Sarsicus
08-11-2006, 07:14 PM
Hello to all-I posted on here before it became such a great looking forum.I got some great advice but I'm here again to hopefully find a way to fix two of my favorite guitar amps.
I own a Fatboy Chubby 2 channel 1x12 combo and a Fatboy F1 3 channel head. They were both built by Norb Funk before he sold the company. Pretty kick butt tone from a pcb design and never gave me any problems. I'm told Norb made a handful of both the heads and the amps in the 90's and then sold the company to a few gentlemen in Texas that eventually stopped building them. Both are 80 watt EL34.
Recently a tech used a faulty speaker cable with the head and blew a fuse before realizing the problem. After replacing fuse the amp ran smoothly for another 1-2 months. At a rehearsal the amp blew a fuse again, and now will blow fuses whenever switching from standby to on. The amp powers up, channels switch, tubes light up, but the second you flip the standby it's shitsville.
The combo has performed flawlessy for 10+ years and was my main amp and received pretty consistent use. At another rehearsal my bass player and I noticed that my guitar's volume amd character we're not cutting through like they usually do. I keep master volume around 2.5-4 which is pretty ear splitting. Upon applying more volume 5-6 we noticed no difference in volume, and also the eq did nothing. This was in the dirty channel, the clean channel has almost no volume at all.
I figure a transformer is shot in the head, and I was told that the capacitors had gone south in the combo, but everyone I've taken them to really just pull the chassis and scratch their heads. I wish I was qualified to do this myself but I'm not. If I would have known this was gonna happen I would have played these amps everyday.
My question to you guys is this-who out there is or knows someone who can fix these amps? The specialists that looked at them said they were both loaded with proprietary designs and exotic parts, but I know Norb got most of his supplies from local/national electronics surplus outlets. Is there anyone out there who knows these amps, or maybe even someone involved with the company Norb sold the designs to? I need these fixed because people deserve to hear them, I just don't know who to take them to. I appreciate everyone's time and consideration, and I'm not expecting too much. I hope I can get some help. Thanks ya'll.
I own a Fatboy Chubby 2 channel 1x12 combo and a Fatboy F1 3 channel head. They were both built by Norb Funk before he sold the company. Pretty kick butt tone from a pcb design and never gave me any problems. I'm told Norb made a handful of both the heads and the amps in the 90's and then sold the company to a few gentlemen in Texas that eventually stopped building them. Both are 80 watt EL34.
Recently a tech used a faulty speaker cable with the head and blew a fuse before realizing the problem. After replacing fuse the amp ran smoothly for another 1-2 months. At a rehearsal the amp blew a fuse again, and now will blow fuses whenever switching from standby to on. The amp powers up, channels switch, tubes light up, but the second you flip the standby it's shitsville.
The combo has performed flawlessy for 10+ years and was my main amp and received pretty consistent use. At another rehearsal my bass player and I noticed that my guitar's volume amd character we're not cutting through like they usually do. I keep master volume around 2.5-4 which is pretty ear splitting. Upon applying more volume 5-6 we noticed no difference in volume, and also the eq did nothing. This was in the dirty channel, the clean channel has almost no volume at all.
I figure a transformer is shot in the head, and I was told that the capacitors had gone south in the combo, but everyone I've taken them to really just pull the chassis and scratch their heads. I wish I was qualified to do this myself but I'm not. If I would have known this was gonna happen I would have played these amps everyday.
My question to you guys is this-who out there is or knows someone who can fix these amps? The specialists that looked at them said they were both loaded with proprietary designs and exotic parts, but I know Norb got most of his supplies from local/national electronics surplus outlets. Is there anyone out there who knows these amps, or maybe even someone involved with the company Norb sold the designs to? I need these fixed because people deserve to hear them, I just don't know who to take them to. I appreciate everyone's time and consideration, and I'm not expecting too much. I hope I can get some help. Thanks ya'll.