Amplee Thunder vintage 35, guitar amp

[Richard Ellis]

I have this guitar amp that a mutual friend dropped by...the distortion switch had an intermittent,,,I could wiggle the switch & get a reaction....cool, swapped out the switch, & now I get the ever present 100 Hz. buzz...instead.
This thing turns out to have been extracted from the original amp/speaker combo...the redo was performed quite poorly, & I'm guessing if I just looked at it sideways I could get it to malfunction.
The faceplate was crudely hacked up, some small caps seemed to have been replaced, a large slab of plate aluminium was seemingly cut with some pruning shears....all of it screwed together with a large assortment of non-matching wood screws, but was still somewhat functional.
The connections made with an assortment of tapes as well..all put in the obligatory padded plywood box...for a stand alone amp.
I redid the solder cracks, mostly on the TDA2050...did I manage to overheat the TDA? I did the 5 second rule for touch-ups.....don't these go open when "ruined" ....
I built a nice faceplate to clean things up as it were, redid the heatsink...do I have a real can-o-worms or what?




-----------------------------------------------------------------Rick.............

 

[Richard Ellis]

PIXs'

More pix to follow, if I can speed up my snail loading speed....can't find schematics anywhere.


---------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...........

 

[Enzo]

First, you had an intermittent switch function, then you replaced the switch, and now you have a NEW symptom. You didn't have the hum before did you? In my experience, that usually means in the PROCESS of replacing the switch, you knocked something asunder. The switch may or may not be involved, but you had to move things around to do the changing, and that is an opportunity for collateral damage. A ground connection that was omitted or broken, perhaps.

 

[Richard Ellis]

First, you had an intermittent switch function, then you replaced the switch, and now you have a NEW symptom. You didn't have the hum before did you? In my experience, that usually means in the PROCESS of replacing the switch, you knocked something asunder. The switch may or may not be involved, but you had to move things around to do the changing, and that is an opportunity for collateral damage. A ground connection that was omitted or broken, perhaps.

That is what I was afraid of, such a poorly "rebuild" job...that any work I do with it, breaks any or multiple connections. I intended to do a simple switch swap...I guess I opened up this the possibilities when I redid the 2050 heatsink, I guess I'll have to do up the rest of it, connections all....no doubt there is the amateur twist two wires together & wrap with tape. I did find a local REAL shop with all the goodies, get some shrink-wrap tubing, fire up the iron & get to it. I am getting the "it worked before YOU, monkeyed with it!"....flak....no respect I tell ya, no respect. I always pull out the "remember the weed-eater I fixed five times?, the radial-saw twice, the drill three???"...........that usually shuts em up.





----------------------------------------------------------------Rick............

 

[Richard Ellis]

After I was monkeying with a redone heatsink, I managed to break three legs on the 2050, I wound up getting three 741s & a pair of new 2050As...one for the busted legs......Then, I did the artistic butterfly wings of Aluminium ,,,,




-----------------------------------------------------------------Rick.............

 

[Richard Ellis]

After an extended stay of our friends gear at our place, he finally picked up my redo creation....He was so impressed with the restored operation & the esthetics of the new faceplate....he reworked the case in "black"....that padded industrial case look...hope he bought some new "bash corners" for all eight sides.....if not, it will look amateur .....just as the insides 'were'...


------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...........