SUNN SOLARUS REVERB HELP

[yucatan]

Hey guys just finished replacing the transformer in this guy.
Want to see if ya'll could help me date/identify this amp??
Its a combo 212 with 2 Brights and 2 normal inputs. 
7 knobs  ( volume, treble, bass, contour, rate, depth, and reverb.)\
3 Switches ( standby, polarity, and power)

I also replaced the 5AR4 rectifier tube, a couple of EL-34 outputs tubes, and a 7199 driver tube.

 I had some distortion at high volumes on the reverb.   The previous owner had a 12AT7 in the reverb driver.  That seems to solve the problem as opposed to a 12AU7.
Heard it might be the reverb transformer.
Any Thoughts?

thanks for the help!
cheers.

[BassHog]

I have the same 40 watt solarus, and found that I was getting noise from the reverb when turned up. After trying many many things including replacing most of the parts in the reverb section I ended up finding the cause. The reverb transformer is grounded through the reverb out jack. This ground is made by the jack being bolted to the chassis by a couple of small machine screws and nuts. On my amp these nuts were a bit loose, allowing the jack to pull ever so slightly away from the chassis and oxidation was able to grow in that gap, causing the ground connection for the reverb transformer to be intermittent. I pulled the jack out, used steel wool to clean up the chassis under where the jack makes contact and also cleaned up the jack connector. Bolted the jack back up nice and tight with some red locktite and it works great now.
No promise that will be your problem but it's a place to look.

[yucatan]

Hey Basshog,
           Thanks for the reply!! I'll take a look at it on my next day off.  It seems like a quirky problem to fix.
Did they make these in 68 as well?

Cheers

[BassHog]

Mine is a 67 that used to be a 2x12 combo like yours is. But basically only the chassis was salvageable so I built a new headbox for it and now it's just a head.
I think that all Solarus amps were heads only after the first year or two, they also changed to the 60 watt 6550 based head style later in the run.