Fixing old amps the easy way….

[Matt Hayden]

I’ve got an old Deluxe Reverb that’s recently been having senior moments – it stutters and statics at inopportune times, including but not limited to gigs.  So I called a renowned local amp repair person to see about dropping it off to be fixed. After a description of the symptoms, he told me I needed….l

 

….wait for it…..

 

WD-40. Plain old hardware-store stuff.

 

He told me to pull the tubes out, spray WD-40 on the pins, re-insert it, pull it out again, wipe off the pins, and continue until no more crud came off the pins.  Y’know what? It works! I’ve spent about a zillion dollars on stuff like Deoxit to keep electronics clean, but apparently plain old WD-40 is fine.  The amp quieted down immediately and is behaving better all around. I also cleaned the input jacks this way, and that helped, too.

So there’s tech bulletin #whatever…..

 

[Hank]

Matt,
When we lived aboard our Gulfstar ketch and our Tiara we used a product called Corrosion X…We sprayed it on everything electrical or electronic…GREAT Stuff.
It was actually demonstrated on electronics submerged in salt water.
It protected for months and months.

[Anonymous]

Hey another good use for WD40 is to replenish the moline berry bait scent for steelhead fishing. It does contain some fish oil.

Good to know Matt. Thanks

[Daniel]

Ahh!  Good ol’ Water Displacement 40!

Has anyone else ever read Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut?  WD40 always reminds me of Ice-Nine, and freaks me out a bit.  🙂

Daniel

[indexless]

I have a tweed deluxe as well that’s just a head, about every two weeks it makes the worst noise possible, I pick it up and drop it from about 3 inches unto the speaker cabinet…..it fixes it perfectly….I bet WD40 is my answer as well….thanks Matt!!!!

[Author]

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