Amp mods gone bad

[Phil_S]

There used to be a Tech on Ebay.com that would gut the Fender Reissues, and rebuild the amp to Black Face Standards with the correct caps, resistors, etc. Can't remember their name, but he had a number of testimonials positive feedback about how the amps were night and day better.

There's PCB and there's PCB. Not all are alike. In the bad old days, they wasted a lot of copper making the traces too thick. Modern engineering and cost accounting optimized for those thinner traces figuring it would be cheaper to just make good on a warranty repair and to heck with out of warranty matters.

I think you are referring the Mikey Mann Amps (Mike McGuirk) who does this as a side business. He's here in Baltimore but I don't know if he is still doing it. I've talked with him on the phone but we never got around to a personal meet. IIRC, he only has one product. He guts and rebuilds the DRRI and he's got it down to a science.

Here is the blog of a very happy customer with a picture of Mikey right up front! http://deluxereverb.waynereno.com/Visiting_Mikey.html He has posted Mikey's email in the contact page.

[Firestorm]

There used to be a Tech on Ebay.com that would gut the Fender Reissues, and rebuild the amp to Black Face Standards with the correct caps, resistors, etc. Can't remember their name, but he had a number of testimonials positive feedback about how the amps were night and day better.

There's PCB and there's PCB. Not all are alike. In the bad old days, they wasted a lot of copper making the traces too thick. Modern engineering and cost accounting optimized for those thinner traces figuring it would be cheaper to just make good on a warranty repair and to heck with out of warranty matters.

I think you are referring the Mikey Mann Amps (Mike McGuirk) who does this as a side business. He's here in Baltimore but I don't know if he is still doing it. I've talked with him on the phone but we never got around to a personal meet. IIRC, he only has one product. He guts and rebuilds the DRRI and he's got it down to a science.

Here is the blog of a very happy customer with a picture of Mikey right up front! http://deluxereverb.waynereno.com/Visiting_Mikey.html He has posted Mikey's email in the contact page.

There's no such thing as copper traces that are too thick. Wires are always thicker than traces. I hate pcbs.