Watkins Warrior repair
- Thread starter Jon Snell
- Start date
OP
Jon Snell
Active Member
The Watkins Dominator was a nice amplifier, they made three models, similar power as the AC15 as I recall. You have good taste sir.
This amplifier lived for years in a damp garden shed/studio, and there is a lot of rust on the faceplate. Luckily the chassis was stove enamelled when it was made and survived intact and almost damage free.
The valve sockets are plated nickel brass, with no signs of damage as all the valves were present when stored, but removed, for other projects I presume, leaving superficial watermarks, that should wipe off with a cotton bud and IPA fingers crossed. If not I will replace any damaged ones.
I photographed the loudspeaker purposely like the picture as it was fitted upside down
It is on the bench now and assuming I have all that I need in stock, and not too much repair work on, will be completed in a week or so.
There is no service information available from the usual sources, so it may take a little time to work out what that pre-set does, as there is no way of knowing without it powered up and working.
Tremolo balance I would imagine, as it is added on with a piece of Veroboard.
More to follow as I progress.
Edit; More infor added.
This amplifier lived for years in a damp garden shed/studio, and there is a lot of rust on the faceplate. Luckily the chassis was stove enamelled when it was made and survived intact and almost damage free.
The valve sockets are plated nickel brass, with no signs of damage as all the valves were present when stored, but removed, for other projects I presume, leaving superficial watermarks, that should wipe off with a cotton bud and IPA fingers crossed. If not I will replace any damaged ones.
I photographed the loudspeaker purposely like the picture as it was fitted upside down
It is on the bench now and assuming I have all that I need in stock, and not too much repair work on, will be completed in a week or so.
There is no service information available from the usual sources, so it may take a little time to work out what that pre-set does, as there is no way of knowing without it powered up and working.
Tremolo balance I would imagine, as it is added on with a piece of Veroboard.
More to follow as I progress.
Edit; More infor added.
Attachments
Last edited:
OP
Jon Snell
Active Member
Spent a couple of hours on it this morning.
Four B9A sockets are fine, but the EL84 sockets are junk. Replaced the sockets, G1, G2 resistors and fitted new yellow cathode feed wires.
Powered it up for the first time as it now has new smoothing and coupling capacitors that showed leaky or high ESR with new valves.
Cleaned up the pots with contact cleaner with lubricant. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electronics-cleaners/1014937?gb=a https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electronics-cleaners/1316178
The little Veroboard pot is no longer a mystery. The slide switch selects pre-set gain or full gain. Not sure what the slide switch used to do though.
The tremolo is next to sort out, should be easy, phase shift sine wave oscillator, speed and level controls. It uses the first two input sockets only. I did notice the rusty RCA socket and the last techie shorted it out underneath ... we'll see how it goes.
Here are some more inner pictures of the way it is progressing;
Four B9A sockets are fine, but the EL84 sockets are junk. Replaced the sockets, G1, G2 resistors and fitted new yellow cathode feed wires.
Powered it up for the first time as it now has new smoothing and coupling capacitors that showed leaky or high ESR with new valves.
Cleaned up the pots with contact cleaner with lubricant. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electronics-cleaners/1014937?gb=a https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electronics-cleaners/1316178
The little Veroboard pot is no longer a mystery. The slide switch selects pre-set gain or full gain. Not sure what the slide switch used to do though.
The tremolo is next to sort out, should be easy, phase shift sine wave oscillator, speed and level controls. It uses the first two input sockets only. I did notice the rusty RCA socket and the last techie shorted it out underneath ... we'll see how it goes.
Here are some more inner pictures of the way it is progressing;
Attachments
PelliX
Well-Known Member
...and you used bolts instead of rivets. Good man.
