I am 68,electronics engineer with 42+ years of experience. I see the patience you have and appreciate the logical analysis you do to troubleshoot the amp. Very well done. Congrats.
Except for one thing, she replaced the power cord with plastic cables on the interior. If you notice, the original power lines were cloth covered to prevent power source melting and causing a short. That's a rookie mistake!
From 1986 to 1996, I worked as a radio mechanic, after 1996 I work in the energy sector, but last year, when I saw this beautiful lady on TH-cam, I had a desire to do radio mechanics in addition to. Thank you kind beauty, you inspired me to do my favorite thing again, good luck to you.
Hi Colleen , Thank you again for the work you have done on this amp ! All your effort has resulted in my Dads's old Silvertone being one of the most requested amps in my studio backline . Your work is beyond fantastic ! I have used other Tube Gurus in the past and your work ethic and attention to detail set you above the rest . For the record I am using the amp most often with a Fender bassman cab loaded with NOS Muscle Magnets . These are old production Eminence speakers that really bring out the Silvertone sound . Thank you again for your hard work and devotion . Best , Jonny T
Hi young lady. I am a 66 year old tech working on rf equipment all my life. I would like to say that your work is very clean. Thanks for the fun videos.
I absolutely love your repair/restoration channel. What sets you apart from so many others is that you actually let us watch you as you replace components. It's also fascinating to see you make real time decisions about the circuit layout when replacing older and larger components. Your troubleshooting skills are incredible and all post-repair demonstrations are appreciated.
I would like to take this opportunity to compliment you and your mentor for doing such a great job. Its refreshing to hear a younger person speak and explain why circuitry is being configured the correct way. I'm a professional electronic technician and I can quickly differentiate between someone that knows their stuff and someone that is just repeating the words they were taught. Please keep up the good work and making great videos. You are unique and should be very successful in what you do as you have what it takes to really understand what needs to be done.
Beginning at 28:50, your rendition of Link Ray's "Rumble" reminds me why Cali is the coolest state in the Union. Thank you for sharing your amazing expertise!
What's amazing besides your obvious skill is the fact that even with You Tube compressing the heck out of the audio, the warmth of that amp comes through like a thick, fuzzy blanket on a cold day. It just sounds gorgeous! Excellent work! You provide such a rare and needed service to classic audio lovers everywhere!
One of the most enjoyable episodes for sure... especially for us old timers who remember dreaming of owning this amp, while paging through the Sears catalogue in our youth!
that remember me when I started learning electronics in 1973...tubes,relays, no printed circuits,hand soldering....its fun to see a nice girl with your knowledge ! , dont give up ! the world need more persons like you !
I’m a shade tree amp builder / player. Love your systematic method of bringing these old amps back to there former glory. It’s easier to build one, then fix one sometimes. Kudos!
Very neat work, I use to be an old tube jockey, your work is very impressive, great too see a young lady carrying on an old tradition ! Enjoyed the video.
I like to use red heat shrink for any positive side of caps and leads and green for any grounds. Good work girl. Take out the tubes when working on a amp if it falls over like me one time I did cry.
Nice video, I cringed when I saw how the mains was done originally, but loved how you sorted the hot through the fuse and then to the switch, much safer. You solder exactly the way I do, heat the subject with a hot iron and flood the joint with solder, then get the heat away, very skilled and a joy to watch.
Saw that main filter capacitor and said to myself, never do that! You demonstrated exactly as to why , it is a very poor connection to ground. Grounding lugs are best. What a beast of a recap job. Very tight quarters and time consuming. This amp never sounded so good now and with a working tremolo to boot. Great job Colleen!
My only thought is if those green caps had failed in the tremolo circuit, I'd think the rest of them would be suspect too. I probably would've replaced the rest of the green ones as well
@ROSE STONE Looking at the schematic (the cap values), and the form factor of both the original green ones that came out, and the replacement yellow ones that went back in, I think those must be film caps. Ceramic caps are either flat discs, or just little resin covered blobs. Film caps have the same form factor as an electrolytic (round cylinder of film wrapped into a roll), but there's no wet electrolyte in them. My guess is the originals are probably failing at the lead-to-film connection and just go completely open circuit. Watching closer, the green caps in the tremolo circuit are different than the other green caps elsewhere that she didn't replace. The labeling on them is different, so maybe the other caps really are ok. I wasn't watching that closely the first time to notice the differences.
@@gorak9000 Yeah, my thoughts exactly particularly given the amp age. Definitely should have replaced that lone wax cap! TBH it should have been fully recapped but great job fixing the amp and especially changing the non polarized line cord!
@@expired56k I think with these vintage amps, there's some desire to keep the original caps in the audio path as long as they're still doing their job - blocking DC bias between the gain stages. Something about "character" and whatnot... :) I mean that's the whole reason to use tube amps these days to begin with - for the "warmth" and "character" (aka distortion). Not all distortion is bad or undesired.
@@gorak9000 I mean yeah, it might be okay depending on where that cap is but wax caps are absolutely notorious for being bad, if it's completely bad is stops being a cap and could damage the amp or let AC through. Given than no cap was ESR tested, it might not be best idea to just assume it is good by just using the amp. It would be nearly impossible to have a good wax cap from well of year 70 years ago which also saw a lot of usage like OP has mentioned. I doubt anyone could really hear this warm cap in a guitar amp, but I definitely know what you mean! ;)
Hi Colleen, Mark from Australia here. I love how everything is so simple. 3 pairs of hand tools, solder sucker, Weller iron and a great set of finger nails!. No walls full of cro's, signal generators and power supplies. A nice homely setting in a quiet environment that is still very productive. So satisfying to watch.
Nice old amp! I hope the owner can get it into some version of its original cabinet so it can be played out again. Good job rearranging the fuse and switch. In the end the amp performed well, but here are some suggestions: The safety ground (green earth wire) should be attached using a dedicated bolt, as requirement for new equipment. Transformer bolts can loosen over time. The safety ground lead should be left long enough so that it will be the last thing to break free if the power cable is pulled out of the chassis. The best place to ground the first filter (reservoir cap) is at the same point where the power transformer’s high-voltage center tap (or the bridge rectifier) is grounded. That minimizes the chance of 120Hz buzz getting into the audio by keeping the return from high-current charging pulses off the chassis.
Stabilizing large electrolytics by attaching them to the chassis with silicone is a good idea to prevent lead breakage, but they should be located away from heat sources to maximize service life. The power transformer, output tubes, and output tube cathode resistors are things to keep them away from.
What a heroic effort! Not only showing all the skill and dexterity, but also all the editing that went in to this. Totally worth saving, that is one honey of a tone. Cheers!☘
Aluminum chassis means it was built by Danelectro (early Silvertones with steel chassis were built by Valco). Watch out for riveted chassis grounds that have often oxidized or worked loose over the years. The green Sangamo caps are almost always leaky (electrically).
I have the same amp and all of my coupling caps were leaky. I just recapped the whole thing. Replaced the old carbon resistors in the front end to quiet that down as well. I've found several old Valcos use pretty cheap resistors that hiss and pop when warm.
@@cheezhead6007 What does that mean?! I have rebuilt some Danos and Silvertone Danos and find that good 'un is right. The Sangamo caps do not hold up well. Not only do they leak DC but they also drift way off spec. I just finished a Dano/Silvertone and had to replace every cap in the amp. Now sounds great - Sangamos were not "good enough."
Awesome to see a girl into electronic repair. I started repairing tube radios and like equipment when I was in 5th grade. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's getting harder to find like equipment. Keep it up, great work.
It sounds amazing! I always loved the tremolo on these old Silvertone amps. Awesome job on the restore, it's really cool that you were able to fix everything for the owner like this. What a great family heirloom.
Nada es más hermoso que un amplificador valvular lo único malo de verlo es que no se puede transmitir la sensación de calor! Muchas gracias por compartir señora
Just emailed my daughter, my sister and my two closest friends in my band. I am so impressed. And then you played. And look close at the thumbnail. I am older than dirt!!! OMG! I will someday soon need a custom amp from you to support what I play on my own channel. Gonna happen! Thank you so very much for being there. This was such a treat for me with 64 years of playing and no end in sight! Awesome Colleen!
Did you go to school for electronics or learn by doing it like I did? The more I watch the more your attention to details just shines. You have learned some great techniques and it shows. Anyone sends you something to work on, It'd coming back better than when it was originally built.
TH-cam recommended this video because it knows I'm into tube radios and such. I am a very picky radio restorer, and would not agree with the workmanship or practices of a lot of TH-camrs here. You checked several boxes including switching the hot to the switched and fused side (paying attention to AC safety), completely removing the old caps instead of the lazier "clip and J-hook" method). You are one of very few people I would trust to work on any of my gear including my favorite guitar amp, if I played guitar and had a tube amp that was my favorite! (My instrument of choice is the turntable!) I'm glad to see younger people with an interest in this older technology, and I guess it's thanks to musicians who still appreciate vacuum tubes.
That is crazy how quiet that amp eventually got. Excellent video! I don't know why, but it's almost therapeutic watching you solder, you're so solid. That entire room would smell like burned insulation if I was attempting any of those tight reaches. I think you could solder around corners if you so desired.
You wrap your wires the same way that I do,it makes for a nice smooth connection with heat shrink. I have been repairing electronic equipment for 50years and I really enjoy watching you work, you are no nonsense and very thorough. I would like to have you work in my shop. Keep up the good work and I will be waiting for your next video.
Colleen is a thoughtful reflective natural teacher. Thank-you, Colleen, for this very helpful video and for response to my email. 👍🏼 #RockOn P.S. -love yer nails!
Better yet, put a dead tube in while soldering the pins. Otherwise solder can drip down into the empty pin socket, and removing it is a nightmare. Thanks for the vids!
It's a good idea to replace all of the plastic signal coupling caps. When they get 50+ years old, the plastic cases start to develop hairline cracks, absorb moisture and then the dialectric gets leaky, letting some DC get through to affect grid bias of the next stage.
Amazing what 12 watts could do back in the 1950s. Reflowing the solder in EVERY contact in a 100% point-to-point wiring layout is the definition of a lo or of love!I had the Silvertone 1485, which today has a cult following.
It's not that bad really. I don't even find it tedious. Was more concerned about her ruining the purdy nails :p ... I only have basic electronics knowledge, and I love these old school point-to-point solders and tube design as they are so simple to figure out as long as you know what the tubes does. It's rarely difficult to diagnose noise problems, as you basically just need to replace caps, resolder all joints and have an inventory of the right tubes which is propably the most difficult to have. More modern amp designs often require much more knowledge of all kind of circuits to diagnose
1956... A very good year. I was born in fact and 22 Yeats late I became electrónic eng. I Love tubes electrónics ... Great video..Great channel.. you have a new fan from Colombia S.A.
It's good to see you back. These episodes were sorely missed. I too am not surprised the cabinet deteriorated. They were made of particle board and Masonite. Have you been experiencing the ever-shrinking availability of tubes? Everyone I have spoken to have commented on how scarce they are. Your nails are BOMB! I hope more work comes your way. This channel is very interesting in the presentation of the material. Nevertheless stay safe from this modern-day plague.
I do lots of electronic work myself and have even designed and built two tube amplifiers. I just stumbled across your site and love this. Just seeing a woman who not only likes electronics but does such a great job is pure awesomeness. Wish I'd have known about your channel before. I am subscribed now. Keep up the killer work and helping these old classics see even more life out gigging. Love the channel.
Idle Moments by Grant Green was a surprise treat! One of my favourite songs and albums of his. I love the care, attention and historical perspective you’ve packed into this video. Your nails look awesome btw.
Came here from a “Unintentional ASMR” channel and have already watched a few of this ladies videos. Her voice is very relaxing for my European ears. I had no interest in amps but have taken away some tips and tricks simply by listening.
Nice nails for amp tech Coleen - mine are always frayed and broken. If you want to be thorough, you would want to replace .5 200VDC wax wad cap as well. There's excellent video on Mister Carlson's lab channel why paper caps go bad with time. Aslo, check that these old Tropical caps don't leak DC through - if tremolo caps went bad, coupling might be on the way. Best of luck.
This is such great unintentional ASMR. Your voice paired with the sounds of snipping and placing down tools is just fantastic. Educational too! Thank you for this. The amp sounded great at the end.
These were built cheaply and by the thousands. Valco, Magna, Danelectro, and dozens of other little amp makers in LA cranked these low-powered amps out with point to point from the 40's through the 60's, affordable to lots of entry players. Hi-fi amps of the day used turret boards and all the fancy stuff, but the steel and electric guitar was seen as a "craze", so getting the product out was the most important thing.
Hello Colleen how are you hope you're doing fine. I'm 58 years old and been a TV repairman for 37 years. Back then I had to have a Radio TV licence. I studied at VoTech in Shreveport Louisiana and still at it today and sometimes I like to repair tube circuits. Sometimes a customer brings me an old black and white TV from the 1950s and tube circuits work great when all those old leaky paper in oil bumblebees capacitors get replaced with new plastic film capacitors but I don't believe it when a musician tells me that paper in oil sounds better untill I saw a comparison video on TH-cam with different types of capacitors that are the same value and I was amazed. The difference is subtle and I did notice that the paper in oil ones did have a more pleasant treble. The comparison was done in the guitar but not the amp and I know that an old leaky capacitor will damage output tubes, transformers..etc. they make new reproduction paper in oil but maybe the reason the sound is different is because high frequency like treble is easily affected by the SIZE of the capacitor that passes the signal. The new ones are much smaller than the old ones and that's the only thing I can think of so I have an Idea: I wonder what an old vintage amp would sound like if the old paper in oil is wired in series with a new capacitor. The new capacitor will block the DC to protect the output tubes and the old one will shape the tone. The new capacitor will have to be a large enough value to pass the entire audio spectrum as not to color the sound such value like a 0.47uf and all the tone shaping will be the old 0.02uf
I feel for you; the tremolo oscillator caps, ugh! I had to replace them in my Silvertone 1472 Amp... good thing I had a schematic lol. I love your video! You're the best!! 👌
Oh, one more suggestion for reliability: I would avoid mounting filter caps on the power transformer ( I see you glued one to the xmfr case ) reason being that heat from the xmfr will migrate into the cap thru the glue and prematurely dry out the cap over time.
It is an absolute pleasure watching you work. You always leave me in awe of how effortless you make it appear when I know that's far from reality. On a separate note, if you re-order T-Shirts, please let us know? I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to purchase one!! Please keep up the great work and the Great Videos!!!
Great work as always. I noticed that the two cathode bypass caps that you replaced were actually different values in the amp than were indicated on the schematic. (10uF vs 25uF) Props on going with what was in the amp, imho. Thanks for sharing and great touch on the demos.
I LOVE Silvertones! 1484 was my first tube amp! With a fuzz face, it was an absolute monster in my garage band in the mid 2000's. These really old ones have THE BEST tremolo, to my ears... Maybe second only to Magnatones. Keep up the fantastic quality work! I'm watching your TH-cams like binging a TV show. I'm taking notes on how to solder cleanly. My joints are a mess.
Heeeeeey, long time, no see :). I love your channel - amp/pedal/synth girls of the world, unite! Lovely amp on the outside, but it could surely use some redesign when it comes to ground connections. Depending on the chassis layout, I choose bus or star grounding. For the latter I use a thick copper wire (e.g. 4mm²) grounded close to the input jack, going all the way to the power supply. The wire between the rectifier bridge (or secondary C.T.) and the filter cap is "dirty", should be reasonably heavy and nothing else can connect to it. I always use some kind of strain relief if going for a hardwired power cord; heatshrink for soldered connections on fuse ockets and switches, and whenever a wire goes out of the transformer and I need to splice it, I use a terminal strip or a DPDT power switch. I really love that you know your thing and talk about amps and repairs with competence and confidence. Uncle Doug (and probably Mr Carlson too, as I see his school of fuse-before-switch) has taught you well. And you have nice nails :) I sometimes do repairs and build stuff with painted nails, but it's kinda tricky...
Great movie.
It's nice to hear a woman's voice on the technical channel and nice colored nails instead of hairy paws.
Best wishes
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PLAYING RUMBLE!!! I was sitting like "imagine if she played that".
I am 68,electronics engineer with 42+ years of experience. I see the patience you have and appreciate the logical analysis you do to troubleshoot the amp. Very well done. Congrats.
Except for one thing, she replaced the power cord with plastic cables on the interior. If you notice, the original power lines were cloth covered to prevent power source melting and causing a short. That's a rookie mistake!
From 1986 to 1996, I worked as a radio mechanic, after 1996 I work in the energy sector, but last year, when I saw this beautiful lady on TH-cam, I had a desire to do radio mechanics in addition to. Thank you kind beauty, you inspired me to do my favorite thing again, good luck to you.
Hi Colleen , Thank you again for the work you have done on this amp ! All your effort has resulted in my Dads's old Silvertone being one of the most requested amps in my studio backline . Your work is beyond fantastic !
I have used other Tube Gurus in the past and your work ethic and attention to detail set you above the rest .
For the record I am using the amp most often with a Fender bassman cab loaded with NOS Muscle Magnets . These
are old production Eminence speakers that really bring out the Silvertone sound .
Thank you again for your hard work and devotion .
Best ,
Jonny T
I loved the Link Wray ! Great job, I could watch you all day !
Hi young lady. I am a 66 year old tech working on rf equipment all my life. I would like to say that your work is very clean. Thanks for the fun videos.
Link Wray Rules! Saw him perrform. what a legend..
A good reparation/restoration of a tube amplifier, a calm female voice while soldering with fire nails, is a kind of art. Very good video👍
Nice bit of Rumble at the end there 👌🏼
I spent half an hour learning about amp repair and then was treated to your renditions of Grant Green and Link Wray!? Fabulous! Love your work!
I don't speek english... but I can only say : it is very, very good work ! Congratulation !
People like you single handedly keep the used amp market alive and keep these cool old machines going generationally gotta love it
I absolutely love your repair/restoration channel. What sets you apart from so many others is that you actually let us watch you as you replace components. It's also fascinating to see you make real time decisions about the circuit layout when replacing older and larger components. Your troubleshooting skills are incredible and all post-repair demonstrations are appreciated.
Those are some badass fingernails! 👍
Hot rod.
Nice touch.👍🥃
I can't believe there aren't more comments about them, they are so cool!
Nice guitar work too, seems most amp techs can play guitar. Safe to assume one is the result of the other!
I would like to take this opportunity to compliment you and your mentor for doing such a great job. Its refreshing to hear a younger person speak and explain why circuitry is being configured the correct way. I'm a professional electronic technician and I can quickly differentiate between someone that knows their stuff and someone that is just repeating the words they were taught. Please keep up the good work and making great videos. You are unique and should be very successful in what you do as you have what it takes to really understand what needs to be done.
love the killer flamed nails!
No better way to test a tremello circuit than Rumble! Awesome job on this amp!
Beginning at 28:50, your rendition of Link Ray's "Rumble" reminds me why Cali is the coolest state in the Union. Thank you for sharing your amazing expertise!
HECK- you couldn't PAY me to live in California OR New York!!!
What's amazing besides your obvious skill is the fact that even with You Tube compressing the heck out of the audio, the warmth of that amp comes through like a thick, fuzzy blanket on a cold day. It just sounds gorgeous! Excellent work! You provide such a rare and needed service to classic audio lovers everywhere!
Excellent!! ... And I'm always chuffed to hear a wee bit o' Link Wray in the mix.
One of the most enjoyable episodes for sure... especially for us old timers who remember dreaming of owning this amp, while paging through the Sears catalogue in our youth!
I’m with you brother…
that remember me when I started learning electronics in 1973...tubes,relays, no printed circuits,hand soldering....its fun to see a nice girl with your knowledge ! , dont give up ! the world need more persons like you !
I’m a shade tree amp builder / player. Love your systematic method of bringing these old amps back to there former glory. It’s easier to build one, then fix one sometimes. Kudos!
As soon as I saw you repairing the tremolo I said to myself this amp is made to play the rumble. You did not fail to oblige!
Super restoration repair!👍 Really dig the Link Wray "RUMBLE" bit at the end! Vintage vibes for a vintage amp!😎
Whats better than watching a good tech go through a classic amp? Watching one with badass nails do it👍
so happy to see younger people that are into the old gear and repairing it..
wow, that amp sounds awesome
Very neat work, I use to be an old tube jockey, your work is very impressive, great too see a young lady carrying on an old tradition ! Enjoyed the video.
I like to use red heat shrink for any positive side of caps and leads and green for any grounds. Good work girl. Take out the tubes when working on a amp if it falls over like me one time I did cry.
Forty years of experience in repairing and building audio and radio equipment allow me to rate you with AAA. Excellent work!
Nice video, I cringed when I saw how the mains was done originally, but loved how you sorted the hot through the fuse and then to the switch, much safer. You solder exactly the way I do, heat the subject with a hot iron and flood the joint with solder, then get the heat away, very skilled and a joy to watch.
Saw that main filter capacitor and said to myself, never do that! You demonstrated exactly as to why , it is a very poor
connection to ground. Grounding lugs are best. What a beast of a recap job. Very tight quarters and time consuming.
This amp never sounded so good now and with a working tremolo to boot. Great job Colleen!
My only thought is if those green caps had failed in the tremolo circuit, I'd think the rest of them would be suspect too. I probably would've replaced the rest of the green ones as well
@ROSE STONE Looking at the schematic (the cap values), and the form factor of both the original green ones that came out, and the replacement yellow ones that went back in, I think those must be film caps. Ceramic caps are either flat discs, or just little resin covered blobs. Film caps have the same form factor as an electrolytic (round cylinder of film wrapped into a roll), but there's no wet electrolyte in them. My guess is the originals are probably failing at the lead-to-film connection and just go completely open circuit. Watching closer, the green caps in the tremolo circuit are different than the other green caps elsewhere that she didn't replace. The labeling on them is different, so maybe the other caps really are ok. I wasn't watching that closely the first time to notice the differences.
@@gorak9000 Yeah, my thoughts exactly particularly given the amp age. Definitely should have replaced that lone wax cap! TBH it should have been fully recapped but great job fixing the amp and especially changing the non polarized line cord!
@@expired56k I think with these vintage amps, there's some desire to keep the original caps in the audio path as long as they're still doing their job - blocking DC bias between the gain stages. Something about "character" and whatnot... :) I mean that's the whole reason to use tube amps these days to begin with - for the "warmth" and "character" (aka distortion). Not all distortion is bad or undesired.
@@gorak9000 I mean yeah, it might be okay depending on where that cap is but wax caps are absolutely notorious for being bad, if it's completely bad is stops being a cap and could damage the amp or let AC through. Given than no cap was ESR tested, it might not be best idea to just assume it is good by just using the amp. It would be nearly impossible to have a good wax cap from well of year 70 years ago which also saw a lot of usage like OP has mentioned. I doubt anyone could really hear this warm cap in a guitar amp, but I definitely know what you mean! ;)
What a wonderful dramaless restore of an old classic amp was very entertaining and the rumble rendidtion at the end was a bonus.
That amp sounds like a David Lynch film.
Best coment ever
Hi Colleen,
Mark from Australia here. I love how everything is so simple. 3 pairs of hand tools, solder sucker, Weller iron and a great set of finger nails!. No walls full of cro's, signal generators and power supplies. A nice homely setting in a quiet environment that is still very productive.
So satisfying to watch.
Nice old amp! I hope the owner can get it into some version of its original cabinet so it can be played out again.
Good job rearranging the fuse and switch. In the end the amp performed well, but here are some suggestions:
The safety ground (green earth wire) should be attached using a dedicated bolt, as requirement for new equipment. Transformer bolts can loosen over time.
The safety ground lead should be left long enough so that it will be the last thing to break free if the power cable is pulled out of the chassis.
The best place to ground the first filter (reservoir cap) is at the same point where the power transformer’s high-voltage center tap (or the bridge rectifier) is grounded. That minimizes the chance of 120Hz buzz getting into the audio by keeping the return from high-current charging pulses off the chassis.
Stabilizing large electrolytics by attaching them to the chassis with silicone is a good idea to prevent lead breakage, but they should be located away from heat sources to maximize service life. The power transformer, output tubes, and output tube cathode resistors are things to keep them away from.
I love how you appreciate small details and classic design from a bygone era. I love old classic stuff as well.
The filter capacitor grounded on transformer casing... golden 🤣
I like the old lighter verson over the new heatgun... :)
Love how you put it into the historic perspective too. Old old amp.
so happy to see younger people that are into the old gear and repairing it.......x2👍👍👍
Link Wray was a great choice for this amp. Nice job.
Damn, that was some spot-on Link Wray! Such a beautiful tone.
What a heroic effort! Not only showing all the skill and dexterity, but also all the editing that went in to this. Totally worth saving, that is one honey of a tone. Cheers!☘
Those knobs look like bakelite. I learned my lesson on having a lighter around bakelite. Lol. You are a wonderful teacher and more. Thank you!
Aluminum chassis means it was built by Danelectro (early Silvertones with steel chassis were built by Valco). Watch out for riveted chassis grounds that have often oxidized or worked loose over the years. The green Sangamo caps are almost always leaky (electrically).
Sangamo caps are good enough for that thing
I have the same amp and all of my coupling caps were leaky. I just recapped the whole thing. Replaced the old carbon resistors in the front end to quiet that down as well. I've found several old Valcos use pretty cheap resistors that hiss and pop when warm.
@@cheezhead6007 What does that mean?! I have rebuilt some Danos and Silvertone Danos and find that good 'un is right. The Sangamo caps do not hold up well. Not only do they leak DC but they also drift way off spec. I just finished a Dano/Silvertone and had to replace every cap in the amp. Now sounds great - Sangamos were not "good enough."
Glad to see you uploading again, Coleen!
Sounds sweeeeet. Now it’s ready for another 60+ years. Great work.
Hopefully I’ll find the courage to repair one of my amps. some day. Thanks 🤘👍
Awesome to see a girl into electronic repair. I started repairing tube radios and like equipment when I was in 5th grade. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's getting harder to find like equipment. Keep it up, great work.
It sounds amazing! I always loved the tremolo on these old Silvertone amps. Awesome job on the restore, it's really cool that you were able to fix everything for the owner like this. What a great family heirloom.
Nada es más hermoso que un amplificador valvular lo único malo de verlo es que no se puede transmitir la sensación de calor! Muchas gracias por compartir señora
labor of love indeed, you practically rebuilt that whole amp. very impressive and great playing to demonstrate the fruits of your hard work.
Just emailed my daughter, my sister and my two closest friends in my band. I am so impressed. And then you played. And look close at the thumbnail. I am older than dirt!!! OMG! I will someday soon need a custom amp from you to support what I play on my own channel. Gonna happen! Thank you so very much for being there. This was such a treat for me with 64 years of playing and no end in sight!
Awesome Colleen!
I’m very happy to see you back to TH-cam. I *LOVE* the little history intro!
I worked 34 years in communications and you're the best I've ever seen. Accurate and precise and very patient. I'm glad I found your channel.
Did you go to school for electronics or learn by doing it like I did? The more I watch the more your attention to details just shines. You have learned some great techniques and it shows. Anyone sends you something to work on, It'd coming back better than when it was originally built.
TH-cam recommended this video because it knows I'm into tube radios and such. I am a very picky radio restorer, and would not agree with the workmanship or practices of a lot of TH-camrs here. You checked several boxes including switching the hot to the switched and fused side (paying attention to AC safety), completely removing the old caps instead of the lazier "clip and J-hook" method). You are one of very few people I would trust to work on any of my gear including my favorite guitar amp, if I played guitar and had a tube amp that was my favorite! (My instrument of choice is the turntable!) I'm glad to see younger people with an interest in this older technology, and I guess it's thanks to musicians who still appreciate vacuum tubes.
That is crazy how quiet that amp eventually got. Excellent video! I don't know why, but it's almost therapeutic watching you solder, you're so solid. That entire room would smell like burned insulation if I was attempting any of those tight reaches. I think you could solder around corners if you so desired.
My Silverton 1482 is in a new cabinet, and I constantly leave it on as it's so quiet.
You wrap your wires the same way that I do,it makes for a nice smooth connection with heat shrink. I have been repairing electronic equipment for 50years and I really enjoy watching you work, you are no nonsense and very thorough. I would like to have you work in my shop. Keep up the good work and I will be waiting for your next video.
Colleen is a thoughtful reflective natural teacher.
Thank-you, Colleen, for this very helpful video and for response to my email. 👍🏼 #RockOn
P.S. -love yer nails!
Silvertone! Love that point-to-point wiring! I had one, came with six 10 inch Jensens. Four 6L6 power tubes. Bang! Bang!
Fantastic old chassis, and a job well done! Always a good idea to remove the tubes from their sockets when soldering the pins!
Thanks for sharing!
Better yet, put a dead tube in while soldering the pins. Otherwise solder can drip down into the empty pin socket, and removing it is a nightmare.
Thanks for the vids!
It's a good idea to replace all of the plastic signal coupling caps. When they get 50+ years old, the plastic cases start to develop hairline cracks, absorb moisture and then the dialectric gets leaky, letting some DC get through to affect grid bias of the next stage.
Thanks, your explanations and camera shots really help understand the process clearly. The amp sounded great when done!
Amazing what 12 watts could do back in the 1950s. Reflowing the solder in EVERY contact in a 100% point-to-point wiring layout is the definition of a lo or of love!I had the Silvertone 1485, which today has a cult following.
thanks for bringing this one back to life. I've never seen a point-to-point with this many components!
It's not that bad really. I don't even find it tedious. Was more concerned about her ruining the purdy nails :p ... I only have basic electronics knowledge, and I love these old school point-to-point solders and tube design as they are so simple to figure out as long as you know what the tubes does. It's rarely difficult to diagnose noise problems, as you basically just need to replace caps, resolder all joints and have an inventory of the right tubes which is propably the most difficult to have. More modern amp designs often require much more knowledge of all kind of circuits to diagnose
I saw a tehnician(?) woman that know what to do.such a skilled person.thank you for uploading this video.
Que raridade é ver uma mulher técnica em eletrônica! Voçê é um diamante!! 👏👏👏👏👏
1956... A very good year. I was born in fact and 22 Yeats late I became electrónic eng. I Love tubes electrónics ... Great video..Great channel.. you have a new fan from Colombia S.A.
It's good to see you back. These episodes were sorely missed. I too am not surprised the cabinet deteriorated. They were made of particle board and Masonite. Have you been experiencing the ever-shrinking availability of tubes? Everyone I have spoken to have commented on how scarce they are. Your nails are BOMB! I hope more work comes your way. This channel is very interesting in the presentation of the material. Nevertheless stay safe from this modern-day plague.
I do lots of electronic work myself and have even designed and built two tube amplifiers. I just stumbled across your site and love this. Just seeing a woman who not only likes electronics but does such a great job is pure awesomeness. Wish I'd have known about your channel before. I am subscribed now. Keep up the killer work and helping these old classics see even more life out gigging. Love the channel.
Idle Moments by Grant Green was a surprise treat! One of my favourite songs and albums of his. I love the care, attention and historical perspective you’ve packed into this video. Your nails look awesome btw.
and Link Wray's "Rumble" sounded fantastic too!
Came here from a “Unintentional ASMR” channel and have already watched a few of this ladies videos. Her voice is very relaxing for my European ears. I had no interest in amps but have taken away some tips and tricks simply by listening.
Nice nails for amp tech Coleen - mine are always frayed and broken.
If you want to be thorough, you would want to replace .5 200VDC wax wad cap as well. There's excellent video on Mister Carlson's lab channel why paper caps go bad with time.
Aslo, check that these old Tropical caps don't leak DC through - if tremolo caps went bad, coupling might be on the way.
Best of luck.
Yeah, paper caps are ticking time bombs of trouble. If the rest go bad the amp will start burning up tubes.
Idle Moments. Came for the repair video, staying for the tunes.
This is such great unintentional ASMR. Your voice paired with the sounds of snipping and placing down tools is just fantastic. Educational too!
Thank you for this. The amp sounded great at the end.
Check out twoodfrd. He's a Canadian luthier and he also has an incredibly calming voice
Wrist watch revival is another jem, I don't care about watches but I've watched hours of that guy take apart watches and put them back together
just found your channel and im stoked what a treasure much like yourself never apologize for a messy bench its the hallmark of a genius !
I love all your videos, and the little history about that time in the US is a very cool touch. Please keep 'em coming! 😊🤙🙏👏🎸🎼🎵🎶🔊
I bought a Silvertone 1334 new in 1956 - loved it - miss it!!
That's a nice size amp, the turret boards seem to make for easier service work than busy point to point.
These were built cheaply and by the thousands. Valco, Magna, Danelectro, and dozens of other little amp makers in LA cranked these low-powered amps out with point to point from the 40's through the 60's, affordable to lots of entry players. Hi-fi amps of the day used turret boards and all the fancy stuff, but the steel and electric guitar was seen as a "craze", so getting the product out was the most important thing.
@@87mini I searched up a schematic for the 1333 and found one courtesy of Sears.
Hello Colleen how are you hope you're doing fine. I'm 58 years old and been a TV repairman for 37 years. Back then I had to have a Radio TV licence. I studied at VoTech in Shreveport Louisiana and still at it today and sometimes I like to repair tube circuits. Sometimes a customer brings me an old black and white TV from the 1950s and tube circuits work great when all those old leaky paper in oil bumblebees capacitors get replaced with new plastic film capacitors but I don't believe it when a musician tells me that paper in oil sounds better untill I saw a comparison video on TH-cam with different types of capacitors that are the same value and I was amazed. The difference is subtle and I did notice that the paper in oil ones did have a more pleasant treble. The comparison was done in the guitar but not the amp and I know that an old leaky capacitor will damage output tubes, transformers..etc. they make new reproduction paper in oil but maybe the reason the sound is different is because high frequency like treble is easily affected by the SIZE of the capacitor that passes the signal. The new ones are much smaller than the old ones and that's the only thing I can think of so I have an Idea: I wonder what an old vintage amp would sound like if the old paper in oil is wired in series with a new capacitor. The new capacitor will block the DC to protect the output tubes and the old one will shape the tone. The new capacitor will have to be a large enough value to pass the entire audio spectrum as not to color the sound such value like a 0.47uf and all the tone shaping will be the old 0.02uf
I feel for you; the tremolo oscillator caps, ugh! I had to replace them in my Silvertone 1472 Amp... good thing I had a schematic lol. I love your video! You're the best!! 👌
Your videos are so soothing I keep falling asleep. That’s a good thing. They’re very relaxing.
Cool stuff, thanks for the video! Shout-out to the camera person and editing in this video. Very good work!!
You are so natural at it. Buster was fantastic!
Oh, one more suggestion for reliability: I would avoid mounting filter caps on the power transformer ( I see you glued one to the xmfr case ) reason being that heat from the xmfr will migrate into the cap thru the glue and prematurely dry out the cap over time.
School boy error
Hi, my name is Diego Fazio, I'm Electronic engineer,. I love your videos! Great job!
It is an absolute pleasure watching you work. You always leave me in awe of how effortless you make it appear when I know that's far from reality. On a separate note, if you re-order T-Shirts, please let us know? I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to purchase one!! Please keep up the great work and the Great Videos!!!
Thank you! I have a feeling that’s in the cards for the future :)
@@FazioElectric Also waiting for the next batch of shirts! Great video as always,
@@FazioElectric I’d buy a t-shirt too
@@FazioElectric I just joined today and would love to see you assemble a tube amp from the start.
RUMBLE! Excellent demo choice. The refurbed amp sounds great!
Great work as always. I noticed that the two cathode bypass caps that you replaced were actually different values in the amp than were indicated on the schematic. (10uF vs 25uF) Props on going with what was in the amp, imho. Thanks for sharing and great touch on the demos.
Did you catch the El Pato shrink wrap container. She knows what’s up.
I LOVE Silvertones! 1484 was my first tube amp! With a fuzz face, it was an absolute monster in my garage band in the mid 2000's. These really old ones have THE BEST tremolo, to my ears... Maybe second only to Magnatones. Keep up the fantastic quality work! I'm watching your TH-cams like binging a TV show. I'm taking notes on how to solder cleanly. My joints are a mess.
Heeeeeey, long time, no see :). I love your channel - amp/pedal/synth girls of the world, unite!
Lovely amp on the outside, but it could surely use some redesign when it comes to ground connections. Depending on the chassis layout, I choose bus or star grounding. For the latter I use a thick copper wire (e.g. 4mm²) grounded close to the input jack, going all the way to the power supply. The wire between the rectifier bridge (or secondary C.T.) and the filter cap is "dirty", should be reasonably heavy and nothing else can connect to it.
I always use some kind of strain relief if going for a hardwired power cord; heatshrink for soldered connections on fuse ockets and switches, and whenever a wire goes out of the transformer and I need to splice it, I use a terminal strip or a DPDT power switch.
I really love that you know your thing and talk about amps and repairs with competence and confidence. Uncle Doug (and probably Mr Carlson too, as I see his school of fuse-before-switch) has taught you well. And you have nice nails :) I sometimes do repairs and build stuff with painted nails, but it's kinda tricky...
I can definitely hear the Link at the end. Sounds like you are ready to Rumble : )
That’s is a rad amp and rad video! Also, I really dig the nails 😉
This was impressive to watch she is very knowledgable
Dang, I’m blown away by how far this restoration goes.
Do wop doobie do wop. Nice soldering. You brought an old one back to life. Too cool