Please help if you can!
My Peavey amplifier died today. It's an 'Ultra 112' tube amp. It's not that old but today after having been playing for about 2 hours it hummed quite loudly for about 10 seconds and then gave out altogether like it had a cardiac arrest. ??? Now it refuses to power up again. I know nothing about amps. Can anyone tell me what may have happened and how I can bring it back to life. Would it be the tubes?
Thanks in advance for any help. I can't go long without playing.
'You were made of wood and cried cos no one understood, but I have splinters in my fingers.
Like driftwood from the shore, you were rotten to the core.'
Buffalo Tom - Treehouse
I would say tubes. Don't know how many tubes it has, but replace them all at the same time for the best sound and extension of life on the new tubes. Was it a new or used amp?
It is a small world for metal fanatics. I welcome you fellow musicians, especially the metalheads!
Thanks. Someone on another forum said the same. It's a used amp. I bought it about a month ago from some guy who claimed he had hardly used it. It looks new. I'll try changing the tubes, but I have to say I didn't think it would die so suddenly. I just assumed tubes gave out gradually - don't know why. It has two and on the back of the amp it says: 'All tubes 12ax7a/ecc83' I assume that's the type I have to get.
Thanks again.
'You were made of wood and cried cos no one understood, but I have splinters in my fingers.
Like driftwood from the shore, you were rotten to the core.'
Buffalo Tom - Treehouse
Tubes can do funny things sometimes that for sure. Yes, replace them with whatever in it. You want to see if maybe it just popped a fuse. Could really be a number of things. resisitor burned out, tranformer, wire came lose.
Generally you'll notice a difference in the way it sounds when they start getting weak. Did it hum real loud or make any kind of sound?
If the amp has just been turned on and off with allowing it to warm up first it will shorten the tubes life and orther things. Never run a tube amp without a speaker load or dummy load on them.
Joe
