1957 Fender Princeton (Amp Porn) Completely 100% Original / UNtouched.

Here's an idea I came up with to solve that issue as all my tweeden really need, at least the power rail caps. It's really a pain in the bocul.gifto do. But, I'm really particular to how the insides of my amps look. Silly?, stoopid, whatever you want to call it , me I choose to call it ideocracies! I drill out the insides of the original cap on my drill press and fit the new cap inside the orange sprague paper cap covering. The astrons I make a file on the 'puter to photoshop elements 6, work the program and print out a paper copy and glue it to the chosen replacement over little rubber bushings that mimic the taper of the ends. You can't visually tell the difference when installed. The red caps are even easier. Presently, I have an acquaintance who purchased an industrial 3D printer from a company that went out of business but it still cost him 25K and with that you can reproduce almost everything. He uses it part time being retired to augment his income. So far, I've only actually used it to produce exact copies of the " Selmer " logo's on one of my Selmer amps that was missing the lettering. Cost me $75 to do them! Selma Amps 4ed9ff2f.jpg
The real ones were metal but the replacements, unless you handle them, you can't tell a thing. And me being OCD got proper Selmer logo on my 64' Crock Zodiac. Got it from the original owner in England. I inquired why did he buy it and he replied " We were playing all over England and were using all Marshalls, when they heard the Selmers they traded their 64' Marshalls for Selmers ". I had to ask why would do that and he simply said because the Selmers sounded better! I very highly recommend any Selmers from the early 60's
 
Vox AC30 said:
Here's an idea I came up with to solve that issue as all my tweeden really need, at least the power rail caps. It's really a pain in the View attachment 57408to do. But, I'm really particular to how the insides of my amps look. Silly?, stoopid, whatever you want to call it , me I choose to call it ideocracies! I drill out the insides of the original cap on my drill press and fit the new cap inside the orange sprague paper cap covering.
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I have done similar in the restoration of old short wave receivers, where the owner wanted them kept looking as original/authentic as possible. Also with an old Aussie made Maton guitar amp. When I had contacted Maton about the amp they offered a considerable sum for it as they didn't have one that early in their museum. The owner had inherited it from his grandmother & wasn't selling. Cheers
 
syscokid said:
Right off the bat, for very affordable and very good caps, the polypropylene Mojo Dijons and the polyester Synergy Royal Mustard caps. Valvestorm.com is an excellent supplier and vendor.

I also just recently bought a few ERO (Vishay) MKT1318 polyesters to try, also at Valvestorm.com, at the suggestion from Sir Ivan the Wonderful. If you're in a pinch and still live in San Luis Obispo, I have extra Mojo Dijons, extra orange drops 715s & 716s (polypros), and extra old SOZOs (polyester) that you can choose from and use.
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Though I've not used them, these seem to be a very popular substitute for the old yellow astron's Yellow Vintage Tone Capacitor | Jupiter Condenser
Cheers
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
There's supposedly a new Sozo "next generation" cap. It's like $5 each but I never tried them.


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I used those in my 5F1 Champ build, there's only a couple of caps in there so cost was irrelevant. I haven't compared them to any other types though, maybe I should sub in some Mallory 150's or 715P orange drops to see if there's any noticeable audible difference. Cheers
 
I have some here that I traded for and haven't tried them yet though I am curious to see what they sounded like.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
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It's no longer virgin,,,,,I touched it.

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I use F&T caps because I think it makes the amp sound better.
What I notice is a very distinct "hi fi" type of sound when I install F&T....it's like an instant noticeable improvement.
Compared to others, I have been going for a more Hi Fi sound.
The Illinois Caps used by Fender sound really dull and lifeless to me, so I don't use those.
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It's a pity that the recap couldn't have been done a little more sympathetically using the original Astron sleeves.
 
Does it stay clean to about 3, And does it start breaking up at 3 1/4 becoming not as much louder but thicker with a heavenly overdrive to distortion? If we moderately doped the speaker do you think that would raise the bar on the weak point of the speaker?
 
Vox AC30 said:
Does it stay clean to about 3, And does it start breaking up at 3 1/4 becoming not as much louder but thicker with a heavenly overdrive to distortion? If we moderately doped the speaker do you think that would raise the bar on the weak point of the speaker?
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It start to break up at about 6. It's pretty clean till the speaker saturates.
No, I think the voice coil is really dinky. It's very minimal.
In 1957, nobody played distortion. It was all clean really. It was always intended to be played clean and nobody imagined cranking it up.
The first time I saw the speaker, I thought the magnet fell off.
It was like: "where's the magnet?"
But that is a Utah Micro-Gap speaker.

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