Got it all hooked back up and fired it up:
Good news:
1: OPT is good. No damage done, I guess.
2: Sounds WAY better. Much more power (cap replacements are probably responsible) and the power tube breaks up very nicely now at around 8 (before I couldn't get it to break up without a boost pedal).
Bad news:
1: Tremolo is still flakey, so now I'm suspecting maybe it's a problem with the switched POT. I'll check it with the DMM and see what's going on.
2: Reverb's not working still (I replaced the tank which was very definitely physically broken). I'm going to have to take a close look at the reverb circuit. Now that I have a better idea of how reverb circuits work, I can probably figure this one out as well.
As I turn the reverb up there's noise introduced. Just background white noise. I think the reverb knob may actually interact with the tremolo switch and pot (though I need to verify that), so that POT may be responsible for both problems.
But man this amp sounds 5000% better. Just a night and day difference. It's now and amp I'll enjoy playing.
Good news:
1: OPT is good. No damage done, I guess.
2: Sounds WAY better. Much more power (cap replacements are probably responsible) and the power tube breaks up very nicely now at around 8 (before I couldn't get it to break up without a boost pedal).
Bad news:
1: Tremolo is still flakey, so now I'm suspecting maybe it's a problem with the switched POT. I'll check it with the DMM and see what's going on.
2: Reverb's not working still (I replaced the tank which was very definitely physically broken). I'm going to have to take a close look at the reverb circuit. Now that I have a better idea of how reverb circuits work, I can probably figure this one out as well.
As I turn the reverb up there's noise introduced. Just background white noise. I think the reverb knob may actually interact with the tremolo switch and pot (though I need to verify that), so that POT may be responsible for both problems.
But man this amp sounds 5000% better. Just a night and day difference. It's now and amp I'll enjoy playing.
Many times,the tremolo oscillator caps go bad, either leaky or way out of spec. This will cause it to stop oscillating. Check the output at the tube's plate to see if it is oscillating. If so, then look downstream. If not, replace those caps. I don't recall seeing a schematic, but probably three .02 caps grouped together between the plate and he grid.
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I recapped the entire thing. Well, almost the entire thing. There are two cathode bypass electrolytics that I didn't replace, but the thing that inspired me to recap the entire thing was the tremolo since I suspected the caps to be bad.
What's weird is, if it the tremolo isn't working, if I turn the power off and on, say within a second, it will almost always come on.
This isn't mine, but it's REAL close. The architecture is virtually identical. The tubes are a bit different (and thus, biased a little differently). Mine has a 6GW8 (pentode is power amp, triode runs the tremolo), a 12AX7 as preamp and reverb driver and a 6AV6 for reverb recovery/2nd stage preamp.
What's weird is, if it the tremolo isn't working, if I turn the power off and on, say within a second, it will almost always come on.
This isn't mine, but it's REAL close. The architecture is virtually identical. The tubes are a bit different (and thus, biased a little differently). Mine has a 6GW8 (pentode is power amp, triode runs the tremolo), a 12AX7 as preamp and reverb driver and a 6AV6 for reverb recovery/2nd stage preamp.
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