Hey Lyle, the magic tool for straightening kinks and bends out of component leads and buss wire is called "two flat surfaces." Simply place your wire on a hard flat surface (like the edge of your bench) and place another hard flat surface on top (I use a block of hardwood). Roll the wire back and forth a few times while applying moderate pressure. Done right, this will leave the wire arrow straight and remove most of the flaws. Tight little kinks will sometimes escape the process and you may have to go after those with pliers. But overall the technique is fast and easy, and does a remarkably good job.
Hi Lyle, I don't know if you tried this, so I'll just run it up the flagpole and see who salutes. For getting out micro bends on wire, I use two flat pieces of steel 2" x 6" x 1/4" that I sanded the texture down flat and near polished with fine sandpaper, so that they are very smooth. I'll roll out any leads or wire in between them, and it works very well for me.
Nice video as usual Lyle! Jewelers use wire straightening pliers with replaceable nylon jaws, you draw the wire through at a right angle to the jaws. The nylon pads get replaced when they get too grooved, several videos show these on YT but I cant link one here. Many cool tools at beading/jewelry shops, including a Bead Works unit that makes an 1.5mm auto loop unit I'd love to try on jacks /pots. On the battery front the Energizer Max are crappy, and they want 4x more $ for their lithium's (which are 2x better capacity) When available Titanium Innovations at Bat Junction are an excellent deal for 9v for $6 each for a 10pk (with 10yr shelf life)
Right there with you on that car riding stuff. And I climbed trees that were so tall it amazes me, even today. I scuba dived to 80 feet in a Florida spring, for my first dive, BEFORE certification was even thought of.
For the bus wire, Before you cut, just grab it with thumbs and fore fingers , both hands at the same point , slowly pull your hands apart, and it will straighten nicely. I do it a few times. There will be a slight curve that you can easily straighten. Or you can put it in your drill. Single strand , and give it a twist. The twist isn't noticeable like it would be if you were twisting 2 wires. And the wire is quite stiff afterward. Love these long vids, Lyle!! Now, back to trying to figure out why my trainwreck build has low output vol. Lol. Wasn't the tubes.... ugh
I like that you used the term “best practice”. We talk about that a lot in the IT world, and establishing them definitely helps prevent issues down the line. We should be using this term more.
Re: screen grid resistors: here's a (however there only seems to be one manufacturer and one source) good option for a 470R 3W fusible metal film: www.digikey.com.au/en/products/detail/vishay-beyschlag-draloric-bc-components/PR03000204700JAC00/596300
Re: the 9V batteries, I only use either Panasonic from Digikey or Toshiba locally. They last about 6 months or more of daily use in my Fluke 17x series meters.
I took out every component, removed all of the solder, soaked overnight in 91% isopropyl alcohol, then heat gunned for like 20 minutes. Then drove out the remaining moisture with my 850* Hakko soldering iron at every eyelet. I repopulated the board. It works and works well but I’m still getting stray DC in parts of the preamp. So frustrating and the noise floor came down some but not a lot. Still some of that rushing water/frying pan sound. I didn’t do the bias board though. So maybe? Idk. Im in North Texas and it gets fairly humid here.
Hi Lyle- for removing kinks and bends from the bus wire, go to a tackle shop and look for a leader straightener. It’s two pads of leather stitched on one side. Put the wire between the pads, squeeze with your fingertips and pull the wire through.
The other day I was going through my weekend troubleshooting of a D-Reverb kit I had built and was flipping voltage polarity to V8 pin 5 for reasons everybody I asked thought were of my own design, as something I had done during the build had to be wrong-and after having comb the darn thing all throughout checking for wiring errors I decided to probe the board for DC. Yes, it was DC from the B+ node leaking onto the negative bias voltage node of V8 grid that was flipping its polarity… I had to come up with a way to isolate the nodes and put a terminal strip in there to handle the high-voltage in the amp, and that took care of the whole charade. Old school type boards, in Fender style amplifiers, are always -even when coming from a “new” kit- a place worth probing for DC, exactly as Psionic has shown in this and many other videos on the subject. Now… I understand cleaning the main board since it has the vast majority of components and it presupposes a darn big hassle to replace and be done with it-but why going all the way with the filter caps board and the bias board? Wouldn’t it be easier to get a new board with those?
I feel like the battery industry might be scamming us. I've also discovered a similar occurrence. The $2.50 carbon zinc 9v i got from the corner store lasted longer in my blues driver than the more expensive energizer alkaline (same as the one you're showing). The Energizer also does something odd. After a few days, where my pedal stays off when i plug it in, then for about 5 days the pedal automatically turns on when i plug it in. It didn't behave like that with the carbon zinc battery. (Snuffelupagus)
Any chance those Energizers are not alkaline… (edit: never mind, looking closer those are alkaline). I was pleasantly surprised to find out some time ago that the Home Depot “HDX” brand batteries work very well and so far not a single one of them leaked electrolyte on me.
Magic tools? A jeweler friend has a piece of hard maple that was drilled then cut and carefully filed and hinged so you close it over the lead wire and pull. He makes some killer expensive rings from hexagonal profile soldered gold alloy wire. There are also drawing plates and rollers, but a good roller is over $4000 and a drawing plate is useless for lead straightening. 99.999% of those solder fumes are flux and dirt. I have melted lead ingots to pour into a soup can wrapped around a rusted off drain pipe so I did not have to cut into the concrete foundation of the house. I never saw, or smelled any fumes or saw any smoke coming from the crucible or the ladle. Lots of the modern lead has sulfuric acid in it now from using recycled car batteries. The gaps in between the A pillars, the cab & body of old pre 1970 GM pickups was all lead filled and then sculpted at the factory. Before Bondo lead was the auto body filler of choice.
Cleaning all the gunk from the surface of the board is so important. I work in the automotive field and I show my apprentices that from either positive or negative terminal of the battery to anywhere on top of the battery there is a voltage drop of upwards of 8 volts if the battery is even remotely dirty. I'd suggest to everyone here with a multimeter to try it out it's an easy way to prove exactly what he is talking about. And that is just cleaning debris and dust and dirt and build up.
Hi Lyle, If I had a dime for everytime I said "where did I put my (insert missing tool, part,etc.)" I'd still be poor but have s- -t load of dimes! Hey I've got an owwwy on the same spot of my left index finger. That finger usually seems to take the brunt of any damage that might happen when I'm working on an amp... well pretty much everything really. So I must have hit home with the comment on live stream last week about fans for keeping the air safe to breath. I'm the same way something is gonna get ya soon or later but PM is still a good thing...I think. No joke, lead poisoning can be hard to detect - even people who seem healthy can have high blood levels of lead. Signs and symptoms usually don't appear until dangerous amounts have accumulated.Lead builds up in the body, often over months or years. Even small amounts of lead can cause serious health problems. High blood pressure Joint and muscle pain Difficulties with memory or concentration Headache Abdominal pain Mood disorders Etc. Sorry...That's my rant and I'm sticking to it. And now I'll shut the F up about it
I stopped using alkaline batteries many moons ago. I use either rechargeable batteries or lithium batteries depending on the device and/or application. No one makes a good rechargeable 9 volt battery but lithium 9 volt batteries have been available for a number of years now. Energizer and Amazon both offer 9 volt lithium batteries. The Amazon Basics lithium 9 volt batteries are less expensive than the Energizer lithium 9 volt batteries and as far as I can tell over these past few years they last just as long as the Energizer lithium 9 volt batteries. A major bonus is that lithium batteries do not leak. They cost more but they last a lot longer - and did I mention they don't leak?
Maybe a fret radius tool (if you have one) would straighten the bus wire... be like using a brake line bender tool for autotive application. The brake line tool in theory will work however I don't think the line bender would do such a small diameter. 5mm probably the smallest. But you could make a simple smaller version of the tool, use the tool to reverse engineer something in a smaller scale. Brake line bender is a relatively inexpensive tool. Cheers
Hey, Lyle, don't get worried about the long videos - I love them, it gives me an insight in how a professional approaches the job, all of the details that go into repairing an amp so that it 'stays repaired'. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.
I have straightened wire by rolling it between to flat surfaces. Two small pieces of scrap wood seem to work fine. Gluing cork to the surfaces might help with keeping a "grip" one the wire and providing a little cushioning to maximize the straightening.
from a tech to another. to straighten solid core wire is a technique you already know. put one end in a drill and the other in a vice or pliers and spin a little bit, it will be straight as an arrow, do it all the time,
Another amp building channel(can't remember) recommended these pliers for straigtening lads. I picked some up and they do the job well. CRESCENT TOOLS 7” DUCK BILL PLIERS, No. 23-7. Swapping out the PCB board (in a champ 12 w/ 6l6) today and putting in a vibrochamp board. What could go wrong? love this channel.
Lyle, Energizers drink ass. Get some Duracell PROCELL. They're excellent for high drain devices. I buy them in bulk, so let me know if you'd like to give them a try. Thank you once again for the long, episodic trilogy on this Deluxe. Enjoy the weekend.
I really enjoy the long format videos. I also enjoy your work style. I have learned a lot through watching them too. Thank you. Code good work!!! ✌️✌️✌️
Great video as always mate. Re the bus wire, I clamp it on the soft plastic handle of my small pliers with a thumb, and pull it through 2 or 3 times. It works well for me.
Hey Lyle. My method to straighten wire is to put 1 inch of about 3 feet of wire in a vise on the side then use lineman pliers to grab the other end then jerk it a few times. This will give you a straight piece of wire to work with. Of course you could use less wire. It works for me
I have had to replace screen grid resistors twice in my audio amp, and very much agree with having good access to replace them. They act nicely as a “fuse,” when a tube fails. Own code word.
To straighten bus wire, I grab each end with a pliers and pull apart firmly. You’ll actually feel a little bit of give, and it completely straightens out. First time I tried it felt like a magic trick
My meter batterys last a year or 6 months atleast and i leave it on all the time, till it turns itself off. It takes 6 double a tho. Its the home depot meter customized with insulated alligator clips for the probes. So i keep one hand out of the amp.
We used to put one end of a length of buss wire in a small bench vice, then grip the other end with needle nose, do a half rotation on the pliers so we had a firm grip and then gently pull the wire to straighten it. Yes it does stretch the wire making it slightly thinner, but that was how we were instructed to do it back in the '80x.
Hey Lyle, the magic tool for straightening kinks and bends out of component leads and buss wire is called "two flat surfaces." Simply place your wire on a hard flat surface (like the edge of your bench) and place another hard flat surface on top (I use a block of hardwood). Roll the wire back and forth a few times while applying moderate pressure. Done right, this will leave the wire arrow straight and remove most of the flaws. Tight little kinks will sometimes escape the process and you may have to go after those with pliers. But overall the technique is fast and easy, and does a remarkably good job.
I just want to say G'day to everyone in the chat tomorrow morning (my time, a few hours from now) I'll be fast asleep at 3:30am
Dropping that Missy Elliot lyric had my wife and I rolling! Well played sir…well played.
Hi Lyle, I don't know if you tried this, so I'll just run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.
For getting out micro bends on wire, I use two flat pieces of steel 2" x 6" x 1/4" that I sanded the texture down flat and near polished with fine sandpaper, so that they are very smooth. I'll roll out any leads or wire in between them, and it works very well for me.
Nice video as usual Lyle!
Jewelers use wire straightening pliers with replaceable nylon jaws, you draw the wire through at a right angle to the jaws. The nylon pads get replaced when they get too grooved, several videos show these on YT but I cant link one here. Many cool tools at beading/jewelry shops, including a Bead Works unit that makes an 1.5mm auto loop unit I'd love to try on jacks /pots.
On the battery front the Energizer Max are crappy, and they want 4x more $ for their lithium's (which are 2x better capacity) When available Titanium Innovations at Bat Junction are an excellent deal for 9v for $6 each for a 10pk (with 10yr shelf life)
Right there with you on that car riding stuff. And I climbed trees that were so tall it amazes me, even today. I scuba dived to 80 feet in a Florida spring, for my first dive, BEFORE certification was even thought of.
For the bus wire,
Before you cut, just grab it with thumbs and fore fingers , both hands at the same point , slowly pull your hands apart, and it will straighten nicely. I do it a few times. There will be a slight curve that you can easily straighten.
Or you can put it in your drill. Single strand , and give it a twist. The twist isn't noticeable like it would be if you were twisting 2 wires. And the wire is quite stiff afterward.
Love these long vids, Lyle!!
Now, back to trying to figure out why my trainwreck build has low output vol. Lol.
Wasn't the tubes.... ugh
I like that you used the term “best practice”. We talk about that a lot in the IT world, and establishing them definitely helps prevent issues down the line. We should be using this term more.
Re: screen grid resistors: here's a (however there only seems to be one manufacturer and one source) good option for a 470R 3W fusible metal film: www.digikey.com.au/en/products/detail/vishay-beyschlag-draloric-bc-components/PR03000204700JAC00/596300
Re: the 9V batteries, I only use either Panasonic from Digikey or Toshiba locally. They last about 6 months or more of daily use in my Fluke 17x series meters.
I took out every component, removed all of the solder, soaked overnight in 91% isopropyl alcohol, then heat gunned for like 20 minutes. Then drove out the remaining moisture with my 850* Hakko soldering iron at every eyelet. I repopulated the board.
It works and works well but I’m still getting stray DC in parts of the preamp.
So frustrating and the noise floor came down some but not a lot. Still some of that rushing water/frying pan sound. I didn’t do the bias board though. So maybe? Idk. Im in North Texas and it gets fairly humid here.
Hi Lyle- for removing kinks and bends from the bus wire, go to a tackle shop and look for a leader straightener. It’s two pads of leather stitched on one side. Put the wire between the pads, squeeze with your fingertips and pull the wire through.
This series is a masterpiece. It should be essential viewing for anyone who puts a soldering iron to a vintage tube amp.
The other day I was going through my weekend troubleshooting of a D-Reverb kit I had built and was flipping voltage polarity to V8 pin 5 for reasons everybody I asked thought were of my own design, as something I had done during the build had to be wrong-and after having comb the darn thing all throughout checking for wiring errors I decided to probe the board for DC.
Yes, it was DC from the B+ node leaking onto the negative bias voltage node of V8 grid that was flipping its polarity…
I had to come up with a way to isolate the nodes and put a terminal strip in there to handle the high-voltage in the amp, and that took care of the whole charade.
Old school type boards, in Fender style amplifiers, are always -even when coming from a “new” kit- a place worth probing for DC, exactly as Psionic has shown in this and many other videos on the subject.
Now… I understand cleaning the main board since it has the vast majority of components and it presupposes a darn big hassle to replace and be done with it-but why going all the way with the filter caps board and the bias board? Wouldn’t it be easier to get a new board with those?
I feel like the battery industry might be scamming us. I've also discovered a similar occurrence. The $2.50 carbon zinc 9v i got from the corner store lasted longer in my blues driver than the more expensive energizer alkaline (same as the one you're showing). The Energizer also does something odd. After a few days, where my pedal stays off when i plug it in, then for about 5 days the pedal automatically turns on when i plug it in. It didn't behave like that with the carbon zinc battery. (Snuffelupagus)
Any chance those Energizers are not alkaline… (edit: never mind, looking closer those are alkaline). I was pleasantly surprised to find out some time ago that the Home Depot “HDX” brand batteries work very well and so far not a single one of them leaked electrolyte on me.
Magic tools? A jeweler friend has a piece of hard maple that was drilled then cut and carefully filed and hinged so you close it over the lead wire and pull. He makes some killer expensive rings from hexagonal profile soldered gold alloy wire. There are also drawing plates and rollers, but a good roller is over $4000 and a drawing plate is useless for lead straightening. 99.999% of those solder fumes are flux and dirt. I have melted lead ingots to pour into a soup can wrapped around a rusted off drain pipe so I did not have to cut into the concrete foundation of the house. I never saw, or smelled any fumes or saw any smoke coming from the crucible or the ladle. Lots of the modern lead has sulfuric acid in it now from using recycled car batteries. The gaps in between the A pillars, the cab & body of old pre 1970 GM pickups was all lead filled and then sculpted at the factory. Before Bondo lead was the auto body filler of choice.
Cleaning all the gunk from the surface of the board is so important. I work in the automotive field and I show my apprentices that from either positive or negative terminal of the battery to anywhere on top of the battery there is a voltage drop of upwards of 8 volts if the battery is even remotely dirty. I'd suggest to everyone here with a multimeter to try it out it's an easy way to prove exactly what he is talking about. And that is just cleaning debris and dust and dirt and build up.
Hi Lyle,
If I had a dime for everytime I said "where did I put my (insert missing tool, part,etc.)" I'd still be poor but have s- -t load of dimes! Hey I've got an owwwy on the same spot of my left index finger. That finger usually seems to take the brunt of any damage that might happen when I'm working on an amp... well pretty much everything really.
So I must have hit home with the comment on live stream last week about fans for keeping the air safe to breath. I'm the same way something is gonna get ya soon or later but PM is still a good thing...I think.
No joke, lead poisoning can be hard to detect - even people who seem healthy can have high blood levels of lead. Signs and symptoms usually don't appear until dangerous amounts have accumulated.Lead builds up in the body, often over months or years. Even small amounts of lead can cause serious health problems.
High blood pressure
Joint and muscle pain
Difficulties with memory or concentration
Headache
Abdominal pain
Mood disorders
Etc.
Sorry...That's my rant and I'm sticking to it. And now I'll shut the F up about it
The problem with solder fumes is not the lead, it's the flux.
I stopped using alkaline batteries many moons ago. I use either rechargeable batteries or lithium batteries depending on the device and/or application. No one makes a good rechargeable 9 volt battery but lithium 9 volt batteries have been available for a number of years now. Energizer and Amazon both offer 9 volt lithium batteries. The Amazon Basics lithium 9 volt batteries are less expensive than the Energizer lithium 9 volt batteries and as far as I can tell over these past few years they last just as long as the Energizer lithium 9 volt batteries. A major bonus is that lithium batteries do not leak. They cost more but they last a lot longer - and did I mention they don't leak?
Maybe a fret radius tool (if you have one) would straighten the bus wire... be like using a brake line bender tool for autotive application.
The brake line tool in theory will work however I don't think the line bender would do such a small diameter. 5mm probably the smallest. But you could make a simple smaller version of the tool, use the tool to reverse engineer something in a smaller scale.
Brake line bender is a relatively inexpensive tool.
Cheers
In your opinion what are the best made amps with the fewest problems in the £1500 to £2000 price range?
Thanks as always for the battery reviews! JK - code word : cantankerous
Code word "bazinga"! How does your soldering iron know when to come up to temperature? Is there a switch in the cradle?
Am I bad to stretch the bus wire between two pairs of pliers ? My word is "Poontang" .
Hey, Lyle, don't get worried about the long videos - I love them, it gives me an insight in how a professional approaches the job, all of the details that go into repairing an amp so that it 'stays repaired'. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.
Really looking forward to that Patreon. These long form videos are great!
I have straightened wire by rolling it between to flat surfaces. Two small pieces of scrap wood seem to work fine. Gluing cork to the surfaces might help with keeping a "grip" one the wire and providing a little cushioning to maximize the straightening.
Try to put one side of the bus wire in an electrical drill and hold the other side with a pliers and turn it until it becomes straight.
from a tech to another.
to straighten solid core wire is a technique you already know. put one end in a drill and the other in a vice or pliers and spin a little bit, it will be straight as an arrow, do it all the time,
6:10 Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gnaht ym tup i
It would be fun if you serviced some cheap crap amplifiers for a change. We have seen all those 60's Fender and Vox gems already in your videos. 😜
I’ve got like a thousand videos up with some really cheap amps featured.
@@PsionicAudio Yes, I've seen them all but I want more! 🤓
Thanks - Haley's Comet!
If you bought those batteries from Amazon they might be fake, it's a huge problem in general.
They were from the Energizer store…
I have Duracell in my old Fluke(s) and is still good after two (2) years . . .
Code word Yuck :) .. yup... we do watch..
Get it in there and finesse it a lil' bit...I am learning indeed.
Codeword: Escutcheon.
Being that it's a bias board, that is of course the Positive lead to ground that broke off, not the negative lead.
Yeah, sorry.
The devil is in the detail! Apples and pears!
Another amp building channel(can't remember) recommended these pliers for straigtening lads. I picked some up and they do the job well.
CRESCENT TOOLS 7” DUCK BILL PLIERS, No. 23-7. Swapping out the PCB board (in a champ 12 w/ 6l6) today and putting in a vibrochamp board. What could go wrong? love this channel.
I'm down for the patreon!
Lyle, Energizers drink ass. Get some Duracell PROCELL. They're excellent for high drain devices. I buy them in bulk, so let me know if you'd like to give them a try. Thank you once again for the long, episodic trilogy on this Deluxe. Enjoy the weekend.
I really enjoy the long format videos. I also enjoy your work style. I have learned a lot through watching them too. Thank you. Code good work!!! ✌️✌️✌️
I'm an inexperienced first time Fender Deluxe Reverb amp kit builder. These detailed videos are immensely helpful. Thanks!
Have a cookie
green onions!
Great video as always mate. Re the bus wire, I clamp it on the soft plastic handle of my small pliers with a thumb, and pull it through 2 or 3 times. It works well for me.
Hey Lyle. My method to straighten wire is to put 1 inch of about 3 feet of wire in a vise on the side then use lineman pliers to grab the other end then jerk it a few times. This will give you a straight piece of wire to work with. Of course you could use less wire. It works for me
Good show!
I have had to replace screen grid resistors twice in my audio amp, and very much agree with having good access to replace them. They act nicely as a “fuse,” when a tube fails. Own code word.
To straighten bus wire, I grab each end with a pliers and pull apart firmly. You’ll actually feel a little bit of give, and it completely straightens out. First time I tried it felt like a magic trick
I’m sure you’ll roll your eyes but Duracells have yet to let me down. I’ve always had issues with energizers.
I use the Yuchengtech wire straightener for computer/etc. wire. It's not cheap, but it works well.
My meter batterys last a year or 6 months atleast and i leave it on all the time, till it turns itself off. It takes 6 double a tho. Its the home depot meter customized with insulated alligator clips for the probes. So i keep one hand out of the amp.
Lyle is to moisture like St. Patrick is to snakes. He drove the Puget Sound out of that sucker.
We used to put one end of a length of buss wire in a small bench vice, then grip the other end with needle nose, do a half rotation on the pliers so we had a firm grip and then gently pull the wire to straighten it. Yes it does stretch the wire making it slightly thinner, but that was how we were instructed to do it back in the '80x.
I dig this content. Thanks for what you do. I'm a total geek.
pull the wire back and forth several times over the edge of your desk in an angle of 45 degree is what i do to straighten it.
Love the long form videos. I learn much more. Thank you.
Watch it to eht dne ! 😉
Almost cathartic watching you at work on this Lyle. Thanks.
EOV
I really enjoy to watch the long form and understand more, your very thorough. Great
Malraux
The moisture in that eyelet board was incredible!
...and the second hand two pack a day habit we all enjoyed!
Hi- how do you feel about hiding new e-caps in the original cardboard tubes?
Ridiculous. It’s cardboard.
put a silicone hose over that sucker tip
Great work as usual.
BANANABREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I appreciate the detail.
Nice job Lyle.
Great video
Why when removing the cap, don’t you remove the link and create a new one using the whole length of the wire on the new cap ?
I would think it’s because the leads on components nowadays are not as long as they used to be on those old ones.
I'm going to guess that the leads on the new caps are not as long as the leads of the originals.
Ender!