Members Nick H Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 People say tube amps will blow up if you hook them up wrong or etc. Who has blown one up? How? and what do they do when they blow up? Is it just like the tubes breaking, or is it like a mini mushroom cloud of fire or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 Usually they just stop working. No smoke or fire unless you did something completely retarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nerine Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 I blew up my 100w Vintage Modern. By playing it too loud. Pop, fizzle, fade out, smoke. Presume a tube let go, which in turn killed something on the board. There was a black sooty area on the PCB where there looks to have been some kind of fire or small explosion. Here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GibsonVMan Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 ^^^ Was that a difficult fix?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sixtonoize Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 I've never actually blown up an amp, and I've done some pretty remarkably stupid {censored}.Granted, I've blown speakers, interface channels, and lots of other stuff, but never an amp. Experience tends to be the best teacher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 100 watt Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 have blown up; 80-something laney AOR Pro Tube Lead 10079 Marshall superbass 100some turd Marsahll Valvestate 1x12 combo. big blue flshes of light, a crackling sound & lots of smoke. When my Broe blew up his '72 marshall Superbass, it caught on fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chad_sux Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 I've come close, but never actually blown one up. Didn't hook up a speaker load when using the line-out once. Noob mistake. Blew the fuse, but was able to replace the fuse without any problems. I have "blown up" a marshall cab. The {censored}ty plastic stereo input burned up on me at practice. Bad smell, followed by loss of volume, then nothing....Was a cheap fix though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members benjamin801 Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 Never. I've played hundreds of shows, thousands of hours of band rehearsals, and who knows how many hours of solo jamming, and I've never so much as blown a fuse, let alone had an amp actually die on me. Furthermore, I've never had a power tube completely quit on me, I just replace them if I think they must be getting tired...{censored}, I haven't even broken a string in five years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mikey383 Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 Never blown up an amp, although I hooked up a Leslie kit to a Hammond organ once and didn't have the cable plugged into the Leslie - the output transformer in the organ's amp now has a short in it and requires a sharp blow occasionally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitargod0dmw Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 I blew up my GK 2001 RB. Something on the PCB got too hot for one of the power amps and burned up, sound started crackling, then no sound at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 Presume a tube let go, which in turn killed something on the board. There was a black sooty area on the PCB where there looks to have been some kind of fire or small explosion. Resistors don't normally pop like that, but definitely possible if a power tube failed and suddenly dumped a {censored} load of power through it . My DSL blew up because I was playing it super loud, the output transformer failed. No smoke or smell, but didn't work right. I think maybe the cabinet I was using wasn't quite 8 ohms like it said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members madDdog67 Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 I had the Classic 30 I got used from GC blow up on me. It worked just long enough for me to order a tube tamer for it, and then it went bang when I turned it on one night. Nice blue flash when one of the power tubes blew out. I replaced the bad tube, but it didn't make a sound after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members anibawl Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 Usually they just stop working. No smoke or fire unless you did something completely retarded. I blew up an amp once... for being retarded. It was a solid state fender 212, had two inputs... the other guitar player in my band (we were 15 then) was plugged into one input, and I the other. Lasted a 20 minute set... and on last open chord boom. Burnt up. Not with flames... but smoked a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chrispsullivan Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 The closest I have come to anything like that was with my VTM. One of my power tubes got extremely bright and hot (red plating/arcing), and I didn't notice because I was rocking out. Apparently the heat got so intense that the label on the base of the tube burst into flames. Definitely resulted in a mini panic attack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurtisqpublic Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 Blew up my step dad's vintage ampeg 212 combo in high school by running a bass through it at high volume. Smoke and flames. freaked us out. Took it outside and tossed it in a snow bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yanktar Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 I blew up my 100w Vintage Modern. By playing it too loud. Pop, fizzle, fade out, smoke. Presume a tube let go, which in turn killed something on the board. There was a black sooty area on the PCB where there looks to have been some kind of fire or small explosion. Here: Looks like a resistor exploded. One Thanksgiving, before my Dad died, I had music playing through a pair of Dynaco Mark III mono-block 60 watt power amps, both about 30-40 years old. All of a sudden the smoke detector went off. One of the two had cooked its power transformer......Still have it in the basement somewhere... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 100 watt Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 *cue the Down song "Bury Me in Smoke" * Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members duncan Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 A tube in my old DSL100 blew up one time. I don't know how it happened, but there was glass everywhere. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teemuk Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 So... no one's blown a Bugera? :poke: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members groovezilla79 Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 I blew up a Marhsall 8008 power amp. Had a Pod Pro running into it and wanted to go stereo. Plugged the right and left into a Marshall 1960 cab and forgot to flip the cab's switch to stereo. Played about 3 minutes then a bunch of smoked rolled out of it. Not sure what was wrong with it, but a repair man at an electronics place and a guitar repair guy both told me it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tuckster Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 Johnny it very nice. I wonder why the one guy nearly sticks his head inside it. Did he try to blow out the fire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarrorist Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 THOUGHT I blew up an amp a few years ago, but actually it was the club's Marshall 4x12 that some numb-nuts had re-wired (or MIS-wired, rather) - the amp didn't blow up, but the cab caught fire and flames were shooting up from the back; had to extinguish it, and ended up filling my tremoverb head with the powder from the fire extinguisher. Nasty stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elemenope Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 Blew up a crate gx120 head. I was playing a bass through it...All of a sudden it died and smoke came pouring out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted January 3, 2012 Members Share Posted January 3, 2012 I built a Matchless Spitfire amp head out of a Hammond organ head once. It worked great but there was this tiny bead of solder bouncing around inside there that I didn't know about. One day it bounced somewhere near the power section and a sound like a small firecracker went off. The amp was fine after that. I never found that solder bead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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