Blue Angel back up & running

[Natman]

I had a problem with my BA, volume was fading in & out. Took it to a tech who only found a burnt resistor and changed a diode (?). Then a few days later, the problem persisted and the amp stopped making sound. So I tried variou stube swaps, rectifier and power tubes, didn't help. I suspected the filter caps because the amp is so old and preamp tubes generally don't die just like that (all old 12AX7s).

Bought me all new Sprague Atoms and put them in, the amp now made awful feedback and I was very discouraged! I finally decided the last thing I could possibly do is to change the preamp tubes, so I bought a slew of NOS glass (per John Philips recommendations with 5751 and 12AT7s). Got them in last night and AAAHHHH! There it is. The amp is back up and ruinning, healthy and sounding great! I don't know how much can be atteributed to the filter caps or the different tubes, but I definitely hear deeper reverb and less noise. Next I have to crank her up!

I am SO relieved that changing out the wear parts brought the amp back to life. I was scared it could be blown tranformers.

Side note: While testing I had some old Sovtek 6V6s in it and was surprised the sound was really good but different from the JAN RCAs I had. They were more smoky/dark where the RCAs have more clarity and a bit less grit -maybe they're lower gain?

Anybody try a solid state rectifier in their Blue Angel?

 

[green_henry]

Glad to hear you're up and running.

I have not tried a solid state rectifier, but I put a 12AY7 in v2 and it sounds great.

I was hoping that the same trick would work for my Maverick, but it sounded horrible. Tried an AT7 instead and it sounded better than the AY7 but not great... guess I need to look for a low-powered AX7 for the Mav.