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That conversation with an old radio guy changed how I see tube amps
I was at a swap meet in Akron last Saturday and spent an hour talking to this retired TV repairman named Frank. He told me I was wasting money by replacing all the electrolytic caps in my 1950s amp before even testing it. Said most of them still work fine and I should just power it up slow with a variac first. He was right - I swapped caps on two amps last year that ended up needing nothing. Now I feel like an idiot for tossing good parts. Has anyone else had a pro call them out on doing too much restoration?
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theawest23d ago
Man Frank would tear me apart too, I threw away perfectly good caps last month.
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the_dylan23d ago
Yeah, Frank's dead on about that "power it up slow with a variac" thing. I learned that the hard way after pulling perfectly good filter caps from a 1960s Fender that still tested within spec. If it's not leaking or bulging, just let it cook for an hour on a variac and recheck the ESR before you start yanking things.
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