Grateful Dead Music Forum

I posted this in another thread before I realized I should have posted it here. After 17+ years of keeping it in my closet out of fear, I'm trying to figure out if this amp has some sort of legendary history or if it's just an old amp that the Dead happened to own. Anyway, here goes:

My uncle used to have a shirt company called Fitzy's that did Dead shirts. His big one was the Lithuania shirts from the Olympics. Around 2002-2003, he called me and said that the Dead were cleaning out a warehouse in Novato, and he needed me to meet a guy named Ramrod to pick up an amp.

I went and met Ramrod and picked up a 1974 silverface Fender Deluxe Reverb. It's been modded, so instead of a stock single 12" speaker, it has a JBL K110 10" speaker and an Altec-Lansing 417-8C 12" speaker. There's also an extra 1/4" input that was added in the back. I think the capacitors are all original and definitely need replacing.

I also found a cigarette butt and sunflower seeds in it.

Does any of this info ring a bell for anyone? Is this amp anything special, or was it just another piece of barely-used equipment sitting around the warehouse?

If it's nothing special, I'd like to fix it up and gig with it.

Pics? It must be in a custom cab because there's no way a 12 and a 10 are fitting in a Deluxe cab.

Well I keep trying to upload the pictures but it keeps on saying "invalid url." It's the original cabinet, just with a different baffle. Looking at it from the back, the 12" speaker is on the right, and the 10" is on the left.

JimmyFitz- you can't insert photos "directly" to your post, you have to upload them to somewhere on the web, then link them to your post. See tutorial:

https://www.rukind.com/viewtopic.php?f=359&t=12940

Looking forward to seeing the amp!

Thanks! Here we go!

Wow!!! Looks like it is in pretty good shape. I bet if you got in touch with Steve Parish he might be able to shed some light on it.

Cool, thanks! I'll reach out. It's definitely a unique amp...which is why I've been afraid to tinker with it until the boredom of Covid started setting in...

I'd leave it be and find another amp to gig with until you know exactly what you have there! Phil's old twin reverb just sold for many 1000's of dollars, so tread carefully cause you might have something special there.

Good call on reaching out to Steve Parish. I'd maybe try Ron Wickersham at Alembic, or even Healy. They may have some more technical insights.

Cool and interesting! Amp guys help me out here, but I'm not seeing a rectifier? Where the rectifier tube was is covered with a piece of duct tape, and I can't find a silicone (diode) rectifier anywhere?? The filter caps are exposed ("doghouse" gone and some duct tape residue there)- one of the filter caps looks rough, but it might just be from the duct tape pulling off. Those old filter caps are risky at their age, but I agree you shouldn't touch anything until you know more about this amp's history! Tough to see what's gone on with the circuit board- not close enough to see detail. Big Steve might be able to help?

Can you take a few close-ups of the main circuit board?

TI4-1009 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:45 amI'm not seeing a rectifier? Where the rectifier tube was is covered with a piece of duct tape, and I can't find a silicone (diode) rectifier anywhere??

JimmyFitz wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 10:02 pmThere's also an extra 1/4" input that was added in the back.

If the extra input is a preamp tap, perhaps there was no longer a need for the rectifier. Just a wild guess, though.

Here are some more pics. I took some close-up pics of the weird jumper mod on the preamp tube receptacle, and also of the extra 1/4" jack next to the speaker output jacks. I know I said it was an "input," but maybe it's an extra "output?" I don't know.

I also don't know how this amp would be able to function without a rectifier tube, but I've used the amp sparingly and it does work.

Some of the covering for the old capacitors peeled off when I removed the tape that was over them. The actual doghouse cover has always been missing.

My tentative plan is to replace all of the electrolytic capacitors and fire it up again. But hopefully someone can figure out what's up with the rectifier mod.

Saw in your other post that you are in Wisconsin. I would reach out to Mike Wald at waldotronics. Hes down in Indiana if I remember right. He is extremely well versed in alembic / GD fender amp mods and can probably tell you what's up with your amp just by the pics provided.