Fender Reissue Reverb Problem

[greggorypeccary]

Looking for some technical expertise here. I just got a 63 Reverb RI and it doesn't work. Good deal on ebay, right?:( Not "too good to be true" though. Anyways, before I go postal on the seller (I have already emailed him) I'd like to hear what the possible causes might be. Sound goes through but as I turn up the mix there's no 'verb and my volume drops. Touching the output wire puts a good hum through it so I assume there is an output of the signal. Is it the tank?

Thanks for any input you might have.

And let's not turn this into an ebay bashing thread, I want to solve the technical problem here and then deal with the seller, thanks.

[Trout]

Maybe if your lucky its just the driver tubes. If you have a extra 6V6 and a 7025, even a 12AT7 will be ok for test purposes, Try swapping them out.

Not a lot to those units, It should be fairly easy to fix.
Trout

[greggorypeccary]

Yep, changed the tubes, thanks trout!

[John Phillips]

If it still passes dry signal it sounds like a broken tank. If it was shipped to you - and especially if the clamp was not put on the tank, as it always should be when transporting the unit - I would say it's almost a certainty.

BTW, the right power tube for these is a 6K6, not a 6V6. I know Fender fit them with 6V6s, but that's because it's the nearest available current production tube; it actually runs at completely the wrong bias and makes the 'verb sound trashy and distorted. It puzzles me why - given that the whole thing is not exactly accurate anyway - they didn't use a different cathode resistor value and bias it correctly... but at least it does mean that you can simply substitute the original tube type with no modification, and have it sound much more authentic.

NOS tubes throughout, and replacing one cap - again, where a modern equivalent is not easily available and they used the next 'prefered' value - will make a huge difference to the quality of the tone. I did these things to a RI when I had a real '64 one to compare it to, and I would say it got at least 95% of the sound of the original.


(Actually - have you checked that the clamp is not on the tank now? :) It almost mutes the reverb signal!)

[Birdseye]

I had those symptoms often with my old RI reverb.

Inside the reverb tank there is a tiny little wire that connects from the jacks to the springs. These wires are very delicate. Mine used to break on a regular basis when using the tank on the road. Really poor construction in the tank. Not such a hard fix though. If you take it apart and remove the tank you'll see it. That wire could have broken in shipping. The best fix would be to replace that delicate wire with something a bit more sturdy, especially if you are taking it on gigs. I would probably just have spliced a heavier wire on to the existing wire in order to have a sturdier wire to solder at the jack, where the vibration and stress seemed to cause repeated failure on mine. The end at the springs had a connector that did not seem to ever cause a problem. In the end, though, I bought a real vintage one and sold mine.

Good luck...these do sound cool.

[greggorypeccary]

Checked the wires, they are intact. Tried different tubes. I jiggled the middle tube and it worked for a few minutes, so it doesnt seem to be the tank, then it stopped working and the hum came back. It almost sounds like a grounding issue or a short somewhere or something. I guess I'll just take it to my tech on monday. I assume whatever it is it won't cost too much and I am in contact with the seller so it should all work out. I'm bummed though because I thought I'd be surfin' this week-end!