1967 Fender Deluxe Reverb Restoration Project - Part 1

History

I received the amp chassis and electronics from my late brother-in-law, Phil, back in the mid-1990's. I have no idea where he got it. All it had was the chassis, faceplate, circuit board with electronics, and knobs. No tubes, cabinet, speaker, etc. At the time, I built a decent cabinet (it's lasted this long), hung a 12" Peavy speaker off of it, plugged in some tubes, and off I went. Unfortunately, as the amp warmed up, there was a low hum, and the gain dropped way down, to the point where it couldn't really be played. It sat under the stairs up until October, when I was discussing with my train buddy, Simon, that I had this amp, and it was not in the best shape. He asked if I knew what the amp was worth, and I said I didn't know. He suggested, behind that sheepish grin, looking up some auctions for the same amp on eBay, and let him know what I found out. He also suggested a cap job. So yeah, looked it up and I know what I've got sitting here, now. Did the cap job back in October, and the difference was amazing. It sounds so beautiful, that I got bit by the bug, and now I have to restore it. So this is just a short page describing the journey from coal to diamond.

Issues identified:

•     cabinet is missing
•     speaker is missing
•     capacitors are not functioning
•     knobs are chewed up
•     faceplate has silver paint overspray
•     footswitch is missing
•     reverb tank is misisng
•     No tubes
•     One resistor is out of spec
•     power cord is missing

Starting Point (~1994)

Ths is what I received. I am pretty sure all of the internal parts are original, possibly with the exception of the bright blue capactor on the right 1/3 of the circuit board. Look close on the left side of the faceplate, and you can see the silver overspray on the plate and on some of the knobs where some previous owner likely tried to spray the gill cloth silver (*sigh*).

Cabinet #1 (~1995)

So here's the cabinet I built in the mid 90s. It's a basic pine box with 3/8" ply front and back, covered with vinyl, and chorome corners. It doesn't look great, but it was better than nothing, and it is really solid - no wobbling, squeaks, or anything after roughly 20 years.

Capacitor Repair (2015)

After opening the cover, it was clear that this thing still had the original capacitors. So, I ordered a kit online (ran about $25 as I recall), and swapped them out. This made a world of difference in the sound, and stability over time. The circuit board is not shown, but I replaced a number of capacitors there, also.

Dating the Amp

One of the objectives of the restoration is to try to get the amp back in its original state (within reason). So before I go further with purchasing replacement parts, it's probably a good time to try to date the amp. The definitive answer is not available, as the original cabinet is missing, and along with it, the label on the inside with the manufacture date. No numbers on the chassis are of any help either. I'm confident it's from the 60s, as it's a blackface, had the cardboard circuitboard, and contains the blue capacitors that were used by Fender before CBS purchased the company. The next attempt was to look at images of similar (and dated) amps on the Internet, which gets me as close as 1965 - 1968. Then, I started looking at actual components. It turns out, many electronic components are stamped with a code that is defined by the EIA, and contains date information. One of the transformers came back with a manufacture date of 1967. Looking at the aging of the parts, it did not seem to be a later replacement, which would put the amp in 1967 or 1968. Since silverfaces emerged in 1968, I'll be going with the 1967 date.

Cabinet #2 (2016)

My awesome wife hooked me up with a Mojotone cabinet that I used to replace the old homebrew cabinet. The folks at Mojotone put a good deal of work into making this right. The tolex is perfect - no bumps, folds, etc., and the head fits into the opening perfectly. It came without straps to mount the chassis, so that's next on the list. I cleaned up the worst of the silver paint on the blackface plate. I used a Magic sponge from Arm & Hammer - it took the spray off without damaging the paint.

Adornments (2016)

In order to cart the amp around and play it, I needed to mount the chassis. You can see the mounting straps on the top. I also decided to pick up a period logo and fix to the grill. Finally, I did some rewiring of the input power to ground the chassis properly.

Other Posts in this series: PART 2 ~ PART 3.

Telecaster Clone Build

History

About 30 years ago, I took an attempt at building my own electric guitar. Before we go any further, (spoiler alert) it was a spectacular failure. The approach I took was to make the entire guitar from scratch - big mistake. About 10 years later, I refinished an Ibanez guitar using spray paint and polyurathane (with a brush). The finish was pretty bad looking, and I learned that a brush is no way to finish a guitar. So, attempt #2 took place in 2003. This time I purchased a kit and set off to work.

Starting Point (2003)

The kit came from Saga (a well-known kit manufacturer). It included the body, neck (the adjustment screw, and fretboard were already attached), and all of the chrome hardware. The neck had a slight twist in it (looking down the fretboard, the entire neck seemed to twist to the left) which was a little concerning, but I had hopes that a little tuning on the adjustment knob in the neck might help. I decided I wanted something in a dark green with gold hardware, so I dumped all of the existing hardware in the trash and went to work on the internet locating gold replacements for everything.

Body

The body is basswood with a poly coating over the top. I planned on having no pick guard - just the painted wood and components. I gave it three coats of primer, followed by 6 coats of color, and 5 coats of clear. The primer and color were auto paint. I've used that in the past on a truck I once owned, and was really impressed with the hardness and durability of the auto paint versus the laquer you buy for general home use. The clear was a durable laquer. After each coat, I sanded it with 1000-grid sandpaper. After the final clear coat, I sanded with 1000-grit, followed by 1500-grit, and finally rubbing compound. The shine wasn't what you would find in the store, but it had a beautiful lustre. Once dry (or so I thought - more on this point later), I soldered all of the components on, and mounted everything to the body.

Neck and Head

The neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard. The head was unfinished, so I got to add a little of my own design. I finally settled on a recurve design. I took an old CD, and one of my daughter's toys to create the arcs. It ended up looking more like a bird than I thought it would - a point about which I am less than enthusiastic, but it's definitely my own design. I used the same primer/color/clear paint & process on the front of the head. The neck and back of the head received only a few coats of clearcoat (of course, no paint at all on the fretboard). I selected a coat of arms for the logo on the head, another design choice that I didn't really care for once it was done. The sound is beautiful. It has that twang that separates telecasters, is well balanced, and is a real joy to play. It especially sounds amazing through my Deluxe Reverb. The twist in the neck disappeared over time, as well. I'm not really sure if it was the adjustment screw, or just having the tension of strings pulling on it.

2015 Refinish

A few weeks after the original build in 2003, I bought a gig bag for the guitar, and thinking the finish was completely dry, started storing it in the bag. Some months later, I noticed an odd reflection down at the bottom of the body. A closer look revealed that the texture of the gig bag had become impressed in the lacquer clear coat. I also got tired of the coat of arms logo, so it was time for action. I tried buffing it back out with rubbing compound, but the indentations were entirely too deep. So, off to work sanding. I took it down to the color coats, and started to build it back up from there. The body needed a small bit of additional color - fortunately, I had the last of the original can of paint left over. I also stripped the head, decal and all, down to the paint, and built that back up. This time, I settled on something as simple as my signature, using a gold metallic paint pen.

This time, I built some guitar wall hangars, and the tele has been hanging for a couple of months on the wall, rather than in the bag.

Setup

Playing for over 30 years, I have a pretty good grasp of tuning. I never did take the time to learn how to properly set up a guitar, however. I recently found an old video by Mark Arnquist from 1986 explaining the process. After going through that video, I set up the guitar properly, and it plays as well as any guitar I've ever played.