Transformerectomy!

No, it’s not some sort of futuristic android sex change.

I’ve lived happily with the Crown SXA for about a year now, and by and large, it’s been a pleasure. It sounds great, has more than enough power for me, and now winter is coming, I can warm my feet on it!

My main worry, though, was always the power transformers. Not only are they something like 50 years old, but they were never designed to handle 50Hz power, which is what we have in the UK. So, even with RG Keen’s Vintage Voltage adaptor installed inside the chassis, they hummed really loudly, got really hot, and gave off worrying smells.

My first port of call was Sowter Transformers, a custom winding company in Ipswich. I sent them the dimensions of the original trannies, and got the reply: “We don’t do metric sized transformers”. They were made in Indiana in 1960. How can they possibly be metric? But none of Sowter’s standard core sizes were even close.

So I thought, maybe “metric” just means “Not British”. A quick peek in the Hammond catalogue (sorry, catalog!) and sure enough, there were several transformers of the right size. I settled on the 290KX, which is Hammond’s replacement for the Marshall JCM900 guitar amp, and Bluebell Audio in Dundee supplied me with a pair.

After purchasing some end bells from TAD and some M4 threaded rod from “boltmeup”‘s Ebay store, it was time to pull the poor Crown apart!

dismantled!

This took most of the day. The new trannies had lugs sticking out of their bobbins, and needed some trimming to get them through the chassis holes. “It’s just like trimming a toenail”, as Philip from Bluebell told me, but much more expensive if you get it wrong!

New vs. old

After much fiddling, rewiring the rectifier to a bridge, wiring one of the transformers up backwards (thank goodness for the old light bulb limiter trick!) and pulling out the redundant Vintage Voltage unit, she was good to go!

done!

The bad news is, the new trannies still hum a bit. They’re quieter than the old ones, but not silent. They also still run fairly hot. The good news is, they don’t smell!

I finally painted the OPTs black to match

2 Replies to “Transformerectomy!”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *