honeyisfunny wrote:I've always got on well with those amps for doing quiet things. I play guitar for this lady who's a kind of Cat Powerish thing (for want of better description) and I used a Champ like this once and it was lovely. They go for bucks too as the dude from radiohead uses one...

I used mine in the glenn Branca thing and it was louder than a lot of people in my row, excepting the guy who bought a Marshall stack.

I love how mine sounds, I just wish I wasn't so paranoid about tubes.

emmanuelle cunt wrote:

honeyisfunny wrote:I just fried a 70s silverface Twin. I have no idea why. It caught fire and we had to leg it out of the practise room with it before the sprinklers kicked in.
We opened it up and the base of the one of the power valves is black tar and all the wires to it are completely burned.
Not good.

[dumb rocker impression] right on! [/dumb rocker impression]


sorry to hear that.

Not as sorry as the guy who owns it.

honeyisfunny wrote:I just fried a 70s silverface Twin. I have no idea why. It caught fire and we had to leg it out of the practise room with it before the sprinklers kicked in.
We opened it up and the base of the one of the power valves is black tar and all the wires to it are completely burned.
Not good.

Racist Steves handywork killed the amp???

Nope, I killed it. Steve is going to fix it. Smoke pissed out of the inputs and all the points on the back of it. It stank. We got it into the corridor before the sprinklers went off and wrecked everything and opened it up and one of the valve bases is fried and there's black soot and tar all over the inside of it.
I don't know how I did it though. That amp survived 6 years of being tested very heavily and this hardly compares.

burun wrote:

honeyisfunny wrote:I've always got on well with those amps for doing quiet things. I play guitar for this lady who's a kind of Cat Powerish thing (for want of better description) and I used a Champ like this once and it was lovely. They go for bucks too as the dude from radiohead uses one...

I used mine in the glenn Branca thing and it was louder than a lot of people in my row, excepting the guy who bought a Marshall stack.

I love how mine sounds, I just wish I wasn't so paranoid about tubes.

The Pro/Blues Jr amps are pretty nifty - i've owned both at some point and i seemed to remember liking the simplicity of the Pro Jr more.

Thinking of buying an Epiphone Valve Junior (5W Class A) amp at the minute for my bedroom playing/recording needs...

honeyisfunny wrote:Nope, I killed it. Steve is going to fix it. Smoke pissed out of the inputs and all the points on the back of it. It stank. We got it into the corridor before the sprinklers went off and wrecked everything and opened it up and one of the valve bases is fried and there's black soot and tar all over the inside of it.
I don't know how I did it though. That amp survived 6 years of being tested very heavily and this hardly compares.

something sounds very wrong here... did you have a fuse in there that was rated higher than it was supposed to be? also, out of curiosity, what brand, model (i assume 6L6GC) and era tube was the one that died?

I had some fun amp stuff happen recently while working on a YBA-3... blew up my first capacitor (the smoke smelled very yummy and very much like bacon, and the oil that poured out was a bitch to clean up), and at one point I had enough electricity arc into my finger that it caused me to make a sound like an injured little girl, and it left a white spot on my fingertip where it zapped me. and that was from less than 300 volts!

I killed two fuses, too. but it was all well worth it... individual bias pots for all four tubes... I put in an unmatched quad of EL34's, and I have it idling with all four tubes drawing between 30.2 and 30.6 ma of cathode current. within a half of a milliamp!!

BTW, take a look at your tube *socket* for signs of arcing... probably gonna hafta replace the socket, and hopefully not too much more.

good luck!

scott wrote:

honeyisfunny wrote:Nope, I killed it. Steve is going to fix it. Smoke pissed out of the inputs and all the points on the back of it. It stank. We got it into the corridor before the sprinklers went off and wrecked everything and opened it up and one of the valve bases is fried and there's black soot and tar all over the inside of it.
I don't know how I did it though. That amp survived 6 years of being tested very heavily and this hardly compares.

something sounds very wrong here... did you have a fuse in there that was rated higher than it was supposed to be? also, out of curiosity, what brand, model (i assume 6L6GC) and era tube was the one that died?

I had some fun amp stuff happen recently while working on a YBA-3... blew up my first capacitor (the smoke smelled very yummy and very much like bacon, and the oil that poured out was a bitch to clean up), and at one point I had enough electricity arc into my finger that it caused me to make a sound like an injured little girl, and it left a white spot on my fingertip where it zapped me. and that was from less than 300 volts!

I killed two fuses, too. but it was all well worth it... individual bias pots for all four tubes... I put in an unmatched quad of EL34's, and I have it idling with all four tubes drawing between 30.2 and 30.6 ma of cathode current. within a half of a milliamp!!

BTW, take a look at your tube *socket* for signs of arcing... probably gonna hafta replace the socket, and hopefully not too much more.

good luck!

Oi oi, it's gone to the menders now. The whole base of the valve, from the inside, was totally black and all the wires from it burned completely.
My initial thought is the same as you - the fuse was too highly rated as that should have blown straight away.
I think the tunes were recent matched Electro harmonix labelled ones but I might be wrong. Verdict comes later...

honeyisfunny wrote:I think the tunes were recent matched Electro harmonix labelled ones but I might be wrong. Verdict comes later...

I have bought two matched quartets of EH tubes recently, and both had one tube that went microphonic. I'm not too impressed with the quality of their product, to be honest with you.

rayj wrote:

honeyisfunny wrote:I think the tunes were recent matched Electro harmonix labelled ones but I might be wrong. Verdict comes later...

I have bought two matched quartets of EH tubes recently, and both had one tube that went microphonic. I'm not too impressed with the quality of their product, to be honest with you.

Can you smoke crack through those tubes?

honeyisfunny wrote:

scott wrote:

honeyisfunny wrote:Nope, I killed it. Steve is going to fix it. Smoke pissed out of the inputs and all the points on the back of it. It stank. We got it into the corridor before the sprinklers went off and wrecked everything and opened it up and one of the valve bases is fried and there's black soot and tar all over the inside of it.
I don't know how I did it though. That amp survived 6 years of being tested very heavily and this hardly compares.

something sounds very wrong here... did you have a fuse in there that was rated higher than it was supposed to be? also, out of curiosity, what brand, model (i assume 6L6GC) and era tube was the one that died?

I had some fun amp stuff happen recently while working on a YBA-3... blew up my first capacitor (the smoke smelled very yummy and very much like bacon, and the oil that poured out was a bitch to clean up), and at one point I had enough electricity arc into my finger that it caused me to make a sound like an injured little girl, and it left a white spot on my fingertip where it zapped me. and that was from less than 300 volts!

I killed two fuses, too. but it was all well worth it... individual bias pots for all four tubes... I put in an unmatched quad of EL34's, and I have it idling with all four tubes drawing between 30.2 and 30.6 ma of cathode current. within a half of a milliamp!!

BTW, take a look at your tube *socket* for signs of arcing... probably gonna hafta replace the socket, and hopefully not too much more.

good luck!

Oi oi, it's gone to the menders now. The whole base of the valve, from the inside, was totally black and all the wires from it burned completely.
My initial thought is the same as you - the fuse was too highly rated as that should have blown straight away.
I think the tunes were recent matched Electro harmonix labelled ones but I might be wrong. Verdict comes later...

VERDICT:

The valve bases weren't gripping the valves in place tightly enough, even with those little clip harnesses on them. One power tube worked loose due to the volume and bass levels of the amp and was connected/unconnected/connected/unconnected etc. The bias went wildly off and the amp went up.

A more detailed analysis soon.

The tubes were Sovtek and actually survived OK apart from the pins being like charcoal.