Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hi All,

And greetings from the North of Europe. I've been a long time "lurker" to the forums, but being based in Scotland it's hard to contribute when there's so many knowledgable people out there, with the best local knowledge!

As I can't give many answers, I'll just have to post a question!

I recently scored a Fender Sidekick Reverb 65 at the local car boot sale for the very agreeable sum of £15 (about 25 US!). As you can imagine, delighted with it, especially as it was sold as not working (which translated as "sat in a cold damp garage for 12 years"): dried it up, soldered the loose wire in the reverb tank and...well...all I can say is I'm now reaquainted with my father's brother Bob. For 25 bucks, I'm near enough to the Jerry tone, and can still leave behind an inheritance My only niggle is the power switch: it makes a real "pop" when switching off. Can any one suggest a cure?? Additionally, I suffer, as we all do, from Jerryampitisis: there's never enough treble! Does anyone mods that can be made to solid state amps to boost the tone to make it sparkle a bit more?? I've read plenty mods relating to valve amps, but solid state amp info is pretty sparse.

Apologies if this is not the right board for the question (honest, I looked!) and thanks in advance.

Colin

Welcome. You might look at the grounding of the power switch in particular. I seem to recall issues like this are often a result of inadequate ground connections..but I am no pro tech either.

Cheers for the quick reply tatittle. I suspected it was something related to this, but like I'm like yourself, not a natural electrician! Shall try to track down the schematic and investigate further.

Col

One of the reasons most mods are for tube amps is tube amps tend to be point to point wiring, which is much easier to modify than PCB's with tiny spaces between joints etc. It is just physically impossible to modify some of those SS circuits that are manufactured by computer driven automated machines.

tatittle wrote:those SS circuits that are manufactured by computer driven automated machines.

A-men brother. Some things are just not best done digitally. Music for example.

Ah man.

Cheers to you both! I was hoping (against hope) that earier SS amps (made back in the day when a tranny amp didn't have connetations!) would have a few more options. Still the post has helped me in tracking down the scematic and finding a solid state forum. I'm not too upset as the original intention when buying it was "at least I have a cab and speaker out of the deal". I may investigate a new speaker rather than thinking about (futile??) mods.

Thanks again,

Col

Good idea. Speaker changes are easy and they can affect tone dramatically. I was considering switching between 2 speakers/cab's instead the more common route of switching between 2 amps.