Vintage Fender Guitar Amplifier Service and Repairs

Amps from the late '40s-early 50's get special care, maintaining the aesthetics of the era while updating to modern safety standards.  

Looking for help with your vintage amp?  Contact me to start the discussion. 

Vintage amplifiers need special care,  starting with a careful cleaning and a thorough inspection of all components.  This amp only needed the filter cap can replaced, three cathode caps, one resistor that had changed in value excessively over the years, affecting performance and a new 3-prong 120v supply cord.   

Trust your vintage amp to a technician that loves your amp as much (or more) than you do, who will sit with you and explain ever detail and option available to keep your amp running like new, preserving the originality and character of your amp

Another repeat customer, with a mid-60's Blackface Bandmaster that was modified many years ago. A failed attempt at a Master Volume. First step is to track down a replacement faceplate, then dig inside to see what's going on.  The amp has been in storage for 20+ years.

An amazing amplifier, sounds as good as it looks and will serve the owner faithfully and reliably for many years to come. 

Near-mint condition Super Reverb from 1966, in for general inspection, blueprinting and maintenance. 

Handled with care and respect and sounding glorious, this amplifier should be maintenance free for years to come. 

A complete analysis if the circuit compared to the original drawing, recording all values of components, documenting any previous service / modifications with marked-up drawings and photographs, carefully reviewing any requirements and options with the owner.  Continual updates during the process by phone, email and personal visits when possible.  After the evaluation, no work is done on the amp without prior authorization from the owner, with a clear understanding of the work being performed, the components being used and the expectation of performance, reliability and effect to future value / collectability.

Another repeat customer, servicing and maintaining his collection if incredible amplifiers.   Gentle and responsible maintenance, recapped, blueprinted and documented.  New tubes, rebiased, all voltage readings documented.  Museum quality amplifier treated with respect.

A great find by a local performing harp player. Lot's of cleanup inside and out, recapping, some new power dropping resistors, new speaker. Incredible tone, looks and runs great for a 70 year old.

Lots of cleaning, full re-cap, removed someone's attempt at a master volume, completely back to stock. 

Completely original an unmolested example of a great amplifier. Some thought it was a "poor Man's Marshall" but I disagree.  Built like a tank, powerful, reliable and serviceable. Peter Traynor knew what he was doing.  One of the loudest, most powerful 50 watt amplifiers ever built.

Completely original from 1971, this could be the first time the chassis has been out of the amp.  The amp had been pushed hard, signs of heat stress and a 25-amp fuse in the holder instead of a 5-amp.  

Once the evaluation is complete, including marked-up schematics with actual readings and values, the owner is brought back in to review the findings, discuss each component in question, the proposed replacement parts and methods before proceeding.

Updates include the mandatory 3-prong cord, replacing all of the main filter caps, including gently digging out the excessive solder holding the filter cap cans in place, bias supply caps, balancing resistors, power dropping resistors and the common screen resistor, improving the bias adjustment, cleaning up some of the wire dress, cleaning everything and not touching any of the tone caps, as they checked good.  Diligently keeping to the original design, although later versions had some revisions, we agreed that two of the cathode caps would be replaced with more guitar-friendly values, as the customer planned to use this amp for guitar, not bass as originally designed.