I've really done it this time

[Maximusprime]

Hey All, First post here,

So I bought a Weber attenuator for my Fender Bassman Reissue combo amp and tried to hook it up tonight. I started by cutting the wires going to speakers inside the amp as the bassman has 4 speakers and I wanted to hook it up at a common point so I wouldn't have to make a 4 way split to go to the attenuator. I wired the attenuator series between the output and the speakers as instructed.

When I plugged in the amp and the guitar I got nothing. The amp turned on and the tubes glowed but no noise to the speakers. This is where it got ugly. All of a sudden, there was a spark near one of the power tubes and the amp was toast. Not even the red light comes on. Its DEAD! Does anyone know what I did? I hope its a cheap fix

Anyway, I discovered after the fact that I had not connected one of them securely enough and i dont think any power was going to the speakers. Could this have fried my transformer?

Help please!

Thanks

[Diablo]

Hook up your speakers like they came from Fender, put a new fuse in the amp, and see if it turns on. If not, then it's time to pay a technician some money. You may have fried your transformer.

[Maximusprime]

bingo!
it was a fuse.
After a little more fiddling around I figured out the problem was that I was using stereo jacks and I had wired them wrong.
Thanks!

[Prairie Dawg]

Originally Posted by Maximusprime

Hey All, First post here,

So I bought a Weber attenuator for my Fender Bassman Reissue combo amp and tried to hook it up tonight. I started by cutting the wires going to speakers inside the amp as the bassman has 4 speakers and I wanted to hook it up at a common point so I wouldn't have to make a 4 way split to go to the attenuator. I wired the attenuator series between the output and the speakers as instructed.

When I plugged in the amp and the guitar I got nothing. The amp turned on and the tubes glowed but no noise to the speakers. This is where it got ugly. All of a sudden, there was a spark near one of the power tubes and the amp was toast. Not even the red light comes on. Its DEAD! Does anyone know what I did? I hope its a cheap fix

Anyway, I discovered after the fact that I had not connected one of them securely enough and i dont think any power was going to the speakers. Could this have fried my transformer?

Help please!

Thanks

It's a possibility. It's a teardown for sure, because you could have had arcing in a tube base or socket. If you feel confident, go ahead and pull it apart because that arcing probably caused some damage. You've blown a fuse for sure at the very minimum. You may or may not have toasted your output transformer but for sure you have other problems as well.

You'd be surprised how often this happens. People firing up amps with the speakers inadvertently disconnected that is.

[Maximusprime]

Originally Posted by Prairie Dawg

It's a possibility. It's a teardown for sure, because you could have had arcing in a tube base or socket. If you feel confident, go ahead and pull it apart because that arcing probably caused some damage. You've blown a fuse for sure at the very minimum. You may or may not have toasted your output transformer but for sure you have other problems as well.

You'd be surprised how often this happens. People firing up amps with the speakers inadvertently disconnected that is.

Uh Oh,
Really? You think I may have done some damage? It seems to be working fine now that I replaced the fuse. What kind of damage are we talking? What should I be looking for?