Fender Deluxe 6G3 Rebuild

[XgamerGt03]

So I've had an old Fender Brown Deluxe that was given to me two years ago by a friend of mine that I've been meaning to rebuild. When I was given the amp it had been spray painted to look like a silverface amp by the original owner, and then left out in a barn where it was rained on for years.

Sadly almost all of the components were done for.

So I stripped the chassis of everything, as well as the cab. I plan on refinishing the cab and rebuilding the amp.

So I do have one current question about the amp while I am in the planning phase. I want to try to get close to the original sound, what kind of coupling capacitors should I be using for the amp? Is there a series of the orange drop caps that would be good for this, or should I spend the money for the Sozo Blue Molded caps?

[David Root]

I'll have to look in mine, fortunately it's in a lot better shape than yours! Too bad you could not rescue the PT and OT, that will cost you if you want a pair of originals.

[Structo]

If you can afford the Sozo Blue's that is what I would use.
They are supposed to really nail the blue molded tone cap of old Fenders.

[M Fowler]

Anyone try the new Red Astron's?

[selloutrr]

Jupiter - http://www.tubesandmore.com/
Sozo - http://sozoamplification.com/purchaseBM.html
Cornell Dubilier - http://www.specialtyguitars.com/amp-parts.html
Mojotone Vitamin T - http://www.mojotone.com/amp-parts/Vitamin-T-Oil-Filled

I've used all of these caps in fender circuits at one time of another, both for personal and customer builds. They all sound great. The truest caps for cloning the vintage astons are the Sozo Premiums, though they take a while to break in and smooth out.
None of the caps listed above suck. The Jupiter's are a close second, very similar to the sozo standards.
I'd recommend the Cornell and the Mojo's for nice tone that true vintage doesn't matter.

It's just how much do you want to spend and how close you want to get.

The majority of your tone is going to come from the correct vintage output transformer and the tubes you install in the amp.

Angela's, Antique electronic supply, and Mojo music supply are a great resource for tracking down restoration parts. If you don't see something call them.

Post pics of your restoration it's always fun to see an amp come back to life!
Happy building.

[billyz]

Jupiter - http://www.tubesandmore.com/
Sozo - http://sozoamplification.com/purchaseBM.html
Cornell Dubilier - http://www.specialtyguitars.com/amp-parts.html
Mojotone Vitamin T - http://www.mojotone.com/amp-parts/Vitamin-T-Oil-Filled

I've used all of these caps in fender circuits at one time of another, both for personal and customer builds. They all sound great. The truest caps for cloning the vintage astons are the Sozo Premiums, though they take a while to break in and smooth out.
None of the caps listed above suck. The Jupiter's are a close second, very similar to the sozo standards.
I'd recommend the Cornell and the Mojo's for nice tone that true vintage doesn't matter.

It's just how much do you want to spend and how close you want to get.

The majority of your tone is going to come from the correct vintage output transformer and the tubes you install in the amp.

Angela's, Antique electronic supply, and Mojo music supply are a great resource for tracking down restoration parts. If you don't see something call them.

Post pics of your restoration it's always fun to see an amp come back to life!
Happy building.

I would second the Cornell Dublier caps, sound very vintage.

I have had several Mojo Vitamin T caps fail and would not recommend them,

[XgamerGt03]

It doesn't have to be perfect, but I do want to get pretty close.

I'm looking at the Magnetic Components Transformers for a Deluxe. They look to be somewhat close to the voltages that I want for this amp.

Another good thing is that a lot of the tubes actually survived, and so they will go back into this amp. I still have a pair of sylvannia 6v6s and all of the preamp tubes. The rectifier tube was scavenged for use in another amp.

I have a stock of NOS carbon comp resistors, and a local shop that sells all sorts of NOS things.

I'm planning on getting the Blue Molded caps, I do remember the Blue Aston caps in the amp.

I'm going to have face plates made for this amp because the originals had been painted, poorly, and were just in terrible condition.

It will be somewhat nice to have a chassis for a build that I don't have to do the majority of the drilling for finally.

This restoration is somewhat a bit off, I graduate in May and so I'm trying to save up money to have a place to live... but I will at the very least restore the cabinet before then.

I may post a few pictures of the amp in its current naked condition.

[David Root]

I think you may be able to buy repro faceplates, I know they are available for some old Fenders.

[XgamerGt03]

I think you may be able to buy repro faceplates, I know they are available for some old Fenders.

I'm actually tempted to have my own made due to the fact that this amp will likely stay with me for a long time to come. Since none of it is going to be original besides the cab I'd rather avoid putting the fender name on the amp and give it a few personal touches.

Like I said, what I'm looking for is the closest that I can possibly get to the sound. I also want the cab to be as close as possible to the original amp. I plan on having a face plate made and replacing the Deluxe Amp script with something else.

[gldtp99]

I recently rebuilt this flooded-out 6G7A Blonde Bandmaster :http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f112/ ... 20Flooded/
Orig iron ruined, orig cloth wire falling apart, etc. I used mostly Mojo Dijon's---Magnetic Components PT and 4/8/16 ohm OT---Hammond choke.
Amp sounds very close to my orig 6G7A Bandmasters--- my friend was over last Sun and he liked the "player" rebuild better than the orig one that he played in A/B.
Mine had yellow Astrons in it--- i saved them for something else in the future rather than "waste" them in a player-grade rebuild---i'm glad now that i went with Mojo Dijons (i had them on hand) rather than order the Blue caps from Sozo. I was close to ordering the Blue Sozo's.
Sorry about the one OD 715 on the board--- it was the only new cap in .033uF i had--- it doesn't seem to hurt the sound- .........................gldtp99

[XgamerGt03]

Has anyone ever heard of Sprague 10-TM-S caps. All of the caps are black caps with red writing on them. I've got a number of them available to me and wanted to see if I anyone has any good things to say about them.

[David Root]

Do they look like this?

[XgamerGt03]

Those are the ones, they all test good still and some of them are brand new.

[David Root]

The 10 means they are 1000V rated. You don't really need that, 600V is plenty. I think the M in TM stands for mylar, which is what the dielectric is.

I believe these Spragues are similar to the Sprague Black Beauty, they look pretty much the same, may even be the same cap. They also look a lot like Cornell Dubilier (CDE) Black Cats. All three are mylar (polyester) with aluminum film. I think they are '70s vintage mostly.

Whether they are suitable for a 6G3 I don't know. Early '60s could very well be what used to be called "Difilm" construction. This was an interim style of construction between '50s paper/oil and '70s all-mylar, and is actually a paper and mylar dielectric. These are said to sound much like paper/oil rather than polyester. The Difilms were made from the late '50s into the '70s.

Below is a '62 data sheet for a typical Difilm cap. These were radial "drop" style, not molded.

[XgamerGt03]

So I think i've decided on a few of the parts for this amp.

I've looked into the Sozo Blue Molded caps and they look like they should give me a pretty close approximation to the original sound of this amp. I'll also be using Sprague Atom caps for the power supply.

Now comes a few questions for everyone again.

The original unit used carbon composition resistors, and obviously there is some discussion as to whether or not this has a large effect upon the tone. I'm thinking about going with Carbon or Metal film resistors just to reduce some of the possible hiss issues that carbon comp can have.

The other question revolves around the grill cloth and tolex colors. I've got two ideas as to how I could possibly do this. One is to go for looks and sound for the amp and go with the traditional fender brown and wheat combo. The other option is to go with surf green tolex to give it a unique appearance while still retaining the vintage look. Not sure what grill cloth I would use with surf green.

Opinions?