Tremolo issue on my ‘69 Bandmaster Reverb

duncan

duncan

Active member
Howdy.

Here's the issue: My tremolo doesn't seem to be getting any guitar signal. I can hear the background noise change with me increasing and decreasing the intensity and speed pots, but my guitar signal is unaffected.

Here's what I've tried:

Replacing the tremolo driver tube (with a handful of tubes to ensure it's not that)
Changed out all of the old white Mallory caps with new Spragues
Inspected the roach/photocell (it lights up and changes with the pots)
Touched up and reflowed the solder on the entire tremolo section

Is anyone able to offer insight as to what might be the issue?

Thanks!
 
Man. Free bump. I have no business in this thread. You've done more than I would have thought to do.

Have you tried all of the front end jacks? Are they clean? Any difference if you disable the reverb? Faulty resistor? Tremolo would run off a resistor right? Sorry man.
 
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311splawndude said:
Man. Free bump. I have no business in this thread. You've done more than I would have thought to do.

Have you tried the of the front end jacks? Are they clean. Any difference if you disable the reverb? Faulty resistor? Tremolo would run off a resistor right? Sorry man.
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Haha yeah I’ve cleaned the jacks and they’re good. No difference with the reverb taken out.

I’m going to follow the continuity to see where my signal is getting dropped this afternoon. I bet it’s either a resistor that’s failed or a connection I’ve bunged up somehow.
 
I have had those ceramic caps go bad or get noisy in that circuit. I would swap those with some mallory 150s.

You already got the white electrolytic 25uF cathode bypass caps changed, which is good.

Also if you can inject a sine wave signal or use a looper pedal into the amp and check it at the point it splits off, that would be a good way to start see where it might be breaking down. Not sure if you have a scope to do that though.
 
blackba said:
I have had those ceramic caps go bad or get noisy in that circuit. I would swap those with some mallory 150s.

You already got the white electrolytic 25uF cathode bypass caps changed, which is good.

Also if you can inject a sine wave signal or use a looper pedal into the amp and check it at the point it splits off, that would be a good way to start see where it might be breaking down. Not sure if you have a scope to do that though good
Click to expand...
 
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