Hey all. Back in 1999 I bought a totally blasted 1966 Pro Reverb. I restored it as best as I could, but I had to replace a lot of parts; resistors, caps, speakers, baffle, grille-cloth, torlex, etc. A few years later, the tiny transformer got kind of cooked, so I replaced it with bassman-sized one with the correct screw hole spacing. The result was an amp that sounded and looked great, and could fool many that it was a vintage amp in nice condition. Even though the circuit remained the same, enough bits had changed to make it not really have a vintage value. It was quickly becoming the amp of Theseus.

However, I've not used it much in the last 10 years. My tastes were changing and I didn't want to mod it in any sever manner. Plus, it was acting funny. When trying to model it for Helix, I realized what had been happening. The fiberboard with the components was becoming capacitive and conductive. So now I'm at a crossroads. If I want this amp to perform well and truly be reliable, I need to replace the fiber circuit board. I figure I can go down one of three paths, but I'm not sure which one to take.

1. Restoration. Pull the fiberboard, clean everything up. rebuild the circuit on a new fiberboard while trying to use as many vintage parts as possible. Get it as close as I can to the spirit of what rolled off the line in 1966. I may not what to play it a ton, but that will give the most value.
2. Upgrade construction. Rebuild the mostly-vintage circuit on a turret board. I might make some component changes where it makes sense or revoice the normal channel, but for the most part it will perform like the vintage amp, but be reliable and more easily repairable for the next 50 years.
3. Modification. Rebuild the circuit with mods that might make me want to use the amp more. At the core it will be the classic vibrato channel circuit. In addition I might put in a mid knob, maybe a mod to revoice into a trainwreck style preamp. Perhaps a single stage tube gain boost from the normal channel. Change some cathode bypass caps to tame the lows below 50Hz. Maybe a Lar-Mar Master volume. I'm not going to drill, but it will eliminate the normal channel and reorder the knobs on the front. I might use the amp a bit more, but it also might be stuff that could be achieved my just using a damn EQ or boost pedal.

Or, maybe there's something else I've not considered. Give me your feedback.

4, BLAST IT WITH PISS

5. https://www.mojotone.com/Mojotone-Snakeskin-Tolex-54-W

Nate Dort wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2024 1:02 pm 4, BLAST IT WITH PISS

5. rub some beans on it!

Id say restore it as close to original as possible, sell it, use half the money to build your own amp the way you want it to sound/function, and use the remaining money on whatever the hell you feel like.

Build it back onto a cab with one of those styrofoam rotating speakers from a church lady Lowrey Organ. Roto-Pro Reverb! With a speed foot controller... Gawd that would kick so much ass. Other than that, yeah... Snake skin.

I’m a restore boy

Q: As modded under Option 3, will the amp fill an identifiable gear niche or satisfy a palpable gear desire?

If not, I would humbly opine that modding it is going to be a possibly-futile fishing expedition for usefulness, and that the answer in that case is, “Whichever option you think will render the amp the most salable.”

(Granted, even if you don’t find a role for the amp, the process of modding it may provide valuable experience. But then you’re still left with a large piece of gear that’s just taking up space — and one that’s now even harder to get rid of.)

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Id say restore it as close to original as possible, sell it, use half the money to build your own amp the way you want it to sound/function, and use the remaining money on whatever the hell you feel like.

I feel like this is the way to go. Or even just sell it as-is and let the next owner deal with the restoration decisions.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2024 1:09 pm Id say restore it as close to original as possible, sell it, use half the money to build your own amp the way you want it to sound/function, and use the remaining money on whatever the hell you feel like.

^ this. As eventually you'll want to do a mod that would benefit from another hole, and you'll figure "what the hell" and then in your 40s you'll want that Traynor back to what it was supposed to be. Also you're 22