ever played a DRRI that had been redone to PTP ?

[cbnutt]

iam curious if anyone has had or played a DRRI thats been redone like this, id like to get mine to sounding a little closer to my old silverface one, i know tube tone in cailf. does it, and a place on ebay that will, iam sure theres others, any way anyone ever played one, and how much better did it make it ? thankks....

[CharlyG]

Do you REALLY mean point to point? Or do you more likely mean with a turret or eyelet board vs circuit board?

It's gotten to the point some are now calling it TRUE PTP, as if there was a false one!

[Blackhawk]

I have one done by Torres and I like it way better than the stock ones...I also use NOS tubes and use a Reverend Alltone 1250 speaker so it is probably a combo of upgrades that make it sound like it does, not just the board...

[cbnutt]

Do you REALLY mean point to point? Or do you more likely mean with a turret or eyelet board vs circuit board?

It's gotten to the point some are now calling it TRUE PTP, as if there was a false one!
turrent , eyelet board, vrs circut board.

[mrface2112]

I'm in the process of rebuilding one right now. It wasn't truly a DRRI when it came to me, it was a Hoffman board based 50W harsh sounding monstrosity running EL34's.

I'm rebuilding it using carbon comp resistors, sozo tone caps, F&T electrolytics and TAD coupling caps, allen PT and OT, vintage cloth wiring......i figured i'd go all out in rebuilding this thing. just waiting on one last cap--dry fit the components on the board last night.

It's been an exercise in a project coming in waaaay over budget. I think I've easily sunk $400 into parts (the Allen trannys were half that).

the one difference it's got from a regular DR is that the Normal channel has a tweed-inspired preamp/tone stack, with gain, tone and volume knobs in place of the standard B/T/V knobs. the Vibrato channel is stock.

i'm doing this b/c i wanted another project, and b/c i'm tired of dragging a 5E3 and a '67 Bandmaster (and a cabinet) around for my clean and dirty sounds. this amp should give me both in the same package, just switch between the channels with an AB box.

I wouldn't do this to a new DRRI, or even a used one you paid more than $400 for. There are complications with respect to the eyelet board and filter cap board and can, as well as some brands and makes of transformers--the DRRI chassis is designed for modern parts and is NOT vintage accurate.

I would think a tech would charge between $600-800 (parts and labor) for an eyelet board conversion--more if you're replacing the trannies. if you consider it's $700 or so for a used DRRI and then tack on the conversion costs, you're easily in the ballpark of a late 60's (early silverface) DR and who wouldn't rather have the vintage amp that'll appreciate in value?

cheers,
wade

[ScioBro]

What's it gonna sound like?
Its gonna sound more in the direction of your silverface DR, and
hopefully even better.
But from above posts you can see there is
a lot of possible combinations of exact components you choose
for the build.
And its a 2 channel amp now.....2 similar channels. If you re-do it away from PCB you may as well, make the RH channel sound a little different.

above and beyond changing the PCB DR to a vintage-style component DR,..
you can change the features of the DR if you want

- 6L6 power
- channels in phase
- diff. sounding RH channel
- mid pot?
- ???

[mrface2112]

- 6L6 power
- channels in phase
- diff. sounding RH channel


These were some of the things i considered when planning out my build. I wanted the option to use 6L6's, so I went with Allen transformers that could support that.

I knew i wanted the modded Normal channel. I never use Normal channels in fender amps anyway, so it was a perfect candidate for a mod. Especially since i was building from scratch.

Bringing the channels in phase with each other would entail making reverb/vibrato active on the Normal channel, and since my Normal channel is intended for overdrive, i don't really want effects on that channel. If i were leaving it stock, i'd do that though--thereby bringing the channels in phase with each other and giving me the ability to jumper between them.


cheers,
wade

[motis1953]

Just buy a Silverface and clean it up and have it serviced. It's about the same price (or cheaper) and you'll also have an investment in a collectible that will only appreciate as time goes on.

[cbnutt]

heres a link to tubetone that he does, probly hard to tell from the pics, but does it look layed out ok, good componets ? http://tube-tone.com/fender-re-issue-rebuilds.php

[Leonc]

Just buy a Silverface and clean it up and have it serviced. It's about the same price (or cheaper) and you'll also have an investment in a collectible that will only appreciate as time goes on.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner folks.

cbnutt - Can't tell much from that photo. Caps might be Mallorys...definitely not something expensive like Sozos. Resistors look okay...a lot of cheap metal film and some carbon comp; can't quite tell what's been used where. But it does look like a LOT of work.

Complete waste on something that you will NEVER get your money out of if you decide to part with it. I'm with motis1953--get yourself a SF DR and you'll have a wonderful amp that can be easily tweaked to BF specs if that's what you want.

[Pa'ani]

Totally agree with Leon as far as getting a Fender Silverface and tweaked to Blackface specs.
I have a '68 or '69 Fender Silverface Super Reverb that was "tweaked/modded" to a Fender Blackface specs including original Blackface panel and NOS parts. It's a great amp!

[kingink]

cbnutt, what you may have liked about your old SFDR--and i'm guessing here--was the sound of the aged components and maybe a broken in speaker. in other words, it wasn't just that the SFDR had a turret board, it was the fact that it was an old amp and the values of the resistors and capacitors were drifting and sounding "warmer" or "squishier" or more "vintage." you may have been hearing the tone provided by carbon comp resistors, and old ones at that, which supposedly sound "warmer" than metal film resistors. and an old speaker will usually have slightly rounded-off, "sweet" highs.

so in other words, instead of sinking a ton of money into modding a DRRI to sound old,i vote with motis1953 and leonc: just buy an old amp. if you factor in what you paid for the amp plus the mods, you probably could just buy another SFDR.

the only way i'd say go for the mod is if the cost of the amp+mods costs significantly less than a real SFDR, but the only way that might be true is if you got the DRRI for free.

[GuitarSmitty]

"If you consult enough experts, you can confirm any opinion."

Here is my take: Don't buy any thirty or forty year old amps unless you have a good local tech, or can afford the down-time and expense of sending it out. Sooner or later it will need something.

If you already have the DRRI, and your top priority is something to play (and play most reliably), someone like Vintage Sound (Rick Hayes) will do a nice job for $500.

[DavidS]

If you want your DRRI to sound closer to your silverface, I would replace the cheap chinese output transformer with a Mercury Magnetics OT. This will give you a more noticeable improvement than simply changing to turret board IMO. Its not hard to change the OT if you can solder and they only cost about $85.

[GuitarSmitty]

Have you tried running the DRRI head through the SFDR's speaker? I have found the speaker to have far and away the biggest impact.

[pullagnm]

After reading this thread I was wondering if it's possible to transform the normal channel on a DRRI to a tweed type? Kind of like what Rivera does with there clean channel by pulling the middle knob.

[cbnutt]

on the speaker thing, yes i have its just not the same , better, but not the same.

[mrface2112]

After reading this thread I was wondering if it's possible to transform the normal channel on a DRRI to a tweed type? probably.....but probably not without extensive modding and probably installing a eyelet board. then again, i've got zero time inside a DRRI outside of pictures--just enough to make me think "i wouldn't want to work on that"....

cheers,
wade

[cbnutt]

id like to hear more from those of you thats had it actualy done, yes i know a few are not in favor of doing it, but id like to, for the heck of it, also, tell me some good recomendations for this, i know kendrick amps will do it, the guy in florida who usaly runs a ebay ad etc, etc, so who are some good recomendations for haveing this done, also , iam sure theres great techs hear on the forum, iam just not familer with who they are, so if you do this , or can recomend some good techs, id like to hear who they are, thanks......