Fender Bassman 135 blowing fusss

[Leo_Gnardo]

My ego takes a hit when someone has to bring back an amp that I worked on. I'm sure y'all can relate. I hate doubting myself when I know I'm good at this. Ugh.

Same here. "Don't take it personally" we tell ourselves but that only goes so far. Then I find out the problem's because of some harebrained thing the owner/user is doing, and he winds up with the bruised ego, with a couple tubes wrecked in the process, and lots of time spent troubleshooting & explaining what (not) to do. And me thinking "I can make better income stacking cans at the supermarket." What a long fezzle... sometimes it works out for the best, with the equipment owner hipped to what's got to be done. Sometimes not, they think the repairman's a jerk. Just like real life.

[evil79]

Same here. "Don't take it personally" we tell ourselves but that only goes so far. Then I find out the problem's because of some harebrained thing the owner/user is doing, and he winds up with the bruised ego, with a couple tubes wrecked in the process, and lots of time spent troubleshooting & explaining what (not) to do. And me thinking "I can make better income stacking cans at the supermarket." What a long fezzle... sometimes it works out for the best, with the equipment owner hipped to what's got to be done. Sometimes not, they think the repairman's a jerk. Just like real life.

Thanks man. I needed to hear that. And yes, I'm either feeling like I'm in a good, stable profession, or I wonder if I should be doing something mindless that pays the same without the pressure of failure. But when its good, its good. And nothing beats the feeling of solving a difficult puzzle and/or just doing a bad ass job that makes the last incompetent tech look, well, more incompetent.

[Chuck H]

Then I find out the problem's because of some harebrained thing the owner/user is doing,..

One of my favorite from years ago... A guy started a thread to fix his old Bassman head. He had been using it for years as a preamp by plugging the ext. jack into the input of another amp. Nothing plugged into the speaker jack. He became a little defiant when confronted about proper tube amp use and sited his years of experience as qualification. Anyway, we helped him fix the amp. Which I believe he went right on using as a preamp with no speaker plugged in.

I had a case a couple of years ago where a customer with one of my custom amps was having sound problems on stage. He swore that my amp was the problem. He was absolutely sure he had narrowed it down to the amp. So I took the amp and failed to recreate the problem. After his next gig he called and said it was still doing it. So I picked up the amp again. This time I intentionally kept it until after his next gig. Never even opened it up. Forcing him to use his backup amp as his main amp, and therefor plugged into his main rig. The problem turned out to be a hinky tuner pedal never got plugged into his backup before I forced him to use it as his main amp. Tada! Another brilliant amp repair accomplished

[Leo_Gnardo]

And nothing beats the feeling of solving a difficult puzzle and/or just doing a bad ass job that makes the last incompetent tech look, well, more incompetent.

Like this one? A customer has a new hobby: building his own Mojo kit amps. He solders like a kindergartner, and isn't good at following directions. Built a tweed Vibrolux a couple weeks ago, said it sounded low power & very distorted. First he brought it to a local tube amp "expert" who lives up the road from him. The expert faffed around with it awhile but "couldn't find any problem." Soon as the amp arrived here, I fired it up, lots of hum, and one of the output tubes didn't even light up - I guess the expert didn't happen to notice either symptom. Kit builder obviously goofed up his filament wiring. "What" was Mr. Expert paying attention to? Hmmm......... All-a-fix now, cheap.

[Chuck H]

I'll admit to having done a few "repairs" that looked a little funny, but I'm certain were reliable and serviceable. Sans that I'm often surprised by what other "techs" have done. Or not done. There was a local guy here a few years back. He went by some moniker like Wild Bill or something like that. His whole thing was keeping any vintage amp as vintage as possible. Right down to NOT adding grounded AC cords and replacing blown filter caps with NOS units that had dried up over a decade ago. His jibe must have been pretty good because local players would become offended when I would hear their amps and offer to fix them. "Wild Bill just serviced it and said it's fine!" Well, ok then. Enjoy your hummy, phasey sounding death trap. I don't know if he's still operating here. I've been out of the loop.

[ThermionicScott]

I have one tube socket left and figured I might as well replace that one too. No carbon to be seen on that or the last one I replaced, but who knows.

You *could* know, couldn't you? A carbon trace on a tube socket would be ________, right? (Fill in the blank with an electrical characteristic that could be measured.)

[ThermionicScott]

Like this one? A customer has a new hobby: building his own Mojo kit amps. He solders like a kindergartner, and isn't good at following directions. Built a tweed Vibrolux a couple weeks ago, said it sounded low power & very distorted. First he brought it to a local tube amp "expert" who lives up the road from him. The expert faffed around with it awhile but "couldn't find any problem." Soon as the amp arrived here, I fired it up, lots of hum, and one of the output tubes didn't even light up - I guess the expert didn't happen to notice either symptom. Kit builder obviously goofed up his filament wiring. "What" was Mr. Expert paying attention to? Hmmm......... All-a-fix now, cheap.

I'm seeing a lot more (well, when the user can figure out how to upload a photo) newbie builds with components joined together in midair, and long uninsulated component leads right next to other connections. Just waiting to disconnect or short out when the amp gets jostled enough. Sometimes in the power supply!

Here's a couple examples:



Makes me nervous just looking at the pictures.

[TigerAmps]

Rule Number 1: Solder is not "Hot Glue" that conducts!!! Let's hope they use the correct fuse values as well!

Build by someone that carries a large CO2 fire extinguisher and loves barbecue!!

[olddawg]

In my old shop... Anytime there was any kind amp with an output failure, we had a printed note that we attached to every unit that said in effect. "This repair my have been caused by defective speakers or wiring. We encourage our customers to have them checked at pickup." And a similar sign on the wall in plain sight below the posted labor rates. It saved a lot of grief, shop time, and parts. The counter staff were trained to do it and many times would just take a meter out into the parking lot so the customer didn't have to drag heavy speakers onto the counter. The worst wiring nightmare was in the old days the manufactures required you to service their car stereos to be an authorized service center.

[evil79]

This is all great stuff. People are retarded. So I told this guy to bring me his cab and speaker cable and turns out he's using an instrument cable, and a crappy one at that. Makes me feel better about the job I did.

[Leo_Gnardo]

This is all great stuff. People are retarded. So I told this guy to bring me his cab and speaker cable and turns out he's using an instrument cable, and a crappy one at that. Makes me feel better about the job I did.

There y'go! He must have gotten advice from the 13 year old "experts" at my Junior High school. How's the wiring inside the cab? Corroded jack? Make him a good speaker cable plus a spare. No excuse to not use the right one. Hope that keeps the 135 workin'. They're good amps, I got one.

[Chuck H]

A crappy instrument cable might cause problems if it's a really long one. Short of actually going open, probably not. Perhaps the crappy cable has an intermittent short? Crappy cables often do.

[evil79]

There y'go! He must have gotten advice from the 13 year old "experts" at my Junior High school. How's the wiring inside the cab? Corroded jack? Make him a good speaker cable plus a spare. No excuse to not use the right one. Hope that keeps the 135 workin'. They're good amps, I got one.

He hasn't brought it to me yet, but he texted me and told me he realized what he was doing, and that the cable was garbage. I'll check his wiring when I get it.