1967 Fender Deluxe Reverb Restoration Project - Part 3

I've completed a few more items on the restoration. Before I jump in, if you are hitting this page first, you might want to check out PART 1 or PART 2.

Power Rewiring

OK, So one of the goals is to get the amp back to as close to the original as possible. There is a very real problem with this goal that I just could not ignore any longer. The original wiring called for a two-pronged plug with a polarity switch on the back. This is unfortunately unsafe, in that with the wrong polarity, you can easily shock yourself pretty good. So, in the interest of safety, I'm restating the goal to get the sound as close as possible to the original, but with safety first. As luck would have it, this rewiring job has no impact on the quality of sound, so here is the new power wiring arrangement:

I'm no electrical technician, so I'm not even going to begin to try to walk you through what I did (better to get the knowledge from someone that really understands this, and does it for a living). In short, however (no pun intended), I added the three-pronged cable, disabled the polarity switch, removed the Death Cap (yeah, you'll want to read up on that one), and brought the fuse inline with the hot lead. If you want to know step-by-step how to do that, check out Greg Perrine's website, Recycled Sound. He does a great job providing videos, reference documentation, and parts for your repairs.

Dating the Amp Redux

So as I was watching one of Greg's videos, he pointed out an interesting piece of information that I was not aware of. In the image above, there are some numbers stamped on the chassis (I circled in red to help you locate them easily). This is [drumroll] the manufacture date! Woohoo! So, from this number we look at the last 4 digits. They tell us the amp was assembled in the 22nd week of 1967. I was but a wee lad at only 6 months old when this amp was originally built. One more mystery cleared up.

New Speaker

I happened to locate a 12" Fender driver in Fort Wayne last weekend, and dropped a few bucks for it. It is a real fender, and it's in great condition. That said, it's neither the original, nor does it match the original Jensen specs. Quite honestly, I rather prefer the growl of the Peavy that used to be in there, but I have both, and since there's an External Speaker jack on the chassis, who knows? Maybe there is a second cabinet in its future.