In a message dated 3/5/2002 10:52:49 PM Eastern Standard Time,
brotherbrianwilliams@... writes:
I have a 1956 B3. I know it has the old wax paper capacitors and it sounds
really good. I was wondering if putting mylar caps would make it sound
better. If if it would make it sound new and cleaner then how much would
it
cost to have this done??? How big of a surgery is this?? WHo might be
qualified to do it??? I am 19, an engineering major in college, and very
limited in my knowledge of electronics.
Magnus Enorson (who regularly hangs out on hammond@... mailing list) and
others have consistently said that before you re-cap a TWG, you consider
these actions:
- replace (as necessary) the 117vac wiring
- re-cap the preamp (power caps and wax caps, my next project)
- while you're at it, check resistance on all resistors in the preamp,
replace the ones that are damaged or too far out of tolerance (I would say
within 10% is ok)
- re-cap the vibrato line (this makes a surprising bit of difference, I'm
going to re-cap the A-100 vibrato at my church in the near future).
You'll need to learn to read a schematic, and learn how to solder. Get
someone to help you or show you how. If I remember right, you're somewhere
near Akron OH, I'm an hour east of there, and willing to help.
All of those are relatively simple, compared to recapping a TWG. The vibrato
line in particular is time-consuming but not difficult. The skills you'd
learn there - soldering and working with point-to-point wiring - will serve
you well if you want to do the TWG down the road. These actions are also
consided to guarantee an improvement in the organ sound, where opinions on
re-capping the TWG are "more diverse".
You'll need a (among other things) a decent but not real expensive ohmmeter,
a soldering iron, wire cutters, needle-nose pliers and hand tools to remove
the preamp. It also helps to use masking tape to make "flags" to attach to
wires ie - "G terminal in middle". You may also need access to an electronics
store with a broader stock than the typical Radio Shack carries. I
fortunately have 2 local stores like this, or you can contact Mauser, for
example.
On the web there's a list of parts for a full preamp rebuild at
Doug
