Orange AD30 underdesign

[Randall]

I had an Orange AD30 in about a year ago that had charcoaled one of it's filament supply connectors. The way this is set up is the two filament wires from the PT terminate at push on connectors. Then it gets paralleled off to two small plastic push on connectors. One supplies four of the tubes filaments via a daisy chain of these same little plastic connectors and some very thin wires, each plugging in next to the socket, and then off to the next one, etc. There are two of these daisy chains, one services one half of the tubes, athe other services the other half.

Last time, one of the little connectors got so hot it burnt up itself and some of the board. I cut off the connector and spliced it to the lamp socket, problem solved. Until it comes back today with the same problem on the other connector, burnt to a crisp. This time I soldered some hefty solid push back wire from the transformer push ons at the board, to the pilot lamp terminals. Then I spliced some proper gauge wire from the lamp terminals to the good end of the second daisy chain. Now there is a good solid run to the distro point of the two paralleled daisy chains.

I wouldn't place money on there never being another issue with filaments on this, because the wire is so damn thin, and each tube gets it's current thru a little push on with a dab of glue. Did these engineers try to figure out exactly just how chintzy they could go with this? I mean I understand why they used the daisy chains, it makes for faster assembly, but would it have killed them to use a proper guage wire in the filament circuit no less?

[Leo_Gnardo]

Did these engineers try to figure out exactly just how chintzy they could go with this? I mean I understand why they used the daisy chains, it makes for faster assembly, but would it have killed them to use a proper guage wire in the filament circuit no less?

Made in where? That's one factor. And modern "engineering" = build as cheap as you can. Annoying to see a "quality" brand such as Orange has let their product slide in such a way. Oh well, it's the way of the world I guess.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll be on the lookout for any such Oranges that come this way.

[drewl]

Had one where the filament wire insulation burned off and touched some part of the high voltage supply.

BOOM!

Had to Dremel out burnt PC board material, rewire filaments, what a burnt mess of carbon!

[Randall]

"Made in where? That's one factor."

England.

[Leo_Gnardo]

"Made in where? That's one factor."

England.

Drat. I was expecting China. Double drat because I considered recently made Orange to be one of the sturdier made amps whether UK or China built.

[nevetslab]

I had one of the AD-30 Combo amps in here a month ago....something loose rattling around inside (hold-down clamp for one of the EL-84 tubes, plus loose power xfmr mtg hardware. I didn't see any other issues inside, though I didn't check for what you've found in the heater wiring. I'll have to look closer next time one comes in...I know we have both the heads and the Combo's in our rental inventory.

[g1]

Is it solid core wire by any chance?

[Randall]

Nope. Thin gauge stranded with skinny insulation.

[The Dude]

The pic puts it all in perspective. Not good.

[Randall]

I use 18 gauge solid for filaments, what is this maybe 24 gauge stranded? Maybe not even that. Ridiculous.

[Leo_Gnardo]

what is this maybe 24 gauge stranded? Maybe not even that. Ridiculous.

Maybe Orange's filament wiring was designed by an old fashioned car fanatic. Those aren't wires, they're fusible links! Too much current, they go up in