I'm not much of a Fender amp tech. Took on this project and now I am having problems.
this is a 65DRRI that has been gutted and redone with a handwired board. The handwired board came pre-populated from some vendor I don't know. Maybe one of you guys built it
My job was to fab a cap/ps board, install pots & jacks and put in the board, wire it to the tube sockets, etc. Easy enough, eh?Well the board was first missing the PI tail resistor. Once I found that, suddenly it started making sounds. It actually works and sounds good at least the normal channel. The vibrato channel has problems.
problems are as follows:
- trem doesn't work at all.
- sometimes it motorboats when the trem is engaged. i can't isolate the exact sequence to make this happen. it has something to do with positions of the reverb and trem switches.
- the vol pot makes all kinds of noise and is super scratchy. yes i have replaced it two times. it's not a bad pot.
- the other day I plugged in my Tele and played it and noticed that the vol knob (metal knob, metal pot) was getting mighty hot. I suspect there is DC on the input jack and also on the vol pot. Haven't measured it yet.
so any clues as to where to look for these issues? I am a real noob with BF amps. never worked on an opto trem amp. I suspect something on the board is not built right, hooked up wrong, or component missing or wrong component. this is an amp that has never worked right yet. I have double, triple, quadruple and more checked my wiring, all grounds, pot wiring, tube socket wiring, voltages, etc. They are all right on.
clues from the BF guys? I'd like to get this off my bench, to make way for my next project, turning an old Bogen Challenger into a Tweed Deluxe, amidst building a couple of Revelation amps that are on the calendar.
see ya-
