bruce919 Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 I got a 73' Fender Deluxe Reverb last week at a local Pawn shop for some a very very low sum. It looks like its been sitting one someone Garage for years, it was covered in dirt, dust & crud. What can use to clean the tolex & face plate with out harming it?Amazing thins is I just wiped eveything down (dry towel) , looked at the tubes & fuse. Everything look right on it. It fired right up through the Tremolo does not seem to work. Reverb is very strong. Amp start to distort on about 5. Its a keeper.Just trying to clean it up a bit more.
HAMERMAN Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 For cleaning Tolex I usually spray on some windex and then scrub with an old stiff toothbrush (or soft scrub brush). You need something fairly stiff as far as toothbrushes go to get the dirt out of the crevices but you definitely don't want to risk damaging the Tolex. It's best to do a small area at a time. The windex should foam up a bit as you brush and that seems to help lift the dirt. Then I dip the brush in clean water and brush the area again and dry it with a towel, this keeps the sunken in areas from looking crusty and white afterwards. It takes a long time and is best done with everything removed from the chassis just to make it easier to handle and to remove the possibility of getting windex or water on anything. If the Tolex is in good shape with no stains, just years of dirt - the results can be pretty surprising.IMHO Armour All should be avoided at all costs. It makes the crevices look white and chalky and the rest of the tolex look unnaturally shiny.Faceplates are a tougher call, anything too aggressive and you risk softening the silkscreen writing. On silverfaces I am not aware of anything you can do to make the silver areas look better.As far as the Tremolo goes, do you have the footswitch? On that model the tremelo will not turn on unless you have the footswitch. If you don't have it you can take an RCA plug and short the middle pin to the outer portion and then plug it into the trem jack. This will enable it all the time.If you do have the footswitch then a bad trem is often a cap that needs replacing or a bad optocoupler. Sometimes the neon bulb portion of the optocoupler fails, in my experience more often than not it's because one of the legs broke off, not because the bulb itself died.
bruce919 Posted January 9, 2006 Author Posted January 9, 2006 Thanks I will give it a try. I'll post some pics in a week or so. The guy at the pawn shop said he had just set it out about a half an hour before I got there. I Saw it & saw the price of $160, put it on the counter & said "I'll take it".I am glad I stoped in the pawn shop that day & time.
Steve Haynie Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 The face plate on at least some of the silver face Fenders have a clear coat of some kind. There is a possiblity they can be buffed a little bit, but certainly not scrubbed.
cmatthes Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 I asked the same question a few years back to Gil Southworth, who is right down the road from me. He said to use a warmed ionized/distilled water-dampened cloth. For tougher stuff (cigarette tar, years of dust, some mildews, etc.), he recommended a mild soap solution. That cleaned up some old Fender brown and black tolex without dulling or overshining - just a little patience. If you've ever seen the mind-numbing collection of mint condition blonde and brown Fender amps stacked floor to ceiling in his shop, you'd assume that would work!
HAMERMAN Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 I Saw it & saw the price of $160, put it on the counter & said "I'll take it". I am glad I stoped in the pawn shop that day & time. +1Wow, excellent score!
kenjones Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 My buddy who works on old amps all the time takes everything out of the cabinet, goes to the car wash and sprays the tolex with one of the high-pressure wands. I've never tried it, but he swears by this method.
bruce919 Posted January 9, 2006 Author Posted January 9, 2006 My buddy who works on old amps all the time takes everything out of the cabinet, goes to the car wash and sprays the tolex with one of the high-pressure wands. I've never tried it, but he swears by this method. Ya & when I'm done I'll dump some gas & it & let it burn a few min. to kill off all the germs.
bobbymack Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 I asked the same question a few years back to Gil Southworth, who is right down the road from me. He said to use a warmed ionized/distilled water-dampened cloth. For tougher stuff (cigarette tar, years of dust, some mildews, etc.), he recommended a mild soap solution. That cleaned up some old Fender brown and black tolex without dulling or overshining - just a little patience. If you've ever seen the mind-numbing collection of mint condition blonde and brown Fender amps stacked floor to ceiling in his shop, you'd assume that would work! My best results have come from a very warm soapy water and a stiff brush. Just make sure to wipe it down real well with a clean damp rag so all the soap's gone. If you get good results, you can try scrubbing in a little armorall -- make sure the crevices are clean, and the stuff gets in there or you'll get shiny peaks and grungy valleys in the tolex... Also +1, Southworth guitars is one of the best vintage places I've ever seen. Is it still on the 2nd floor of the strorefront in Bethesda, or has he moved? It's been at least 10 years for me...
Turdus Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 BM -- you may be thinking of his old store on MacArthur blvd in DC. That store was the 2nd floor of a row house turned commercial district. He was over a Cleaners, IIRC. Great store... prior to that, Gil dealt out of his house, a few blocks from that store.
bobbymack Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 BM -- you may be thinking of his old store on MacArthur blvd in DC. That store was the 2nd floor of a row house turned commercial district. He was over a Cleaners, IIRC. Great store... prior to that, Gil dealt out of his house, a few blocks from that store. That's the one, on MacArthur...used to buy wine across the street, and check out the sweet old axes he always had in there. You could feel the vibe while climbing up the stairs....
kenjones Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 My buddy who works on old amps all the time takes everything out of the cabinet, goes to the car wash and sprays the tolex with one of the high-pressure wands. I've never tried it, but he swears by this method. Ya & when I'm done I'll dump some gas & it & let it burn a few min. to kill off all the germs.Well I was wrong. I have tried it before - I just forgot.I just talked to my buddy who "blackfaced" and re-capped my '75 SFDR. He reminded me that when I got that amp a couple of years ago that we took it the car wash, sprayed it with Armor All Tire Cleaner (the foaming stuff), let it sit for a few minutes, then sprayed it with the high pressure wand. I wiped it down and let it dry for a couple of days and re-assembled the amp. It looks great. The combination of the foaming cleaner and the high pressure spray really cleans out all of the crevices.My friend used to work at Kendrick and Gerald Weber showed him that technique for cleaning old amps.
hamerican gigolo Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 I've always have used Murphy's oil soap and a damp(not wet)sponge.
cmatthes Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 That's the one, on MacArthur...used to buy wine across the street, and check out the sweet old axes he always had in there. You could feel the vibe while climbing up the stairs.... Yep - he's in a really pedestrian storefront now right on Old Georgetown in Bethesda. He's got a ton of scary cool stuff in there at all times, but according to not only him, but the guys who work there, that's not even the tip of the iceberg. Seems he keeps all the "good" stuff at home! If a shop where they've got @ 20+ 50s Les Pauls hanging, a few dozen Pre-CBS Strats on the walls, and at least one '50s Korina Vee at all times is "not even the good stuff", then I can't imagine what the vault at his house must be like!
Moose Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 There's something about old crap looking amps. I played through this one yesterday. VERY early '55 I restored to working order for a cat a couple of years ago. Shield your eyes if you don't want to be offended by what was done to it before he bought it (for $100, in working order BTW)
tafkathundernotes Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 I've used a mild solution of Spic and Span with warm water and an old toothbrush. You can get another faceplate here
Steve Haynie Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 My buddy who works on old amps all the time takes everything out of the cabinet, goes to the car wash and sprays the tolex with one of the high-pressure wands. I've never tried it, but he swears by this method. What a coincidence. I was going through the current/recent issue of Vintage Guitar with John Fogerty on the cover and in Gerald Weber's column he suggests the same thing. The article is about cleaning old amps and in it he says to take out the guts and run that cabinet through a car wash. He says to use the rubber cleaner since the tolex is rubber.
bruce919 Posted January 10, 2006 Author Posted January 10, 2006 I am not worries about the tolex I am worried about the wood under it. I will stick with an old tooth brush & try a few of the suggestions above , other then the car wash.
kenjones Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 My buddy who works on old amps all the time takes everything out of the cabinet, goes to the car wash and sprays the tolex with one of the high-pressure wands. I've never tried it, but he swears by this method. What a coincidence. I was going through the current/recent issue of Vintage Guitar with John Fogerty on the cover and in Gerald Weber's column he suggests the same thing. The article is about cleaning old amps and in it he says to take out the guts and run that cabinet through a car wash. He says to use the rubber cleaner since the tolex is rubber.Maybe in the next video I produce for Gerald we'll get out of the shop, go to the car wash, and hose down an amp. That would certainly make for some different visuals besides his workbench!
BCR Greg Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 Make sure you get more stuff like the "pin 9 zap" incident. That kills me every time.
kenjones Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 Make sure you get more stuff like the "pin 9 zap" incident. That kills me every time. "Was it hot...!?!"
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