Summer rebuild project

Mike B

My Fender Champ 25 SE amplifier was manufactured sometime in 1992 or 93 timeframe. It has a solid state front end but the finals are two 6L6 vacuum tubes. I have used this amp everyday and for the last 10 years it has been my church amp with the praise team. I run the GNX-3 into the FX return jack, and the amp signal is sent to the mixing board via the line out jack

Sadly, father time has caught up with the amp and made it unreliable. The input jacks are loose internally, especially the FX return jack. The volume control pots are worn out, and over time a couple of knobs have gone missing. Cosmetically the grill cloth has been stained and the black tolex is torn as well. So it is time to re-store the amp to a usable, trustworthy condition.

I have ordered the four 9-pin board mounted jacks and the volume pots from Music Parts Guru. The speaker grill cloth and tolex will come from Mojo Music supply. Looking forward to restoring this amplifier this summer. Now where is my soldering iron and solder wick?

partch

cool Mike! Keep us posted. Pics would be cool 8) Take care buddy

gtaus

Yeah, before and after pics would be great.

Tal Rules

Good hearing from you Mike. To Hell with the pics. Let's have some clips of that bad boy screaming..

Take care buddy, and I hope things are going well with your recovery.. 8)

Rawb

\Mike B\ wrote:

Cosmetically the grill cloth has been stained and the black tolex is torn as well. So it is time to re-store the amp to a usable, trustworthy condition.

Are you going for the original look or doing some custom color(s) to make it 'yours'?

Mike B

I was talking with my daughter about what color to use for the speaker grill cover, we both like the black and tan weave (see music parts guru) with the tan tolex. So I guess you would have to say I am not ging to go with the original look but with what I like.

I have a few pics on my phone memory card, so when the project gets underway I'll try to keep a photo-journal.

guitar3456

Sounds cool! There is a local guy here that volunteers at a Good Will or SA store but he recently found an old Champ in MINT condition, and an old Kalamazoo Model 2 amp. He missed getting an old Super Reverb another guy found earlier that week. Most just have dry caps, but man they do sound great when finished !

Mike B

Yahoo the parts arrived today. So now its time to carry the amplifier out the garage and start the disassembly, the fun begins. (Later ) So now I have the electronics chassis removed from the cabinet, and all the retainer nuts on the various pots and jacks have been removed, as well as the PC board retainer screws. Next step is to remove the tube socket retainer screws which secure the tube sockets to the chassis. At first I thought I would have to de-solder the tube sockets from the PC board, but now I believe it will be easier to leave the sockets soldered in place and just loosen the retainer screws from the chassis. Then I should be able to remove the PC board, with sockets attached, from the chassis and replace the faulty components.



peace

Mike B

OK so now the PC board has been loosened from the chassis and I have replaced the pots and jacks. The secret to good soldering technique is using the correct wattage soldering iron and keeping the tip tinned with fresh solder. For this project I used a simple 15 watt iron because it is easy to damage the solder pads with a hotter iron. Things went well, the old parts came off easy, before installing the new parts I cleaned the pads with a little bit of alcohol and a small brush. Installed the new parts, touched them with the solder and iron and presto new volume pots and jacks.

Also removed the speaker plate and grill cloth. Then cleaned out the cabinet, it's amazing what collects in the corners over 17 years, and the speaker body was cleaned too.

So next will be removing the Fender logo from the speaker plate and grill cloth, then removing the old cloth. I have not yet ordered the new cloth but will soon.

peace