All the early Accutronics reverb units had this lever. The idea being that before transporting the amp, one would put this lever into the “lock position” which would lock the sprung-mounted pan down to the main housing with a strip of felt between them for cushioning. I would imagine this was to prolong the life of the unit, especially as the two minute coils, one at each end of the pan, are connected to the RCA (Phono) sockets on very thin fly-leads. The wires snapping through constant movement is quite a common failure of these units. However, they haven’t fitted this locking-lever for many years…..even though it is still shown on all the models’ coding!
Close-up of some of the changed components. The really annoying thing
about Selmers (and some other old amps too) is the fact that they would
wrap components around the tags & valve base pins before soldering.
This makes them a pig to remove without damaging & (or) scorching
other components/wires. If one knows how to solder correctly, there is
no need to wrap wires or even put them through the tag/pins’
holes. A good soldered joint cannot be pulled apart!!
This
Diplomat was owned by a fantastic guy Chris, from the Sollihull area
here in the UK. This is Chris’ testimonial e-mail after getting
his amp back from me: