Fender practice amp distorting

[ModestCargo]

I have a little Fender Sidekick 25 watt practice amp I've been sitting on for quite some time now- I got it off eBay and it never did work properly. When it does make noise it's like some sort of really bad fuzz tone and half the time it doesn't make work at all until I slam my fist on the top, then it works, or makes noises anyway, for about a minute.

The sound is nice and clean out of the headphone jack though - so I'm guessing the problem has nothing to do with the preamp, it has to be in the power amp somewhere, right?

What could it be? And is it either a. DIY-able or 2. inexpensive to have fixed.

Thanks guys

 

[jeremy]

Re: Fender practice amp distorting

most amps are crap nowadays. the quality of consumer grade electronics is pretty low but cheap. repairing cheaper solid state amps can be a bear but if you want you can pull it apart and see if anything is obviously fried, just dont kill yourself in the process.

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: Fender practice amp distorting

Well I know this one's from the 80s and it looks to me like a pretty good practice amp.. I'll open it up though today and see what she looks like inside.

Interesting thing is the amp came with a footswitch for the spring reverb. Don't see that much in a practice amp.

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: Fender practice amp distorting

Didn't get a chance to open it up but it magically started working today..

What I find strange is with the master high and the channel volume down low it still isn't perfectly clean - I think it was with the headphones though, so maybe it's the speaker.

I also find it strange that I *like* the sound of the preamp volume halfway up - if I turn down the bass to about 2 it's very JCM 800 (well, for a small practice amp).

This Fender does Marshall better than Fender! Stupid 80s.