Members gardo Posted September 1, 2014 Members Share Posted September 1, 2014 My Mustang I amp took a crap so I opened it up to see if I could fix it.. After seeing the electronics my first thought was "that's it? you've got to be kidding " One one hand I'm a cheap skate and hoping I can fix it easily but on the other hand I'm thinking upgrade time so either way it's a win. As it turned out there was no contact on one side of the power switch. no problem except the switch appears to be glued in. I sprayed the switch with tuner cleaner ,flipped it a few times and it started working again. No upgrade this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Steve2112 Posted September 1, 2014 Members Share Posted September 1, 2014 Hmm where the amp at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted September 1, 2014 Members Share Posted September 1, 2014 My old Line 6 AX2 is like that. I remember the first time I opened it up and had the same reaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted September 1, 2014 Members Share Posted September 1, 2014 Good on ya Gardo, you're a better trouble shooter than I am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted September 1, 2014 Members Share Posted September 1, 2014 Most solid state electronic devices have been mostly air for years. Still, it's a bit of a shock to actually see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members papaschtroumpf Posted September 1, 2014 Members Share Posted September 1, 2014 Especially for how good those mustangs sound. Even then, my brand new mustang III still weighs about 50lbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted September 1, 2014 Author Members Share Posted September 1, 2014 Good on ya Gardo' date=' you're a better trouble shooter than I am.[/quote'] Just got lucky. It's not hard to take a meter and check the power coming in then check the other side of the switch. I was really expecting to find a bad fuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted September 1, 2014 Members Share Posted September 1, 2014 Especially for how good those mustangs sound. Even then' date=' my brand new mustang III still weighs about 50lbs[/quote'] Mostly cab walls and speaker magnet/frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stormin1155 Posted September 2, 2014 Members Share Posted September 2, 2014 Pretty amazing what micro electronics can do... but it's still bigger than your smart phone, which has many times more computing power than the computers used to send Apollo 11 to the moon. I assume the big green board is all the modeling and effects, and the yellow board is the amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BG76 Posted September 2, 2014 Members Share Posted September 2, 2014 just out of curiosity what in there were you going to upgrade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members papaschtroumpf Posted September 2, 2014 Members Share Posted September 2, 2014 I read it as time to buy a new amp... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted September 2, 2014 Author Members Share Posted September 2, 2014 just out of curiosity what in there were you going to upgrade? Nothing inside, I was going to buy a better amp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted September 2, 2014 Members Share Posted September 2, 2014 Yellow boards the power supply. The small square board mounted to the larger green board is your logic, modeling memory etc. The larger green board likely has all your preamp circuitry. The long rectangular board looks like it has the input jacks and potentiometers mounted to it. That little tiny board that the bottom is your power amp. The red and black lead goes to the speaker. You can barely make out the black module that's heat sinked to the frame. That little tiny package is your power amp module. It has to be tight against the metal for heat dispersion. Those SK power modules are often found in Hi Fi gear and companies have been using them for many decades now. They are easily adaptable to other applications like this amp. The extra fidelity would even be good since you're dealing with modeling circuitry. The ones used in stereos can range in power up to 50w or more so depending on the size, ratings and voltages applied. They are handy for techs because he can simply check and see if there's a good signal going in. If not it you only have that module to swap out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted September 2, 2014 Author Members Share Posted September 2, 2014 Yellow boards the power supply. The small square board mounted to the larger green board is your logic, modeling memory etc. The larger green board likely has all your preamp circuitry. The long rectangular board looks like it has the input jacks and potentiometers mounted to it. That little tiny board that the bottom is your power amp. The red and black lead goes to the speaker. You can barely make out the black module that's heat sinked to the frame. That little tiny package is your power amp module. It has to be tight against the metal for heat dispersion. Those SK power modules are often found in Hi Fi gear and companies have been using them for many decades now. They are easily adaptable to other applications like this amp. The extra fidelity would even be good since you're dealing with modeling circuitry. The ones used in stereos can range in power up to 50w or more so depending on the size, ratings and voltages applied. They are handy for techs because he can simply check and see if there's a good signal going in. If not it you only have that module to swap out. Thanks for the explaination. Our son was really interested in understanding the components. I told him I'm not an engineer so I really don't know what any of it is but it looks like computer stuff . I suspected that small module was the power amp but refused to believe it was possible. I'm more into 70's technology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted September 2, 2014 Members Share Posted September 2, 2014 I think the entire Mustang series of amplifiers is a big win for Fender. They are very cheap MIC electronic devices that have been extremely well engineered. Fender had the advantage going into this market in that all they had to do was make it sound good - and they did. Once they did that they could put it in a Fender looking box with a plastic version of the Fender logo on it and sell it at a huge profit margin while keeping the price reasonable. They should have called them iAmps. I recently traded an old JC-120 which I had stopped hauling around a couple of years ago for a Mustang IV which, in spite of being a stereo amp with two 12" speakers, is easy to carry and sounds really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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