with a higher value?is it R11 or R1?
Cheers Nick

[Mickey]

Hi Nick,
I would think that Bobby would have demagnetised the heads.
Altering the input resistors would not provide more headroom. Are you feeding direct guitar signal into the inputs or are you going through an effects pedal first?
When repairing these units I usually set my signal generator to about 10mV and in doing so I don't overload any of the amplifying stages.
There is a pre-set input level control which you could adjust but be careful that you don't damage it. It is connected to the input grid of Ro2 (LHS of valve) and on my schematic it is labelled R17.
Cheers, Mickey