Inside the amp on the main circuit board you will find some small electrolytic capacitors. They can be different values and different shapes but most of the time the value is 25uf at 25 volt. Sometimes these caps are double caps, there will be two 25uf caps inside one package and they will share a common negative lead. Older Fenders had double paper style 25uf/25uf at 25 volts. Later they were doubles with a
black body and a burgundy end. Later still they were a single 25uf/25 volt white waxy looking Mallory cap.
All of them are electrolytic caps with a positive end and a negative end. The negative end points towards the pots and the positive end points towards the tube sockets.
You will have to look around inside the amp to find them all. Most Fender combo amps have seven caps total. Either 7 single caps or 3 double caps and one single. Smaller amps like Princeton's may have only 6 of these caps. Tweed Fender amps will vary also, you will have to look at the amp to find them all. Some Fenders have one 25uf25v cap along the back of the amp near the reverb jacks.
They all need to be changed to new caps regardless of what amp you are working on. These caps make a huge difference in how the amps sounds and if they are over 10 years old they need to be changed. Sometimes the tremolo section has a 4.7uf cap instead of a 25uf cap. I replace these with a 25uf/25v cap or a 22uf/50v cap. Either cap works fine for a replacement.
Look at the Fender combo layout diagram above. This section of the layout diagram shows 6 of the 7 caps that need to be changed. The last 25/25v cap is next to the tremolo optoisolator and is shown in the drawing below left.
The first thing to do is remove the 25uf/25v caps from the circuit board and replace all of them with a new 22/50v or 25/25v cap. Unsolder the lead closest to the tube sockets and pull the cap up. The negative lead of some old caps continues through the eyelet and is soldered at the brass plate under the pots. Snip the lead flush at the eyelet, you will leave the section that goes from the eyelet to the brass plate. It's a ground wire that you
need to leave in place. |