Had to decide between a full board swap or a tricky trace repair on a vintage amp

I had this old tube amp come in, a 1972 Fender Twin Reverb. The main board had a burnt section from a power surge. The easy path was to just swap the whole board for a modern repro, about $180 and a day's work. The hard path was trying to save the original board, which meant scraping back burnt laminate, running jumper wires under existing components, and hoping the carbon scoring didn't cause more issues. I went with the repair, spent almost six hours on it with a magnifier and a fine-tip iron. It worked, but was it worth it? The customer was happy to keep it 'original,' but my hourly rate on that job was basically nothing. When do you guys draw the line between saving the original part and just doing the swap that gets it out the door?

3 comments

3 Comments

derek65613d agoTop Commenter

Original parts matter, man.

cora_scott7713d ago

But what about when the original part is the actual problem? Like @derek656, my old truck's original fuel pump was a known weak point. Keeping it "original" meant getting stranded. Replacing it with a better modern unit kept the truck running, which feels more true to the original purpose than letting it die in a driveway for the sake of pure originality.

johnson.jason13d ago

Man, that reminds me of the time my buddy's classic radio ate his only tape.