From detritu–(at)–x.netcom.com Fri Dec 6 16:52:09 CST 1996
Article: 29693 of alt.guitar.amps
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From: detritu–(at)–x.netcom.com(Lord Valve)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps,alt.guitar
Subject: Re: Fender Deville
Date: 6 Dec 1996 07:00:54 GMT
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In <5876s6$rs--(at)--etaxs.com> jeff–(at)–etaxs.com (Jeff Vineburg) writes:
>
>David Covell wrote:
>
>>I don’t buy the “phony-sounding new crap” bit; I used to think that
way
>>until I gave a serious listen to the “original” Blues Deville 4×10
>>(which I think sounds better than the Hot Rod).
>
>Ok, and what do you find to be different?
>Does the `original’ sound close to anything else you’ve heard?
>
>
>
>>The only downside is longevity; if I gigged these amps they’d not
stand
>>up to the abuse. But when they can be had new for $500, who cares? It
>
>Well, I do 🙂
>What leads you to believe it won’t stand up? Do you think it’s
>repairable or preventable by someone who can use a soldering iron?

LORD VALVE SPEAKETH:

PC boards are repairable…a few times. Repeated resoldering causes
pads and traces to come off. PC boards just aren’t good for
high-voltage circuitry…if a component fails, burning the board, the
board becomes conductive. This isn’t that much of a problem where you
have SS power supply rails of +/- 15 volts, but stuff in the 400 – 500
volt range tends to leak all over the place in this situation.
Repair costs are higher with PC boards…often, the tech must remove
and label wires before pulling the board to gain access to the traces
located on the opposite side from where the parts are. Many times,
wires or ribbon cables break off from the flexing necessary to reach
the solder joints. When the amp goes out of production, there is only
going to be a limited number of spare boards at the factory. When
those are gone, there will be no more. What are you going to do when
you burn one up? Have you ever seen the mess a transformer fire makes
out of a point-to-point wired amp? Imagine what that would do to a PC
board!!! The point is, when a PC fries, it’s history. As for the
vintage stuff…well, I reckon they’ll be makin’ WIRE for quite a
while, yet. If you want something that lasts, go for the real thing.
Those PC amps are throwaways.

Lord Valve
detritu–(at)–x.netcom.com
(Fat Willie)

 

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