https://www.ebay.com/itm/385581031606

Made a lowball offer on this Marshall DSL40 and it arrived today. Took 5 minutes to fix. Reseated the DSP card inside, as it was halfway out of its socket, and replaced the missing output tubes with some used ones I had in my stash. Fired right up. Going to replace the cracked corner protectors and then flip it.

Have a Neumann TLM103 that I inherited from a dude that used to do a Weed Podcast (I'm in Portland Or) and he used to think it was cool to just blow tons of smoke into the mic so it was covered in icky muck. I bought a little replacement diaphragm from Micparts.com and installed it and the mic sounds pretty good now. Sounds just like the other, NON-420 friendly TLM103 I have at work. Not a bad fix for like $130. May try to clean the OG diaphragm with alcohol or something and pop it in a random MXL body or something just to see what happens. Any tips for cleaning mic diaphragms? This one is visibly mucky with dank sticky rez.

This guy has a pretty good technique. I did this myself on one of my 414s years ago and it worked well.

I follow that colepicksvintage guy on instagram and he seems like the go to for ribbon and dynamic mics. I wonder about condenser and tube stuff though - not that he couldn’t, I just don’t see him post about them as much.

Mine is an Audio Technica at4060 that I rolled the dice with their repair dept with. Unfortunately the mic is on its second trip back to them after a costly element replacement.

It has wind/sea wooshy noises that is intermittent only in that its noisy 90% of the time. Sometimes it stops for a bit, then it starts again. Doesn’t seem to matter how long I let the mic warm up or how much I pay AT to fix it!

Hopefully they can make it right. They were nice enough to send a shipping label and take the mic in on a warranty repair this time.

thecr4ne wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 5:48 pm

Bubber wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 11:17 am

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 11:06 am Anybody using professionals for mic repairs these days?

Not sure if I'm misunderstanding your question, but if you're asking if ppl have recommendations for mic repair, I sent a pile of EVs in to Cole Suddarth in Nashville about a year ago and I couldn't be happier about it. First heard about him via Lil Bub LLC. Anyway, very reasonably priced and fast. His Instagram account is worth following, too: colespicksvintage

Cole was referred to me by Misha at Russian Recording for ribbon mic work as well. I haven't actually sent any mics his way, but we exchanged a few emails and he's definitely getting my business...at some point.

1955 Magnatone Troubadour, model 112:

Found this on Reverb: https://reverb.com/item/69155900-magnat ... ther-studs

Schematic:


I probably paid too much, but I've never owned or worked on a Magnatone, so I couldn't pass it up.

I knew the rust maybe pointed to water damage or mice, but boy was I in for a surprise when I opened it up.


Luckily, I didn't find any dead ones in there, but it was totally trashed.

I cleaned the cabinet with bleach and denatured alcohol (separately), and scrubbed the cloth covering (it's not really Tolex) and the baffle/grill cloth with some mild plant-based cleaner we had under the sink.

I sprayed the shit out of the circuit with denatured alcohol before I gloved-up and stripped the chassis down. Then I treated it with phosphoric acid and coated it with rust converting primer.



Drew up a wiring diagram based on my reverse engineering and the above schematic. There were a few small differences. 0.1uF Bypass cap on V1 Instrument input cathode. Extra B+ voltage dropping stage feeding most of the preamp plates.

Replaced all the components:



The transformers were still good, as was everything on the panel. Tubes were good, but somebody had dropped 12AU7s in place of the 12AX7s, so I corrected that. Original Oxford speaker had a rubbing voice coil. I dropped in a 60s Cleveland AlNiCo I had sitting around. Also replaced the disintegrating original handle.



Sounds great now. Dead quiet, breaks up very nicely. Instrument input is a little bit brighter from that extra cathode bypass cap. Tele bridge pickup sounds good in the mic input.

Amazing restoration! Not familiar with this amp, very unique exterior styling.

The studded exterior is not original...perhaps the work of some sort of Torlex alter ego. A pangolin lord of armored amps.

The studs are kinda growing on me, in a WV mountain folk-art sort of way.

Certainly an ally to the Torlex Ssssnake, this Rivet Pangolin.

Fantastic job, Nate!