Workshop - Iskrem Electro

Take a peek into the Iskrem workshop workflow…:

iskremelectro

Instagram post 18003700975307653

Instagram post 18003700975307653

Oh, I think we have a deja vu!! Back when i was in

Oh, I think we have a deja vu!! Back when i was in primary school I had one of these, a Tandberg TR1000 stereo amp. I fixed it back then(my first electronic repair ever) and i fix anotherone now, exactly the same problem: dying capacitors.
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These are are high quality norwegian made, at Tandbergs Radiofabrikk. Back when folks made good stuff locally)). It has good sound and lots of connection possibilities, and I bet it can outlast(given some tlc) almost anything made today.
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Soon rounding up for the holidays here, so remember: if you are still in need to get some gifts for someone, there is absolutely nothing for sale in my webshop at www.iskrem.org. Nada!
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#iskremelectro #tandberg #tandbergtr1000 #amprepair #amptech #electronicsrepair #repair #vintage #vintageelectronics #hifi #badcaps #capacitor #nada

Tape echo time! I had 3 of these Dynacord Echocord

Tape echo time! I had 3 of these Dynacord Echocords in the last week, one "Super75" and two "Mini75". The "Super" sports a spring reverb and two motor speeds, otherwise they are much the same. Cool retro echo sound, althoug a little limited with only one playbackhead. Plus ten points for the sliding record head though!
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These originally had DIN connectors that were changed to standard guitarjacks, and a few dead capacitors, diode bridges, resistors and trimpots later they are back to speed!
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#iskremelectro #tapeecho #dynacord #echocord #vintage #vintageelectronics #musicelectronics #amptech #repair #electronicsrepair #magnetictape #båndekko #reparasjon #musikkelektronikk

Something a bit out of the ordinary, a Philips Phi

Something a bit out of the ordinary, a Philips Philicorda GM751 in for repairs.
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This is the late transistorbased model, earlier ones had tube oscillators(!).
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I sorted out a few dead transistors and capacitors in the octave dividing circuits, and a burnt trace and bad connection in the powersupply to the "Reverbeo" circuit.
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All in all a very nice sounding organ with reverb and vibrato!! Nice detail in that the big boards with the oscillator/divider networks flip up for easy maintainence of itself and the amplifier under it!
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#iskremelectro #philicorda #vintage #amptech #repair #electronicsrepair #vintageelectronics #reverbeo #octavedivider

...and anotherone passes the bench.... . Something

...and anotherone passes the bench....
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Something new in this one, a mod putting the presence control in series with the treble control.... with an unshielded wire running back to the treble gainstage... as if these amps were not noisy enough as it is...
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Rebuilt the presence and treble system, full recap, changed out a few tubes and a dead screen resistor. I usually add 1ohm cathode resistors in these too. They like to eat tubes, so easy tubeswapping+biasing is a must!
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#iskremelectro #soundcity120 #soundcityamps #amptech #amprepair #electronicsrepair #guitaramp #bassamp #tubeamp #tubeamprepair

Vintage mixer today, a Sennheiser M101 location mi

Vintage mixer today, a Sennheiser M101 location mixer from end 60's /early 70's, built to interface with the famous Nagra portable tape decks.
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Just in for a quick lookthrough and changing connectors to jacks instead of the oldschool german DIN plugs. The nonstandard "phantom" power was also disconnected, since it actually puts power on one pin and grounds the other. Not too good for your dynamic mics!
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It has transformerbalanced mic/line inputs, hipass filter and treble/bass shelving eq on the master section. Sounds really nice and warm, especially when overdriven!
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#iskremelectro #sennheiserm101 #mixer #electronics #electronicsrepair #amptech #vintageelectronics
#vintagemixer #locationrecording #drumstortion
#vintagesound
#phantompower

Plastic fantastic! Inbetween the usual amplifiers,

Plastic fantastic! Inbetween the usual amplifiers, this gem came in for a quick repair. It's a Suzuki Omnichord and it sure packs a lot of fun!
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Quite a simple fix, just reworking a few broken traces and cracked pcb around the power entry plug.
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It has autobass, rythmbox and a fantastic touchpad field for 'voices'. Yeah!
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#iskremelectro #suzukiomnichord #omnichord #fun #repair #electronicsrepair #amptech #plasticfantastic

Sunday funday noisedebugday, whay you say? What is

Sunday funday noisedebugday, whay you say? What is this here????
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Well, those are the guidepins from an Accutronics reverb-pan... what about them?? .
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They can be the source of a very annoying hard-to-find(!) rattling noise in your amplifier when they come loose from their press-fit!!
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Just saying...
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#iskremelectro #noise #reverb #ampfix #amptech #hardtofind #tubeamps #accutronics #debug #rattle #veryannoyingtinyhairinmytubeampsoup

Geek alert! Ticking tremolo on Fender amps is noth

Geek alert! Ticking tremolo on Fender amps is nothing new... but this one had a twist!
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After applying the usual fixes, it was working perfectly on the bench.... Buuuuuuut: when mounted back in the cab, what was that? Ticking again?????? Arrrghhh!! Could it be some wires got moved around when bolting it in? Bad connection to the screening inside the cab? Stars aligned in an unfortunate way?
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Nope.... reason was: fear of the dark!! Thats right, when on the bech, ambient light kept "off-resistance" on the LDR to around 2-3 megaohms... back in total darkness, this would rise to around 15 megaohms. So, switching from such a high "off-resistance" to a low "on-resistance" would generate a ever so tiny ticking sound. Not good enough! Well, if you got fear of the dark, how about some light? I simply added a tiny ultrabright yellow LED, giving just enough ambient light to keep "off-resistance" around 3 megaohms. Ticks gone!
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Needing only 0.035 mA of current, I think it's safe to say it won't drain the powersupply too much))
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#iskremelectro #fenderamps #tremolo #tickingsound #tremoloticking #noise #LDR #amptech #repair #electronics #fearofthedark #weirdrepair #light #LED #vintageamps #vintageelectronics #guitaramp #fendersuperreverb #thinkoutsidethebox

Another mixtable this week, a Sound Workshop "Loge

Another mixtable this week, a Sound Workshop "Logex 8"... Heavily modified!
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I was commissioned to design a couple new PCBs for this mixer. The owner wanted to squeeze in two summing buses from Iron Age Audioworks, so the masterbus needed to be heavily reduced in size to facilitate the transplant. Lots of work, lots of cables, lots of Iron in the signal path! Luckily, the owner did all the hard soldering work himself, I only needed iron out a few quirks and phase issues))
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#iskremelectro #logex8 #ironageaudioworks #electronics #repair #pcbdesign #proaudio #mixtable #studiogear #soldering #kicad #summingbus #signalpath

Hey friends! Listen to the difference in noise whe

Hey friends! Listen to the difference in noise when moving the powertransformer out of this mixer!
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This is a mid/late'80s Tore Seem, Seesam 2 mixer, a norwegian made professional broadcast console, now in use at @flerbruket for recording and mixing.
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I'm told the later versions of this mixer had external powersupplies, and here we hear why. The magnetic field from any transformer can induce 50Hz (+harmonics) into the buswires (well, pcb traces actually) and result in audible hum in your mix.
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Fix? I Mounted that transformer, rectifiers and main filtercaps far away in a steel enclosure! Hum gone!
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While having the mixer here I also sorted out some quirks, mainly intermittent connections in the insertpoints and card-card connections.
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#iskremelectro #toreseem #seesam2 #powersupply #hum #noise #transformer #proaudio #electronics #electronicsrepair #amptech #magnetics #vintageconsoles #analogmixers #analogaudio #madeinnorway #transformersareelectricalmagic

Behold, this seldom encountered animal in the amp

Behold, this seldom encountered animal in the amp jungle, a SoundCity 100 mk3! Quite similar to early Hiwatts, both were originally designed by Dave Reeves.
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This one came in with very(!) bad filtercaps (see a previous post), so all the electrolytics got swapped out. Ready for the next 50 years!
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No traces of anyone using a solderingiron inside this, not since the obligatory adding of extra fuses on import to Norway.... Mullard tubes all over, EL34s from Blackburn factory, 1973! Still goooooood!
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#iskremelectro #soundcityamps #soundcity100 #tubeamp #mullard #amptech #repair #recap #loud #hiwatt #guitaramp #bassamp #vacuumtubes #electronics #electronicsrepair #vintage #museumpiece

Touch ground! Was checking up two Ampegs and found

Touch ground! Was checking up two Ampegs and found some shocking problems.... the V4 had no ground on the cable, while the V2 had the deathcap still in circuit... not too cool...
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Also the V2 had been recapped, and the screen supply given a single 47uF cap rated for 500 Volts, glued down on the chassis... buuuut, screen voltage hovers around 540 volts... No bueno! .
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So, I mounted it in a cap-holder with insulating tape, and connected like the schematic calls for, on top of the first multican-cap. Now the screen supply has the intended capacitance, and it's properly insulated electrically.
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I also sorted out an open plate resistor, open standby indicator resistor, relocating another capacitor, changed powercord, added screened wires for a mastervolume mod and reinforced a cracked PCB.
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#iskremelectro #ampeg #ampegv4 #ampegv2 #repair #amprepair #electronicsrepair #electronics #amptech #tubeamp #tubeamplifier #guitaramp #reverb #loud #heavy #guitargear #powercord #safety #electricalsafety #deathcap #capacitor #voltage #highvoltage

Do you own an old SoundCity amp? Then look out for

Do you own an old SoundCity amp? Then look out for these red cans, the original main filter caps, they are a very common problem!
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These looked fine, and measured good on the ESR meter... but have horrible leakage current! Luckily these just blew the fuse and nothing more. If you see these in your vintage amp, you should seriously consider taking it to a tech for a recap)))
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#iskremelectro #capacitor #badcaps #electrolyticcapacitor #electronics #techtalk #repair #vintage #amptech #soundcityamps #recap #tubeamps #guitaramp #bassamp #geektalk

Marshall JCM900 dual mastervolume combo, in for so

Marshall JCM900 dual mastervolume combo, in for sorting out speaker wiring, reverb and a general whats up...
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#iskremelectro #marshallamps #jcm900 #repair #amptech #tubeamp #guitaramp #guitargear #speaker #reverb #comboamp #electronics #electronicrepair

Soundcity 120R wrapped up today: complete recap, a

Soundcity 120R wrapped up today: complete recap, and sorting of unreliable potmeters, weird oscillations and the usual SC120 quirks. I aslo got the task to adapt it better for bass, so i unlocked another 20 watts or so of output power))) and tuned the preamp for better bass response.
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Turned out to be the quietest SC120 i ever heard noise-wise, yet really powerful sounding. Also: crazy cool reverb in this one!
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#iskremelectro #souncity120 #tubeamps #tubeamplifier #vintage #amptech #repair #electronics #electronicsrepair #reverb #guitaramp #guitargear #highvoltage #loud #heavy #O)))

BadCat "ToneCat" gone bad! Came in with huge 50Hz

BadCat "ToneCat" gone bad! Came in with huge 50Hz noise and weird sounding channels. This amp is handbuilt, point-to-point wired with high quality components... or so it seems!
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Turned out to have a short internally in one preamp socket, from pin 5 to 6. Also had 2 potmeters short from one lug to metal housing, effectively shorting out signal to ground.
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The ToneCat boasts having two independent poweramps, 4xEL84 for the clean channel, and 2xEL34 for the gain channel. On top of that you can blend both channels together in the powersection of your choice... pretty neat and a cool idea!! Too bad it was wired wrong from the start, so you always had two EL84s on one transformer primary and one EL34 on the other, just switching which side gets what.... Whoops!
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All sorted out, it sports a wide array of cool sounds, from clean through crunch to full on distortion. A funny bonus is that you can turn down the mastervolume on the cleanchannel and still have only the reverb going... surfs up!
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As you can see, there is a forest of tubes in this chassis, 9 preamptubes, 6 powertubes and a rectifier! Heavy!
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#iskremelectro #badcatamps #badcattonecat #tubeamp #tubeamprepair #electronicsrepair #repair #shorted #handbuilt #boutique #expensive #audiophoolery #pointtopointwiring #reverb #el34 #el84 #guitaramp #amplifier #guitaramplifier #guitargear #heavybutnotsoloud #tone

Ampeg VT22 in for recap and retube. Fixed up other

Ampeg VT22 in for recap and retube. Fixed up other small things like reverb cabling and potmeter as well. In the end, a really nice one this!!
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#iskremelectro #ampeg #ampegvt22 #amprepair #repair #electronicsrepair #amptech #loud #heavy #dwarfingtwinreverbs #tubeamp #tubeamps #tubeamplifier #highvoltage #reallytooheavy

Quick one, wrapped up a rehousing of this Roland D

Quick one, wrapped up a rehousing of this Roland Double Beat AD-50 fuzz unit today. Originally a fuzz-wah, now a standalone fuzz. Pretty wicked fuzztones, and a very cool rotary filter-selector!
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Have some electronics in need of service/repair/tinkering? Hit me up!
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#iskremelectro #fuzz #roland #ad50 #doublebeat #rebuild #rehousing #electronics #musicelectronics #guitargear #tone #loud #pedal #guitarpedal #guitargear #vintage #stompbox

The real thing! Almost untouched, just in for a qu

The real thing! Almost untouched, just in for a quick checkup, recap and retube. Sweet!
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The input jacks connects only mechanically to ground, so a little tightening was needed here... swapped one noisy 12ax7, redid some solderjoints, tidied up some wiring and set bias for new NOS tubes. Ready for another 50 years!
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#iskremelectro #fenderdeluxereverb #blackfacefender #vintage #amptech #tubeamps #vacuumtubes #tone #holygrailofbluesrock #repair #amprepair #fixitup

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