I am new to the forum and would appreciate any experienced advice on fixing the reverb on this amp.
The amp is a Fender Bullet Reverb made around 1995 based on the date on the spring reverb pan. All functions are perfect except for the reverb. Turning up the reverb control, increases the background noise, and once I opened the box and tapped the spring reveb unit it made plenty of ringing noise. The noise can be controlled with the "Reverb" pot. Tell me if I am wrong but I believe this means the output of the reverb circuits are good, and the problem is in the input to the reverb.
After a little research I tried switching the input and output connections on the spring reverb pan. The idea was to see if the input side transducer worked as an output transducer. It did and the pan continued to make spring noise when tapped. I think this means that the spring reverb pan is probably good, and that the problem is in the circuits supplying a signal to the reverb pan, not the pan itlself.
Looking over the schematic for the amp, there are only a few resistors and, I think, one capacitor, and one side of an IC chip between the signal source and the input to the spring reverb unit. I believe the signal is good before that, because the same signal source is split between the reverb and the main amp tone controls, and they all work perfectly. So I think the signal is good at that point.
I am wondering what is the best thing to do next. I considered replacing all the possible components between the signal source and the pan, but if there is a simpler way to determine what is most likely the specific failed component, that would be a better way to go. I have not yet pulled the circuit board, but when I do is it possible that a solder connection has failed? Does it make sense to reheat all solder joints first? Is the capacitor more likely to fail than the resistors? I know that some caps made during that time period were prone to failure and caused a lot of problems in computers and tvs.
Thanks for any advice.
The amp is a Fender Bullet Reverb made around 1995 based on the date on the spring reverb pan. All functions are perfect except for the reverb. Turning up the reverb control, increases the background noise, and once I opened the box and tapped the spring reveb unit it made plenty of ringing noise. The noise can be controlled with the "Reverb" pot. Tell me if I am wrong but I believe this means the output of the reverb circuits are good, and the problem is in the input to the reverb.
After a little research I tried switching the input and output connections on the spring reverb pan. The idea was to see if the input side transducer worked as an output transducer. It did and the pan continued to make spring noise when tapped. I think this means that the spring reverb pan is probably good, and that the problem is in the circuits supplying a signal to the reverb pan, not the pan itlself.
Looking over the schematic for the amp, there are only a few resistors and, I think, one capacitor, and one side of an IC chip between the signal source and the input to the spring reverb unit. I believe the signal is good before that, because the same signal source is split between the reverb and the main amp tone controls, and they all work perfectly. So I think the signal is good at that point.
I am wondering what is the best thing to do next. I considered replacing all the possible components between the signal source and the pan, but if there is a simpler way to determine what is most likely the specific failed component, that would be a better way to go. I have not yet pulled the circuit board, but when I do is it possible that a solder connection has failed? Does it make sense to reheat all solder joints first? Is the capacitor more likely to fail than the resistors? I know that some caps made during that time period were prone to failure and caused a lot of problems in computers and tvs.
Thanks for any advice.