Great to see you are back! For somebody with vintage finger you are still a great player ;)

@bobbarcus8310

3 жыл бұрын

Yes sorry about fingers Imy index gets a little stiff on one joint But it’s my hearing that sucks 53 yrs of playing at club volume with 100 watt Marshall’s Glad it have good reactive loads and attenuators lol getting old sucks lol

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

@@bobbarcus8310 Definitely. I appreciate having 13 years of videos on KZread to see how my fingers used to work. I’m still torturing my ears. I kind of wish I had a UA Ox but they’re expensive and not the easy to hook up to a four output Tweed Bassman.

That’s fantastic. I was thinking the solution was going to be something really complex and it turns out to be a dry joint, 99% of my amp issues are dry joints. Welcome back. Ooh, I think I might watch Pulp Fiction tonight 😂 That sounds amazing

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I was shocked and happy at the same time. I literally spent all day working on that thing. I’m sooo glad I was curious about the voltages. I would never have found the problem if it hadn’t been for that. I bet it’s been bad the whole time I’ve owned it. You never think of how much hum something like that can cause. There are very few if any effects that I know of that operate on 300VDC. Now I’m thinking it may have damaged my brand new, expensive NOS RCA 5751. One triode makes this microphonic squealing sound now when I turn up the Normal channel. The other triode is fine but I can’t jump the channels if I want to.

Hope you are well .. Have a Merry Christmas ..

@millstap

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Stu. Merry Christmas!! Everyone is doing fine and the tone is better than ever.

Welcome back!!

You one hell of a guitar player..........

@millstap

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the nice compliment Jim. Here is a video on the best and factory correct switch I replaced another brand with. Installing an OEM CRL 5-Way Switch in a '57 Reissue Strat

Sounds great keep adding videos they are very helpful

Sounds Great!

@millstap

2 жыл бұрын

Even after this video, I changed the old diodes out for new ones. Everything is nice and quiet as it should be.

First class..like everything you do.

Surf's Up volcanoes esque licks sounds great

R u planning on covering red house please?

@rywa5788

3 жыл бұрын

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!

Hey @milstap. I had a weber reverb/vibrato unit made for me many years ago. It was absolutely wonderful sounding! It did weaken my signal a bit, add bass, and softened the treble, but those were all things I could work with. At some point the unit quit working correctly. I took it to the best amp tech in Indiana, as well as Weber speakers, but neither could restore it to it's past glory. It just kills me because it was so essential to my sound. Now it works, but the reverb trail is very long and not very articulate. Anyways, just thought I'd share that as I love your sound and I think we've barked up similar trees. Recently acquired a 62 Fender Concert and I'm in love with it! Now if I could just get a good wah like yours and fix that reverb unit.

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

Dr. Ray, I’ll get back with you. I’m headed out on the highway for a little while.

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

Ray, I think I've seen those Weber units in the past. I'm surprised they couldn't figure out what was going on. Have you tried a new reverb pan? Do you know where I can find the schematic? Be sure nothing else has changed in your chain that could be causing the tone issue. Those reverb unit react differently to different effects that are in front of it. I've noticed that when I turn on my Fulltone OCD, the reverb effect is attenuated quite a bit. When it is off, there is almost too much reverb. Re-look at your chain and be sure everything is the same as it used to be and all the other effects are working correctly. I think those Concert amps are pretty cool. Zapata (Gary Clark Jr.) was using them back a few years ago. I've stuck with my old Area 51 drop-in kit for years now. I think I have replaced the potentiometer several times. I wear them out. I had an old '80 Crybaby and wasn't real thrilled with it plus I wanted true bypass so I shopped around and went the cheaper drop-in kit route. The problem was that my old Cry Baby shell was not working correctly (treadle wouldn't stay in one position) but I dealt with it for years until I bought a new way-wah shell for it. I went on a wah search with a custom made Clyde Clone from Area 51, an early '70's Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Wah Face, Sabbadius wah, Detrik.FX, and ended up back at the drop-in kit. They are so personal and subjective and there are so many to choose from. I prefer the simple old style circuit design without all of the knobs and adjustments.

@DoctorRazzArea4

3 жыл бұрын

@@millstap Thanks for getting back to me @milstap !! My signal chain is usually just a bad monkey od followed by a germanium fuzz face all on batteries. But with or without pedals the reverb just doesn't sound articulate enough, its kind of washed out. You can really notice it's shortcomings when doing muted staccato surf picking. Maybe I should try another pan, but the one I have in there sounded great when I first got the unit. Perhaps the "dwell" needs to be adjusted, because even at "3" its a very long reverb. If you google "weber revibe 5h15 schematic, it will come right up. I don't work on electronics but I've heard this unit takes a lot of skill to wire up due to the added vibrato circuit and tight packaging. Just wish there was a tech who could hear what I'm hearing and knows how a proper fender reverb unit is supposed to sound. I will post a video of it on my youtube channel sometime. And thanks for the tip on the wah wah! I've got an old thomas organ fasal cry baby that doesn't sound great, so the area 51 might be a perfect fit! Love ure wah sound, my favorite Hendrix wah stuff is on these comps I got called "authentic". Songs like "Hush now/wah wah" and "mercy lady day/love love love" and "happy birthday". His wah just sounds so syrupy on that stuff. CHEERS!!!!

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

@@DoctorRazzArea4 Nice looking unit. My all time favorite wah work of Jimi's is Still Raining, Still Dreaming. He makes that thing talk so well. That song always gives me chills. Every wah is different. Even on my drop-in kit, when I was trying to fix the Cry Baby shell, I beat the pin so hard to get it out that I broke the connections of the inductor (Fasal type). I had Dan at Area 51 send me another one with the same inductance and it sounded much better. Every part makes a different and the drift within tolerances make a so-so one into a great one or visa-versa. I had the Dallas Arbiter sounding great and then I decided to upgrade it and it didn't sound as good even though the parts were more within specs. I'm eventually going to put the old parts back in. The reverb video would be helpful. Let me know when you do it. A quick fix for now is to check the 12AT7 tube specifically. I just help another guy get rid of some bad hum (when he turned the Dwell all the way down) by changing that tube. Tubes cause 95% of all amp issues. Good 12AT7's are hard to find. Good tubes make a huge difference. I use only NOS tubes but they can have their share of clunkers too. The reverb circuit is fairly simple in your unit. Most of the electronics are there for the tremolo if that is what it is. Can you completely isolate one effect from the other when you are playing or are they both on all the time?

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

@@DoctorRazzArea4 Also, do you gig a lot with the Weber? Does it have a lock on the spring pan and foam to keep the springs from jostling around too much? Have you looked at it since you had the problem? Did the amp experts look at it?

Glad you found problem Weber’s answer is always change the caps He put his caps in my 63 bandmaster and it lost its tone You use to run that reverb to hard and it would overdrive the tone I would go through all your wires and resolder them Weber shotgunned my amp and pulled all the Ajax caps All that was wrong was a bad ground I would never let him touch my stuff He was cool 40 yrs ago Skip Simons in Loma Rica Ca is the best Check his site out Very Cool guy I’m happy for the 63

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I realized Gerald wasn’t interested in really finding the problem. I knew nothing so I trusted him until a few days later when it still had the same static. But, I owe him for helping me understand amps and encouraging me. But, that is exactly why I learned as much as I could. I didn’t trust any of them. It took me two years to find acceptable caps for my Bandmaster and two Bassmans. I would charge one or two at a time and take them out if the lost tone. Also, John Grammatico taught me a lot about the construction of caps that helped me focus in on the best caps.

Sounds glorious, what do you think of the surfy bear reverbs units? Your original just sounds so much more smoother and less crash-y. I notice Zappata is using Carl Martin Headroom (which I also have). These units just for surf or important part of Jimi and SRV sounds ?

Great video, very helpful. I've owned a '63 reverb since 1970 and have used it on and off over the years. I've never had to have a repair done except I replaced a pot, for some reason the dwell pot was not the original and it was a hack job, literally, someone hacksawed the post to fit the knob (the post was pulling out). But now I'm noticing that when I plug it into an amp it adds hum, even though it sounds good and works as it should, just gettin' noisy now. . So, it's probably time to replace one or more caps. But, I wanted to point out something for anyone watching this that has an old Fender unit. There is a foam pad glued to the front panel that is there to hold the springs from shaking when it's in the locked position. Years ago my reverb unit went dead, I though maybe one of those wires at the springs had broken off (I had that happen to the tank on my old S.R.) but when I took it all apart I found that the foam had rotted and was in the springs. And that acted the same as when you forget to unlock it. I cleaned it all out and replaced it with some more modern type foam that I don't think will rot (I'm going to check someday soon though). But, that might be why your springs shake even when locked, that foam pushes into the springs when locked and holds them. So, if it's rotted it might just have fallen out years ago when the springs were unlocked and never replaced. By the way, the blue molded caps are Ajax. After watching this I'll check all the solder joints first, that has been the source of a few problems I've had in the past (all my amps are Fender, 50's and pre CBS 60's) and those solder joints do get dry and crack after all these years, plus they could be bad from the factory. Once again, cool video, great tones, hang in there.

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

Randy, great point. I completely forgot about that foam. Mine had rotted also many years ago and I removed it because it had fallen off and was deadening the springs but it did not get into the springs. I should have replaced it like you said, but it seems like even the modern foams break down pretty quickly. Since I don't move mine around much anymore, I don't need it. Definitely check all of those solder joints. I would get rough with them because they are so hard to spot sometimes unless you just go a re-solder all of them. I've checked the Ajax caps several times and they seem to last forever. I had one cap that was leaking in the very beginning and it was a yellow Astron if I remember correctly. It was the .002 uF/400V at the grid of the 6K6GT power tube. On my unit, it was actually a .003 uF. Every yellow Astron on the planet is now a leaker. I have not found one that does not leak. Check that rectifier board with the diodes. At Fender, they just laid the diode lead on top of the eyelet and soldered it. Not a very good soldering job. Once I fixed that, the pots were perfectly silent, mainly the mixer pot. I had had static on that pot for years.

@randyrich2039

3 жыл бұрын

@@millstap Right on. I have a '56 Deluxe, and it's my favorite amp for small room gigs (I get a lot of those these days, I'm turning 70 and the big clubs want kids). But my Deluxe has had all the electrolytic caps replaced but not the Astrons and it's a little hummy so to speak. I guess I need to watch the videos and learn to check for a leaky one, I can solder. It's such a great sounding amp I'm afraid to change anything, but the hum is there. A good quality cap shouldn't mess with the tone I guess. I have the same stuff you have but only one each, (Bassman, Super Revrb, Deluxes etc.) even a '63/'64 strat. I've been getting into ditching the pedals and just using the Reverb unit and amp, the way we did when we were kids and there really wasn't a decent pedal. But I just play old school blues now, no more Hendrix. Loved the guy, saw him 4 times, but I'm just trying to sound like Otis Rush, Magic Sam, T-bone, Early B.B. and Freddie, etc. You know what I'm talkin' 'bout. By the way I've been told that the Reverb Unit acts as a compressor (Slightly), That might be why we like the feel when playing through them. What do you think? Thanks again .

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

@@randyrich2039 Well, I would live with that 1956 the way it is as long as I could. There is hardly any way to change the caps and not change the tone you are used to hearing. It's sad but true. It will sound more like what is sounded like when it was new (almost) which is good but not the mojo tinged tone (leaky caps, lol) that you are used to. I found it pretty difficult to find caps that sounded as good as the Astrons. They don't make them like that anymore. They try but no cigar. I used mostly old '60's Paper-in-Oil caps which are pretty good. I wonder how old blue molded Ajax's would sound if you could find them. I never tried that. At least you know they are probably still good. This Sprague tester is perfect for finding leaky caps. You can also run some jumper wires to the high voltage in the amp and test them for DC voltage leakage which will at least tell you something by using just a DMM. Not the safest method though. The Sprague tester tests for leaking current and not voltage. I did a video on that method a while back. On the reverb, I loved the sound for years, maybe because of the compression. But, the last few years, my tone had gone to poop and I couldn't figure it out. Turns out, I'm pretty sure it was the reverb unit the whole time. Now it is sounding killer again. I wish I could be doing a little gigging at 70. The demand around here is pretty sparse and I'm stuck on Hendrix for fun and no club would want to hear that all night. My musician nightmare is playing in another mediocre cover band especially with a woman singer or any lead singer for that matter. I did play the blues for years but got a little bored with it finally.

@randyrich2039

3 жыл бұрын

@@millstap I have seen NOS Ajax caps on Ebay, reasonable prices, but I didn't know which ones to buy or if they even had the right ones for Fender amps. But there they were, I'm sure they're still available the guy had a bunch of them. The same guys that sell the old tubes, etc. had them, I got a few of those NOS tubes, I like them, they work, no problems, but I have a hard time telling the difference between them and the reissues, except the old ones haven't broke down on me yet. HMMM. But, I haven't seen any Astrons, you're right about that, and what would they cost? I lost one of my Stackploe pots from my '53 Tele and I wanted to find another '53 Stackpole 250K, but have mercy , $500.00 to $800.00 for a pot. I get it but, man give us break. Of course if I had some, I might be as bad. But if I see any Ajax or Astrons I'll send you a heads up. Thanks for the cool videos and info, it's hard to find amp repair guys that understand the old stuff these days. So, I'm going to try to learn to make my own repairs, you and the Uncle Doug videos are going to help. Thanks again.

@randyrich2039

3 жыл бұрын

I looked and there are NOS Astron caps on Ebay. I think a lot of them were the 'right ones' so to speak. But, then again, like you say new ones will not have the mojo of the old used ones. But if a guy wants his old amp to at least have what it came with, if a replacement part was needed, he could now days with all these guys finding NOS parts and selling on line. I'm thinking of getting some as spares for 'just in case'. Just in case someone buys them all and hoards them, like the guys do with Harley parts. Have fun.

Hey! You’re still alive!!! I’m in the market for a high voltage cap tester.

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

Matt, these work well. I probably spent about $270 after it was all said and done. It looks brand new I shopped for one for over a year and most of them look pretty bad. I probably could have just replaced the bridge pot and been done with it. I was on the Antique Radio Forum and got maybe too much advice on how to restore it. Either way, watch the two videos I just did demonstrating how it works. You can easily reform caps if you like.

@matthewf1979

3 жыл бұрын

@@millstap That’s not too bad. I have a little setup to form new caps using two 12.6 vct transformers. Not a lot of adjustability but It works. I just need to get something like this. I really need a digital oscilloscope too. I can send you a set or two of these Curt Mangan round core pure nickel strings if you’d like to try them out. I was ok with the DR strings, but these are superior by far.

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

@@matthewf1979 Yeah, I bought a new eye which I probably didn’t need although the base on the original one was a little loose. I bought the new bridge pot for $40. And, since Just Radios has a $30 minimum, I ended up buying just about every resistor and cap in the parts list. I didn’t need them all

What do you think about the Fender Blues Junior? The newest one?

@millstap

3 жыл бұрын

I really don’t keep up with the newer amps but I know the older Jr.’s are very popular. The simpler the circuit, the better IMO. No fancy built-in extras like channel switching, master volumes, anything digital, etc.

Can you do a video on walking us threw the schematic on this unit . I’m learning about electronics and seeing how things work and being able to compare it with the actual unit would be very helpful to me .

@millstap

2 жыл бұрын

Chris, I probably won't be able to do a video. I've kind of stopped for now and with the holidays coming, I've shifted gears to getting the house ready for guests. I may be able to guide you a little if you contact me on my FB page, Millstap's KZread Channel. I was like you maybe thirteen years ago. I am still learning myself but I've come a long way in those years.

@chrischwaz7788

2 жыл бұрын

@@millstap ok thanks for letting me know

@chrischwaz7788

2 жыл бұрын

@@millstap is there any videos on walking you threw the circuit on a tube amp or a stand alone tube reverb that you know of on KZread . Do you have any suggestions on where I can learn more on tube amp building on modifying

@millstap

2 жыл бұрын

@@chrischwaz7788 I don't know of any particular video but there are tons on KZread. Uncle Doug repairs amps and goes through electronics on his channel. There are a lot of electronics guys on YT. I read books, lots of them. And, I had the author, Gerald Weber, personally help me with specific issues. I also went to his Amp Camp in Texas. All of that is good experience. It was crucial that I had experts that I could ask questions. I also had an Ebay vintage amp seller that helped me in the beginning. Gerald also has DVD's on doing cap jobs or amp maintenance. He has 4 or 5 books that have tons of info in them. Dave Hunter has a book, The Guitar Amp Handbook. For complex amp design with a lot of electronic engineering info (way over my head) there is a series of books by Merlin Blencowe, "Designing Power Supplies for Tube Amplifiers" and "Designing Tube Preamps for Guitar and Bass."

@chrischwaz7788

2 жыл бұрын

@@millstap thanks for helping me out

Happy Thanksgiving. On your strats do you prefer the 3 way or 5 way switch?

@millstap

2 жыл бұрын

Happy Thanksgiving Jim and family! I prefer a 5 way switch. For years I tried to get the in-between position on an original 3-way switch and it just wasn’t worth it. No difference in tone. At gig, it’s too difficult to quickly find the in-between even if you have a card stuffed in the switch to make it stiffer.

When did u get a tele?

@millstap

2 жыл бұрын

I traded a friend a Black Beauty Les Paul (Fretless Wonder POS) and $100 for that Tele way back in 1978. It a 1963 Tele that has been refinished several times. It's been through a lot. A lot of great musicians have signed it now including Johnny Winter and Buddy Guy, kzread.info/dash/bejne/q4t_rcqHmtbQfJM.html. It used to be my number one guitar back in the '80's until I went Strat crazy.

to surf!!

hey man what's up?

Sounds dry to my ears.