Fender Twin Reverb '75? - another moldy/rusty mess :(

[spunko]

So I think is that time of the year when your friend wants to get rid of its junk. Another bad example of how to store nice amps.
Transformers show these codes, later one I think is '75: 606-3-42 / 606-3-34 / 606-5-51

Is not as rusty as the bassman, but the smell inside is terrible, like a moldy toast from that era. I counted 20 roach eggs and then stopped counting  I used a blower to get rid of the dust and every roach egg in the planet went flying. It doesn't have a dog house cover, 2 power tube sockets missing, resistors for the pilot lamp center tap are burnt, and the transformer leads are disconnected, so I asume it didn't work in a long time. The eyelet board has white spots all over it and smells like an old wet sock left in a corner for years. Some wires feel crusty / brittle, like if the insulation is going to break.

So, then again the million dollar question, what to do with it.

PS:The other one twin I have is in good working and cosmetically condition, just needs a recap.

[thetragichero]

oooooh i love it! perfect candidate to completely gut and rebuild (antique electronic supply has those doghouse covers)

[PRR]

> the smell inside is terrible,

Febreze:
https://www.febreze.com/en-us

Works on my stinky laundry. I have not tried it on funky electronics but it is not too expensive and IS generally useful in house and laundry, so if it fails in the Fender it is not a waste.

Before we had Febreze I had a mixer which survived a smokey fire. Put it in a small booth and it STANK of stale smoke permeating the bamboo-ply case. Arm&Hammer was selling baking powder in a spray can, I sprayed it every week, and the stench went down. Febreze is probably better.

[shooter]

fwiw
I use Febreze, more than a "dusting" will leave an oily residue, not sure about conductivity but the sticky probably isn't good.


old toothbrushes and denatured alcohol, many passes, much patience
a Z-pac and tetnis shot might help also 

[bmccowan]

I assume you are not trying to return a profit. With that, I am with Tragichero - an extensive rebuild.
I would Febreeze it to make it tolerable to work on. I've never tried that - but seems a good idea.
I'd pull the circuit board and junk it - you could waste a lot of time replacing components on that moldy board. And that board is likely holding most of the odor.
Have Doug make a new board - Turret or Eyelet and populate it with the resistors and caps of your choosing.
Clean the rest of the stuff as best you can and reassemble. I used to like a product called Big Bath, but have not seen it in stock recently. Anything with a label stating "warning, may cause brain damage" will probably work.
Bringing back an amp from death's door is satisfying - forget the $ side of things.

[mresistor]

Sorry folks  Febreeze is an exceptionally bad idea for any use.  https://ezbreathe.com/the-dangers-of-febreze/

[spunko]

Well is a shame if this amp doesn't return a profit. I have mine from 79 (the clean one) so I surely don't need it, neither my friend that's why he dumped it.
It seems a lot of work just to make it funtional, and thats without the cosmetics 

It could be nice to purchase an already populated turret board for this exact model, but I think this one in particular is not popular. I have only seen blackface twin eyelet boards on ebay, and not populated, but for this silverface master volume pull/push, not a single one.

I live in Ecuador, South America so everything will have to be purchased over seas. If much money is needed then is garbage to me.
There are no speakes, this amp was converted into a head amp.

I was thinking of taking out the eyelet board and clean it with paint thinner (here is called acetone), replace all the electrolitics and bad components, but keeping most of them, also replace only the wires that are bad, I mean not rebuild the entire thing, but make it good to work and thats it.
I already purchased all the electrolitics and some key resistors because I'm doing that on my own amp so I ordered double.

Is it possible for thinner to damage components like caps? I don't want to disolder the entire thing.

[thetragichero]

i would just trash the board, wires, and components. vulcanized fiberboard/g10 board is relatively cheap. layout, drill, stake eyelets. build from new. by 'turning a profit' i imagine they are referring to if you pay yourself for your time. if it's just a hobby activity that you do for fun then all that time is worthwhile. i find cleaning old, rusty chassis while watching tv to be pretty zen

[sluckey]

Don't use acetone! At a minimum you'll probably remove a lot of writing and pretty color bands from components. At a maximum you probably die from the fumes or smoke inhalation as the house burns down. Mineral spirits and denatured alcohol are what you need.

But, don't waste time on those boards. They are most likely conductive which makes them useless. However, you can remove all the components and use the board as a marking template for drilling a new fiberglass board. Be sure to take detailed pics so you will know where to put the new components and jumpers. I've never seen a Fender layout for this amp.

[mresistor]

It's really a lot like the AA270 layout only with the rectifier / bias board location moved to the center closer to the main board.   

[spunko]

So it can be blackfaced? I have seen those turrets already popullated. Maybe a new faceplate?
Why does it have so many pots?. It seems like all the guts have some sort of dried mud.

So basically I only have a chasis and tranformers, that's all