DC 5 Combo Cleaning/Prep

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Casper

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Hi folks, Newbie here. As I said in my first post, I bought a DC-5 used from GC. I am about to take it apart and spray the pots out with some contact cleaner and re-tube the amp. Anything I need to know about while doing this? I don't know much about these things, but spraying pots, dusting out the unit and changing tubes sounds prety simple. There is also a volume mod for the Master Vol I could do while I have the chasis out. It involves clipping a capacitor on the pot itself? Anybody care to chime in on this topic? Any and all advice wanted..
Thanks
Shaun
 
Congrats on the DC-5. Great amp. If you've never been inside an amp before let me warn you not to touch those big blue capacitors. Ouchy or death might result. They can be safely drained if you need to work on them.

I've heard a lot about the volume mod but haven't done it because I keep the level around 3-4. If I understand that mod correctly it's so you don't have such a drastic jump in volume once you get it around 2. I did do the fx loop mode turning it to serial. Very worthwhile if you use your loop much. There is a lot of information here about that amp so you may want to read some old posts if you're just looking for general information. Now that you have a DC series amp you may want to join the Official DC club. :D
 
Wow! Thanks for the replies guys and for the advice MJ! Thats good information. Like i said, I don't plan on really doing anything other than sparaying out the pots, using some canned air to blow any dust off and then change the tubes. I will look for any breaks in solder joints as well, but if it needs work, I'll let my tech fix it.
JP6, I picked it up at Guitar Center over thanksgiving. they wanted $550.00 It was used of course and didn't look like it was treated very well, dirty and the previous owner had written in magic marker on the aluminum plate in the back. It has some scratchiness in some of the pots and at least one tube I can see is blown (hence the "brownout" on the lead channel (I hope!) when I demoed it and it kept dying out I showed the salesman and told him I would have to have my tech fix it. i talked him down to $399............. :D
I took it home and cleaned up the case with some Lexol leather cleaner and treated with conditioner and took some alcohol to the writing..she cleaned up beautifully..now I just need to make sure she's ready for the road. Kinda like me finding a buried treasure! Considering the price these get on e-bay ($7-900) and from what I read on HC..it was the smartest purchase I have made in YEARS. thanks for the replies again, feel free to point me in any direction as well..Shaun
 
This post made me warm up my DC-10 today while the wife was away. Sometimes I'll just play simple chords so I can listen to the great tone this amp produces. I've got a head with a 2x12 Mesa 3/4 back cabinet. Though it sounds find very low, once cranked to band volumes it is just so cool.

If you don't have a lot of amp tech experience, like me, you may want to just let your tech give it the once over for good measure. I took mine in and he found a burned resistor and some worn out capacitors. The total cost was $120. Only reason it was that much was because the smaller caps he replaced could only be got to from under the PCB so he had to disconnect most everything. One thing I learned from this board is that if a cap goes out it can cause all kinds of problems with other components. It just feels good to know that your amp is in top working order. Gives me piece of mind anyway. When I first got the amp I replaced the five large blue caps myself. With amps this old it's a good preventive measure. And it tightened up my low end and made the amp shine that much more.
 
Thanks MJ. It's not a bad idea really. Considering the little investment, it could prove to be a good thing having the tech give it the once over..
I can't IMAGINE how loud a DC10 is!!? Whats different about your amp?
I play in a regional showband on the east coast, my band leader will have a stroke when he sees this amp. I've had the Classic 30 on the road since I sold my Rivera (which he thought was too loud)...sheesh!
Considering the previous owner of my DC5, I think I will let him look at it..peace of mind is a good thing.
I'll report back to you with the results!
Happy New year!
Shaun
 
I owned a DC-5 combo when I bought my DC-10 head. My goal was to change all my amps to a head/cab configuration. Volume wise the DC-10 isn't that much louder but it does have more girth. When I crank it in the 100 watt setting it shakes the house. I was actually looking for a DC-5 head when I found the DC-10 locally and couldn't pass it up. One thing nice about the little combo is that no one will get freaked out when they see it thinking that you're going to blow the roof off. But you could if you wanted to! I usually use an attenuator on my amp to some degree. Just enough to keep my ears from bleeding.

Let us know how it works out.
 
Shaun, the volume mod is pretty staight forward. just removed the resistor that is on the Output Volume pot. I think som revs of the amp have the resistor back on the board though. It made a bit of difference on my amp, rather than it really jumping in volume at 2, i would say i have better control from 2-4, but then 4 being just as loud as 2 was. if you already going to be craking the chassis out, i would give it a try, you can clip one lead, so if you want to take it back to spec, you can just re solder it
 
Thanks Adam. My amp tech has had the amp for a week now (he says hes getting to it :x )
I told him about the mod and pointed him to the youtube vid of the mod being done. He said he would evaluate asnd let me know..then I'll report back to you cats..
thanks-Shaun
 
i saw that video as well. Whats funny is that it really goes no where or into any deatail! i was thinking of adding a vid response to show the difference but i got lazy. Also, he seems to really be hacking in there with some huge pliers...makes it seem like he is snapping a 10 gauge wire!
 
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