1958 Fender Basman Restoration

[Garrett335]

Good afternoon chaps!

A friend of a friend brought me this super cool 58 Bassman that was not operating to get running again.
Super cool amp, the cabinet was re-tolexed in black fender style tolex, 3 prong power cord added. It appears the presence control is a newer pot and has a blue cap on it. Through talking this amp might have been brought back to fender for repairs at some point? There is a blue stamp on the inside dating 1962.
Original speakers are 1961 Jensens I believe. Pots date 1957.

Being that this is a super valuable amp, even in the condition it's in I wanted to see if anyone had any tips for restoring the chassis, and cleaning the cloth wire etc. He would like to keep it as original as possible.

The inside of the chassis has a build up of rust, and lots of grime on the tube sockets, wiring, I'd like to try and clean the rust out, but I don't want to harm any other parts inside any recommendations of products to use?
I'm seeing Semichrome / evaporust / steel wool / WD40
I'm cleaning the pots out with Deoxit.

And yeah I know it's gonna need new caps, those old orange astrons are gonna be toast. The filter caps
have pimples popping out, and I'm sure the coupling caps/negative bias caps are probably bad.

Cheers guys!


[img width= height= alt=IMG-3250" border="0]https://i.ibb.co/jDxXJVn/IMG-3250.jpg[/img]

[uki]

Wow nice !!

For sure the chassis need to be cleaned, blow sand dust bath to renew it then paint it or maybe a chrome bath?  You probably gonna need to disassemble it.  Use WD40 to loose the bolts, apply and let it rest a while, maybe overnight.

check this link and this link out, look the pictures ull know what I mean.

Take the opportunity to check all components, specially those electrolytic caps, about 60 years old, ceramic caps are probably ok, the yellow astrons, maybe some are ok, people say the usually does leak DC.


 
 

[acheld]

Yellow Astrons do not last 70 years, much less 25 . . .    I love how they look, but . . . no.

For sure the chassis need to be cleaned, blow sand dust bath to renew it then paint it or maybe a chrome bath?

Whatever you do, don't lose the patina.  I would clean ONLY what is necessary for electrical and/or mechanical safety.   I don't know what a dust bath or a chrome bath entail . . .

[southboundsuarez]

Agreed, leave the patina and don't try to overdo it trying to make it shiny and new.
Originality is everything next to proper function. I owned one of these and am kicking myself over and over again for selling it!
Mine was very original never being serviced or taken apart.
I did minimal to bring it to safe reliable function.
I removed the electrolytics and very meticulously disassembled each cap. Removing the outer paper and opening up the can with a tubing cutter to gut the dialectric and stuff the inside with new modern caps,  Reassembled and reinstalled to maintain the original look but modern functionality of the amp. I also used the old bias selenium rectifier as a tag point to wire in and camouflage a modern diode. The old Astrons coupling and tone caps are usually reported to be leaky. Mine were leaky as well but not in such a bad way to make bad tone. Mainly just a small amount of scratchiness on one of the pots but nothing too bad and who knows maybe it attributed to the unique and excellent tone? Either way Original is everything! That black Tolex is a shame. It would be worthwhile to have it professionally recovered in proper linen tweed cloth. Note the diagonal direction of the cloth! I love these old amps.
I also suggest NOS tubes! I had a set of orig Tung Sols 5881's that went with the amp. For actual optimum tone and daily  use I preferred a set of RCA backplate 6L6GC that sounded heavenly!
Once you play an original one of these amps cranked into it's sweet spot you will be hooked and will understand why they are actually so special!

eature=share

[Latole]

Yellow Astrons do not last 70 years, much less 25 . . .    I love how they look, but . . . no.

 

Whatever you do, don't lose the patina.  I would clean ONLY what is necessary for electrical and/or mechanical safety.   I don't know what a dust bath or a chrome bath entail . . .

I won't replace yellow Astrom unless they are bad. I play on original '50 area Bassman few years ago. It  was one of the best sounding amp I heard. And I hear so many great amp.

Do less work on it than more  if you are not a professional in restoration
___________

" the cabinet was re-tolexed in black fender style tolex,"

-Very big mistake

[bmccowan]

I think some of the suggestions depend on the intended use for the amp. I do not think it ever worth it to disassemble and re-stuff old electrolytics, especially so if the amp has been tolexed, originality is gone. Assuming you want a great sounding old amp, my take would be to clean up the inside of the chassis. Clean the outside of the chassis but leave the patina. Can't see the control labels? No problem, there are only a few and its clear what they do. Install good quality electrolytics like F&T - replace leaking caps and resistors that are way off spec. - test and see how it sounds. BTW, although I have a good stock of NOS tubes, the new Tungsol 5881s sound pretty dang good.

[Garrett335]

@bmccowan
The owner wants to play it a lot, so dependability will matter. I know we'll be swapping caps, and I will be checking all the resistors.
It came with GE and Sylvania tubes which is awesome I have not tested them yet but will.

Any advice on the build up of rust on the inside? I purchased some small wire and nylon brushes, going to start super slow and carful on removing that. Was able to scrape a lot of it with a chopstick already.
Also if anyone is interested I found this amazing youtube channel on restoring switches and levers.
The switches on this are pretty shot, so might end up cleaning these up as well.

I'll post photos and video once I get this badboy up and running.

[shooter]

Was able to scrape a lot of it with a chopstick already.

I have "step down" hose adaptors for my small shopvac.  those rust flakes have a real bad habit of landing inside switches and sockets and socks and...... 

[bmccowan]

I like those small shop vacs too, but hate those stiff hoses they come with - I found a nice flexible extension at Rockler (I think). Removing rust - I think it depends on if you are willing to remove components from the chassis. I am too impatient to remove all the sockets and pots and usually attack the rust with small scrapers and brass brushes (Lavaxon makes some good ones that you can buy on Really Big River.) If you do remove a bunch of stuff you can use naval jelly which is an acid solution. It works great but has to be rinsed with water to neutralize it. Looking at the pics and considering the value of the amp, I'd likely buck-up, remove most of the components and go to town on the rust and grime.

[pdf64]

…The old Astrons coupling and tone caps are usually reported to be leaky. Mine were leaky as well but not in such a bad way to make bad tone. Mainly just a small amount of scratchiness on one of the pots but nothing too bad and who knows maybe it attributed to the unique and excellent tone? …

Enough leaking DC to make the pots scratchy would seem to indicate that equally, as the control was set higher, there’d be enough put VDC on to the following grid and screw with that stage’s operating point.
And if it’s leaking eg 1uA now it may be 10uA in a year.
DC leaking on to output valve grids is especially problematic, as it may result in excess HT current slowly roasting the transformers.

[Garrett335]

Welp I got er up and running and she sounds great. (Did a recap, replaced a few resistors, reflowed all the connections, fixed the power cable, replaced two switches, removed the death cap and ground switch)

What are your thoughts on keeping the original tube sockets? I've sprayed them with Deoxit and worked the tubes in and out, along with tightening them. I just worry since this guy is going to gig it, they need to be dependable.

Also noticed as I was rewiring the speakers that there were several tears and what appeared to be screw holes in the cones.
Any recommendations for companies who recone? Looks like Weber is a popular choice, does anyone have any recommendations?
Also looking for someone who can remove the tolex and re-tweed this cabinet. I'm in Fullerton CA, I'll keep digging the web, just seeing if anyone could pass along a contact.
Happy Saturday guys!

[acheld]

The Speaker Workshop in Fort Wayne IN.   

www.recone.com

[PRR]

> new caps, those old orange astrons are gonna be toast.

An early ad for Astron. The building is much older and larger and still stands; seems to be the Clark Thread factory, now a Historical District, a nice name for a old tired building not good for much.

"...control of the plants remained in Clark hands until 1947, when they were moved to Georgia..."
So 1951 would be ripe for re-purposing that building.