Members FoonkySteve Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Howdy Gent's I usually post on the EG forum, but as this particular querie involves amps - thought id come ask the experts Here is my epic tale of love, loss, and blown fuses; So... I have a Laney TT-100 combo (love it!) had it for around 8/9 years, and over the last few months it kept blowing the HT fuse, until it was blowing them weekly! Even though it was out of warranty, i contacted Laney and had it sent to their repairs center, for a proper once over. Emails between myself and Laney were sent back and forth, i gave them info on the complete service history of the amp along with the faults i needed fixed. I asked them that 'if at all posiible, please don't replace the EL34s as i prefer a different brand, of course if you have to, i can't argue'. It came back last week looking beautifully shiney and new. The chrome control panel, before i sent it was filthy, and had some of the paint missing that had come off, when i tried to clean the panel before. They sent it back to me completely clean, and the paint job re-done! looked Great! They didn't send me back my kettle lead, so i was a bit pissed off about that. On the repairs list, it said they had replaced 4 EL34's and 4 12ax7's, obviously cleaned the control panel, but this was not listed. I emailed them last week to ask what specific repairs were done on the amp, and what was the story about the ht fuses blowing?? and where's my kettle lead - no reply in over a week now. Initial repairs cost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NaturalBornBoy Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Maybe call them direct instead of emailing them since emails are not getting a response Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FoonkySteve Posted November 28, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Maybe call them direct instead of emailing them since emails are not getting a response Believe me, i would much rather do this, but i can't find a number for them online anywhere. They're 'contact us' on the only has a submit a querie form. Thanks for the response though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NaturalBornBoy Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Believe me, i would much rather do this, but i can't find a number for them online anywhere. They're 'contact us' on the only has a submit a querie form. Thanks for the response though PM forumite Timmyfirst. He's a Laney endorsee so maybe he can point you in the right direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sled Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Possibly as the unit warms, a short develops. Do some experimenting... pull the power tubes pull the preamp tubes is a schematic available online? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FoonkySteve Posted November 28, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Possibly as the unit warms, a short develops. Do some experimenting... pull the power tubes pull the preamp tubes Thanks Sled you could well be right, although im not too clued up on the workings of amps, and im not sure i would know what i was looking for. I also don't wanna go through another few HT fuses through my blind experimentation. I thought the Laney amp techs woulda done this sorta thing. I'll keep y'all posted on the progress of this one, i better get off of here seen as im just pissin' and moanin' now - another Monday Morning Forum rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sled Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 is a schematic available online? Does the fuse blow while playing, idle, when taken off standby, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ManofWar55 Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Howdy Gent's I usually post on the EG forum, but as this particular querie involves amps - thought id come ask the experts HAHAHHAHAHAH. Experts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FoonkySteve Posted November 28, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 is a schematic available online?Does the fuse blow while playing, idle, when taken off standby, etc... I'll have to have a hunt for a schematic. It died when i was playing last night, i think it is when im playing usually ive been through so many of these fuses recently i can't remember if i have been playing everytime it's died or not, but i think it is whilst being played. Amp has no standby, just a power on - that's it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zozobra Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Its hard to give sensible suggestions without being able to prod about and measure voltages in the amp. My friend had a VH100R that does occasionally like to pop fuses for reasons known only to its self. The bias supply in that amp does run very hot so it pulls a fair bit of quiescent current but that shouldn't cause fuse failure. Possibly your wall outlets are higher than specification but its pretty slim that they would be so high as to cause an issue. As always intermittent faults are a real bugger to find. Could be a bad solder joint or a dying cap. Does it ever fail straight away from a cold power up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Could be power caps starting to go bad. Other possibilities you might need an AC power surge protector.Also be sure any extra speakers connected are connected for the proper impedance. Tube amps can develop issues slowly if you got the wrong impedance connected. I did thousands of repairs with the old excuse "it always worked before." My answer was always, you were simply luckey to get away with it that long. Now you pay the price in repairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FoonkySteve Posted November 28, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Its hard to give sensible suggestions without being able to prod about and measure voltages in the amp. My friend had a VH100R that does occasionally like to pop fuses for reasons known only to its self. The bias supply in that amp does run very hot so it pulls a fair bit of quiescent current but that shouldn't cause fuse failure. Possibly your wall outlets are higher than specification but its pretty slim that they would be so high as to cause an issue.As always intermittent faults are a real bugger to find. Could be a bad solder joint or a dying cap. Does it ever fail straight away from a cold power up? Last night it failed quickly, only had it on 5-10mins, then it died. Funny you should mention, i've always thought the electrics in my house were {censored}, stuff craps out ALL the time! Usually in the kitchen, and we go through lightbulbs REALLY quickly, although that's prob not related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teemuk Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Send it back to repair and this time demand that they actually repair it instead of just cleaning it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zozobra Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Its worth checking if you can do it safely. I recall someone else on here had wall voltages that were higher than the European standard and he had white goods fail frequently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zozobra Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Send it back to repair and this time demand that they actually repair it instead of just cleaning it. What if they've sat the thing on a bench running full tilt into a dummy load for 10 hours and it never so much as sneezed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FoonkySteve Posted November 28, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Could be power caps starting to go bad. Other possibilities you might need an AC power surge protector.Also be sure any extra speakers connected are connected for the proper impedance. Tube amps can develop issues slowly if you got the wrong impedance connected. I did thousands of repairs with the old excuse "it always worked before." My answer was always, you were simply luckey to get away with it that long. Now you pay the price in repairs. I actually asked about this in my initial email to Laney. Although there was no response to this part. I mentioned that when i am running the amp, i have the record out jack permanently connected to my sound card, and i used to use the line out all the time, into a looper pedal which went straight into a keyboard amp. Is this bad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timmyfirst Posted November 28, 2011 Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 I had a similar problem a couple of years back. I would recommend using some kind of surge protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teemuk Posted November 29, 2011 Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 What if they've sat the thing on a bench running full tilt into a dummy load for 10 hours and it never so much as sneezed? Then they did not do a proper repair job. If you send an amp in because it has (maybe thermal-related) intermittent problems that blow out the HT fuse then the repair shop must find intermittent problems that blow the HT fuse, not just let the amp sit at rack running full tilt. The problems might appear that way, they might not. Those intermittent faults are a bitch to repair because you actually often have to lure them out, not just hope they appear automatically and if they don't assume everything is fine... which seems is what the previous "repair" was about. They simply did not do a proper job. It might be thermal-related, it might be vibration, it might be a combination. The point is, the fault must be replicated to find the source, only then it can be fixed or even assumed to be fixed. Of course another bitch part is that you'll never be too sure if the problem is intermittency. For example: Customer sends an amp in because HT fuses keep blowing, suspects a thermal-related intermittent fault but really just runs the amp to an impedance mismatch and cares not to mention anything about it (or doesn't even know he is making a user error). Fuse is changed, amp is tested in all various ways but eventually no problems are found. ...But I guess then it's at least common courtesy to tell the customer that no problems causing HT fuses blowing were located and hence were not fixed. Did the invoice of the repairs list what they actually did to the amp and if they even fixed something related to HT fuse blowing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yourguitarhero Posted November 29, 2011 Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 There is a guy in Rosyth called Dennis Marshall - excellent tech who works on all kinds of amps - I highly recommend him - have used him with a Peavey, Mesa and Blackstar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FoonkySteve Posted November 29, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 Then they did not do a proper repair job. If you send an amp in because it has (maybe thermal-related) intermittent problems that blow out the HT fuse then the repair shop must find intermittent problems that blow the HT fuse, not just let the amp sit at rack running full tilt. The problems might appear that way, they might not. Those intermittent faults are a bitch to repair because you actually often have to lure them out, not just hope they appear automatically and if they don't assume everything is fine... which seems is what the previous "repair" was about. They simply did not do a proper job. It might be thermal-related, it might be vibration, it might be a combination. The point is, the fault must be replicated to find the source, only then it can be fixed or even assumed to be fixed. Of course another bitch part is that you'll never be too sure if the problem is intermittency. For example: Customer sends an amp in because HT fuses keep blowing, suspects a thermal-related intermittent fault but really just runs the amp to an impedance mismatch and cares not to mention anything about it (or doesn't even know he is making a user error). Fuse is changed, amp is tested in all various ways but eventually no problems are found. ...But I guess then it's at least common courtesy to tell the customer that no problems causing HT fuses blowing were located and hence were not fixed. Did the invoice of the repairs list what they actually did to the amp and if they even fixed something related to HT fuse blowing? I didn't get a copy of the invoice, my dealer let me see 'their' copy of it, which listed 4x 12ax7's and 4 x EL34's were replaced. I managed to talk to someone on the phone at Laney yesterday, and they pulled up a list, which mirrored the dealers list only, it also had on it that the Facia was replaced, so it WAS a shiney new control panel, which they replaced free of charge apparently They are also sending me back my kettle lead and some spare HT Fuses too. Nothing mentioned to me about the HT fuses being checked which was the sole purpose of the repair - i mean im happy it looks all shiney and new, but i didn't ask for that, i would rather it was dirty and working than clean and not working. I dont have any external cabs or anything like that, all i have is the 'record out' permenantly into my soundcard, and the 'line out' into a Jamman looper, into a keyboard amp, could that cause problems????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FoonkySteve Posted November 29, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 There is a guy in Rosyth called Dennis Marshall - excellent tech who works on all kinds of amps - I highly recommend him - have used him with a Peavey, Mesa and Blackstar. That's the Guy! Ive spoke to Dennis before about reviving my old dead 74 Orange OR-120, but i never got round to getting it done. Im still due a repair from Laney under warranty, so if they can't get it right this time i'll have to give Dennis a shout, thanks for reminding me about him Everyone speaks very highly of Dennis bit of a legend i hear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zozobra Posted November 29, 2011 Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 Then they did not do a proper repair job. If you send an amp in because it has (maybe thermal-related) intermittent problems that blow out the HT fuse then the repair shop must find intermittent problems that blow the HT fuse, not just let the amp sit at rack running full tilt. The problems might appear that way, they might not. Those intermittent faults are a bitch to repair because you actually often have to lure them out, not just hope they appear automatically and if they don't assume everything is fine... which seems is what the previous "repair" was about. They simply did not do a proper job. It might be thermal-related, it might be vibration, it might be a combination. The point is, the fault must be replicated to find the source, only then it can be fixed or even assumed to be fixed.Of course another bitch part is that you'll never be too sure if the problem is intermittency. For example: Customer sends an amp in because HT fuses keep blowing, suspects a thermal-related intermittent fault but really just runs the amp to an impedance mismatch and cares not to mention anything about it (or doesn't even know he is making a user error). Fuse is changed, amp is tested in all various ways but eventually no problems are found. ...But I guess then it's at least common courtesy to tell the customer that no problems causing HT fuses blowing were located and hence were not fixed.Did the invoice of the repairs list what they actually did to the amp and if they even fixed something related to HT fuse blowing? What if its simply because his wall voltage is something stupid like 270V? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yourguitarhero Posted November 29, 2011 Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 If you want some magic for your old Orange speak to Matamp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Viesczy Posted November 29, 2011 Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 I dont have any external cabs or anything like that, all i have is the 'record out' permenantly into my soundcard, and the 'line out' into a Jamman looper, into a keyboard amp, could that cause problems????? Say what? You are not running any load on the amp, just muting and running out of the record out? I have a TT50, I know that I can't do that with the 50 and I just read the TT100 manual front to back, I don't see anywhere in it that states you can run the TT100 w/o a load on it. My $ is on that the fuses are frying due to having no load on the amp. Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yourguitarhero Posted November 29, 2011 Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 OP indicates it's a TT100 combo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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