Fender Blues Deluxe

This Fender Blues Deluxe really looks cool but was suffering the usual crackling noise that many have suffered from.  First thing was to make sure the valves were all seated well, as they can manage to work loose, being upside down.

On power up it soon became apparent that there was at least one component flapping about and making intermittent contact with the rest of the circuit.  So off with the back and out with the plastic stick for some prodding around, which quickly located the offending capacitor.

On the bench, after testing all the electrolytics were still good, it's off with the knobs nuts and washers and half a dozen screws to lift out with the main board and inspect the condition of the solder side.

The loose capacitor was surrounded with stiff cables and not easy to manipulate but one end wire was clearly moving in its blob of solder causing the horrible arcing noise.  Whilst in there I touched up a few other joints around it just to be sure.  

Often its the 470 Ohm 5 Watt resistors that fall out, but here they were solidly attached, though the board was obviously showing signs of heat stress.  There was about a 1/4 inch gap between resistors and board so I left them alone, not wishing to stress the delicate tracks any more than was needed.  I also crimped up a couple of the spade connectors which were not as stiffly connected as I like them to be. Everything else looked fine it's probably fixed.

To prevent that large heavy capacitor from moving again I applied a decent blob of hot glue to each end to give it a good mechanical bond to the board.  Finally, a squirt of cleaner into the pots and valve seats, tighten all the screws and bolts and put it back together for testing.

I think these are really good sounding amps and I can see why they are so popular with bands.  Needless to say, I spent a good hour testing both channels to make sure all was well.  Yes I know it's a pain but someones got to do it!