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What in the dang are these actually for?

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  • What in the dang are these actually for?

    What is the reason Fender puts these cardboard strips in the newer amps? It's not really even fastened in, it's not electrical, so what is it there for? Is this another case of their legal team wagging the dog? Also, this 68 Custom Vibrolux Reverb has a big metal shield around the smallish PT, same question goes for that, why?

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    It's weird, because it WAS working fine.....

  • #2
    If it's there because the legal team sought to prevent pencils/chopsticks/wire coat hangers from getting to the circuit board, it's mistaken protection. This only increases Fender's liability since it's clear they thought about it and came up with something ineffective.
    I'm going with a cleanliness guard. Something to help keep smoke/crumbs/roaches out of the amp, or at least the part of the amp where they can do the most damage by arcing across high voltage components.
    If it still won't get loud enough, it's probably broken. - Steve Conner
    If the thing works, stop fixing it. - Enzo
    We need more chaos in music, in art... I'm here to make it. - Justin Thomas
    MANY things in human experience can be easily differentiated, yet *impossible* to express as a measurement. - Juan Fahey

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Randall View Post
      What is the reason Fender puts these cardboard strips in the newer amps? It's not really even fastened in, it's not electrical, so what is it there for? Is this another case of their legal team wagging the dog? Also, this 68 Custom Vibrolux Reverb has a big metal shield around the smallish PT, same question goes for that, why?

      [ATTACH=CONFIG]55192[/ATTACH]
      No doubt the engineering prototype looked cool, and somebody on the engineering team had some 'brilliant' justification for it, and caught the bean counters and above in a gullible mode, so now we have the parts that never fit due to the die used to punch and crease the part, leaving more material in the crease to make it a spring instead of a folded joint. I've never pulled them out and disposed of them, but I too don't see any justification for them. Increases the cost to the customer, so more profit.
      Logic is an organized way of going wrong with confidence

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      • #4
        There is nothing new under the sun... I've seen plentyof similar things knocking around in vintage Fenders. My Bassman has a piece of black cardboard bent into some wacky shape up by the pilot light. I thought itwas useless until I had to do some work on the bias board, and had pulled out the "cheap cardboard" to work where I needed to. I spun one of the pilot light tabs against the bare chassis & burned out my heater CT as a result. I had to wire in an artificial one, and damn right I put the cardboard back...

        I don't think there'd be a piece of insulation there if there had not been some idiot who thought that "anything that CAN fit in a speaker jack SHOULD go in it..." Like the kids who jammed all kinds of crap into VCR slots.

        Justin
        "Wow it's red! That doesn't look like the standard Marshall red. It's more like hooker lipstick/clown nose/poodle pecker red." - Chuck H. -
        "Of course that means playing **LOUD** , best but useless solution to modern sissy snowflake players." - J.M. Fahey -
        "All I ever managed to do with that amp was... kill small rodents within a 50 yard radius of my practice building." - Tone Meister -

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        • #5
          Originally posted by nevetslab View Post
          No doubt the engineering prototype looked cool, and somebody on the engineering team had some 'brilliant' justification for it, and caught the bean counters and above in a gullible mode, so now we have the parts that never fit due to the die used to punch and crease the part, leaving more material in the crease to make it a spring instead of a folded joint. I've never pulled them out and disposed of them, but I too don't see any justification for them. Increases the cost to the customer, so more profit.
          I find the output jack mounting nuts can't be adequately tightened with that dadblamed cardboard gadget in place, so out they go!

          More than likely the liability lawyers & safety dance engineers are behind this one. In case Junior discovers he can jam Daddy's long screwdriver into the speaker ext. jack. Same kid that slides dimes into the slots on the stereo amp...

          Also, good story Justin - sometimes I have stuck bits of fish paper here & there with a glob of RTV to hold it in place - to minimize the possibility of an inadvertent short or arc. For instance, the zone near the pilot light on many old Fenders, where the rectifier board is, gives me the heebie jeebies. There's a lotta hi voltage there, within a couple millimeters of the chassis.
          This isn't the future I signed up for.

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          • #6
            What safety approval logo's does the amp have ? UL, CE et al ...
            WARNING! Musical Instrument amplifiers contain lethal voltages and can retain them even when unplugged. Refer service to qualified personnel.
            REMEMBER: Everybody knows that smokin' ain't allowed in school !

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            • #7
              I would assume both of those, but since the amp is now long gone, I cannot confirm.
              It's weird, because it WAS working fine.....

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              • #8
                Based on web pics, they carry CE & CSA (Canadia?).
                No more UL? Maybe cuz CE or Canadia is more stringent anyway... I don't know; I just know everything I build wouldn't meet any of those!

                Justin
                "Wow it's red! That doesn't look like the standard Marshall red. It's more like hooker lipstick/clown nose/poodle pecker red." - Chuck H. -
                "Of course that means playing **LOUD** , best but useless solution to modern sissy snowflake players." - J.M. Fahey -
                "All I ever managed to do with that amp was... kill small rodents within a 50 yard radius of my practice building." - Tone Meister -

                Comment

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