Silent amp

[ArnaudS1979]

After a long hiatus (2 sons), I am getting back behind the fret board. Unfortunately, when I plugged in my Little Tweaker, it gave me the silent treatment. I opened up the hood and noticed that one of the tube had not heated up. So I assumed that was the issue. The guys at the shop didn't have 6L6s in stock but they had a used one kicking about in their workshop so offered it for free. I fitted it this pm but the result is the same. I checked and all tubes are heating up, although the replacement tube doesn't lit up - not sure if it is a sign of something wrong.

The last time I had a chance to power it up for a one time fix about 2 years ago it was working fine.

Any idea what could be wrong with my amp and if it could be easily fixed - i.e. without requiring a tech to look at it?

Cheers

 

[bodia]

Fuse?

 

[László]

I recently had an issue with the tube rectifier blowing on my Mesa Lone Star. It also kept blowing fuses, until I was told by Mesa what the problem was.

I'd give Egnater a call.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

You may also want to try rotating the tubes, to see if the problem stays when you put a known good tube in that position, that will at least tell you if you had a good tube or not.

When tubes go bad, they usually still heat up, so fuse, or part of the circuit acting like a fuse to protect the tube, would be my guess.

 

[ArnaudS1979]

Thanks guys. While I have of understanding of how the innards of an electric guitar, the guts of an amp are still a mystery to me, so it might be a stupid question but: There is a fuse 'on display' on the back of the head. Would it be the only one fitted on the amp? And if so, why would it be that it being shot only affect one of the tubes?

I will contact Egnater to see what they have to say.

 

[Boogie]

My son has a Tweaker 40 and we just went through something similar. In short...call the dealer you purchased the amp and have them send the amp in for service. The Tweaker family has an issue with bad transformers and it unfortunately plagues a lot of amps. More tests need to be performed to confirm that this is the root cause, but start digging for your receipt. After completely disassembling the amp, replacing 2 fuses and running a gazillion tests, I confirmed Taylor's issue was the transformer. Someone will probably need to do the same to yours.

Btw, the primary power fuse is the one blowing with the transformer issue, which is located just below the NEMA power socket.

Other than this issue, it's a great amp. Still, very disappointing.

Good luck!

 

[ArnaudS1979]

My son has a Tweaker 40 and we just went through something similar. In short...call the dealer you purchased the amp and have them send the amp in for service. The Tweaker family has an issue with bad transformers and it unfortunately plagues a lot of amps. More tests need to be performed to confirm that this is the root cause, but start digging for your receipt. After completely disassembling the amp, replacing 2 fuses and running a gazillion tests, I confirmed Taylor's issue was the transformer. Someone will probably need to do the same to yours.

Btw, the primary power fuse is the one blowing with the transformer issue, which is located just below the NEMA power socket.

Other than this issue, it's a great amp. Still, very disappointing.

Good luck!

Ouch! Well, thank you very much for chiming in Boogie. Did you have to pay for the repair or is Egnater recognising that it is a flaw of their amps? I have just bought a new PRS SE, put my old Epi LP in for rewiring / setup... Getting back into guitar playing is becoming an expensive affair... Mind you, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the new guitar

 

[Boogie]

Our saga isn't over yet (it's tough to motivate a 25 year old to do anything at times) but I expect Egnater to take care of it. After meeting the man himself at NAMM, I feel confident he'll stand behind his product. To be continued...

I, too, took a break when the boys were born (at the last band practice, my wife went into labor). In fact, all of this happened exactly 27 years ago, today. Went from gigging 3-4x per month to zero is a shock. But after about 5 years, I slowly started back in, a few practices and a couple of gigs a year. A new guitar didn't show up until 2001 (11 years), so I totally get it. If you're very fortunate, you'll get to share music with your kids. And if you're the luckiest guy on the planet, you'll get to share a stage with them.

Welcome back, and good luck with the rekindled addiction.

Btw, I don't have these problems with my PRS amp...the best damned amp I've ever owned. (/Shameless plug)

 

[László]

And if you're the luckiest guy on the planet, you'll get to share a stage with them.

I'm. Still. Waiting.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

What model is the Tweaker?

 

[ArnaudS1979]

Hey Boogie, I haven't had a chance to gig so far. All my attempt at forming a band have been thwarted. But I had fun almost 10 years ago (time flies) starting to record a few pieces.

Just a quick search about the Tweaker transformer issue on the web unearthed a few horror stories mentioning couple of hundred pounds solutions... I hope it won't be the case here. I don't know much about PRS amps, I think they came about just before I zoned out. A new amp is not going to be on the cards though so I will probably have to revert to using the Laney LC-15, which I used as the cab for the tweaker, loaded with a Celestion V10. If PRS do a similar head to the Tweaker 15W I may have to start campaigning with the Miss... Hard work!!!

DreamTheaterRules, You would have gathered by the time you read this line that it is the 15W head which I paired with Celestion V10, I am using.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

There were no bad transformers in the 15 waters. That bad batch of transformers was in the 40s, so one major concern isn't likely an issue.

 

[andy474x]

I had a 15 that burned up a couple of internal resistors. I was playing it one day, and suddenly a pop and hiss and burning smell from the amp, and no more sound. They were pretty easy to spot with the chassis out of the amp, instead of the normal color of all the other resistors in the amp, they looked grey, and, well... burnt.

I was able to send mine back to Egnater to be repaired, but it was an affair trying to get them to accept the return for warranty work. They tried to get me to take it somewhere "locally," which wasn't really that local, and I just wanted to ship it to them and basically they didn't want to take it. Eventually I was enough of a pain in their butt to make them do it, but it took a few weeks. If you have someone local you trust to at least diagnose the problem, I would start there and pay a few bucks to see what's going on, rather than trying to get the company to help you, unless it's going to be a very costly fix.

Either way, once it's repaired, you can sell it along with the LP and Laney, and getcha self a Sonzera, Archon 25, or Custom 20 The Tweaker is cool, but the PRS amps sound even better... and they don't break down

 

[ArnaudS1979]

Thanks guys, that is good to know. So it may not be too bad. I have contacted Egnater, we will see what they say. I think the guitarguitar shop pointed me towards a amp tech when I had a problem with my MI Audio crunch box. The bloody thing died on me a few weeks after it went out of warranty... And there was nothing to do apparently: general failure of the whole unit!

I have never tried PRS amps, and while the clips on the website do sound good, I really like my Little Tweaker. The only thing missing is a foot switch for the clean / crunch toggle.

 

[László]

The Tweaker is a nice little amp for the dough. However, it's not in the same sonic or build quality league as a USA PRS amp, as you'd expect given the difference in price; I haven't played a Sonzera or one of the older SE amps, so I can't speak to those.

I use the PRS amps for nearly all of my ad music work. Every so often, I run the Mesa I have, but it's not used nearly as often.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Thanks guys, that is good to know. So it may not be too bad. I have contacted Egnater, we will see what they say. I think the guitarguitar shop pointed me towards a amp tech when I had a problem with my MI Audio crunch box. The bloody thing died on me a few weeks after it went out of warranty... And there was nothing to do apparently: general failure of the whole unit!

I have never tried PRS amps, and while the clips on the website do sound good, I really like my Little Tweaker. The only thing missing is a foot switch for the clean / crunch toggle.

Man, I feel bad for you. MI Crunchbox is a nice pedal for "that" tone. Was all the rage at TGP for a few years. I had two versions of it at one time or another. Anyway, I know this is OT, but pedals don't just go into "general failure of a whole unit." There are very few parts in there and they usually aren't hard at all to fix! Have you opened it up and just looked inside to visually check for trouble?

Edit: If it's not something we can figure out this would be a good time to upgrade to a BEOD, 5150 or one of the Wampler pedals.

 

[ArnaudS1979]

I can handle guitar electronics, but pedals and amp just look too complicated to me. I don't really want to get into it. Moding guitar was sapping enough of my playing time already

The Crunchbox thing was a long time ago... mind you, I think I still have the unit somewhere. I insisted to get it back as i thought there were parts that could be salvageable... Not too sure what I had in mind at the time. Maybe I was a bit sceptical of the overall failure thing. I'll see if I can find it at the weekend, open it up and post a few photos.

To be honest though, my sonic requirements would be covered if the bloody Tweaker was working. When I bought it, it simply replaced my whole rig which was FOD-1 => Crunchbox => LC-15. I know it doesn't quite produce the same tone but I felt it was an improvement.

Thanks for the recommendations... I'll go gasing in a corner, away from my credit card

 

[ArnaudS1979]

The Tweaker is a nice little amp for the dough. However, it's not in the same sonic or build quality league as a USA PRS amp, as you'd expect given the difference in price; I haven't played a Sonzera or one of the older SE amps, so I can't speak to those.

I use the PRS amps for nearly all of my ad music work. Every so often, I run the Mesa I have, but it's not used nearly as often.

That's my worry. I don't think I can really justify to buy a PRS amp... The Tweaker is already way above my playing skills

 

[Deleted member 5962]

So you aren't using the pedals anymore with the Tweaker? I did. What I liked about it was that I would choose a clean platform to start from, then add pedals that worked with that. Being one channel, if you turn the gain up you lose you "clean channel" sorta. Then again, who needs a clean channel? LOL (j/k)

 

[ArnaudS1979]

So you aren't using the pedals anymore with the Tweaker? I did. What I liked about it was that I would choose a clean platform to start from, then add pedals that worked with that. Being one channel, if you turn the gain up you lose you "clean channel" sorta. Then again, who needs a clean channel? LOL (j/k)

Which is why I said, all that it misses is a footswitch. I have just watched an old review of the Crunchbox, and it does have a nice Marshally sound. I could do with wee spell of resurrection.
However, the modern voice on the hot setting is quite good on both amp voicing. I used to have a wee preference for the AC like voice. It was a bit fatter than the Brit. The US voice was quite good for better definition. I hopefully I'll get to experience those again soon.