Curious about original fender layout\build

[rutledj]

Having never owned or played and original Fender deluxe or princeton, I'm curious if they were particularly noisy amps (hum or hiss when idle). If not, I'm wondering why we don't use the original layout and wiring schemes that they did on those when we build clones. Was the brass ground plate particuarly troublesome or did it actually work well without introducing lots of hum? With all the amps built back then using that grounding method, I have to assume it must have worked ok, so wondering why it isn't popular today in the clones that are sold.

[martin manning]

When new, they were probably fine. The main problem with the brass plate is that with time the electrical connection to the chassis tends to deteriorate due to corrosion, making all the grounds made to the plate and to the pot cases go bad. Warping of the fiber boards tended to cause the ground leads soldered to the plate from the board pull out too. There are some people who believe that the brass plate was mainly used as an assembly aid rather than for its electrical properties, and it was certainly easier to solder to that than to the chassis. My preference is to eliminate the plate and all pot case grounds, and make one secure star ground near the input jacks.

[xtian]

Yes, you can make perfectly silent amps by following original layouts exactly. But why would you? We've learned a lot since then. Like, standby switches are troublesome and unnecessary, carbon comp resistors deteriorate, ground scheme can be improved. Why repeat Leo's mistakes?

[pdf64]

Also Fender typically made more than a few soldered connections to the chassis. Those tend to not be not feasible for DIYers to do, unless they’ve got a big bertha iron and the skills to use it.

[WhopperPlate]

…carbon comp resistors ... Why repeat Leo's mistakes?

Please allow me to play the devils advocate …fwiw both the client and I were much happier the last time I replaced all the carbon film and metal film resistors in a previously “teched” vintage Fender amp with the original carbon comps …

…some people like the feel and sound with ground loops everywhere… like me … there has been more than one amp I tried to improve that inevitably were returned to their original mistaken construction …

With that said , when I am building from the ground up I generally will follow the improved grounding methodologies recommended by others already

I can’t pretend anyone is as picky and sensitive as I , and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone , but that’s my 2 cents.

[bepone]

chassis must be made from the plastic and there will be no question about grounding anymore ..