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Mic Kaczmarczik's Bad Fender Mods Information

Bad Fender Mods

This directory contains USENET articles Mic has saved about guitars, equipment, pickup, techniques, players, and so on. Mic has graciously granted permission to post the stuff on the JT30 page on the off chance that it might be useful in the context of Blues Harmonica. Mic is not responsible for the content, just the collection.

Fender

Bad Fender Mods
From bhatche--(at)--mtc.mindspring.com Sat Sep 14 10:14:44 CDT 1996
Article: 22710 of alt.guitar.amps
From: Bill Hatcher
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Simple Princeton mods?
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 11:03:33 +0000
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Mike Rejsa wrote:
>
> : Anyone out there have plans for Princeton mods (nothing too complex like
> : the Prince of Wails mod or anything)?


One day a bolt will come out of the blue and you guys are going to wake
up!!! I have! The best mod is NO mod. Between the Champ and the Twin
there is a Fender amp that will do what you want without having to jerk
out stuff or cram in something else. These things are best left as
they are!!


Let's all sing!----The Champ amp connected to the Princeton. The
Princeton connected to the Delux. The Delux connected to the Tremulux.
The Tremolux connected to the Bandmaster. The Bandmaster connected to
the Pro Reverb. And on and on. If you want a louder Princeton, the
best mod is to buy a Delux. If you want distortion then get a stomp
box! If you want a 12" speaker then get a Fender amp that comes with a
12" speaker. If you got something that has already been butchered,
then OK, pull out the soldering iron and the chainsaw and have at it.


How about some of you guys posting your worst mod of a Fender amp that
you have ever seen or done. I will give some I have seen. I have seen
several BF Super Reverbs and Twins that have had the head cut out of
the cabinet so that the guy who did it would have a separate head. The
Super Reverb "head" I saw was connected to a 16 ohm speaker. 2 ohms
into 16 ohms!! The guy wondered why it sounded so bad. I gave him $60
for it and told him I could "live" with how bad it sounded!


Saw a Brown Tolex Bandmaster Piggy-back amp that someone had taken the
amp out of the head, took the back off the speaker cab and cut a slot
in the speaker baffle and mounted the amp in there!! Yeah!!


More "bullet hole" amps than I care to remember. You know, let's add a
master volume to this thing so we need to drill a hole in the O in the
word Pro-Reverb.


My worst mod that I ever did, before I had my conversion to no- modism,
took a Quad Reverb head that someone had already cut out of the cabinet
and "sawed off" the normal channel with a hacksaw! Moved the circuit
board and tubes and transformers over and put it in a little cabinet
with a 12" speaker. I would say it's probably worth about $32 on the
open market!! Have to admit that it sounds decent. OK, $42.


Come on. Fess' up out there. Reformed, Bill Hatcher


PS I bet Tremolux has seen some unbelievable things in his time!!


From tremolu--(at)--ol.com Sat Sep 21 20:09:35 CDT 1996
Article: 23168 of alt.guitar.amps
From: tremolu--(at)--ol.com (Tremolux)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Simple Princeton mods?
Date: 21 Sep 1996 18:50:35 -0400
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>>>PS I bet Tremolux has seen some unbelievable things in his time!!


Yes, I have.


1. - Let's start with a brown tolex 2x10 Super where some idiot ripped out
the vibrato channel guts and completely rewired it into a fucking high
gain Marshall, with a footswitchable relay for switching between the
Marshall channel and the still intact normal channel. The amp had a pair
of Jensen P10Qs, and they were blown. The owner told me that he's had
them reconed several times and they keep blowing so he wanted something
that wouldn't blow. I traded him straight across, the pair of blown Qs
for Fender blue label ceramics. He was happy. I still have the Qs, but
I've had them reconed to stock.


2. - Some other fuckoff cut down a 66 Vibrolux Reverb amp to make a head.
The current owner of the resulting "head" has asked me to restore it. I
have a repro cabinet on order for him right now.


3. - Lots of BF and SF amps with master volumes installed by drilling a
hole in the front panel. Anyone who drills a hole in a Fender's front
panel should have a hole drilled in his fucking head with a 1/2 inch bit,
right between the eyes.


4. - Someone brought me an old Gretsch amp that some jackoff had tried to
re-wire, had gotten half way through, and had then abandoned the project.
I had to put it back to stock. Same thing happened with an old Gibson
GA-40.


5. - How about a brown tolex Pro where some dipshit hack wired in a reverb
section.


6. - Then there's the 65 Super Reverb where someone I know personally (and
shall remain nameless, I don't want to be sued) installed HUGE filter caps
and the resulting recurring peak charging current was wiping out Mullard
5AR4 rectifier tubes. Causing them to short. After 3 tubes bit the dust,
the owner brought it to me to figure out why this was happening. When I
installed the correct size filter caps and replaced the rectifier with a
new one, the problems have vanished.


7. - Lastly, there was a Narrow Panel Tweed Pro cabinet from 57 or so
containing a 53 Pro chassis, with a sign on it saying simply "1957", that
was for sale at a show. It had also been re-tweeded and possibly
re-grilled. I'm not sure if the speaker was original. Last I heard the
dealer wanted $1000 for this frankenstien. I say it's worth $500 tops.


These amp butchers, some of them quite famous (you know who I'm talking
about), should have their nuts wired to the high voltage supply of a Twin
and left to sizzle overnight. Do not support butchers of old Fenders.
Leave them the fuck alone. If you want an amp that sounds different from
what you have, sell what you have and go buy something with the tone you
want. It's simple.


Trem.





 

1974 prices
3 Spring Reverb Tanks
3 Wire Cord installation
5R4 not enough current
5V4 in BF Deluxe
6550s in Super
68 Princeton Rectifier
68 Super Reverb
6L6 in Champ Again
6L6 in Deluxe LV
6L6 in Deluxe Reverb
6SC7 to 12AX7
6V6 In 6L6 Amp Test
6V6 in Showman Test
6V6s in Super
AA vs AB 763
AA763 vs AB763
Alternative Switches
Bad Fender Mods
Bandmaster Cathode Bias
Bassman 10 info
Bassman Head Running 2ohms
Beef Up Tweed Champ
Birth of Fender Reverb
Blackface Cabinet Dates
Blackface Pro
Blame UL
Blues Deluxe review
Brown Bassman Transformers
Brownface Trem Pulse
Brownface Tremolux Cabinets
CBS Deluxe Reverb Changes
Champ 8ohms
Champ problems
Champ speakers
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Deluxe Cathode Bias Mod
Deluxe reissue vs original
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Early Blackfacing
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Eyelet Board Problems
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Fender AA568 circuit
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Pull Boost Failures
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Small Trannys Sometimes Better
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Why 68K Input Resistors
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Why Silverface Changes

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