ex Noddy Holder (Slade) modded DR201

[Dr.HI-TONE]

You are very welcome!
I am glad you found the forum!

[Stu_R]

Me too, very much so! .......... and after checking the uk site the cost isn't as astronomical as I assumed it would be.

Is there anything else I should be concerned about, the board components etc?

[Stu_R]

I don't know how much life the GEC KT88s havae left in them either. I hope Lots and Lots, but they may be getting "tired" too.

Presumably that would account for the drop in volume? I noticed you recommended JJs elsewhere?
........................... (Though I did go to 36 of their gigs & have permanent tinnitus.)

[Dr.HI-TONE]

If the KT88's are nearing the end of their life, they will have less output.
If you use the amp very often, I would put some JJ's or new Gold Lions in it and save the GEC's.

I have good experience with JJ's but I can only base my opinion of the new "Gold Lions" based on what I have heard from others.
I think the JJ's are better bang for the buck or better value.

[mhuss]

I sadly don't have a 201 of my own, but a set of JJ KT88s sound and work great in my Fender PS300 (which is a bass amp, of course).

-- mark

[Stu_R]

And JJs are £10 each less than Gold Lion's at Watford Valves. but I will do some shopping around etc first.

[stokekt88s]

what a beauty of a dr201 story, i met slade in the 80s in stoke on trent when they played here as my dad knew them all from the 60s. don even gave me an old snare head i was about ten.... we'll bring the house down tour.

anyway back to the amp i would definitely re-cap the amp i have done my hiwatt 200 with JJ caps and tubes it sounds colossal. i have also just recapped my dr103 and that sounds awesome too, gets rid of all the pops and crackles and is good for your tubes and transformers. stick JJ's in there and save the gec tubes for special.... screen resistors are another definite replace for me on an amp that old. get it sounding like new.

[Stu_R]

Thanks for your thoughts; yeah I went to a fair few Slade gigs - never thought at most of them that I'd ever own one of the amps & cabs that were behind them all those years. Even helped haul the stuff inside at many a gig.
It's the possible damage to trannies etc more than anything that's bothering me - ideally I'd like to get it back 100%, fire it up a few times to hear it's glory & then sell it to someone who would still use it a lot as a gigging amp.
I'm hoping if they've enough life to be worth having that selling the 4 x GECs would cover all or part of the work.