Fender SF Super Reverb 1973

[izmaeeloo]

Hello everybody... I'm restoring my Fender Super Reverb 1973 with master volume... the circuit is the aa270... I want to change verythign I can in the inside (I allready bought tubes and transfromers) and I would really appreciate if someone could tell me what kind of transistors, capacitors, resistors and all that stuff? I really don't know what to do.. I'm no expert and all that I see it's a bunch of cables... Thank you very much!

Greeting from México

 

[Justinvs]

You'll want to change the filter capacitors for sure. They're the ones in the little metal tray beneath the chassis. Not hard to do, but be sure you drain them first because they hold a lot of juice. Also, keep track of the polarity of each cap. I just changed the caps in my '67 SR and it only took me a couple hours. Would have taken less time than that but I soldered one in with the wrong polarity and it popped.

Justin

 

[telex76]

Hello everybody... I'm restoring my Fender Super Reverb 1973 with master volume... the circuit is the aa270... I want to change verythign I can in the inside (I allready bought tubes and transfromers) and I would really appreciate if someone could tell me what kind of transistors, capacitors, resistors and all that stuff? I really don't know what to do.. I'm no expert and all that I see it's a bunch of cables... Thank you very much!

Greeting from México

If you are going to change everything, you just have a lot of studying to do. If you are changing everything anyway I'd go ahead and blackface it. It needs electrolytics recapped for sure but, but other components are probably okay unless they are burned or drifted in value.

I did about six months of hard study before I went through my AB763 DR.

 

[Wally]

+1 with telex76, izmaeeloo. ?Ismael? Go here....

http://www.aikenamps.com/

and study the tech section. Study the basics before going on to the advanced, please. You mgiht want to order some tube amplifier books are study those. A library might have books on the subject.
FWIW, you do not have an AA270 Super REverb despite what the tube chart may say. The AA270 did not have a Master Volume.
Please do not hack into that amp until you know what you are doing. For one, you may lower the value of the amp. 2)You might ruin a valuable component--power transformer or output transformer--- and that would really lower the value. 3) You might kill yourself.

Welcome to the TDPRI.....I hope you are with us a long time.

 

[BiggerJohn]

Hello everybody... I'm restoring my Fender Super Reverb 1973 with master volume... the circuit is the aa270... I want to change verythign I can in the inside (I allready bought tubes and transfromers) and I would really appreciate if someone could tell me what kind of transistors, capacitors, resistors and all that stuff? I really don't know what to do.. I'm no expert and all that I see it's a bunch of cables... Thank you very much!

Greeting from México

Quote: I really don't know what to do.. I'm no expert and all that I see it's a bunch of cables

If this is true you have no business even trying it you are likely to make a mess and destroy the amp. Why on earth do you want to change everything? That in and of itself tells med you have no clue what you are doing, and therefore should NOT try to do it. Nothing personal and no offense, but you have no business working inside an amp.

 

[Justinvs]

Quote: I really don't know what to do.. I'm no expert and all that I see it's a bunch of cables

If this is true you have no business even trying it you are likely to make a mess and destroy the amp. Why on earth do you want to change everything? That in and of itself tells med you have no clue what you are doing, and therefore should NOT try to do it. Nothing personal and no offense, but you have no business working inside an amp.

On the other hand, sometimes the only way you learn about this stuff is to do it. I avoided a recap on my BFSR because I had no idea how invlved the process was, but I read up on line, asked a lot of questins, especially around here - just ask Wally! - and finally ordered the parts and did the work. Turned out I actually enjoyed it and now have a much better sounding amp for what comes down to a few hours investment. Do it yourself is possible, but be sure to do your research first.

Justin

 

[BiggerJohn]

On the other hand, sometimes the only way you learn about this stuff is to do it. I avoided a recap on my BFSR because I had no idea how invlved the process was, but I read up on line, asked a lot of questins, especially around here - just ask Wally! - and finally ordered the parts and did the work. Turned out I actually enjoyed it and now have a much better sounding amp for what comes down to a few hours investment. Do it yourself is possible, but be sure to do your research first.

Justin

So then is brain surgery next?

 

[Justinvs]

So then is brain surgery next?

On myself or somebody else?

 

[DenisS]

A recap, a few good tubes, a general maintenance and the right speakers would be a good start.

If you don't like it after that you need a tech who can do a minor tweak or two. It takes years of work/testing/listening to develop a real working tweak philosophy. Transformers don't do the magic until the amp is right, and when it is you won't think you need them.

Bigger John said right, and Wally wants you not to kill your darn self.

Don't mess up a vintage amp just out-of-hand, unless you are really bent on learning. Find another chassis and work on that. A clone chassis. You get everything you want and a safety net. May cost less.

Back in the '70s and '80s I tore up a few SF chassis for my experimentation and learning. Now I wish I had them stock.

 

[jguitarman]

Quote: I really don't know what to do.. I'm no expert and all that I see it's a bunch of cables

If this is true you have no business even trying it you are likely to make a mess and destroy the amp. Why on earth do you want to change everything? That in and of itself tells med you have no clue what you are doing, and therefore should NOT try to do it. Nothing personal and no offense, but you have no business working inside an amp.

I agree. The inside of an amp can kill you even though it's unplugged. Why change parts just for the sake of changing them? Makes no sense at all.
If you want to learn about amps, buy a kit and build a small one. Don't ruin a vintage amp.

 

[Green Lantern]

Well, since he used the word "restoring", I assume the amp is probably already not in working order. But, I agree with some of the others. The questions you're asking are probably too broad and involved to practically answer in single forum posts. If you have no idea what is what in there, stay out of the chassis until you've researched some stuff, for your own sake and the amplifier's.

 

[jguitarman]

izmaeeloo...I forgot to welcome you to the forum. There's a ton of information and inspiration to be had here. I hope you like it here.

 

[fauxsuper]

Well, since he used the word "restoring", I assume the amp is probably already not in working order. But, I agree with some of the others. The questions you're asking are probably too broad and involved to practically answer in single forum posts. If you have no idea what is what in there, stay out of the chassis until you've researched some stuff, for your own sake and the amplifier's.

I think this is the key thing here, a little like BiggerJohn hinted at: sort of like learning brain surgery from a forum somewhere. But I think the fact that you were asking broad questions is what caused people to fear for both your and the amp's life

 

[Wally]

ON the contrary, izmaeeloo was direct and to the point...nothing broad about it. HE admitted he knew nothing about any part of an amplifier.
That is what scared me.

"I really don't know what to do.. I'm no expert and all that I see it's a bunch of cables... Thank you very much!"

So I gave him a plan on what to do....go study a lot so he would know something before he did harm...mainly I was worried about his well-being.
Mui peligroso.....

 

[izmaeeloo]

Hola a todos again... I had not had time to check the post again... and it's really exciting to see that there's people over here who is really willing to help others, thank you for that!
Well, I probably didn't explain myself well enough, I'm NOT to do the restoration myself... I'm just going to order the parts for a technician to do it... The thing is I'm in Mazatlán, México, and it's very difficult to find these part here... and it's even more difficult to find a technician who really knows something about this kind of amp! What I want to do is to buy everything and give him the schematics and the parts and tell him "do this and do that" I found a webpage where to buy everything and I got a price of $180 us with "all the caps & resistors on the board, all electrolytic caps (both on the board and the power filters under the chassis), resistors on the power section and on the power tubes" Sprague Atoms in the power filters, the electrolytic caps and the bias. Is this a good price? what else do I need?

I know I have to study a little about this.. and I promise I will..

I don't have an aa270? Damn! well, then I'm lost! The amp actually doesn't have a tube chart, but with the serial number I got that is an 1973 silverface and aa270... how can I know what circuit type is it???

I'll tell you a little histroy... I bought this one from an old "gringo" name Gregg, he had the amp "cast aside" (is that correct?) and he had not used it for like 10 years... the amp doesn't work, the power transformer was totally burned so I bought a new one... He sold me the amp in like $150 US with the original tubes and a box with all the new tubes "Ruby tubes"... I think it was a good offer, he didn't wanted the amp because he couldn't move it anymore, so he didn't care that much... as a result of the transformer burned, some of the components of the circuit board are toasted too, that's why I want to put everything new...

The thing is I really want to know what do I need... untill now I've been giving prices for packages with "all what I need" but I really don't know what it comes in these packages...

I really appreciate your hel guys! I will be posting some pics of the amp in these days!

P.S. Sorry for my bad english

 

[izmaeeloo]

Is there a component list or something like it?

 

[Justinvs]

Hey Izmaeeloo!

I just swapped out t e caps in my '67 Super Reverb, and used a kit to make sure I had all the parts I would need, but I wound up only using about half of them. I'm not very familiar with the later Supers like yours, but I doubt all the resitors need changing. Hopefully, though, one of the tech types here will get back to you. I'm just a beginner when it comes to amps.

And welcome to the Forum!
Justin

 

[bdgregory]

hi Izmaeeloo, One thing that's confusing is your mention of "with Master Volume" If your amp has a Master Volume, then it's not a 1973, nor an AA270 circuit - unless this was added by someone. You may want to check that. Maybe you mean you want to install a master volume . . .

As for your component list - start by replacing all of the Electrolytic caps. If your PT was fried, you will want to find a tech that can diagnose why this happened, in addition to replacing the bad one (btw - how do you know it's fried? Is it obviously burned, or has it been tested?) If it were me I wouldn't replace anything in the amp other than the electrolytics that aren't tested bad. Except possibly plate resistors. Others here have much more experience (and expertise) than me and will I'm sure chime in, but I have learned after refurbing a several amps that it's better to keep what's good than to spend the extra $'s and install non-standard parts. I rebuilt a 73 Super Reverb earlier this year and got lot's of advice from experts here. You may want to search on "Super Reverb Salvage Project" under my id ("bdgregory") and read through that thread for what they told me.

I replaced very few parts and mine sounds wonderful.

 

[StoogeSurfer]

BDG is right, there's no MV on a '73 Super, that came in 1975 along with an increase to 70w.

Here's a good link to some more information:

http://ampwares.com/amplifiers/fender-silverface-super-reverb/

 

[izmaeeloo]

Ok, now I'm confused... How can I know the real year of my SR? the serial number is A618750... And according to some research that I have made this is a 73' serial number =S wth? Can you help me with thos?

The power transformer is obiuosly burned, it's all covered with some brownish liquid too, well, I figured that I should order all impprtant parts, and only change what really needs to be changed, it's not a lot of money though... And I'll have the pieces there in case something fail in the future right?

Thanks again!