CHAMP ELECTRONICS -" THE VINTAGE VALVE
AMP HOSPITAL"
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND
THE WORST SELMER IN THE WORLD
- THE REPAIR OF
A c1964 SELMER ZODIAC TWIN 50 COMBO AMPLIFIER
The
famous
Selmer “winking-eye” at the middle/top.
Virtually
finished, just the speaker plug to solder in place and the
supply/fitting of a
replacement tremolo foot-switch. We are about 2:30am at this point!!
SORTING
OUT THE WORST SELMER IN THE WORLD!.....AND IN LESS THAN 18 HOURS!!
Hello again everybody. Well, here we are, back
to one
of my interesting stories on a particular given amp. We have
already had the
“worst Vox in the world!” (Please see this article:
http://www.chambonino.com/work/vox/vox3.html),
so it only seems fair to have a similar article on a Selmer
amp!
Now, this all started off with a normal phone
call from a guy named Chris,
enquiring about the repair/service and possible renovation of a Selmer
Zodiac
50 Twin croc-skin, that needed dealing with before being offered for
sale on
EBay. Chris further explained that he lived a long, long way south of
Nottingham but, was due to be passing on business on the following
Saturday. He was wondering if it was possible to drop the amp off
whilst
passing, with a view to getting it sorted out? As this is pretty much a
common
request from many of my customers who live a fair way from my home town
of
Nottingham, my answer was simply yes, go for it! However, this is where
things
now take-a-dive! Chris further explained that he would be passing back
past
Nottingham about 6am the following Sunday morning (!),
and…..would it be possible
to have it ready within that time-frame? This was approximately 18
hours to
turn the job around!
I committed myself to this by
saying yes, I think I
could do it for him. OK, so it was then arranged for this to happen. He
was to
drop the amp off on the following Saturday, at about 10am in the
morning. (My mum
would simply let him put it in the workshop). As I don’t
normally start till
about 2pm (I’m an ex muso….night owl, after all!),
it would then be there for me to do the
job when I got up. This then all happened and went perfectly to plan. I
think I
got-up at around 1pm on that day, and after a couple ciggies and
cups-of-tea,
proceeded to attack the said amp…to get it all
sorted.
On first removing the
back I gasped in horror! An immediate amount of problems hit me. The
ECC83 was
broken, the pair of GDR-made EL34’s looked like one of them
was burnt-to-hell
inside, and the power transformer was the wrong one and very small!
This was just
the start of the problems!!
Removing the
power section from the case revealed
more. Somebody had been changing components and had mod'ed the amp
somewhat. Not
only that, but the wiring was disgusting, as is often the case
on old valve [tube]
amps after being previously cannibalised by some useless
“so-called tech-guy”.
As it happens, I always try to keep a power transformer on the shelf
for most
of the obvious types of amps (Vox, Selmer, Marshall etc), and
it’s a good job
that I do as otherwise I would never have been able to turn an amp
around like
this in such a short space of time!
At this point, I decided
to phone Chris and inform him
of all my findings, plus the fact that I wasn’t at all sure
that I could do such a restoration job in such a short space of time.
However, to my horror, Chris had not left me his contact
details (mobile phone number or whatever) even though I had previously,
on one
of our phone calls, specifically asked him to do so!
Now knowing full-well how much needed to be done, I
had the dilemma of “do I do it (or) do I leave things until I
hear from
Chris?".....I simply decided to go ahead with the job, and hope that I
had done
the right thing in doing so!
With the new power transformer fitted, new
smoothing
cap, removal of the junk components and all the wiring tidied-up, the
power
section was now finished at last!
Now moving on
the cabinet itself……there was one
Celestion “blue-back” and one Fane speaker! All the
2BA nuts/washers on them were
loose and in-fact the speakers themselves were hanging loose!
Plus, the
wiring on them both was really and truly “bodged”!
All the baffle nuts and
washers were either hanging off or missing. None of the pre-amp
“fly leads”
were secured and in-fact, the foot-switch lead was chopped with the
foot-switch itself missing! I literally ended-up ripping everything out
of the
case and started a-fresh! Both the odd speakers had cone damage
(ripped) and
both terminals on them had been bodged too. I repaired (glued) both
cones and
replaced the bad terminal connections on them both, eventually advising
Chris that actually his amp could really do with a new pair of matching
speakers (drivers).
Now I had
lastly to contend with the pre-amp section. This, as is usual, also had
many duff capacitors. I spent much time sorting and
servicing this too as can be seen in the photos below.
Eventually…….at
2:45am……she was finally finished. I
simply decided to stay-up for the rest of the night and wait for Chris
to pick
her up around 6am in the morning. This he did, and he was very pleased
with all my
efforts and hard work, let alone in such a short space of
time!
A
real……………phew……………on
this one!!
Cheers, John.
Shock as the
back is first removed! Just look at the state of one of the
EL34’s, the broken
ECC83, completely wrong power transformer
and…….even though looking OK on the
photo, the Mullard GZ34 was also blown-apart inside!? This speaker
wiring too
has to be one of the worst I have ever seen!
Typical bodged wiring
again and many wrong/added components. I was wondering why the GZ34 was
shot
but it didn’t take long to realize the problem. Small as the
fitted power
transformer was and, as small as its current rating would
be….the HT was
actually 650-0-650!! God-knows what equipment this transformer had come
from?
This would account for the GZ34 having flashed across and a shorting HT
cap! It
would also explain some of the modifications done. The screen
grids’ resistor
was a 5k but should have been a 1k5. Although in fixed-bias, someone
had put a 500
ohm cathode resistor and by-pass cap on the output tubes. Finally there
was a
1000 ohm, 10 watt wire-wound resistor from the HT CT (centre-tap) to
ground.
All these additions were obviously someone’s futile attempt
at reducing the
unusually high voltages from this wrong power transformer!
Selmer have
used two different size power transformers on their various 50 watt
amps. One
type uses the UK imperial (Linton & Hirst) type
“78” pattern and the other,
being the larger of the two is a “120” pattern.
This chassis originally would
have had the small one but, I only had the larger one on the shelf at
the time
and it does just fit. This is preferable anyway as the larger one runs
much
cooler! Full, new set of tubes here too.
That’s
more
like it…..tidy, neat, and working well! Also, note the small
over-hang of the
larger power transformer……..no big deal though.
The
2BA
speaker nuts. All of them were at least halfway down the screws!
What a hideous and
totally unreliable repair!
The
nuts
holding the baffle board in-place. Many were missing…..the
rest were hanging
off!
No
anchorage
for the pre-amp multi-core and, foot-switch lead cropped!
Everything out!!
Damage
to the
Fane driver cone.
As above.
Pre-amp
prior
to any work.
And after the
change of a good few components…..mainly the decoupling-caps.
Note
the
scorched yellow wire. I’m not the culprit here! This must
have been done on a
previous service when the beige RS cap was changed next to it? This,
in-fact is
one of my big “pet-hates” When I go in equipment
with a soldering-iron, I have
“wide-open blinkers on”. It’s a bit like
driving……you are looking at the road
straight-ahead but somehow you can “see in the wings
too!” It really annoys me
when tech-guys burn and scorch wires/components with little regard or
care to
the customer’s equipment.
All the
original
Mullard tubes were fine in the pre-amp and were retained.
Speakers all
repaired and rewired.
Love these
amps…..they don’t-half
“kick-ass” when working in tip-top order!
POSTSCRIPT:
E-mail,
received from Chris, the amps original owner, after having
sold the amp on EBay.
"Dear John,
I thought you might like to see
the result of your sleepless night with the Selmer. I managed
to find it a good home in the UK. Thanks again.
Best wishes,
Chris."
E-mail, received from
Alex, the amps new owner, sent to Chris, who forwarded it on
to me for inclusion on my web-site! Interesting stuff!
"Hi Chris,
I really hope you
are well? It's been ages since you made me a very happy 21 year old by
selling the Selmer amplifier to me - I promised I would contact you
with some pictures etc so please accept my apologies for not doing so
sooner!
The amp has been
absolutely brilliant! The Fane speaker quickly gave-way in the amp,
causing some minor damage to the output valves - I bought a new pair
and the new Celestion speakers that had been recommended by your amp
technician (chambonino@aol.com)
and am pleased to say that it has been nothing but a pleasure to play
since! It's travelled quite a lot as well - the band has been doing
very well recently and so far the amp has been seen and heard in; The
Dublin Castle, Camden. The Hope & Anchor, Islington. The
Jericho Tavern, Oxford. The NEC Arena, Birmingham and a multitude of
brilliant venues in Reading as well. This weekend it makes it's first
trip to Glastonbury!
We have also used
the amp to absolutely superb effect in the studio - the
tremolo being one of it's most effective devices. The new
speakers got rid of the "heartbeat effect" and it really sounds
fantastic now! The ghostly echo and tremolo is an effect I
can only get from the Selmer. Indeed, the producer
of our music said he'd never heard a sound quite like
it!!!
I've also
attached some pictures - the amp was at all three gigs but you can only
see it in the one next to the Orange amp on the stage floor. Hope the
other photos give you an impression of the sort of
action the amp is seeing these days; all those years
after you first bought it?
Anyway, thanks
again - I love the amp and so do the band. We all agreed it
was the missing link to our sound and we're very glad
that I managed to track one down!
Take care Chris -
I will e-mail again soon. We're recording again in May and I'll make
sure you're able to hear the Selmer's future achievements!
Alex."
Note the Selmer Zodiac next to the Orange amp, onstage with Boydidgood.
Two
Photos of Boydidgood, playing the NEC Birmingham.
