Is my Fender Pro 185 in serious trouble?

[stratorius]

Phatt and Enzo thanks for tuning in again. Last thing, I found some pics of a Stage 185's entrails, the Stage being the 112 version of the 212 Pro, same schematic. You might wanna take a look at these and tell me if you immediately notice any (or a lot, I now fear) apparent weak spots in this amp that I / my tech man should pay extra attention to. You're both knowleadgable, I greatly value your input, even if the conclusion would be that the 185 looks like a piece of shhh to you   

They come from a forum topic (http://music-electronics-forum.com/t13692/) on an ahem dead Stage 185 (that in the end rises like Lazarus btw), and the pics were taken before the necessary repairs/replacements so you're looking at a dead parrot:





No eyelet board, that's for sure.

[Enzo]

I don't know what I am supposed to see here.  If the amp tech is competent, he doesn't need pointers.   I see those two main filter caps sticking up, they often need to be resoldered.  On ANY amp with intermittent problems, check the solder on anything with mass or that sticks up from the board... like those caps.   Any of those rectangular cement power resistors can shake loose.   Jacks and controls along the panel deserve a solder look.

[stratorius]

Enzo many thanks. I think I now got all the info I need to go and see the amp tech. Thanks all, for your input has been pretty crucial for a noob like me (on guitar I'm pretty smart). Plus I got good hope for the amp's repair. This is a fine forum indeed. :tu:

[Jack1962]

I rarely think of age.  Guys all the time ask when an amp was made.  I think, how should I know?  I don't care.   I leave that to the fans.   I don't mean it unkindly, but I call the folks who can tell you every model and year amp fans.  The guys who can quote chapter and verse, "Oh the master volume didn't come out until 1974, and then the pull switch was added in 1977, and..." or whatever.  I call them fans, like the guys who like to rattle off baseball stats.  More power to them and bless their hearts.

Jukebox people are the same way.  They want to tell me what year it was made, but I want to know what model it is.

But to me, I think in terms of how things are made.   Old Fender is galvanized heavy steel chassis, Modern Fender is formed sheet steel like these wedgies.  Old Fender is eyelet boards and caps up under a cover.  Modern Fender is large pc board.  I don;t care how old it is within those categories.

I agree with that , I work on to many amps to remember when they came out , and all te rest of the sales pitch lol lol lol

[J M Fahey]

I guess you are two grumpy old guys.
You don't give importance to the real stuff of life.
I *BET* you can't hear the difference between a Script logo and a Block logo MXR Distortion + or between a RC4558 and an RC4558 or betweeen a red stripe and a blue stripe amplifier.
Oh Well !!!!!!!
I'll go weigh my Orange Drops to find the Bluesier sounding ones.

[Jack1962]

Well J M I have b een call Grumpy that's true 
but you would loose that bet brother 

                                         Rock On

[J M Fahey]

So there's 3 of us now !!!

[bry melvin]

gee is this forum a haven for grumpy old men....?

Well at least I can't fit in that category...

but I HAVE been able to SMELL the difference between My old Fender  and my Guild thunderbird amp

August of 69 My amps spent several days of barely being kept out of the rain in my VW....

The fender board grew a whole bunch of green stuff and really smelled BAD...

never did end up playing...

but got to hear Carlos Santana play that new fangled  amp...

Damn that was a long time ago...

[scooperman]

I have owned a couple of Stages, I still have one Stage and one Pro, and I have repaired quite a few of them for friends.  Every one of them had dead or dying caps and diodes in the power supply circuit, a couple of them had dying/dead/broken power resistors in the output stages, and two of them had broken input jacks.

Start out by replacing the rectifier diodes and filter caps, just do it.  Then, before powering it up again, take a good look at the cement power resistors, you may find one has come unsoldered, or it has a broken lead.  I would unsolder one lead of each big low-ohm power resistor and confirm its resistive value (measure with a precision ohmmeter) or just shotgun all of them with new resistors.  Inspect the bottom (solder side) of the pcb with a magnifier and bright light, you are likely to find a bad solder joint and possibly a cracked trace.  If a lead or pcb trace opened where high current was flowing, you could find a burned or cracked trace.  High current traces need a lot of copper, if you find cracks then scrape the mask away on both sides and form a bridge across the crack with wire, or you can make a tidy high-current bridge by soldering a piece of solder wick across the crack.

Still, the 185 is one of my favorite Fender amps from that era.  It does have too many knobs and switches, making it difficult to find that perfect tone, you have to play around with the settings for a while to find it.   But its worth fixing, its 35 years old but it will sound great 35 years from now if you just take care of it.

[Dobbler]

Hi There,

Sorry to open an old thread but just wanted to weigh in on this. I've had a hard working Pro 185 for about 18 years now and I love it. It's been gigging on average 3-4 nights a week since the day I got it. It suffered the same problem with the large filter caps, I had no flight case for the first couple of years and frequently used the casters to wheel it from van to gig, perfect activity for loosening those filter caps. The repair guy took them off, turned them upside down, glued them back to the board and hard wired them back (at least that's what he told me ). That repair lasted about 15 years with no trouble at all. Unfortunately, it has started to give me some trouble again but it sounds like the same problem and I'm going to have a look myself when I get a chance.

I've always loved the cleanness of this amp, tubes are nice but when they get hot and crunch up, chords turn to mush. If you want it loud but clean as a whistle, you can't beat the 185 IMHO.

Did you get it sorted in the end?

Good luck,

Rob.

[J M Fahey]

I guess so.
This mother *is* loud !!!