Vinage Fender Tube Amp gets New Life

 

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In 1973 a good beer buddy of ours purchased this used Fender Champ Amp.  The amp is rumored to be used in one of Leon Russell's studios.  According to the S/N it was manufactured in 1964.  The problem was the amp no longer worked and we asked if we could try a shot at fixing it.

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My assumption (that was correct) was the capacitors had lost all their capacitor magic.  However, I quickly discovered the amp was also missing a tube.   Oddly, the T-12AX7 tube was easy to get. 

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Surprisingly the odd value 450V capacitors that Fender used were hard to get and pretty expensive.  We found a 'kit' of 450V capacitors and put some values in parallel to get the desired values.   Not "pure Fender", but the amp is rockin' again and that was the main goal.

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Original:

Now:

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General Radio VARIAC Gets New Life

 

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A good ham radio pal gave us a VARIAC that was collecting dust in his shack.   We often wanted a VARIAC, but really didn't need one so this presented a prefect opportunity to make our VARIAC dreams come true.

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Without an enclosure the danger of a 120VAC unprotected appliance rolling around on the test bench can be pretty hazardous.  We fixed that by repurposing the cremation remains box of a loved one.   We also mounted a switch and voltmeter to the box.

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The simple schematic is show here:

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