70s AC30 trubba

knuckleberryfinn

A friend has a Dallas Arbiter era AC30 which gradually died (smoke was involved) and is now blowing fuses immediately on start-up. I replaced all the filter caps and re-did the power amp tag board, which was charred. It is now frying rectifier diodes, so I assume there is a short between the secondary windings. If I am right, how easy/difficult would it be to rewind the transformer?

ICBM

Probably cheaper to replace it, although I'm not sure. I doubt originality matters with one of that era.

koneguitarist

Some, places will reengineer the transformer for you, ie so it will look exactly the same with same formers etc, just rewired like a pickup.

Carwood in Yeovil does it, but I am sure others will too. 

Cirrus

There's a website called livinginthepast that does it iirc. But if it was me I'd spare the extra £30 or so and just get an equally functional if ugly replacement.

knuckleberryfinn

Right ho, I'll get him to buy a new one. I thought it might be an easy home-fix but obviously not.

ICBM

It should be cheaper than a normal AC30 transformer too, since it doesn't need a valve rectifier filament winding. The equivalent from the current AC30C series would be a candidate.

I would avoid trying Vox customer service for one though - useless.