Draining Filter Capacitors in a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

SAFETY
Wear rubber-soled shoes, and work in a well lit area, upstairs if possible. When there are high voltages in your amp, current wants to flow to ground - it will will take any path through your body you provide. Ground mean the chassis or anywhere in the amp that is connected to it (including a lot of the circuit), and possibly the actual ground itself, which is why you're wearing the shoes and are upstairs. Also, remember that many parts of the circuit are connected to the filter caps, and will also shock you it you touch them. Don't touch anything inside your amp until you've drained off the potentially lethal voltages from the capacitors. Keep one hand in your pocket to avoid current flowing through your heart; this way if you do accidentally touch something you shouldn't, it might not be so bad.

RESISTOR
Use a 10 Watt rated 25k cement resistor, or something close. I use a 1/2 Watt rated 33k metal film resistor.

ABOUT THE MULTIMETER
You'll notice my multimeter is giving mV readings throughout the video. It's not hooked up to anything, except when you see my hand in the video touching the probes against places in the amp. Just ignore the readings you see the rest of the time.

The Justin Holton Unnoficial Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Owner's Guide is back online!

www.justinholton.com/hotrod/

There's a great set of instructions about how to drain the caps there, as well as a lot of great mods and other information.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• drain
• discharge
• filter
• cap
• capacitor
• fender
• hot
• rod
• deluxe
• deville
• hrdx
• guitar
• amplifier
• amp
• volt
• voltage
• current
• mod
• modification
• safe
• safety

[RxRotaryForLife]

Quick question. You said u use a 33k 5 watt resistor but it looks like a lil 1/2 watt resistor? What did u really use?

[tomfoyfx]

@RxRotaryForLife Oh yeah, you're right. It's 1/2 Watt. Search RN65D 3302F at mouser.com and you'll get the one I used.

[volesrock]

do i need to drain the caps to replace the two alpha pots on my jcm800?

thanks

[tomfoyfx]

@volesrock Yeah

[sexazzwill]

Well put together short Movie

[tomfoyfx]

@sexazzwill Thanks

[RxRotaryForLife]

Ok cool thanx for clearing that up for me!

[Ateamcaptain]

@tomfoyfx K thanks. My multimeter died on me so I guess it's off to buy another.

[tomfoyfx]

@Ateamcaptain I don't know. If you have a multimeter, it's pretty easy to just check whether they're discharged enough. You might be able to find some info online about how long it takes, maybe on Justin Holton's site (url in video comments).

[Ateamcaptain]

How long does it take for a capacitor to discharge on its own? I need to replace an ohm switch on my amp that busted off. Haven't played the amp in over a month.