Hfan Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Some of you may remember my thread about pulling the last of the ribbon cables out of my Blues Jr and installing a point to point tube board. After hitting issues with the project last summer, the bits and pieces have been collecting dust in my garage. I had some time today, wife and kids gone for a day and off from work. One more shot I'd give it..then it would become a spare speaker cabinet. I've done most of Bill M's mods to this thing and always liked it but have had issues with the ribbon cables, first the pre amp cables caused issues probably from being flexed so many times pulling the chassis out as I did all the different mods. Then I started having issues with the power tube sockets, had to reflow the solder on the pins which only worked for a while. Finally decided to buy the kit from Hoffman amps to install the point to point tube board. Here is the link to the original thread which is now archived, I wanted to update it but no replies are allowed on archives. It is complete with cool soldering iron burns and a new used Swart that I tried to relieve my angst with. http://www.heritageownersclub.com/forums/topic/29781-how-to-do-away-with-ribbon-cables/ Re-did some solder joints, then had to fix a few of the very thin wires that Fender used that love to pop off the main board and then have to be soldered from the back meaning the boards have to be pulled again. Also not having worked on it for 9 months did not help..had to remember some stuff. Any way it works great now. As I said, I would rather stick pins in my eyes than ever buy another amp with a printed circuit board...maybe some are ok to work on but the Blues Jr is a pain in the butt. It ain't pretty but it works ha ha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Pete, you ROCK! Congratulations on your revived Blues Junior! I have to admit, I had BillM do the works to my Blues Junior, including Output Transformer, and it took months to get it back. Finally, after I got it, I put the tubes back in, it smoked, and quit. There was a burn mark on the cream circuit board, and I was sure it was roached. BillM talked me down, and told me I must have SOMEHOW put the tubes in the wrong sockets, as they weren't marked. Ever the gentleman, he repaired it for no charge, and marked the proper tube positiions with a Sharpie. I fired it up the other night after neglecting it too long, and it sounds SOO much better than your stock Blues Junior. I also added a Eminence Texas Heat speaker when I had the mods done years ago. I can never sell it, as I have way to much into it..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gitfiddler Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Congratulations on finishing your Blues Jr. journey, Pete. Like Brian and many others, I too tossed way too much cash down that rabbit hole. Your amp innards look darned good, by the way. How does it sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steiner Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Ain't no NADs like happy NADs! Congrats Hfan!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Nice! A point to point mod kit for a Blues Jr? That's even better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hfan Posted May 1, 2016 Author Share Posted May 1, 2016 Pete, you ROCK! Congratulations on your revived Blues Junior! I have to admit, I had BillM do the works to my Blues Junior, including Output Transformer, and it took months to get it back. Finally, after I got it, I put the tubes back in, it smoked, and quit. There was a burn mark on the cream circuit board, and I was sure it was roached. BillM talked me down, and told me I must have SOMEHOW put the tubes in the wrong sockets, as they weren't marked. Ever the gentleman, he repaired it for no charge, and marked the proper tube positiions with a Sharpie. I fired it up the other night after neglecting it too long, and it sounds SOO much better than your stock Blues Junior. I also added a Eminence Texas Heat speaker when I had the mods done years ago. I can never sell it, as I have way to much into it..... Thanks Brian, very kind of you. These amps are so much better after the mods, no comparison. Bill was very nice to me as well. Last I heard he had some health issues and the web site has not been updated since January. My presence mod is no longer working and to save time I was going to order a new kit but they seem to be not in business right now.. Really it's just a large pot with a push pull button on top maybe I can source it. Congratulations on finishing your Blues Jr. journey, Pete. Like Brian and many others, I too tossed way too much cash down that rabbit hole. Your amp innards look darned good, by the way. How does it sound? It sounds loud and proud if not a little distorted, more so than normal. Like a tweed with reverb. My main issue when the mod was finished last August was way too much distortion and my time had run out (one day, 10 hours at the kitchen table) the massive distortion occurred again yesterday after I cleaned up some soldering on the tube sockets, I got out the chop stick and poked around and localized it to the wires off of V3 the reverb tube socket, repositioned them. Much much better but I see another round of tinkering in the future. Maybe this will be my life time tinker project. I am stubborn and fixed equipment for years, I was no genius but never quit. I will have my clean head room back some day ha ha. Ain't no NADs like happy NADs! Congrats Hfan!!! Thank you sir, after looking at the guts on my garage table and mumbling at at for many months it feels good to have it workable again Nice! A point to point mod kit for a Blues Jr? That's even better! They are out there. My first reaction was "bite your tongue" but who knows??? A few tricks I learned include being careful of the the little tiny wires that Fender soldered into the pcb, they love to snap. If they do, use solid small wire (non braided, so much easier to get it through the PCB. And mark all the terminal leads for reassembly, I took pictures too last August which were helpful. The Hoffman kit left a lot up to the user to figure out, the tube sockets wind up reversed compared to the original board. I looked at the old board to reproduce the trace leads but it had to be upside down, also, it came with locking springs for the power tubes but when I installed the bases I forgot the special bases for the two power tubes, the springs attach to them. The kit came with 5 regular bases like you would use for the 3 pre amp tubes, you only had to use 3..I used 5 which when I noticed I was too far ahead but it turns out there are holes in the bases and I was able to use the springs and in addition, the old plate and springs that Fender provided still fit so those babies are double locked down ha ha. Maybe some of this will help some poor soul who goggles the kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hfan Posted May 1, 2016 Author Share Posted May 1, 2016 Here is a picture (not the best) showing the Presence kit pot circled on the left, as per some of Bill M's old comments, they come in 50k and 10k, any of you gurus recognize it? It has a push pull button on top and has a threaded base, you drill a hole in the top of the panel and it is held on with a little cheap nut that failed on me after having the amp apart so many times. Lock tite helped. The little pwa board circled on the right comes with the kit as well I suspect that is fine. I had some trouble with the pot button sticking, I suspect the pot itself, Maybe I'll just pull it and ohm it out first. http://billmaudio.com/wp/?page_id=72 Edit: looking at the picture, notice the sharpie marked speaker jack hint. Done post the 2012 PSP amp mishap (someone plugged the speaker into the input for the foot pedal..not recommended)..like closing the barn door after the horse escaped..this amp is a survivor.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Oops, time for confession #2. I had no idea my presence knob was on a pull pot. There is a good reason I don't try to work on these things; sheesh!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbp810 Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hfan Posted May 3, 2016 Author Share Posted May 3, 2016 Thanks guys, and even an atta boy from our amp maestro. I have the bug again, spent some time searching for a clue to what the presence pot actually is. Been all over Mouser with their billion varieties and Bourne for manufacturer's specs. I'll pull it apart again and remove the pot itself one day and test it out of the circuit. Maybe the pot is fine but I hope it is the pot and not that little mini board that came with it as it would be easier to replace the pot than to figure out what is on that board. I wish I could just order another kit and be done with it but it appears that Bill's site has been without activity since January. His son was handling things for a while. I hope Bill is ok. Turns out a lot of the distortion I was hearing the other day was a combination of the guitar I picked (SG with P90s) and the volume, I was kind of blasting it. It sounds sweet with a single coil guitar at low volumes which is one reason I always liked it as a practice amp. It does have a bit of a hum without a guitar plugged in, the hum quits when I plug in the guitar, so a ground issues somewhere, maybe the input jack. Really it just feels great to have it working again and not constantly passing the guts of it while it was on my garage work table. Empowering ha ha..a small victory if you will. Honestly I fixed equipment for so many years it is in my blood and I kind of went cold turkey after getting into nursing. I wind up trying and often succeeding to fix various stuff..dryers, washers even tried to fix a fridge (not one of my victories ha ha). I also quickly forget any of my limited skills in reading amp schematics I was at a loss the other day and just wound up tracing paths etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koula901 Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Glad to hear it's up and running Pete. I would not have the patience. How's the new career going by the way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hfan Posted May 27, 2016 Author Share Posted May 27, 2016 The new career is ok. Hard paying my dues almost one year in. Working full time in a nursing home. Mostly dementia patients and part time at the county jail. Also back in school to get my BSN. THanks for asking Katy Back to the amp. I've been using it a lot and I like it. No more power tube noise issues etc so that is good. My not Working presence mod may have me take it apart again one day. Maybe just a bad. Connection . Behind the pwa who knows? I seem to have to run the bass higher and the treble lower like I never had to In the past. Maybe I'll just return that part to stock and get rid of that mod. I have the instructions so I could do it. Sorry damn I phone typing with fat fingers ha ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
212Mavguy Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 Awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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