Multimeter Advice......

[amp boy]

Hey Folks,

I am looking to get a multimeter, and would appreciate some recommendations of what to look for.
I have never used on before, and am looking to get into working and understanding guitar and amp electronics.
So far i have picked up a Hakko soldering iron, and will be picking up hand tools as needed. I have some of the basics already.
I believe investing in a quality iron was a good choice, and am now looking to do the same with a multimeter.

What do i need in a multimeter for guitar and amp/speaker cab work ??

Any recomendations, and why ??
I'll most likely be buying used off ebay, since i cannot find anything in Toronto......damn box stores and knock off markets !!!!
There is one pro tool place i know of...the only place that knew what a hand reamer was for wood working. I'll check there sometime, but the price would be over me most likely.

hope yer all having a fine day, thank you kindly for your time.


- Amp Boy, ........ahhhh superman is no match for this wall of sound !!!

[ctcpete]

I'm a newbie to this tube amp stuff but fixed industrial size print presses for many years. I've been using a Fluke 179 MM for a long time and it seems to be doing the trick for my guitar amps as well. It even has a capacitance testing feature. From what I hear there is alot of specialized gear you could buy depending on your needs and how much $ you want to spend. I'm sure some of the pros on this site have good advise for you.
Pete

[gbono]

The Fluke is nice (true RMS meter) also look at Agilent hand helds - if you can find them used - ePay or Craig's List - might even be affordable.

[tim]

All I use are Flukes in my shop but there are some pretty decent ones out there for not as much money...MCM has the Tenma brand which doesn't appear to be too bad and they are about half what a Fluke costs...in my regular 9-5 job, we use Agilent/HP stuff and it's very high quality but very pricey.

If you have the $$$, you can't go wrong with the Fluke series.

My personal favorite is my Fluke 87 but it tends to be a battery hog and expensive; I think I paid over $300 for it when I bought it new a few years ago. I also have a Fluke 73 III, a Fluke 77 and a Keithley bench meter. I think I picked those up at various Ham Radio swap meets over the years.

[insp166]

I think any meter will work testing Guitars and amps.

The Flukes are top of the line, big bucks, and worth it if you are working on space craft.

Everybody wants the best equipment on there bench for bargaining rites

I am using VELLEMAN equiptment.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=320-290

MY TUBE AMP SITE

[defaced]

I use a 10 buck DMM I picked up from Lowe's. Aside from measuring ripple on high DC lines, it has been able to adequately do everything I need it to. More than anything, you need a high voltage AC and DC range. 600 vDC and 500vAC are what's on my meter.

[tim]

Alot depends on whether you are using your meter for an occasional measuring job, or if you're using it every day, all the time and you need to have it work all the time and trust what you're reading is the actual measurement and that your business depends on it. The multimeter is arguably the most important tool an electronics tech has at his disposal. This is why professional mechanics don't skimp on their tools...they won't buy your everyday garden variety tool at the local Walmart because they have to know that that tool will work when it's picked up to use and they are willing to pay for that. When I buy air tools for working on my m'cycle or car, I don't buy Snap-On tools (Top of the heap=expensive)...I buy less expensive air tools because I will only use them occasionally and my livelyhood doesn't depend on them working (although my sanity might ).
Those of us that do this amp repair work day in and day out, need the tools that work well consistantly...I've seen too many inexpensive meters crap out, just when you need them the most, and it is infuriatingly frustrating when that happens...at least with me. It really has nothing to do with "bargaining rights". It has to do with knowing that the piece of equipment you are using to make money with at the end of the day is going to work each and every time it's called upon to do it's job.
For the person that may use the equipment occasionally, less expensive is probably OK but try to buy the best you can afford...in the end you will be glad you did.

[defaced]

I absolutely agree. When I'm doing welding procedure development at work I have at least one calibrated Fluke meter at my side to support accurate measurements. But the OP's not doing it for a living, he's just starting out in learning the fundamentals of electronics. You don't need a Fluke or any other high dollar piece of equipment to do that. If he were more experienced and looking for quality equipment, I'd be right with you, but for learning, get something you can afford to blow up.

[insp166]

For just getting started this may be a flash in the pan. Old gun talk

He may stop doing this and put it back on the shelf for 2 to 3 years

Once you learn how they work and get you teeth in it buy some good stuff or shop around it will find you.

Stay off EBAY go to garage sales

I play Guitar I wish I Had the Gretsch White Falcon

[tim]

For just getting started this may be a flash in the pan. Old gun talk

He may stop doing this and put it back on the shelf for 2 to 3 years

Once you learn how they work and get you teeth in it buy some good stuff or shop around it will find you.

Stay off EBAY go to garage sales

I play Guitar I wish I Had the Gretsch White Falcon

I agree with everything here...I play Bass, I wish I had a 59 P-bass...

get a meter you won't be too angry if you blow it up but like defaced said, get one that you can measure up to at least 500 VAC. That should keep you out of trouble for a while. If you're finding that you're spending alot of time doing this crazy stuff...fix a few amps for some friends, charge them accordingly and use the proceeds to buy some better test equipment. That's how I started. My first meter was a Simpson 260 analog meter. That was an easy meter to blow up if you weren't on top of what voltage you were expecting to read...it wasn't one of these new fangled auto ranging DMM's. It's still a necessary piece of test equiment for me, especially when I'm peaking filters...

Good Luck

[insp166]

I agree with everything here...I play Bass, I wish I had a 59 P-bass...

get a meter you won't be too angry if you blow it up but like defaced said, get one that you can measure up to at least 500 VAC. That should keep you out of trouble for a while. If you're finding that you're spending alot of time doing this crazy stuff...fix a few amps for some friends, charge them accordingly and use the proceeds to buy some better test equipment. That's how I started. My first meter was a Simpson 260 analog meter. That was an easy meter to blow up if you weren't on top of what voltage you were expecting to read...it wasn't one of these new fangled auto ranging DMM's. It's still a necessary piece of test equiment for me, especially when I'm peaking filters...

Good Luck

I got one of them Simpson Meters with tubes

I was checking out an amp and I heard a slight hum drove me nuts

I shut the Simpson meter off the hum went away

[jrfrond]

For most purposes, a Tenma multimeter from MCM will work just fine, even for professionals. Even though we have a shop loaded with some nice, name-brand test equipment (including Fluke meters), I have put Tenma in some non-critical areas (e.g. audio o'scopes, signal generators, signal tracers, variacs, etc.), and even have a few Tenma multimeters laying around for other applications. To tell you the truth, the Tenma gear has been 100% reliable.

If you are dead-set on Fluke, the Model 115 has lots of features for around $150.

Probably one of the most useful meters I've ever purchased is the Amprobe (nee Wavetek) LCR55 (now the 55A). It is not a multimeter per se, but as it's name suggests, it does LCR (inductance/capacitance/resistance) flawlessly. Being able to go down to a fraction of an ohm is invaluable when troubleshooting those elusive (and generally shorted) .1uF decoupling caps in opamp circuits.

[tim]

I got one of them Simpson Meters with tubes

I was checking out an amp and I heard a slight hum drove me nuts

I shut the Simpson meter off the hum went away

Ah yes the old VTVM....I have one somewhere, a Heathkit, I think...the reason those were so well liked was they had a relatively high probe impedance...where my Simpson 260 was approximately 20,000 ohm's/volt, the VTVM was megohms/volt...it was less likely to load down high impedance circuits under test. I used them when I was doing alot of RF work and before the DMM's had come down in price where the average joe could afford one.