Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

[bjeans79]

Hey guys been a while since I have been on. I hear getting married can cause life to get busier!

My dad has had an old ampeg reverberocket r12rb since the 60s and now it has fallen into my hands. This amp will not output sound or hum of any kind when my guitar is plugged into it (yes I checked the guitar and cable to make sure they were working properly.) It has been rarely used, the cone on the speaker was rebuilt by a pro and other than that this amp was working fine a few years ago. It has suffered no trauma and all the tubes get hot like normal. I do not know what could have caused the amp to stop working considering it has only been collecting dust since it worked last.

PLEASE HELP ME FIGURE THIS THING OUT GUYS! THANKS!

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

Make sure there's not a short between the amp and speaker. Inspect the speaker leads.
Scrub all the jacks with a Q Tip and contact cleaner or alcohol.
Swap all the tubes, starting with preamp tubes.
Inspect the circuit board for burned components.

Have a tech check it out if all of that fails.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

^^

+ don't get electrocuted whilst you're in there

 

[CTN]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

it's Germ's birthday today!

 

[erksin]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

If it hasn't been played in decades I'm betting the caps have completely dried out and need replaced. I would not be firing up that amp if I were you - take it to a good tech.

 

[bjeans79]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

Make sure there's not a short between the amp and speaker. Inspect the speaker leads.
Scrub all the jacks with a Q Tip and contact cleaner or alcohol.
Swap all the tubes, starting with preamp tubes.
Inspect the circuit board for burned components.

Have a tech check it out if all of that fails.

Thanks for the answer. There are tubes in this amp the names of which I have never heard. I inspected the board and I don't see any burned components there. I wonder if there is a trick to checking the leads because as the speaker is an original Jensen, it has a bell cover that doesn't allow me access to the terminals or what have you with the speaker. Like I said, it had just sat there and hasn't been abused or even moved besides gently moving it from the car to the house. I'll keep trying, thanks!

 

[bjeans79]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

Make sure there's not a short between the amp and speaker. Inspect the speaker leads.
Scrub all the jacks with a Q Tip and contact cleaner or alcohol.
Swap all the tubes, starting with preamp tubes.
Inspect the circuit board for burned components.

Have a tech check it out if all of that fails.

Swapping the tubes is definitely easier said than done. There are I think 8 in the amp (I'm not home to check) and most are rare tubes. I'll see what I can do...

 

[bjeans79]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

If it hasn't been played in decades I'm betting the caps have completely dried out and need replaced. I would not be firing up that amp if I were you - take it to a good tech.

It has been played, though very briefly, a few years back and it worked okay besides fuzzy pots. It hasn't been messed with or abused it just up and stopped working, outputting any noise at all.

 

[erksin]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

It has been played, though very briefly, a few years back and it worked okay besides fuzzy pots. It hasn't been messed with or abused it just up and stopped working, outputting any noise at all.

Right - and that's why it needs to go to a tech. It's entirely possible that you're damaging or have already damaged the output transformer which is the engine of the entire amp.

 

[erksin]

Re: Attn. J. Ledford and Robert R. help with an Ampeg Reverberocket r12rb.

Ampeg used the best of the best components back in the day. I still run the original Telefunken and Sylvania tubes in my '65 Reverberocket. While it's certainly possible it could be tube-related and that is easy enough to check by swapping tubes they would not be the first thing I'd suspect given the amp's history of non-use.