cleaning an amp head

[Dr_simon]

Weell The TSL has been hanging out down in the basement since we moved here and last week the misses had a hissy fit and has decided that all the mold and spiders and other unspeakable things (that live in the basement) needed to be banished from anything that we are going to keep. This meant dragging the amp up stares (where it will live form now on) and giving it a damn good clean ! I tried to argue that "burnt on spider" was an important part of the tone but she was having none of it !

It still smells of mould but man is sounds great and has inspired me to re-string a couple of axes and stop working for more than 5 min !

I have no clew about how to clean the DTexpress electronic drums but shit got so bad down there the headphones were unceremoniously throw out (there were mites eating the mould inside the ear cap - - yikes I was wearing those !!) !

So, other than saturating the tubes for long periods of time and cleaning the tolex with detol anyone know any good tricks for cleaning up the amp head ?

The other thing I was wondering about was about capacitor discharge times. Anyone know how long this takes or any way to speed this process up ? I was wondering if turning the amp on without it being plugged in wold do the job ?

Many thanks

Simon

 

[Sloan]

Toothbrush

 

[Dani Pace]

Open the head and use compressed air to blow out dust and spider webs. While you have it open, look for any mold on the inside. Algicide (the kind used in pools and spas) works surprisingly well for killing mold, especially on vinyl or tolex. A good cleaning then with rubbing alcohol and cotton balls (swabs) should get rid of the mold. Finish off with a coating of armor-all or other protecting coating and you should be able to keep the wife happy with having it upstairs.

 

[Dr_simon]

Cheers mate, I was thinking about a residue free contact cleaner after using a bleeding resistor to drain the caps though having not done this before with a tube amp Im a just earring on the side of caution !