Crate Palomino V32

[Ultrastick]

Hello, I am new to your form and glad I found you folks. I've been reading some posts here and there's a great atmosphere of love of music and the things we use to produce it. I hope you can help me. I bought this amp new in 2007 and played it about an hour. It was stored in my garage ever since until recently when some old band members wanted to crank up again.

The amp behaved very nicely. I loved the sound, as did the other guys. On our second practice session it developed a hum--not a loud one, but definitely there. Unnoticeable when playing. Also, the overdrive stopped working. Push the button and no sound. I believe there was a tiny light that came on when the overdrive worked but it does not now. The amp still plays, and has volume, but I can tell something isn't right from some of the notes I play--off tones or odd harmonics.

I've taken it apart and swapped out preamp tubes to no avail. (Quite honestly some of the tubes were ones that came out of the amp when I got it, as there was some cracklying and popping going on). I've tapped on the tubes--all of them, with a pencil and they all sound the same. There's no discoloration and with the room lights off they all burn with the same brightness as their neighbor.

I've thought about buying one each 12ax7 and EL84 and subbing them out to see if I stumble on to a solution. I'm just before taking it to a local amp tech. Any advice or theories appreciated!

[Leo_Gnardo]

Welcome aboard!

Corrosion over time, whether in storage or not, is what I'm thinkin'. There's a footswitch jack for your overdrive, besides the push button, right? Perhaps the metal bits inside that footswitch jack aren't making proper contact with each other after nearly a decade of corrosion, though they may still look more or less shiny, not rusty or anything. Try plugging in a guitar cord, nothing else attached, & remove. Repeat a few times, maybe 10, this may clear corrosion enough for the switching to work. Cheap, fast & worth a try.

Corrosion on tube pins/sockets too, simply remove & replace each one, that might be enough to break thru a thin corrosion layer and get good metal to metal contact on the pins. Try it & lets see what happens after that.

[mozwell]

if we need it in the future, here is the schematic, pcb layout & parts list
testpoint voltages on the sch, should make this easy to fix

[TomCarlos]

Welcome Mike....

Do a google search on "crate palomino music electronics forum" and you will find a handful of past entries on this amp.

It seems the Crate tube amps have an issue with heat. Start with this thread... http://music-electronics-forum.com/t11813/ and read the others.

So when you say something doesn't sound right... is that right when you turn on the amp and let the tubes warm up or is sound crapping out once things get hot?

Eventually, you will need to do some troubleshooting - as taught to me by the elders in this group!! :-)

Tom