Earth Super Bass B2000 - asbestos heat shield?

[jamesmafyew]

I have an old Earth Super Bass (basically a Bassman AA270 clone, sort of, w/ 4x 5881s) here for repair. It's obviously been worked on quite a bit -- supply has been re-capped, lots of small parts replaced, new screen resistors and a spot where some carbon from a big failure was scraped off. Point is, it's been in and out of shops lots of times. But there's this pad on the side wall of the cabinet that looks to me like white asbestos, and it has definitely been disturbed. Odds that it's really asbestos? Can this amp really have been worked on potentially dozens of times without anybody noticing this?

[Leo_Gnardo]

Odds that it's really asbestos?

They were trying asbestos they could to keep the box from catching fire.

I think that's what ya got there all right. It's not trouble until you get particles of it airborne, and breathe them. So don't do that.

Some shops pry this stuff out & either replace with sheet metal or leave bare wood. Others just ignore it. I'm in the just ignore it camp.

[eschertron]

It does seem a bit alarming that the sheets are in 'fluffed up' state, meaning that they've been plenty disturbed in the past. Maybe you could trap them under a sheet of aluminum (or some aluminum tape?) to keep them from being any more hazardous than they are now.

[jamesmafyew]

I've been wearing a respirator around the amp, and had bagged the cabinet after getting the chassis out. I'm definitely not going to be the one removing it -- if it gets removed, which I've said I won't do -- I'm more just trying to assess my own exposure and whether I'm being sufficiently cautious. It was worrisome to me that it's been so torn up.