NAD, first in a while...

ivan H said:
Female spade plug type connectors like these
are plenty good enough connection to the speaker, so long as they are a tight fit. Me personally, I prefer the leads properly tied to the lugs & soldered. Cheers
Click to expand...

Yeah so I tightened the old lugs with pliers, they are very tight now. Of course also somewhat fatigued...

As for the cable extension, that's just solder and heatshrink. Maybe not the most optimal thing - it'd be better to just build a new longer cable, or use a spring thing made from thin wire like so:

spiraali.jpg

...but I suspect this will work fine too since it's not under any considerable strain. Maybe i'll make a new speaker cable later. I'm at least a semi-professional solderer after all ;)

Personally I'm more worried about the tube socket board. Might have to order a replacement soon...
 
aon said:
Also noticed that the tube socket board should probably be replaced before it fails, looks like some of the pads are already lifted off the PCB.
Click to expand...
WTF? What might have caused this?


aon said:
Maybe i'll make a new speaker cable later.
Click to expand...
I think you're better off making a new cable with new spades too. Use a cable clamp at the baffle and close to the speaker. This will reduce the chance of the spades vibrating off, if for some reason they loose their grippiness. It will also greatly reduce the chance of damaging the speaker by accidentally pulling on the cable too hard.
 
Last edited:
syscokid said:
WTF? What might have caused this?
Click to expand...

Thermal cycling.

When the tubes get warm, the solder joints of the sockets also warm up and they expand. When they cool down, they shrink back. Do this enough times and the solder joints starts failing, and especially on the non-connected pins the copper will start lifting (since there's so little of it that's holding on to the PCB substrate). When some of the pins work loose, the rest of them have to share more of the burden of supporting the tube and socket...

The replacement boards on eBay seem better than the original since they are dual layer with through-plated holes (and maybe even thicker copper? who knows).

I haven't repaired that many CRT TV's or monitors but maybe half a dozen where the solder joints of the flyback transformer had similar issues.
 
ivan H said:
Female spade plug type connectors like these View attachment 44035
are plenty good enough connection to the speaker, so long as they are a tight fit. Me personally, I prefer the leads properly tied to the lugs & soldered. Cheers
Click to expand...
i give another tiny squeeze with the pliers to snug em up, Seem to lock in. My combos are soldered in..had to go check..another big thankyou to my tech..the unsung hero in the tone chain
 
aon said:
The replacement boards on eBay seem better than the original since they are dual layer with through-plated holes (and maybe even thicker copper? who knows).
Click to expand...
If there's a market for these boards, it makes me wonder about how often these Fenders fail?
 
aon said:
Thanks! Looks like Tung-Sol 7189's are relatively easy to get here and not that expensive. Can't get matched pairs though it seems.

Another thing I read was that swapping V1 with 5751, or 12AY7, or whatever... and lowering the gain would make the highest gain happen further up the volume dial and thus make the lower end of the spectrum more manageable? Not that it seems unmanageable now, but might be something to try. Those are also pretty inexpensive...

Anyway I'm waiting on an attenuator / di box thing so I can get a line out to my cab sim for completely silent practice.
Click to expand...
I salute Finland, the heavy metal capitol of the world. Not all the forum members realize that there are more heavy metal bands in Finland, than any other country.
I found this kit which makes the Blues Jr amp sound quite a bit better. It really made a noticeable difference. (use the supreme kit)
fromelelectronics.com

Fender Blues Junior Modifications

Unleash the tone of your Blues JR with these modifications from Fromel Electronics! From the factory, this pint size wonder has a lot of potential, but with some select Fromel tweaks this amp can stand toe-to-toe with some of the finest boutique amps on the market. After the mod, the amp boasts...
fromelelectronics.com fromelelectronics.com
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
I salute Finland, the heavy metal capitol of the world. Not all the forum members realize that there are more heavy metal bands in Finland, than any other country.
I found this kit which makes the Blues Jr amp sound quite a bit better. It really made a noticeable difference. (use the supreme kit)
fromelelectronics.com

Fender Blues Junior Modifications

Unleash the tone of your Blues JR with these modifications from Fromel Electronics! From the factory, this pint size wonder has a lot of potential, but with some select Fromel tweaks this amp can stand toe-to-toe with some of the finest boutique amps on the market. After the mod, the amp boasts...
fromelelectronics.com fromelelectronics.com
Click to expand...

:) it's such a shame we don't get to go any metal festivals this year. Didn't go to any last year either since our son was born in April... maybe better luck next year?

I might try out some of those mods at some point. I ordered the replacement tube socket board which includes adjustable bias already.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
I found this kit which makes the Blues Jr amp sound quite a bit better. It really made a noticeable difference. (use the supreme kit)
fromelelectronics.com

Fender Blues Junior Modifications

Unleash the tone of your Blues JR with these modifications from Fromel Electronics! From the factory, this pint size wonder has a lot of potential, but with some select Fromel tweaks this amp can stand toe-to-toe with some of the finest boutique amps on the market. After the mod, the amp boasts...
fromelelectronics.com fromelelectronics.com
Click to expand...
I installed a Fromel 'supreme' kit in a friend's Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and the results were amazing. The HRD's stock speaker was replaced with a WGS Reaper. Together, with the Fromel mod kit and the nicer speaker, it brought up the amp's performance to another level.
 
syscokid said:
I installed a Fromel 'supreme' kit in a friend's Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and the results were amazing. The HRD's stock speaker was replaced with a WGS Reaper. Together, with the Fromel mod kit and the nicer speaker, it brought up the amp's performance to another level.
Click to expand...

When I first started I was very skeptical-- But after I played it, I was damn near impressed !

We also used a better speaker.
I had less noise, more gain, the tone controls worked noticeably better, the reverb was clearer...
 
Last edited:
aon said:
:) it's such a shame we don't get to go any metal festivals this year. Didn't go to any last year either since our son was born in April... maybe better luck next year?

I might try out some of those mods at some point. I ordered the replacement tube socket board which includes adjustable bias already.
Click to expand...

Where did you order the board from?
 
So I finally got around to installing the Black Magic Amps replacement tube board. Was pretty straightforward. Biased to 26ish mA and clipped the C3 bright cap while I had the amp open. Sounds better now I think. Maybe the next thing would be a lower gain V1 and maybe V3...

IMG_20200811_112534.jpg IMG_20200811_121205.jpg IMG_20200811_123422.jpg IMG_20200811_131532.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top