Fender stage lead 2 spring reverb?

[styeroso32]

hopefully someone can help me here. I have a fender stage lead 2 2-12 with some annoying reverb trouble. i recently took it in to a reputable guitar store to have it serviced for many things including the fact that my reverb just completely quit on me. when i got it back it seemed to work really well and i was extremely pleased with the sound, but after a while the reverb would begin to cut out again. i would turn of the amp for second and turn it back on and the reverb would return but only for a short while before it cut out again. it was my understanding that the reverb spring had been replaced. i havent looked at it in deapth myself. is there any possibility that something is impeding the vibration of the spring? or possibly wiring problem or short of some kind? i have also found that manually vibrating the spring will achieve the desired effect, but it doesn't last. anyone have any ideas?

[oc disorder]

Hi Styeroso and welcome to the forum.
One of the most common faults with these is the wires breaking between the coil (transducer) and the socket.
Open it up and have a look and note which plug goes into where before you remove it. (a dot with a sharpie pen will do.)
The tray that holds the springs sways about to minimise external physical vibration and the down side of this is with constant flexing the small wires often break.
As you have found manually vibrating the spring produces a result of sorts it seem to me the send signal (input to the tank) is not getting there.
Well the return path is working as you waggle the spring !
So what is happening is the little coil on the input side is not waggling the spring. It's kind of like a mini speaker feed a signal into it and the coil vibrates causing the little black ferrite bead to wobble with the signal in turn wobbling the spring. (waggle =wobble).
So first up is a visual inspection of the wiring. If it looks ok measure with a multimeter the resistance of the coil.If there is no reading then it is broken somewhere.If it measures like a short circuit it most probably is ok as the DC resistance can sometimes be extremely low.
If the tank is fine there may be a problem with the rca leads from the amp to the tank.If they are ok there may be a problem with the send circuit which is slightly more complex to repair.
Im attaching 2 shots of two different types of reverb unit one had a hard life "chucked in the truck" and the wire broke in 2 places.
The other is a newer type and has plug in coils but weirdly the ultra fine wire in the coil itself had broken where it joins the connector.
I might add that here in Aust a replacement tank costs about $100 from Fender so its worth having a go..particuarly as they are often out of stock.
In the states I gather they are about 30 bucks from various distributors.
There should be a number embossed on the top of the tank.
I used a blob of silicon to anchor the wire to try to stop it straining the delicate soldered join.
Hope this helps I'm going away for a few days and won't be able to follow this up so I hope it works out ok. Use the search engine of the forum to look up - Accutronics - reverb tank - etc you will find you are not alone..
cheers

[Enzo]

If it was recently repaired for this and it has not held up, I would take it back and tell them the reverb is still not reliable.

[oc disorder]

Thanks for that Enzo sometimes I miss the bleedin' obvious...
Australia Day Monday time to get out the hats with corks on strings
dangling to keep the flys away.
And of course the BBQ and beer and lots of Aussies shouting.
Dare say there will be a few toasts to Obama and hope he can sort this mess out. Oh yeah tell Johnny to come home and join in.
He's an embarrassment to some of us the way he hangs round George !

[styeroso32]

thanks so much oc, ill definitly give that a try.