Anyone here work on amps? I’ve been getting back into guitar and found tinkering around with them for upgrades and fixes pretty easy.
Then I found a used amp I liked at guitar center for pretty cheap. When I noticed one of the inputs didn’t work, they gave me half off that. It was cheap enough I thought I’d take a chance and see if I could tinker with it.
Opened it up and could see amps are far more going on to work with and that the jack was lose. Tried to fix tighten it but it kept coming loose and a couple uses. I couldn’t find a matching jack online (this is a 1999 champion 30) so I figured I’d switch it with the external speaker jack since I never use that and was the same.
Tested everything before I put it all together, both inputs and all the knobs worked. Put it back together and then nothing worked.
I’ve been fiddling with it for about 2 hours since this morning and can’t figure it out. I can use the external speaker jack and connect to another amp and it works, all the knobs, gain, etc works just fine (I don’t have another way to use the 1/4” output speaker to another speaker and it works along with all the knobs. Unplug the external speaker and nothing. I thought maybe the speaker blew, so I took it out and hooked it up to a cd player and the speaker works. The speaker wire in the amp isn’t loose and looks fine.
Any ideas? I would think if the electronics are fried or bad, the external speaker jack wouldn’t be working.
And I’ve read about the risks of charged shocks, I don’t touch anything I don’t know what it is, even when unplugged.
Anyone here work on amps? I’ve been getting back into guitar and found tinkering around with them for upgrades and fixes pretty easy.
Then I found a used amp I liked at guitar center for pretty cheap. When I noticed one of the inputs didn’t work, they gave me half off that. It was cheap enough I thought I’d take a chance and see if I could tinker with it.
Opened it up and could see amps are far more going on to work with and that the jack was lose. Tried to fix tighten it but it kept coming loose and a couple uses. I couldn’t find a matching jack online (this is a 1999 champion 30) so I figured I’d switch it with the external speaker jack since I never use that and was the same.
Tested everything before I put it all together, both inputs and all the knobs worked. Put it back together and then nothing worked.
I’ve been fiddling with it for about 2 hours since this morning and can’t figure it out. I can use the external speaker jack and connect to another amp and it works, all the knobs, gain, etc works just fine (I don’t have another way to use the 1/4” output speaker to another speaker and it works along with all the knobs. Unplug the external speaker and nothing. I thought maybe the speaker blew, so I took it out and hooked it up to a cd player and the speaker works. The speaker wire in the amp isn’t loose and looks fine.
Any ideas? I would think if the electronics are fried or bad, the external speaker jack wouldn’t be working.
And I’ve read about the risks of charged shocks, I don’t touch anything I don’t know what it is, even when unplugged.
Double check to make sure no wires or bare metal parts of the jack are touching the chassis when it's reassembled.
Chances are something is shorting the guitar signal to ground when everything is back together. A piece of electrical tape is sometimes all it takes to solve these issues.
Also, Fender uses a lot of ribbon connectors and plugs in their more modern amps. Make sure all of those are tight. Sometimes I'll add a dab of hot glue to the connector when I am sure it's seated correctly. I find that helps to keep them from loosening up from vibrations while playing.
Good luck!
Post edited by dudeman on
If hope can grow from dirt like me, it can be done. - EV
Anyone here work on amps? I’ve been getting back into guitar and found tinkering around with them for upgrades and fixes pretty easy.
Then I found a used amp I liked at guitar center for pretty cheap. When I noticed one of the inputs didn’t work, they gave me half off that. It was cheap enough I thought I’d take a chance and see if I could tinker with it.
Opened it up and could see amps are far more going on to work with and that the jack was lose. Tried to fix tighten it but it kept coming loose and a couple uses. I couldn’t find a matching jack online (this is a 1999 champion 30) so I figured I’d switch it with the external speaker jack since I never use that and was the same.
Tested everything before I put it all together, both inputs and all the knobs worked. Put it back together and then nothing worked.
I’ve been fiddling with it for about 2 hours since this morning and can’t figure it out. I can use the external speaker jack and connect to another amp and it works, all the knobs, gain, etc works just fine (I don’t have another way to use the 1/4” output speaker to another speaker and it works along with all the knobs. Unplug the external speaker and nothing. I thought maybe the speaker blew, so I took it out and hooked it up to a cd player and the speaker works. The speaker wire in the amp isn’t loose and looks fine.
Any ideas? I would think if the electronics are fried or bad, the external speaker jack wouldn’t be working.
And I’ve read about the risks of charged shocks, I don’t touch anything I don’t know what it is, even when unplugged.
Double check to make sure no wires or bare metal parts of the jack are touching the chassis when it's reassembled.
Chances are something is shorting the guitar signal to ground when everything is back together. A piece of electrical tape is sometimes all it takes to solve these issues.
Also, Fender uses a lot of ribbon connectors and plugs in their more modern amps. Make sure all of those are tight. Sometimes I'll add a dab of hot glue to the connector when I am sure it's seated correctly. I find that helps to keep them from loosening up from vibrations while playing.
Good luck!
Thanks for the help. I think I figured it out. The pins were coming loose as an input jack just like you said. I’d open it up, snap it back in and it would work for maybe 5-10 uses before it wiggled loose again. It’s in there tight enough to where it doesn’t come loose if I don’t use it, but plugging in and out several times would. So that’s why I figured I could switch it with the external speaker jack since I don’t use that one.
Now I figured out when I wiggle the external speaker jack just right, it all works. I looked closer at it and what’s happening is it’s not making a connection even when nothing is plugged in, so it thinks I’m using it and bypasses the speaker.
Two metal tabs in the jack look to be designed to be touching (and complete the circuit when nothing is plugged in I guess?) but separate and bypass the speaker when in use. It doesn’t want to touch on its own, and when I do get it to make contact, it separates with any movement. I guess the jack just got worn.
Should be an easy fix, if I can find a replacement jack. Haven’t been able to find a matching one yet though. Until then I might tape the connectors together or swap it back and just use the input 2 only if that doesn’t work.
Got it working this morning! Used a piece of cardboard to hold down the metal tab and make it contact.
And it’s better than before. This is the first amp I’ve had with dual input jacks, and I’ve read they’re supposed to have different impedance and sound. They were both the same before, now one is clearly a high and low. Guess it was always “plugged in” before and made them equal.
Had to revise the stand situation. This is most of my amps with the covers off:
@dudeman this is a sick set up! I'm guessing you don't live in an apartment complex.
Haha! No, I have some elbow room at my place.
Good thing, too. That room has a fully mic'd drum set and my bass rig in it. We do recordings of live jams and it gets pretty loud.
No police visits due to noise yet!
Ha ha. Love it! Where did you get your pedal board from?
The board itself is a Pedaltrain PT-1. I added taller feet to the back to increase the angle a little bit and make more room underneath. I have the power supply, patch boxes and a noise gate mounted under there.
The pedals themselves are a mixed bag of ones I built and some that I bought. Pretty much any type of sound I will use is covered by that board.
If hope can grow from dirt like me, it can be done. - EV
Comments
I’ve been getting back into guitar and found tinkering around with them for upgrades and fixes pretty easy.
Opened it up and could see amps are far more going on to work with and that the jack was lose. Tried to fix tighten it but it kept coming loose and a couple uses. I couldn’t find a matching jack online (this is a 1999 champion 30) so I figured I’d switch it with the external speaker jack since I never use that and was the same.
Tested everything before I put it all together, both inputs and all the knobs worked. Put it back together and then nothing worked.
Any ideas? I would think if the electronics are fried or bad, the external speaker jack wouldn’t be working.
And I’ve read about the risks of charged shocks, I don’t touch anything I don’t know what it is, even when unplugged.
Chances are something is shorting the guitar signal to ground when everything is back together. A piece of electrical tape is sometimes all it takes to solve these issues.
Also, Fender uses a lot of ribbon connectors and plugs in their more modern amps. Make sure all of those are tight. Sometimes I'll add a dab of hot glue to the connector when I am sure it's seated correctly. I find that helps to keep them from loosening up from vibrations while playing.
Good luck!
The pins were coming loose as an input jack just like you said. I’d open it up, snap it back in and it would work for maybe 5-10 uses before it wiggled loose again. It’s in there tight enough to where it doesn’t come loose if I don’t use it, but plugging in and out several times would. So that’s why I figured I could switch it with the external speaker jack since I don’t use that one.
Now I figured out when I wiggle the external speaker jack just right, it all works. I looked closer at it and what’s happening is it’s not making a connection even when nothing is plugged in, so it thinks I’m using it and bypasses the speaker.
And it’s better than before. This is the first amp I’ve had with dual input jacks, and I’ve read they’re supposed to have different impedance and sound. They were both the same before, now one is clearly a high and low. Guess it was always “plugged in” before and made them equal.
Good thing, too. That room has a fully mic'd drum set and my bass rig in it. We do recordings of live jams and it gets pretty loud.
No police visits due to noise yet!
The pedals themselves are a mixed bag of ones I built and some that I bought. Pretty much any type of sound I will use is covered by that board.