I'm the proud new owner of a tube amp bought from a large mail order music retailer located in the midwest. It arrived by UPS this evening. I unpacked it, turned the gain/volume all the way down, plugged it in, turned it on. It made a pretty audible 60 Hz hum noise. At first I just figured it was warming up. After a couple minutes when the sound wasn't getting quieter I started getting a little concerned. Just as I was about to turn it off - it went dead.
Now what? I was around for the 70's and I remember whenever the TV started acting up, dad would yank out all the tubes and run down to the local hardware store where they had a tube tester. And of course they sold the tubes right there. If you needed something less common there was always Radio Shack.
I did at least take the fuse out and *look* at it. It doesn't *look* like it's blown, I don't have a continuity tester though.
Also, is there an easy way to check if the the ground lead in the wall socket is really grounded? I have my suspicions.
I suppose there is always the chance that this unit is simply defective. I'd like to rule that out before shipping it back though. (due diligence)
Oh also would it be worthwhile to pay the extra for an extended warrantee? I never do that for home electronics and stuff but tube amps are a different animal.
I've never bought an extended warranty on anything and I'm not about to start now. But you just got that thing and it's time to exercise the basic original warranty on it. Don't start trying to fix it yourself, call the seller.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Yeah, what Ricochet said. Besides, if they see you've done something as sinple as removed a tube, they could crib that it was tampered with and make things rough on you. Nope, when it's new, it's all on them.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
One simple check is a fuse. Look on the back of the head for it. It may be the fuse simply blew.
Now, a fuse blowing could mean the amp has a more serious problem, then again, it may not. But I would check that first. In the meantime, give a call to Customer Service and tell them what happened.
I had to return a recorder a few months ago. I called and they gave me a return authorization number. Then they mailed me the postage for the return. So I just had to attach the postage to the original box and write the return authorization number on the package. They sent me a replacement right away at no cost. This was American Musical Supply. I was very happy with how they handled it and the replacement has worked perfectly.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Wes, he said he checked the fuse, at least by looking at it.
Still it can be hard to see the resistance wire in these little fuses and tell if it's broken or not. Couldn't hurt to try another. If it blows again, it needs to go back for sure.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Quick follow-up - Musician's Friend exchanged it, no questions asked, and paid all the postage for it. It's a Fender Super champ. I like it a lot so far, for whatever 3 days of use are worth. I live in an apartment so I can't really put it through its paces though. At least it sounds good at low volume, that's all I got it for.
Y'know, music would be a cheap hobby if it weren't for that little detail about needing to live alone, out in the sticks. But I'm wandering off topic...
Alien, I just got one of those like two weeks ago. I'm pretty impressed as well. The operations are a bit unexpected. For each "Voicing" you need to adjust the volume and gain to a suitable combination of levels, and then fiddle with treble and bass too. Each voicing needs tweeking, so each time you switch, you have to adjust 4 knobs afterwards. I need to write things down so that I remember 'em.
I found the 16 (Accoustic) to really suck until earlier this evening. All of a sudden, it sounds really good. Had to tweek to get it there, but I think there was something strange going on. It acted like it was receiving gobs of low-end input and trying to pump out enough bass to shake a large town. Tonight? Nada. I have the treble set around 8, Bass about 3 and gain about nothing or just a hair above nothing. Volume at 3. Send a nice low signal in and I can get some really, um, "pretty" tones as my wife described it.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
MF's good about making good on gear with problems.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
