I see Crate's Problem with the Palomino V32

[Mica]

7.5V is perfect. You donīt want Hurricane Katrina blowing into your chassis, just renewing the air inside about once in one or two minutes, which *never* happened before.

I think I'm fine with 7.5V. I tilted the fan up a bit so that the flow is directed somewhat toward the grid at the bottom of the chassis. This grid, by the way is directly above the tubes, providing a nice opening for the tube heat to rise onto the circuit board. I'm happy with this set up now.

On the topic of fan noise, I noticed that the fan by itself makes very little noise, although it does vibrate. Its only when it makes contact with something that can project the sound does it become annoying. Kinda similar to a tuning fork. Anyway, I mounted the fan onto a piece of sheet metal which is then attached to the bottom of the inside of the amp. The fan is isolated form the sheet metal with soft rubber gaskets on both sides. If you tighten it too much, compressing the gaskets and allowing the vibration to transmit, you will start to hear the fan noise. I was able to tighten it enough to keep it secure but not have any noise.

[theperm]

Hey I know this is an old post, but I don't see the attachment... anyway you can send this to me? I have 2 of these amps and love the tone but one has crapped out and I would like to do this mod.

[markslim]

The Palomino Rides Again!!

Hey I know this is an old post, but I don't see the attachment... anyway you can send this to me? I have 2 of these amps and love the tone but one has crapped out and I would like to do this mod.

Been waiting for an opportunity to post in this thread. I, too found hope and answers here when my Crate Palomino V32 212 was toasted by the hum problem. A lot of good people here have contributed to the solution. So, I put together this .pdf of the hum repair project; it combines all the ideas (plus a few more) that are contained in the posts on this thread. With pictures, catalog part numbers for the components, etc. Use as much or as little as you like. The totally tricked out repair (including new resistors, fan, switch, dimmer, bracket etc) cost $32. Have fun with the repair, and it is totally worth it... the amp is awesome.

All the best
Mark Meyering

Palomino_Rides_Again.pdf

[JimmyMustang]

Hello,
I'm new to the forum and I'm looking for help.
I picked up a Palomino V32 super cheap and it has some issues. The tone pots (treble, mid, bass) and reverb don't seem to do much.
Are they "cooked"? I know these amps rum hot.
Could it be tubes?
I also read somewhere that they "cold solder" everything and I may need to go through and touch all the contact points with a soldering iron?
Does any of this seem reasonable? Can anybody tell me where I should start?

[soundguruman]

"This amp is a fire waiting to happen" Your intuition is UN-surpassed.

The best place to start is at a scrap metal yard. They pay 38 cents per pound, and it's ALL cash!

There was a guy who used his as a flower planter, in the garden.

[DrGonz78]

Welcome to the site! So is the amp passing signal and the pots have little to no effect on the tone?? Explain this part in great detail. Try putting a signal through the amp while whacking the top of the amp. What you are checking by whacking it is for loose connections inside that amp that are intermittent. If the signal comes and goes something might be loose.

If you do pull out the circuit board make lots of documentation about where each wire goes and take your time. Soldering up bad joints is a coming practice, but first inspect all the wired connections before you go there. Sometimes there is a bad pot or solder joint to the legs of a pot that cause all sorts of problems. There are more recommendations to give but first explain your exact problematic symptoms of the amp with more details. Good luck.

[JimmyMustang]

Welcome to the site! So is the amp passing signal and the pots have little to no effect on the tone?? Explain this part in great detail. Try putting a signal through the amp while whacking the top of the amp. What you are checking by whacking it is for loose connections inside that amp that are intermittent. If the signal comes and goes something might be loose.

If you do pull out the circuit board make lots of documentation about where each wire goes and take your time. Soldering up bad joints is a coming practice, but first inspect all the wired connections before you go there. Sometimes there is a bad pot or solder joint to the legs of a pot that cause all sorts of problems. There are more recommendations to give but first explain your exact problematic symptoms of the amp with more details. Good luck.

The volume seems fine. I first noticed it with the reverb. It's intermittent and if it works there is only one intensity of reverb even if its wide open. Bass pot seems to work but not great. Mid and treble are kind of like the reverb pot.

[DrGonz78]

Two things spring to mind... Could be a bad preamp tube that might be used for tone control and or a short of some kind as posted before about the pots. Do you have the schematic for this amp? I just went ahead and attached that schematic...

[J M Fahey]

It could be some thingie bad inside there.

[DrGonz78]

Juan you are really unpredictable man!! Either way you make me laugh...

Seriously, I was looking through the schematic and thought you should look at J19 and J30... I would first clean those jacks out by spraying contact cleaner inside the jack then plug in a cable in and out afterwards. Actually plug a guitar patch cable in there first to see what happens. Maybe those contacts are dirty in one or both of those jacks...?? Looking at the schematic they connect to the reverb circuit so it would an easy troubleshoot to try.

[J M Fahey]

Oh, that!
I was just adding *another* stupid useless post, to match yesterday's first answer
Looks like MEF likes it that way.

Now that I've covered "new" Forum etiquette, I'll go back to the old way of trying to help:

1) the Palomino has a "boost" feature, which turns tone controls off, so if the OP is using it .... he shouldn't be surprised.
It's turned off by opening Q1 by applying -11.5V to its gate .
With 0V on gate "Boost" is off and tone control works.
That controlled voltage, labelled "A", comes from Q2 (page 2) which in turn is controlled by the footswitch (ring contact) and/or a Boost switch.

2) the so called "Presence" switch actually cuts highs by loading the Treble control down at high frequencies with C56/R80 so unless you have Presence ON, Treble control will do very little.

In my view, stupid design, it ads nothing and only reduces tone control action, hardly an "improvement" (you can simply set them to 6 instead of 10, no need to fixed turn 10 into 6), but since "Mesa Boogie does it this way", then "it must be fine".
Oh well, Mr Magoo leading the blind.

That said, the Crate supplied schematic is excellent (no matter what our Crate hater says), it is clearly and logically drawn (try that with Marshall), shows lots of Test Points and even includes Scope waveforms.
To be praised for that.

[soundguruman]

Oh, that!
I was just adding *another* stupid useless post, to match yesterday's first answer
Looks like MEF likes it that way.

Now that I've covered "new" Forum etiquette, I'll go back to the old way of trying to help:

1) the Palomino has a "boost" feature, which turns tone controls off, so if the OP is using it .... he shouldn't be surprised.
It's turned off by opening Q1 by applying -11.5V to its gate .
With 0V on gate "Boost" is off and tone control works.
That controlled voltage, labelled "A", comes from Q2 (page 2) which in turn is controlled by the footswitch (ring contact) and/or a Boost switch.

2) the so called "Presence" switch actually cuts highs by loading the Treble control down at high frequencies with C56/R80 so unless you have Presence ON, Treble control will do very little.

In my view, stupid design, it ads nothing and only reduces tone control action, hardly an "improvement" (you can simply set them to 6 instead of 10, no need to fixed turn 10 into 6), but since "Mesa Boogie does it this way", then "it must be fine".
Oh well, Mr Magoo leading the blind.

That said, the Crate supplied schematic is excellent (no matter what our Crate hater says), it is clearly and logically drawn (try that with Marshall), shows lots of Test Points and even includes Scope waveforms.
To be praised for that.

Oh sorry. "Boat anchor," and "artificial reef" have already been mentioned.

[Jazz P Bass]

Hey, how about growing up.

[soundguruman]

I tried that, it was no fun.

[Jazz P Bass]

Then , how about going away!