Tube amp technicians in MA?[views:31022][posts:91]______________________________________ [Feb 7,2011 11:30pm - ArrowHeadNLI ""] MarkFuckingRichards said:I just hope whatever it is doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Even if it costs a couple hundred, At least double that. You got boned. |
| ____________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 7:16am - t2daeeknli ""] markworkingrichards said: The_Rooster said: blue said: MarkFuckingRichards said:I just got new tubes; put them in, played for about an hour with no sound issues, but 2 of the LEDs behind the tubes aren't lit. Not sure what that means exactly. I guess tomorrow I'll be giving Aztech a call. pretty sure those lights have nothing to do with shit. Could be an indication that power is not reaching a certain point in the circuit though, no? Maybe a faulty filter cap? Is it easy to open the chassis to look inside? Check for leaky caps, burned up components, etc.... DO NOT prod around inside without rubber souled shoes and one hand behind your back though. even if it is unplugged. I suck at all this stuff, so there's no way I'm even thinking of poking around in there, haha. what do those activity lights mean? is there some kind of label near them? my svt has activity led's that tell me when the amp is biased too cold or too hot. you probably blew a fuse or something fairly simple. you matched up all your tubes right? have to ask the stupid question. i've seen worse happen from dumber shit. |
| ____________________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 7:51am - MarkFuckingRichards ""] I've been trying to figure out what the LEDs mean, and it doesn't seem like I can find a true answer. I emailed Engl and haven't received a response. All the tubes were matched. Hopefully Aztech can figure that out for me. |
| ____________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 9:50am - The_Rooster ""] MarkFuckingRichards said:I just hope whatever it is doesn't cost an arm and a leg. If it's the transformer, you're gonna be pissed. Unless your tech can get his hands on a used one. |
| ______________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 9:51am - SteveSummoned ""] Crankys in Mansfield, MA. Guy does all our mods and is a legitimate tube amp genius. http://www.guitarrepair.com/ |
| __________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 9:56am - Bradsauce ""] Aztech rules. I wish I could match there turnaround times, but I've got one of them fulltime jobs as well as running a repair shop. That being said, Mr. Richards, I'd be amped to take a look at an Engl sometime. What model is it? I got a couple of Engl factory schematics when I was in college. If I can help out in anyway, drop me a line, duder. |
| _____________________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 10:19am - MarkFuckingRichards ""] I hope it isn't the transformer, but whatever; money's in the bank. Brad, if Aztech can't figure it out, I'll hit you up. Where do you do your work? Oh, and it's the first Powerball (E645). |
| ________________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 12:42pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] Bradsauce said:That being said, Mr. Richards, I'd be amped to take a look at an Engl sometime. [img] |
| __________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 1:35pm - Bradsauce ""] Damn right pun intended! Mark, I'll take a look at me schematic collection when I'm back in my shop, which is over in Brighton in Cleveland Circle. I'm guessing Aztech will figure it out just fine, those chaps kick ass. But I'm almost always around (lame) if anything goes wrong in the future. Dig it. |
| _____________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:19pm - ArrowHeadNLI ""] MarkFuckingRichards said:I hope it isn't the transformer, but whatever; money's in the bank. WTF dude, if someone sold me an amp that needed $600 in repairs without telling me, the fucking money wouldn't be coming out of MY bank - it would come out of THEIRS. Or else their mom would be paying me in sex favors. If the mom is dead I'd take a grandma. Or maybe a younger brother. The point is, you seem to have gotten scammed. I'd go all Elgin James on the seller. |
| ____________________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:34pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""] Would it really be a scam if the amp worked perfectly fine for 3 weeks straight, being used an average of 3 to 4 hours 4 days out of the week, then out of the blue it starts acting like a bitch? I don't know shit about the technical stuff so I really have no clue, haha. |
| _______________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:37pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] ArrowHeadNLI said:The point is, you seem to have gotten scammed. I'd go all Elgin James on the seller. start a crew about it |
| ____________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:43pm - ouchdrummer ""] I thought you'd only had it for a week? (when the problem came up initially that is) |
| ____________________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:44pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""] Even if the amp is messed up because of the previous owner not knowing he was fucking it up (or selling it with the knowledge that it was fucked up), I'm sure it would be too much frustration trying to prove to him that he's at fault and owes me $600. Getting the $600 or however much it may cost would probably be a completely different battle that would probably not be worth the trouble unless there were some sort of legal actions I could take. I guess we'll see what happens. |
| ____________________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:49pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""] I bought it 3 weekends ago, and played it a LOT between then and the time the problem arose, which was this past Thursday. Even after changing tubes it seemed fine for a few hours on 2 days playing it. Then after 20-30 min of playing it at practice on Sunday it started farting out again. |
| ____________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:51pm - ouchdrummer ""] sad panda. |
| ______________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:52pm - timma ""] I'll perform a healing ritual on it if you'd like. |
| _________________________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:57pm - Martins nli computerlab ""] Could have something to do with a filament in a tube "overheating." My knowledge of how tubes work is still in its infancy but this could be the case. |
| ______________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 2:58pm - Alexecutioner ""] markworkingrichards said:I did several barrel rolls, to no avail. Also bludgeoned with hammer and deleted its system32 folder. I don't know what other RTTP memes to do about it. BLAST IT WITH PISS that'll fix it |
| _______________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 3:00pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] Alexecutioner said: markworkingrichards said:I did several barrel rolls, to no avail. Also bludgeoned with hammer and deleted its system32 folder. I don't know what other RTTP memes to do about it. BLAST IT WITH PISS that'll fix it It'll probably take over 9000 milliliters. |
| __________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 3:04pm - Bradsauce ""] If it's anything like most modern tube amps, there's a lot of protection circuitry in there to prevent the transformer from smoking. Not saying it can't happen, but I'd stay hopeful that it's some little component in there (I'm thinking it could be a coupling cap leaking DC current and misbiasing the output tubes) that fried. Keep ya chin up. |
| ____________________________________ [Feb 8,2011 3:23pm - The_Rooster ""] Bradsauce said:If it's anything like most modern tube amps, there's a lot of protection circuitry in there to prevent the transformer from smoking. that's a good point. Even in my old JMP, there's a fuse before the tranny that will blow and shut the amp down before any damaging current or the like can reach it. "tranny that will blow" huh huh h-huh huh. |
| __________________________________ [Feb 9,2011 12:17am - niccolai ""] Was this ever rectumfied? |
| _____________________________________________ [Feb 9,2011 12:03pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""] Aztech just called and I guess one of the 12ax7 tubes, as well as the socket it was in, was bad. They don't really know about the LED lights behind the tubes and they'd rather not have to dismantle the whole amp to find out...so I guess we'll see what happens tonight at practice and the show tomorrow. Bradsauce, if there's anything still wrong with it I'll see if you can take a look at it since you have some Engl schematics. I'll be moving to your general area in a couple weeks anyway. |
| __________________________________ [Feb 9,2011 2:04pm - Bradsauce ""] That's fucking rad that it wasn't your tranny! Yeah dude, let me know if anything craps out (I work on pedals, guitars, and solid state amps, too) or if you just wanna talk shop. I'm always glad to teach folks how to do the basic maintenance stuff with their gear. Sorry I didn't get back to you about the schematic, got drunk, made spring rolls. I'll track it down tonight. |
| ____________________________________________ [Feb 9,2011 6:26pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""] Definitely psyched it's not the tranny. I played it for a few minutes and it sounds a lot better than it did before the issues even started. Brad, if you rehouse pedals I may have some work for you. I'm also somewhat down to learn some stuff. |
| _________________________________ [Feb 9,2011 6:47pm - niccolai ""] Ohhhh Mark. You're always blowing trannies. |
| ____________________________________________ [Feb 9,2011 8:09pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""] You know me all too well. |
| _____________________________________________ [Feb 9,2011 10:14pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""] Got through an entire hour or so of playing the amp tonight at ludicrous volume with no issues whatsoever. Sounds a hell of a lot tighter that it used to. |
| ________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 12:21am - magh8 ""] I just heard about this today mark.....so all is well????the only problem with the engl stuff is when shit breaks it's a bitch for techs to work on...engl like to put there pcb's upside down so to repair the simpleist thing it's a PITA and time consuming.charging by the hour it can put a real dent in your pocket...this is the reason i got away from the engl thing.fortunately neither of my powerballs faild on me and fishcakes(was mine) is still 100%...don't get me wrong I DO like the engl stuff but simple is always better with tube amps... |
| _____________________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 4:24am - MarkFuckingRichards ""] Yeah everything is fine with it now; I popped its show cherry tonight and it sounded killer, no issues whatsoever. The guys at Aztech mentioned how weird the design is, and didn't want to have to charge me an arm and a leg just to look at those 2 LEDs that went out. Luckily all I had to pay for was a set of 4 new 12ax7s and an hour or two of work to get the socket back in its proper position. |
| __________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 9:26am - brian_dc ""] the other thing that ENGL does that's a bitch is that they have fake schematics floating around everywhere on the internet so that independent amp makers don't try to steal their shit When I brought my Powerball to B Sharp to reverse the phase on the gain channel(*), Dave looked at the schematic I gave him and just said..."uhhhh, that's not at all what this is. I'll find another." And then he found 3 more shitty ones before he found the right thing. It was an easy fix, incidentally. *you may never notice it, but the clean and gain channels are out of phase with each other. Not a big deal if you're running one amp or running two amps with always the same sound. But I had two amps and changed channels a lot...a bitch to deal with when recording. |
| _____________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 9:30am - The_Rooster ""] brian_dc said: *you may never notice it, but the clean and gain channels are out of phase with each other.... Are you kidding? That is just unbelievably fucking stupid. |
| __________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 9:32am - brian_dc ""] it annoyed the fuck out of me while we were trying to do pre-production. Because every time I switched from the second stage of the clean channel to gain channel I was perceiving a mammoth volume drop. Because the other amps constant was there, the phase shift made the ENGL virtually disappear. Completely fucked. |
| __________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 9:33am - brian_dc ""] making the change actually removed a lot of the death metal-ish gain from it and basically turned it into a completely different amp, which was perfect for me. But I wouldn't recommend it to most Powerball owners. |
| __________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 9:34am - brian_dc ""] The_Rooster said: brian_dc said: *you may never notice it, but the clean and gain channels are out of phase with each other.... Are you kidding? That is just unbelievably fucking stupid. When I talked to my amp guy he said that it's shockingly not all that uncommon |
| ________________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 9:44am - WarriorOfMetal ""] That actually makes perfect sense (the channels being out of phase with each other)...it all comes down to how many gain stages are in the amp, really...and if the clean channel has, for example, 2 gain stages, every odd-numbered stage will be out of phase from that clean channel...so if you have 5 gain stages for the distortion channel, it's gonna be out of phase from the clean channel. |
| __________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 9:58am - brian_dc ""] what he said |
| ______________________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 10:19am - MarkFuckingRichards ""] I never really change channels during songs, so I don't really have to worry about the channels being out of phase. |
| _____________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 1:15pm - The_Rooster ""] WarriorOfMetal said:That actually makes perfect sense (the channels being out of phase with each other)...it all comes down to how many gain stages are in the amp, really...and if the clean channel has, for example, 2 gain stages, every odd-numbered stage will be out of phase from that clean channel...so if you have 5 gain stages for the distortion channel, it's gonna be out of phase from the clean channel. I get that, and it makes sense, but it's still stupid. Has to be a way to deal with that at the design stage. |
| _____________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 1:19pm - The_Rooster ""] MarkFuckingRichards said:I never really change channels during songs, so I don't really have to worry about the channels being out of phase. You wouldn't have to worry about it in a live setting if you're not mic'd. It becomes problematic when you put a mic in front of the speaker. The engineer would have to invert the phase at the console to compensate. |
| ___________________________________ [Feb 11,2011 1:56pm - Bradsauce ""] [QUOTE="The_Rooster:1171947" I get that, and it makes sense, but it's still stupid. Has to be a way to deal with that at the design stage. There is, just throw a unity gain inverting stage in there and you're set. But that would increase the cost. Not by much, but you'd be amazed at some of the crap manufacturers do to save money. In most modern amps, all the components are being run at there absolute maximum rating. It kills the longevity of the amp. Is bogus. |