My grandfather had a tv repair shop for most of my childhood. Watching these videos reminds me of coming home from elementary school in the afternoons and into his shop. He would always have Jerry springer on and pretend it was an accident. I would sit and watch him look at circuit boards and schematics. Thanks for the bit of nostalgia from your videos

Wow what a mess! If the guy who did that really works for an authorised Fender service centre they should fire him, preferably out of a cannon! Know what mean about costs, I had a chap bring me an old Italian amp once and said "get it working if you can, whatever you have to do", so I cleaned it up, replaced a couple of resistors and caps and charged him £50 (it was a few years ago). When he came to collect it he was outraged because he said he only paid £7 for it at a boot sale! I told him my time is my time and it costs what it costs, dont matter what your amps worth!

Love the Big Star t-shirt.

cant believe I watched this whole vid - i just got sucked in - very enjoyable to watch you work - ty!

WOW! Glad to see you making the point about cost of tech time / components versus the cost of some of these modern amps. I would imagine, by the time you were done with this, it is going to cost near the price of the amp if the guy goes ahead with it.

Wow this is the first video that ive watched of your stuff that i now can put a face to the voice ;-) I own a Bjr that has had a lot of work done to it, so I enjoy all these videos you post. Thanks :-)

Great video and I love how you explain everything and see things from all perspective points . I wish you would work on my Amps

Very well said, and a great explanation why these newer amps cost a lot to repair. These amps are cheap to make but not so cheap to repair.

It is pretty. I like that tolex color. I've replaced dozens of those plastic Fender jacks myself. I've taken to keeping a half dozen of each kind of them on hand.

This will be a fun one to watch

I feel for that customer of that blue's junior when they goes back to the original service Tech and find out that they lied to them it's the biggest bunch of BS. That's the kind of crap that makes me not want to do business with someone ever again. Keep up the good work.

Great video. Subscribed!

Cool tip on the cap discharge…thanks!

$300 repair to a $300 amp can buy you 20 years of reliability. Seems like a pretty damn good deal to me!

When someone tries to desolder a connection on a circuit board and they use a "solder sucker", the solder pads will pull off. Solder braid like we have seen in the Psionic videos is much better for desoldering.

Looking at future amp purchases with much more knowledge... Thanks.😎👍

Great cap drain technique !!!

Years ago I purchased a very popular mod kit (caps, resistors, audio pots, jacks) and decided to mod my hot rod deluxe III. I realized what you said about improper soldering. The pads lift extremely easy, the pads are very unforgiving. I ended up taking it to a tech to fix my mistakes and his reaction was: " $110 bucks no worries, I pretty much know what it is, call you when its ready..." Not even opened the amp up he knew based on the pattern failures and of course the rookie factor..These are good sounding amps but the components and build could have been better..

So sad to see this kind of amp-abuse. I’ve been guilty of this too when I was really new to amp tinkering, but it’s so common on inexpensively made PCB Fender amps. I cite my 1990s Princeton Chorus with the flimsiest board I’ve ever seen. I’ve given up on mods or repairs for this reason. It is what it is, and it’s never going to be any better than that. Well diagnosed issues on this Jr, thanks.

Black Magic Amplifiers here in the UK do a very nice quality, double-sided replacement tube board for the Blues Junior series.

I had a hot rod deville that didn't work anymore....For the price of the supposed repair, i bought a 59 bassman kit (being a cable solderer myself) put it in the cab, and now I'm in much better sounding heaven ! I totally understood why the cost was so high : these modern fender amps are terrible ! They are made to consume and buy new ones ....My bassman is forever ! and I learned a great deal.......

You mailed it. I have over 30 tube amps. Less expensive amps a costly to repair at times. I have not had too many point to point amps cost me much!

A Big Star t-shirt!

Is that a Big Star T-shirt you’re wearing? Alex Chilton was god! 😊

Good tip about the rattletrap grille!

I used to have one of these....I really disliked the pots, tube retainer, and it eventually developed strange popping noises. Years on I have a Laney cub10. It cost peanuts, but sounds so good, is very loud, and seems pretty decent.

Just looking at the ribbon cables on my 2001 Blues Jr. gives me hives. With a Weber Blue Dog speaker and adjustable bias, it was a great amp for the cost and it worked for years. Unfortunately the input jack went bad, then I started chasing gremlins in the amp and it just wasn’t worth the time and effort to fix it. Some day I’ll use the chassis, cab, and transformers to build a better amp.

Amen. I see this a lot. These videos have helped me tremendously. I can relate to the value of the amp versus the cost of repair. Most of my work is cheap guitars which I hate, hate. Thank you for your video contributions.

Love your videos! I watch them everyday. Thanks for all of the great tips and insights!! You mentioned that there is a replacement board for the tubes made by a fellow tech. Do you mind sharing the information for this? I’m working on a Mesa Boogie Studio 22 and I think my fix might be something similar. Thanks!

Much of the reason why I bought a thermostatically-controlled soldering iron was having damaged a pad on a Blues Junior PC board. As it happened, it was a mounting hole pad, not an electrical connection but it told me that the boards are a little fragile and can't take a lot of heat.

Some styles of mini 9-pin socket (for 12AX7'S, EL84'S etc) can be through-bolted to the PCB with a skinny, pan-head or countersinking bolt passing through the center of the socket and through a hole drilled into the PCB. If manufacturers weren't so cheap they'd through-bolt every PCB-mounted socket rather than rely on the solder joints to secure the sockets to the board. In this buggered and beleaguered amp, however, bolting the socket down to the existing double-sided board would require a lot of foil-trace cutting, jumpering and re-routing. Do-able, yes, but time-consuming. If I had no choice but to repair that board, I'd bolt down the P-I and output tube sockets. Still, I think you made the right call ---- no sense in banging your head against a repair when it's such an inexpensive, poorly made amp. Trick question: when is a mini 9-pin socket NOT a 9-pin socket? When it's a 10-pin socket with an actual contact, not just a tie-point terminal, in the middle! A few 10-pin tubes were actually designed and manufactured, such as the 6C10 triple triode (and the 6U10, I think, not 100% certain if that one had 10, or 12 pins). I seem to recall Ampeg might have used the 6C10 back in the 60's; they did use 6K11 and 6BK11 12-pin Compactron tubes.

That looks like my soldering work. But amp still sounds like the GOD!

If you end up getting a right angle attachment, the cheap Dewalt model works just fine for general amp work. I got one to drill chassis mounting holes in new cabinets. Saved a lot of time on measuring for perfect alignment.

What a nightmare these modern pcb Fenders are. I can't believe you even agree to fix them.

I bought a used tweed one in the past. When you remove a control knob, you find there is no nut and washer securing the pots to the panel. Just the solder point to the board. I sold it. I went for the Carr Mercury.

My tweed BJ blew up! Melted diode C47! Blew one power tube.

Hopefully the authorized repairman took responsibility for this. What a nightmare.

In my book, IC stands for Illegitimate Capacitors...!!!

“One tube, my ass!” Hahahahahaha excited to see the next part of the story

My experience with manufacturer warranty service ^^^ (not Fender, but big, not gonna name names.) I guess somebody's gotta learn somewhere. Mine was loving amps and deciding I'd found a somewhere to put some passion, lol, after that experience (the fix, six months later, was trivial.)

Some "Fugly" work from the past. That's always scary. Could mean FUBAR in some instances. Or F.U.B.B. by Wishbone Ash. {Great Song BTW.} Let's hope for the best.

Price of repair has nothing to do with cost of amp....which is the reason I no longer work for people. I wait til owners are so frustrated and sell on Facebook market places for $75. Then I will purchase, repair and try to resell. I use to run a boat canvas shop and told customers it was $75/hr shop fee plus materials (which I thought was cheap) and I use to get bitching from hell at the final Bill. I would end up taking a bath of 30%, 40%, 50% off - whatever it took to get rid of them. I never did find a reliable solution for those instances, other than turning down more and more work over time. Until one day it didn’t make sense to stay in business

Good information. Just for the heck of it (and not wanting to dip into your secret techniques) when you said wrong tip and too hot of an iron) what would you recommend for tip size and temperature settings. Thanks again for all your work and videos!

A new board sounds like a great idea. It looks like the previous person used a really hot soldering iron. Maybe a soldering gun. And I hope that's not plumber's solder.

I am waiting to see you put in some real tube sockets and get rid of that mess. I hate those tube boards. If the owner would go for it, it might be a bit more labor up front, but in 40 years, it will have easy to maintain tube sockets. instead of the next dead board and shanky wires.

Time to call Doug.

Whenever a trace gets destroyed a jumper has to be neatly put between points a and b. All too often see where someone just scrapes the foil a little and either tries to jump it with solder or lay a short jumper. The stresses will usually just rip away a little more of the trace. This could be fixed as it but not by someone who is doing it for a living. How much is a new board and perhaps a couple new sockets anyway? That would determine whether I swap it or fix whats there, and of course if it were someone's what they want to do.

I have a blues junior and love the tone that I get. If I ever upgrade, would you have a recommendation for an amp with similar tone but more structurally reliable?

Any thoughts on a blues jr. that has a distorted decay when a string is picked? Installed new tubes so far. Thanks for your insight into the world of amplification

This is true for all mass production now - walk out to your car and look under the dash ;) or raise the hood I don’t like it either - but I’m learning to cope (slowly)

Nifty Big Star shirt

Gotta love these “Authorized Service Centers”. Otherwise known as (not all, but most of the time) the cheapest bidder. We have a Peavey “Authorized Service Center” in my town. I know the guy. So does practically everyone else here in town. We all know of his “work”. I wouldn’t have him change the battery in my overdrive pedal. He would have to put his bottle of vodka down long enough to change the battery. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience him. Let him have his vodka. I’d rather pay money to someone who is proven and competent. So much for the worth of a warranty.

IMHO, PC boards don't belong in tube amps, especially those with tube sockets directly mounted to them! I strongly feel that the heating/cooling cycles of the tubes and the repeated expansion and contraction of the PC board will eventually cause the copper traces to separate from the board over time. Simply changing a tube could further loosen connections. The classic Fender amps that used eyelet boards in their construction along with chassis-mounted tube sockets are much more durable, easier to service and any loose solder joints can be easily re-flowed. The upgraded tube board in this case would be at least a step in the right direction in terms of time and labor saved and future reliability.

Hi bud, do you build amps from scratch as well as repair them etc?

Watched till the end, and the message that appeared made my jaw drop. Hopefully the customer can wring some honesty out of the previous 'authorized tech'. They should buy that board your friend makes and then pay you to install it as well as the charges thus far.

At 22:25, why'd they use a fully plastic, chassis-isolated jack and a metal-collared jack right next to each other ? Are they making an audio ground to the chassis through the jack? Or grounding out a tremolo or reverb circuit with the footswitch, via the jack being bolted to the chassis? If so, that's a really poor design.

I was a silver level guitar tech in the 90s for fender at a local store and their reimbursement structure was so bad that I called to terminate my agreement. I was consistently loosing money on warranty work. When fender called to speak about this I told them my customers would rather pay what its worth to get it fixed properly than get it fixed under warranty with a rush job. FMIC was not happy they acted like they were doing me a favor by having me in the family. pfft

Is there anything to be gained or lost by using that discharge method as a routine when turning off the amp (e.g. after use)?

Those nasty tube socket traces. I must do a dozen of these a year and half of them end up needing jumpers.

dude, is that a Big Star shirt?? :D

Hello, I have A Question, what year is this amp? I have a Blues Jr. i bought in 1997 It is a reissue of the older ones, all hand wired in a Tweed cover, It still works, well, but what year was this amp Made, thank you, Cousin Figel

Psionic Audio These amps are great, I've seen Jeff Beck use them when He played club gigs. About Your point on cost. of repair. An even worse amp to work on is the Bluesbreaker 007. It would take about 2 hours to take the chassis out to just clean the pots.

That board was shot Lyle , just like you said in the video..My ass also, there's no way they just replaced a tube...! Ed..uk..

I am in need of a small amp and been looking around but these videos really worry me in finding anything durable and reliable...

Whoever did this overheated the soldering iron on the gas ring. As an aside, lead free solder is terrible for reliability, prone to cracking and tearing components apart over heat cycles. I never use it for repairs.

I think you’re being generous when you used the word “tech” to refer to whoever did those garbage “mods.” 😂

So did you end up replacing the valve pcb?!

Outside "vintage and collectable amps", whether or not an amp is expensive is irrelevant when considering expensive work. The real question is will that money spent give you "your sound"? Or, Would that same money be better spent amp shopping?

When is part 2 ! ? ;-)

You mentioned a replacement board that your friend makes and or sells, do you know the cost or where I can get the info. Thanks kindly, Paul

So assuming that the factory authorized tech did set out to just replace a tube, and then screwed up and tried to fix it and hide the mistake, what in God’s name were they were trying to do? I guess I could see someone who was a total amateur cause that much damage trying to fix some other problem on the board, but what started it? It’s not like you slip with your soldering iron and burn sections of the board to a crisp in the midst of a tube replacement! I wonder what in the world started it?

Why do blues Jr's sound so different from blues deluxe amps? I thought they were supposed to be similar, but they react very differently.

I understand everyone has a budget, but say no to amps with board mounted tube sockets. I'm not completely anti PCB. They have their applications, but tube sockets ain't one of them. Every time you take a tube out the board flexes and the solder joints are stressed. They're built to fail...quickly.

These amps have doubled in price over the last decade. Please tell me Fender is finally using plated through-holes for their solder joints.

Well his $300 Blues Junior is worth $500+ now looking at Reverb prices.

Don't you want the chassis grounded while draining the caps?

Where are you located?

I wanna learn how to do this i wanna build a small tube amp do u have any recomendations on books or cheap kits please reply

Have you ever had to work on a Swart amp?

I tried the Billm mods on my Blues Junior and lifted a couple traces. These boards are of very low quality and some of the worst I've ever seen in my limited experience. Although I got the amp working, I plan on pulling the boards and rebuild it using a turret board. Minus the reverb.

Yikes.

Better to have a properly serviced used amp, then have to go out and buy another POS amp that's going to require service in the near future.

You don't know for certain who trashed the board...but the board was burned anyway, before it was trashed by "repairs." OK you need a new board.

I hate ribbon cables!

Dont think anyone has called a BJ his/her baby unless its the other meaning for BJ

Damn... this guy got screwed. FWIW, the Blues Junior III Red October is NOT a new amp... its from 2011. Someone is telling a fib.

When man discovers the 2 speed cordless drill. Bruh....next time make it easy on your self and use that high speed drill to remove the 4 machine screws that hold the chasis in the cab. Then you can use your high speed drill to remove the socket board. Your welcome.

By chance is your "friend" named Doug Hoffman? lol

Butchered how?

i bought a fender amp about 10 years ago, it has never work properly, noise, fuzz, it has been in the shop 4 times, and nobody knows what is wrong with it,,,,,, trash!!!!!

Next time someone asks you why you charge for your time, ask them what they do for a living and would they do what they do for free.