Rich_S
HomeGrownToneBrewologist
:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: Huge props to Jeff Seal.
Last night, he let me bring my DIY 13 Watter over to his shop after hours. It's had an intermittent problem which has not yielded to my intermitent troubleshooting for over two years. Fiannly fed up, I asked Mr. Seal to put a second set of eyes & hands on it to see if he could find the problem.
Since I had already ruled out a lot of things, like cold solder joints, a microphonic tube, most lead dress issues, I was stumped, and starting to think there was a parasitic oscillation that I couldn't see.
Of course, once we got it out of it case and onto the bench, it sat there for an HOUR, working perfectly. The upside was that this was a hour-long lesson for me in "how to troubleshoot an amp". I picked up some new tricks, but we didn't find the problem.
Right after I said , "I vote we give up." The amp made its funny noise. I yelled - that's it! That's the noise! Jeff dove back inside, and found the culprit in about a minute. A stupid freekin' input jack.
Jeff cleaned and tightened the contacts, and it's fixed. If I ever get around to replacing my plexiglass-over-printed-paper faceplate with a real engraved plastic one, I'll rip those stupid Cliffs jacks out and replace them with good old American-style Switchcraft.
Anyway, thanks to Jeff for a fun and educational evening.
Last night, he let me bring my DIY 13 Watter over to his shop after hours. It's had an intermittent problem which has not yielded to my intermitent troubleshooting for over two years. Fiannly fed up, I asked Mr. Seal to put a second set of eyes & hands on it to see if he could find the problem.
Since I had already ruled out a lot of things, like cold solder joints, a microphonic tube, most lead dress issues, I was stumped, and starting to think there was a parasitic oscillation that I couldn't see.
Of course, once we got it out of it case and onto the bench, it sat there for an HOUR, working perfectly. The upside was that this was a hour-long lesson for me in "how to troubleshoot an amp". I picked up some new tricks, but we didn't find the problem.
Right after I said , "I vote we give up." The amp made its funny noise. I yelled - that's it! That's the noise! Jeff dove back inside, and found the culprit in about a minute. A stupid freekin' input jack.
Jeff cleaned and tightened the contacts, and it's fixed. If I ever get around to replacing my plexiglass-over-printed-paper faceplate with a real engraved plastic one, I'll rip those stupid Cliffs jacks out and replace them with good old American-style Switchcraft.
Anyway, thanks to Jeff for a fun and educational evening.
