[HAM] Preamp rebuild

[Dave Zierenberg]

OK, I suspect my C2 would benefit from a rebuild of the preamp.  It has a
pretty warm sound, leaning towards muddy.  Those preamp components are about
50 years old and I'm wondering if some replacements would bring a little
life back to the old girl. Anyone have any tips on how best to go about this
project?  Which components should definitely go and which ones, if any,
might be OK as is.

One of the things I'm wondering is if there is a better way to arrange
things in the preamp.  The layout looks like it may have been inspired by a
web spun by a drunken spider.  I was expecting components mounted to boards
and such, but I see it's just cap and resistor leads soldered directly to
terminals.  That makes it hard to deal with individual components.  Is there
a reason they did it that way?  One that I'd need to maintain?  Or can I
re-orient things to make it a little neater?

Many advance thanks for info and tips.

Z