Easily repaired. The important thing is that you have the correct iron and cab, so you're good to go! I recommend using a push/pull switch on the "intensity" pot and using it to disconnect/connect the trem crkt. Useful mod, gives a bit of a kick in tail when you wanna get dirty. I did this to my '68 Bmaster, and like the versatility.
Ouch, this homey doesn't mod Fenders, this homey "blueprints" these sad little dudes back to their days of past glory. My touch is to bring out the true tone of the amp, the harmonics, chime and bottom. The Fender tone if you want.
Be aware that by-passing the "trem" section of the amplifier is usually another way to say "I've removed the -51 volt negetive feed back circuit." The usual result being nothing more than distorted output, and not the pleasing kind either. The optimal method to achieve "grind" with these mostly clean amps at lower output levels is to provide the correct voltages to the PI section of the amplifier and increase the input signal levels resulting in a front end that is over driven. This is pretty much what's done in high gain amplifiers with the exception the levels are driven higher and higher with additional gain stages.
We used to do this in the early 60's by driving a showman or Super Reverb with another fender head or combo taking the speaker output directly to the next amps low level input. (I don't recommend this today
.)
My recommendation to people who want and who have asked me to turn their Fenders into a 2 channel high gain amp has always been for them to buy an amp with those features. Randell Smith has cornered this market, and that is the reason I also own a pair of Mesa Lonestars with channel switching, 50-100 watt output. etc. The problem is these amps, as good as they are, will never have that "Fender tone", which is something very special if you put the right components together.
Steve Hurt has sent me three (3) amps to detail. His Vibrolux was a challange because it is a PC board amp, but we got the job done. His next amp was a Bandmaster Reverb. I was able to bring out the tone, but a Bandmaster is not a Super Reverb (even though they share the same circuit), and Steve needs more headroom to fill his needs.
Steve recently sent me a 1966 Pro Reverb. One of the first Pros after the CBS buyout, these are often over looked, but are a legend of monster tone when detailed using the right components. With the exception of tubes I have completed Steve's rebuild. I compare this amp to any Fender I've heard in my life time and am sure Steve will be happy (if I ever send it back). This was an amp that had been "slightly modded". All of that has been reversed, and using Warehouse speakers and retaining the 60 watt Bassman OT that was hacked into it, I am not only able to bring this amp back to it's days of glory, but give Steve more than enough headroom to meet his needs.
I only work on tube amps, early Fenders, the occasional Marshall, and once in a while a Gibson, and it's always been a matter of dedicated love for a sound I grew up with. I guess I'm lucky I still remember what that was, now it's time to pass that along to others.
I had for the longest time reverted to weber for replacements for 60's era speakers. Webers selection has never let me down, however (sorry Ned), as close as they get to the real deal they have never been perfect. For that matter nothing available has been a CTS, Oxford, Jensen, or D120, and I've tried literally hundreds of drivers, with no fewer than 25 in the shop as I speak. Unfortunately it's always been hit or miss. Today I'm very, very happy with a manufacturer from Kentucky, Warehouse Speakers, whose speakers are everything the old speakers of a day gone by used to be, and Kendrick Black Frames, for those with money to burn. The links below are;
The speakers I have just put into Steve Hurts Pro Reverb, a pair of deluxe Reverbs and a Bandmaster,
http://wgs4.com/content/g12c The speakers I recently put into a pair of Super Reverbs, (lots of head room with these)
http://wgs4.com/content/g10c The speakers I recently put into a 1966 Super Reverb (smooth grind with these)
http://wgs4.com/content/vet10 And the Kendrick Black Frame (Used in my own deluxe)
http://www.kendrick-amplifiers.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=KOS&Product_Code=KEN0603-Spk-12BL&Category_Code=12 No, I don't "mod" them, I god them.
