Fender 75 mods?

[Rich M]

I recently got a Fender 75 in pretty good shape. I had one in high school and getting one again brought back memories (not all of them good). I want to fix this amp up and it has a number of features I like (like 1/4 power switch). Before I go into spice modelling extremes on this funky circuit, are there mods out there that I can implement to try and fix it. Basically my complaint is the distortion is pretty undefined, even for preamp distortion. I think a PPIMV and some lower gain tubes may help, but I'd be interested in ideas.

[VintageJon]

I would not try to mod this beast...

It's hard enough to work on, let alone mod...

-Jon

[mockoman]

I remember a post over at the fender forum where someone was modding a 75. Try a search over there.

[Rich M]

Thanks, Do you have a link? I found two fender forums, but couldn't find 75 mods on either.

[mockoman]

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.htm..._number=403242

and

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.htm..._number=337614

[DANOCASTER]

Rich -

I bought the 1-12 combo when they first came out !!

What worked best for me was when I threw off my back porch onto the driveway !!

At LEAST it stopped the horrible sounds that came from that thing

And to think I traded stright up for a Marshall JMP head and 4X12 for that piece-o-crap - what WAS I thinkin ??

[msymank]

I just picked one up a few months ago and am struggling with it mightly.

Every once in a while I dial it in to some degree, but the second my band starts, its an eq nightmare. The bright switch is from hell, its actually painful, and without it on its as dull as can be. Mid-boost is interesting, but I can't think of when I would use it.
I looked inside and it is a rats nest.

I really want to like this thing, but must admit, right now I am liking the fact that it has wheels on the bottom more than anything else.

Let me know if you come up with anything good.

[SlApBaCkEcHo]

Hi there,

I got a Fender 75 couple of months ago and was really impressed with its great clean sound and reverb. I bet one of the best clean reverb money can buy.

My tech did some minor mods to the amp to reduce the noise the amp produced... Decreasing mid and treble frequency values isnt a bad idea, changing some cables at the start of the circuit with good shielded cables is pretty good too. He put 3 orange drop caps in there too. For thighter bass and avoid bad vibrations...the gramma auralex floor isolation platform is a HUGE improvement for the 75. A choke on the transformer didnt do anything at all...its simply and basically a bad transfo! When ill be damn sure ill keep that amp i will simply change it. Using some great matched JJ's 6l6 will be good too and the use of less gainy preamp tubes will surely be an improvment too (havent received my tubes yet..)

The "second channel" which is not a second channel entirely is pretty hard to modify because the two channels have lots of components in common. This amp was built to challenge mesa boogie on the market so they put some vactrols in there (which is a pretty bad thing) that are used for the reverb and "channel" switching. By the way, and as an indication, pharaoh amplifiers are offering a footswitch for these types of amps for 50usd which is i guess...a good buy when we take in consideration the 150$ price of vintage ones.

Since there is no miracles to do with that crappy, sterile and too gainy "second channel", my advice will be to drive the amp harder with some ods. Theres too much pretty good od/boost out there for all tastes. Plus, the amp takes boost/od pretty well!

So at the end, i think of the Fender 75 as a ONE CHANNEL amp. If someone wants a really good Clean/Reverb fender tone, you have it for a bargain!

That was my humble opinion on that Fender Beast.
I use to speak french, so keep that in mind if some things i wrote were not clear enough...hehe!

[Pearly Gator]

As with any older tube amp, a recap would be in order. Then, bias the outputs properly. If my gray matter serves me, this is one of the ultralinear Fender amps. So, a Blackfacing of the PI will help a lot. Check the reverb driver cathode resistor. If it's 680 ohms, change it to the Blackface value.

Good luck!

PG