Univox U305R ... May Have Been Played By Elvis!

[capnjuan]

Footswitch progress pic: See as-bought condition of FS and cable ends above .... not so good.

Upper left are the two switch bodies; one replaced with a working takeout from my GA19, the original cleaned and lubed. Wiring coiled around screw posts to provide some additional strain relief; no bushing in original assembly. Upper right and lower left, finished switch; needed the original button switch because it had a black top but the FS body doesn't indicate which button does which. Will put black tape on the plug and the chassis jack; doesn't matter which function it switches so long as player can distinguish. Lower right are new 1/4" plugs.

 

[Default]

How about a couple of nylon wireties as a strain relief? Just don't trim the excess and point each in the opposite direction.
You'd end up with something like this:

____________
            O_____________

 

[capnjuan]

Thanks Steve, that'll work just fine! CJ

 

[capnjuan]

Progress pics; upgrade to the reverb out/in connections to improve function and fix the awkward process of taking the chassis out of the cabinet without having to take the reverb can out too. Old on top left and right and new below. The can's mounted in a nice vertical bag inside the cabinet but there's no way to pull out the cable-to-can connections - to disconnect the can from the chassis - to be able to take the chassis out without tugging the can with it. Further, if the old hard-wire connections got hung up on something, they'd rip away from the chassis; this way, the cables just pop out of their jacks; ok, no reverb but no soldering necessary to fix it either. The jacks are mounted on a piece of phenolic board courtesy of http://www.PhillySteve'sCoolStuff.com.

On the left up/down the old bias cap and the new one. In the middle up/down the trem cap. In older amps and most combos amps that don't rely on a opti-coupler to tie in the tremolo, no, or low, tremolo most of the time is a worn out tremolo cap. On the right up/down, the old black wires leading away are the speaker feeds; cheesey lamp wire. The new speaker drops are audio-grade OFHC wire.

 

[Walter Broes]

Practical, and nice and neat work!

 

[capnjuan]

Thanks Walter; I have the benefit of hindsight and not being stuck with all the cost-benefit-quality trade-offs that the original manufacturers were faced with. When you tour the US and hire default and I as your road techs, we are not going to be caught sitting there in the middle of the stage patching gear while you wait on us because of a problem that was foreseeable when the amp was on the bench! :evil: :wink:

 

[Walter Broes]

Hahaha! If you're willing to work for a cheeseburger a night, and provide your own transportation, that looks like a great scenario! :lol:

 

[capnjuan]

Make it two cheeseburgers and bus fare ... and you have a deal.

 

[Default]

Hahaha! If you're willing to work for a cheeseburger a night, and provide your own transportation, that looks like a great scenario! :lol:

Meet my ride.

[suspicious] You aren't one of those guys that wants everything to be made out of tofu? [/suspicious]

"Look, it tastes just like a hamburger, but you didn't have to MURDER one of your fellow residents of Earth to satisfy your gluttony!" :?

 

[Walter Broes]

Tofu...is that one of those funny looking Japanese beds? :lol:

Nice ride! that would probably fit a double bass even! :mrgreen:

 

[Default]

I could, but I'd have to take the bench seats out and everyone would have to crouch on the way to the gig.

 

[Walter Broes]

Been there, done that. :|

 

[capnjuan]

Been there, done that. :|

Okay ... we'll get one with seats....

 

[Default]

We're touring Pakistan?

 

[capnjuan]

We're touring Pakistan?

Well .... Walter said he had a heck of an agent ... we can rent one of these when we get there ... how do we get virgins?

 

[Walter Broes]

Hey, was that the fabled Merry Pranksters bus?

 

[capnjuan]

Hey, was that the fabled Merry Pranksters bus?

Yes; besides One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey also wrote a novel that was made into a movie called Sometimes a Great Notion w/ Paul Newman. Not a commercial success but artistic and cinematic one; set in the Pacific Northwest about a logging family, very compelling scenary. As you can see, all the people in Pakistan having been reading Ken Kesey and drinking the Kool Ade ... or taking Strawberry Fields ... why else would they paint their buses like that?

 

[capnjuan]

Progress pics: The control panel above came back nicely; it wasn't too scratched up and the silkscreen was in good condition. A little Flitz and it's okay. Same for the tube deck in the lower half:

I tubed it up, hung a speaker on the output transformer, connected the reverb tank, switched it on and ............................

Huuuuummmmm Phtttttt <noiseless cloud of white smoke> :evil: One of the three 5uf/25V electrolytic caps in the phase inverter let go; detail upper left. These are oil-filled caps with the oil held in by rubber plugs - in the pic, the displaced plug sitting sideways.

Many Japanese amps of the late 60s made heavy use of oil-filled caps. By contrast, Guild amps from the same period used polyester (foam green) caps, except for the power and bias supplies, everywhere this amp uses oil-filled ones. "Old amps are like a box of chocolates ..." Forrest White, early partner of Leo of Fender. I hadn't intended to go completely through the pc board but it was never really out of the question. If one let go on power-up and they are all 40 years old and dried out, there's really no point to replacing just one. This amp isn't a collector piece and the goal of this is better performance and ehanced reliability. Besides, newer ones will last longer, are more rugged, will function better, and help generate a tighter, more responsive tone.

 

[Default]

I've got a bad back, and it's too heavy for me to throw into the canal, so I might as well fix it.

:lol:

 

[capnjuan]

I've got a bad back, and it's too heavy for me to throw into the canal, so I might as well fix it.

:lol:

Yeah ...I'm gonna fix it .... and then throw it out :x :x :wink: