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Thread: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

  1. #1
    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    So, a couple of years ago I got a phonecall from a drummer friend of mine who said he had an old Fender amp that didn't work, which he wanted to get rid of. If I was interested, I just had to come and collect it. It had been stored in a moisty garage, so it was "a little rough" around the edges. At first I thought that it was probably som garbage transistor amp from the 80s or something that he had lying about, but I told him I would take a look at it, as he was going to throw it away if I didn't want it.

    A couple of days later, I turned up and inspected the amp. Of course I quickly realised that this was an old Super Reverb, and little more than just garbage... and told him that he probably could get some money out of it if he bothered to have it repaired. He still insisted that I should take it, and if I could make use of it, he would be happy with that.

    Of course I took it home and started to investigate to find out how old this amp actually was. Beeing a Silverface, I knew it had to be later than 1968. Posted some pictures on a norwegian guitarforum and from serial number and numbercodes on speakers it was soon apparent that this was a 1969.

    From the pictures, you can see it was in a quite sorry state.





    Corroded speaker frames, but I tested them with another amp, and was happy to discover they all worked. You can also see that the speakers are the CTS Alnico's which is a very good thing!



    On further investigation and cleaning, I found both the reverbtank and footswitch beyond rescue, so when taking the amplifier itself to my ampdoctor, I also told him to replace those.

    I was also told that it beeing the AB763 model, it could have the more desirable Blackface curcuit, but more on that later.



    With the amp out of the way, I wondered if I should just leave the speakers and cabinet as was, but quickly decided to try to refurbish a little. Took out the speakers, sanded the corrosion on the frames and brushed with some rust treatment firstly, and then sprayed them.

    Came out nicely, I think.



    My amp-tech soon got back to me, telling me the amp was salvageable, but it didn't have the Blackface circuit. He still recommended "Blackfacing" , and would happily mod it for me without adding too much to the cost, so I went for it, of course. As it came back, it's guts looked like this:



    I also had to order new chassis mounts for the amp as they were corroded away, and the top back plate was missing, so that was ordered too. A new reverb tank from Tube Amp Doctor was fitted together with a new original Fender footswitch.



    I recorded a couple of samples, but cranking it like this, made things fall off the shelves in my basement room, so I'm using pedals in front of it when using it for gigs.

    It's still got the most wonderful glassy clean sound, and it takes pedals extremely well!

    The first sample is recorded with a Tele doing some "Keefy" riffs:

    https://soundcloud.com/auduneggen/fe...6-tele/s-3912B

    Then cranked with a Les Paul R8:

    https://soundcloud.com/auduneggen/fe...s-paul/s-OoLRC

    At last a little more mellow with my ES-335 with tremolo engaged:

    https://soundcloud.com/auduneggen/fe...-es335/s-Xr6yy

    Currently I play in a band that has existed since 1968, and a fun fact is that my amp probably belonged to "the captain" in the band, as the father of he who gave it to me, played with the band at the time, and was, and still is, a close friend. The Super Reverb you see at the back in this picture, is without much doubt, the same one...


  2. #2
    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    No love for an old beaten up Super Reverb?

  3. #3
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Oh, man. Sorry I missed this! That's incredible, and I love that LP. Great stuff.

    Sorry we haven't responded. Small group and sometimes posts just get overlooked. I mean, your gear is interesting, super interesting, and I'm glad you shared the stuff here.

    Please don't feel unwelcome. We're a small group, and we mean no offense.

    That Les Paul is really something, and I dig the old pic of your band. Good stuff.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  4. #4
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    I missed this when you posted it! That looks like an awesome amp!

    I had a similar story with a '67 Super Reverb. A friend pulled one out of a barn. Unfortunately, all four of the CTS alnico speakers in mine were blown! It was mising the back panel, the front blackface panel was bent and the reverb pan was dead. Worst of all, someone had installed a rectifier with a broken pin incorrectly and the center tap on high voltage secondary of the PT was mostly burned off! Luckily, the PT was not damaged internally and there was enough of the center tap left to attach a new wire to it. I did the work myself but it still cost about $800 in parts- speakers, tubes, caps, reverb pan, back panel, footswitch...

    Sadly, I don't have it anymore- I sold it to buy my daughter a Buffet clarinet. I still have the '66 Vibrolux Reverb in this pic.






  5. #5
    Forum Member vinyl's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Keefoman1,

    Apologies from me too, didn't mean to ignore you.

    I do have one question, it appears from the pictures that the power plug has no ground pin. Maybe I'm wrong, pictures can be deceiving sometimes.

    It's plain to see at the other end of the power cord has a ground wire on the inside of the amp, but it's important that the end at the plug connects to ground. If I'm wrong, just call me an alarmist, and I'll understand.

    The electrolytic caps appear to be original. If it were me, I'd replace them. I realize the pictures may be old, so I realize that I may be way off base here.

    In any case, most of us here love pictures of great gear, thanks for posting them.

    Cheers,

  6. #6
    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Quote Originally Posted by vinyl View Post
    Keefoman1,

    Apologies from me too, didn't mean to ignore you.

    I do have one question, it appears from the pictures that the power plug has no ground pin. Maybe I'm wrong, pictures can be deceiving sometimes.

    It's plain to see at the other end of the power cord has a ground wire on the inside of the amp, but it's important that the end at the plug connects to ground. If I'm wrong, just call me an alarmist, and I'll understand.

    The electrolytic caps appear to be original. If it were me, I'd replace them. I realize the pictures may be old, so I realize that I may be way off base here.

    In any case, most of us here love pictures of great gear, thanks for posting them.

    Cheers,
    Well you all know how it is when you've got something you're pleased with and proud of... ;)

    As for the power plug, I live in Norway and we use the continental Europe standard plugs and sockets, so it's grounded through clips in the sides of the plug.

    The amp itself was repaired by a professional amp-tech, who has been in the business since the early '80s, so Im confident that things were done right. He is also widely recognized here in Norway for his services. Especially with old tube amps.

    I appreciate your concerns though, vinyl :)

  7. #7
    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Quote Originally Posted by Don View Post
    I missed this when you posted it! That looks like an awesome amp!

    I had a similar story with a '67 Super Reverb. A friend pulled one out of a barn. Unfortunately, all four of the CTS alnico speakers in mine were blown! It was mising the back panel, the front blackface panel was bent and the reverb pan was dead. Worst of all, someone had installed a rectifier with a broken pin incorrectly and the center tap on high voltage secondary of the PT was mostly burned off! Luckily, the PT was not damaged internally and there was enough of the center tap left to attach a new wire to it. I did the work myself but it still cost about $800 in parts- speakers, tubes, caps, reverb pan, back panel, footswitch...

    Sadly, I don't have it anymore- I sold it to buy my daughter a Buffet clarinet. I still have the '66 Vibrolux Reverb in this pic.
    Cool story too! What speakers did you end up putting in?

  8. #8
    Forum Member vinyl's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Quote Originally Posted by Keefoman1 View Post
    Well you all know how it is when you've got something you're pleased with and proud of... ;)

    As for the power plug, I live in Norway and we use the continental Europe standard plugs and sockets, so it's grounded through clips in the sides of the plug.

    The amp itself was repaired by a professional amp-tech, who has been in the business since the early '80s, so Im confident that things were done right. He is also widely recognized here in Norway for his services. Especially with old tube amps.

    I appreciate your concerns though, vinyl :)
    I should have realized that.

    Any one should be pleased and proud of a 50 year old amp, as long as it provides the sound you want.

  9. #9
    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Quote Originally Posted by vinyl View Post
    I should have realized that.

    Any one should be pleased and proud of a 50 year old amp, as long as it provides the sound you want.
    50 years don't really mean much, but this Super Reverb has become special to me and it will stay as long as I do live gigs.

  10. #10
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Quote Originally Posted by Keefoman1 View Post
    Cool story too! What speakers did you end up putting in?
    About 10 years ago, THD had a blowout sale on 10" speakers. They said they were from when they sold 4x10" cabs. They were odd looking with screwed together magnet assemblies. I bought 4 for $20 each (if I recall). That was the incentive that I needed to repair the amp. The speakers actually sounded very good in that amp.

  11. #11
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Great Amps, I have a '67, '73 and a '65 Reissue Super.

  12. #12
    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Quote Originally Posted by yladrd61 View Post
    Great Amps, I have a '67, '73 and a '65 Reissue Super.

  13. #13
    Forum Member dirtdog's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Very nice! Great story and great salvage job!

  14. #14
    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    Re: The Story of my 1969 Super Reverb

    Quote Originally Posted by dirtdog View Post
    Very nice! Great story and great salvage job!
    Thank you, sir!

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