Members AunShui Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 Alright, so last night my band had a engagement which was basically half band practice, half show, and half house party. I got there late and turned on my amp, then brought it up to a pretty high volume almost immediately and started playing. After one song, we noticed that something smelled like burning, so we decided to take a break. We originally thought it was a guitar amp, but we turned everything off to be on the safe side. About an hour later we went back to playing, and it started smelling again. This time i smelled my bass amp, and that was definitely what was burning. It smelled sort of like burning rubber. I was pushing it pretty hard but i know these amps can go much louder than i was asking it last night. It was making this ultra-muddy kind of fuzzy nasty sound, especially down in the lower register. I know using the amp with only my SWR cab (which i was) is way too much power for the cab to handle, and while it did sound a bit like speaker distortion, that doesn't explain the burning smell coming from the amp. Basically, i'd like to know what I need to do. Practice is on Monday, and I will definitely let the amp warm up enough before I play it this time around. Should I be on the safe side and bring it in to a qualified tech and/or send it back to GK? I bought it off of ebay, so I'm not sure what kind of warranty I have. Any help or suggestions? Will this go away on its own or is a trip to a tech mandatory? :cry::cry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members willbill0587 Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 It sounds like a tech jobby to me. Since its a S/S amp, you shouldn't need to let it warm up. Maybe the transformer is on its way out? My Trace did a similar thing only smoke came out of it. I took it to a tech and he said that whatever happened, it melted half of the circuit board! Crazy.Its better to be safe than sorry tho'. Good luck with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1tallbassguy Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 A friend of mine had the same amp (1001RBII). After calling GK they told him to send it in.A week later he recieved a brand new amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AunShui Posted June 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 I know GK is supposed to have legendary customer service, so tomorrow i'll definitely give them a shout and see if they can take care of it for me. Even if i have to pay a few bucks because my warranty is voided it'll be worth it. Any other comments on what could be wrong? i was looking at the other thread about clipping and what not and i know that i eq'd it strongly in addition to pushing it hard without enough speaker and an active bass, but i've gotten it close to these volume levels without adverse effects like bad tone and weird smells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 It's probably not something you did, but since it was an ebay purchase there's no telling how the former owner treated the amp. Running it at lower than spec impedances can cause the output transistors to deteriorate for example or it could be because of any number of other abuses the amp was subjected to before you got it. Best thing is to put it in the shop and have it checked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members L-1329 Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 This time i smelled my bass amp, and that was definitely what was burning. It smelled sort of like burning rubber. I was pushing it pretty hard but i know these amps can go much louder than i was asking it last night. Practice is on Monday, and I will definitely let the amp warm up enough before I play it this time around. Your amp is burning and you're even THINKING about continuing to use it? Get that thing into GK stat and don't even consider turning it on until they repair it. Problems do not fix themselves, they only get worse and you already have internal damage if you are smelling the burn. If you got a flat tire would you keep driving around hoping that the flat would repair itself? You should find a backup or loaner head to use until you get this one back from GK, but don't use it any more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AunShui Posted June 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 Your amp is burning and you're even THINKING about continuing to use it? Get that thing into GK stat and don't even consider turning it on until they repair it. Problems do not fix themselves, they only get worse and you already have internal damage if you are smelling the burn. If you got a flat tire would you keep driving around hoping that the flat would repair itself? You should find a backup or loaner head to use until you get this one back from GK, but don't use it any more! OK, fair enough. I'll definitely send it back in to GK and hopefully they'll cover everything under warranty. Would anyone suggest having a tech-savvy friend pop the hood and take a look, or should i really just let GK handle it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timmerz Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 Have you smelled the cabinet separate from the amp yet? Speakers smell like they're burning when the voice coil starts to fry....and it sounds like you might have been pushing that cab realy hard.... Check it out before you spend cash to fix GK.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Funkee1 Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 OK, fair enough. I'll definitely send it back in to GK and hopefully they'll cover everything under warranty. Would anyone suggest having a tech-savvy friend pop the hood and take a look, or should i really just let GK handle it?No..... because if the tech savvy friend f***s it up, GK doesn'[t have to fix it anymore.Let a qualified service tech do it always, unless you KNOW it's no longer under warranty!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AunShui Posted June 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 I just took a quick look at GK's website, and it definitely looks like I'm not under warranty (i bought it off of eBay and am thus not the original owner, so apparently any repairs come out of my pocket). I'm pretty sure I'll just take it into one of the official GK service areas in NYC or something and let them handle it, that way i at least have someone to go back to if something big is wrong; the more i think about it the less i trust my friends with my gear. I'm going to use my little combo at practice tomorrow and bring both the head and cab home. I might test out the cab with another head, because timmerz had a good point; i was playing louder than normal and the cab isn't rated for THAT much power. However, I don't want to push either part too hard after what L-1329 said (very good point). Maybe i should just bring the whole deal into a qualified tech and have him look at it; a repair bill is a whole lot nicer than a new rig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlackBelt Posted June 11, 2007 Members Share Posted June 11, 2007 My GK burned up just like that, and it was out of warranty.I thought about it, and decided that my amp was important enough to me that I wanted the factory to service it.GK was really nice. The repair was about a $100, and they upgraded a couple of circuits inside the amp while it was there (I figured the upgrade alone was worth the total cost of the repair). I had the amp back in 2 weeks or so. GK is kind of insistent that you send it to them in an original GK type box, or they will charge you like 12-15 bucks for a box to send it back in. My advice is to send the amp back to GK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sunburstbasser Posted June 11, 2007 Members Share Posted June 11, 2007 I had a 400RB-III that started going bad a while back. I was able to avoid the problem by accessing the 5+ string function, but it wasn't gonna last forever. It cost a bit to fix, but it got a -IV series preamp, universal transformer, and some other upgrades for not too much money. The service was great; Gene Lopes was my go-between and he made sure it would be working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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