Spectrum Amp Problem

[Fear2967]

umm yeah, i kinda dropped my spectrum amp on my bed this morning and now it's not working, i dropped yesterday the same way about 2 fet off my bed, when i did it the first time i took the back off, reseeded everything, checked the fuse(not blown) and put the cover on and it worked fine, today i repeated the same process and to nothing, it doesn't work, I tried letting it sit for a few hours and repeating the process yet again, but nothing, i even shorted the capacitors (while no power being applied) to make sure there was no leakage current, none of them are blown checked via multimeter, i just started playing guitar a month ago and needed a cheap, working amp, it fits the bill, $50 and i realy don't have money to buy a new one, HELP!!!!! i know a lot about electronics and enough to know that it can't feel like it doesn't want to work anymore, i did a continuity, resistance, voltage, and capacitance check over their respected components and nothing works, all i get is this low hum of the amp when it's on, yes it does turn on, tried different guitars and chords, my guitar works on my computer, (AmpliTube software is ok, but not what i want to play on) i even checked the speaker(leads disconnected to rest of amp) with a dual probe 3/8'' headphone jack, plays sounds fine, it just doent work!!!!!!




HELP ME

[cbarrow7625]

Broken Solder joint?

I don't know this amp but from your description I would assume that it is PC board built amp. Is that a good assumption?

If you can't find anything obviously wrong, then you need to look for the less obvious. A cracked solder joint & loose lead on a solder pad can be almost impossible to spot (especially if the original joint was a bad cold joint to begin with). I would pull the PC board & check for cracked solder joints. if you don't find any, reflow all of the joints anyway (it can't take that long really can it?).

Either way I would not turn it on for any longer than you have to to avoid further damage.

The shock you describe is either going to outright break a sensitive component, like a tube, or break a solder joint. Is this a tube amp?? Have you checked the tubes? Swapped them around to see if you can locate which one got broken?

Chris

[Fear2967]

thanks for the reply, it's a pc based amp, 16 watt output, takes, either 110/115/230V inputs and is not a tube ampm if it makes a difference the model number is CA-8(AIL-10) and i will check all (about 300) solder points in a little while, whoever built this amp had good intentions.... but didn't know how to solder, not enough heat on most of them, most of them are balled up and the components are mostly put in crooked... lots of work for tommorrow,

Thanks again, Scott

[cbarrow7625]

Yeah, sounds like you have a long day ahead of you. with solder joints like that you don't want to be subjecting it to physical shocks. good luck.

Chris

[Fear2967]

that wasn't the problem, when i plugged it in it shorted, made pretty sparks(almost catching my face on fire) and won't do anything