Nothing cosmeticaly wrong, but neither would make a peep when fired up.
turned out both had poor fuse connections.. power got in, but no further.
I scratched the fuse ends with a file, put them back in tight, and voila. Two perfect amps. Keep your eye on MF for blem vj heads!
I've decided to keep one stock and do mods on the other. First I swapped out the chinese pre amps for sovtek 12ax7s, then Tung Sol. I like the Tung sol best, smoother, later breakup, nicer crunch. still cheap, too!
I swapped the sovtek stock power tube for JJ/Tesla and that's much much better, too.
So first thing.. replace your tubes.
The Tube Store is a good outfit, good prices, good product, nice reviews and descriptions.
With the modded head, the firs thing was the standby switch.
This is a really simple mod. two wires, both clip in.
You use a very simple switch.. drill a hole in the face plate.. unplug the two wires inside.. rewire with the switch in.. and there you go. (don't try without help or instruction if new at this. you can get fried)
Now, my tubes should last much longer, and I can hit standby if I have to go 'sink the bismark' or something.
Second mod was two of the caps. I replaced the stock with sprague orange drops. a couple of bucks and the difference in tone and overall performance was much better. more fendery. richer thicker. a tad brighter, too.
I've got a lot of mods to try out yet, but so far, it's fairly easy if you're familiar with this sort of thing, and the benefits are waay cost worthy.
I have one homemade cab and one epi cab.. and the epi cab is very sweet.
way cool cabinet.. great wood.. nice covering and fine cosmetic appearance and construction throughout. for 130.00 it's quite a good deal.
These love pedals. you can plug just about any old thing in front of it and the amp just rocks out.
try alt.guitar or 18watt.com for more info and details.
I'm going to replace more caps, swap out a few resistors, and eventualy add tone controls as well.
It's the best little practice amp I've ever owned and I've owned a few.. going back to my sears and ampegs and fenders from the sixties.
a peach and a good price..
seem very sturdy.
I play more often now, and I pay more attention to tone.. and I enjoy it all much more.. that's the difference between this and my ss practice amps.
They worked well, even impressed me, but they didn't sing like tubes!
This is inspirational.
