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2 Blown Amps - Advice Required Please!!!


Davy
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Hi All,

I need a bit of input from you basschatters out there please.

I've somehow managed to kill two amps on the same night and I'm wondering if the cab has had anything to do with it or perhaps the speaker cables.

Firstly let me list my gear:

Ashdown Retroglide 800 watt head

Trace Elliot 300SMX head

Ashdown 1 x 12 cab(fitted with a 500 watt 4 ohm driver).

Rockwire Jack to Speakon speaker cable.

1 generic speakon to speakon speaker cable.

Ok so my main head is the Ashdown which I connect to the cab with the speakon to speakon cable.

I noticed a few months ago that the sound from the Ashdown would intermittently cut out to the speaker but I could see that the input level on the amp was showing ok on the indicator. This happened for a few gigs and then seemed to go away(so annoying).

I've used the Trace head with the same cab and rockwire jack to speakon cable without any issues until last weekend.

The sound from the Ashdown head to the speaker cut out completely and also the DI signal stopped working which made me think it was the amp that had broken. So I changed to the Trace head which worked for about half a song and then it too cut out but the DI signal kept going to the desk.

Now this weekend I tried the Trace again and it worked for a bit and then the sound cut out but not the DI signal. I had a backup consisting of a preamp pedal used with a small power amp pedal which worked fine through the speaker cab all night.

So here I am with what would appear to be two broken amp heads but a speaker cab that worked fine for the whole gig with the backup preamp/power amp pedal.

Could the cab/connector leads have somehow damaged both amp heads or have I just been very unlucky?

I might add here that I never push the Ashdown past halfway on either the gain or the master volume and the Trace never goes above 6 on the gain or 3 on the master volume.

 

Edited by Davy
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I can tell you that at one gig, just prior to going on, my amp " died "

We then spent the next half hour eliminating all we could.  We never found the answer. All cables and settings were fine, as were power supplies.

When i got back home, i plugged the amp into different cabs and it was fine.  Turned out the amp went into self protection mode, and the culprit was the speakon sockets on one of my MB cabs at the gig.

Just a thought ..

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1 hour ago, fleabag said:

Turned out the amp went into self protection mode, and the culprit was the speakon sockets on one of my MB cabs at the gig.

Just a thought ..

This was my thought and the reason for the question above.  If the OP used a jack to jack speaker lead for his back-up then he would have bypassed the Speakon socket on the cab.  With two different amps and two different speaker cables then the only common point is the cab Speakon.  I would look there first.

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I think I might have found the problem with the Ashdown head.

I tried 3 different speaker cables at the weekend(2 speakon to speakon and one speakon to jack) and the sound cut from the amp to the cab when I wiggled the speakon connector at the amp end. 

It seems like there might be a loose connection in the speakon socket on the amp.

Taking it to a repair guy this week for confirmation and will post an update when I have confirmation.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

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16 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Hopefully not too expensive to fix....

Fingers crossed. It's a lovely little amp and I'd like to keep it for a good while longer if possible.

Edited by Davy
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3 hours ago, Davy said:

Fingers crossed. It's a lovely little amp and I'd like to keep it for a good while longer if possible.

Post it down to us we will sort.

Also are you using speakon cables with genuine Neutrik connectors? Only reason to check is that we often find that generic speakon cables can have issues with the connections not connecting properly... 

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5 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Just to add after reading Ashdown's post above, the Speakon sockets on my ( now sold ) Markbass cabs were some other name like Lichenstein or something similar, although the cables all had Neutriks

Liechtenstein is where Neutrik are based and their sockets often have that written on them.

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6 hours ago, Ashdown Engineering said:

Post it down to us we will sort.

Also are you using speakon cables with genuine Neutrik connectors? Only reason to check is that we often find that generic speakon cables can have issues with the connections not connecting properly... 

Thanks for getting in touch Ashdown Engineering.

I have two speaker cables which have genuine Neutrik connectors and one generic cable which I've used only a few times.

I have a guy local to me lined up to look at the amp. If he can't fix it then I will certainly send it to you.

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So the Ashdown head is now fixed. 😃

I took it to a local repairer and was expecting to leave it with him but I was invited in and he actually fixed it there and then whilst I watched!

It turned out to be a bad joint on the amp's speakon socket which was re-soldered and the adjacent jack sockets all cleaned.

So one gig under my belt since, everything appears to be working again.

That just leaves the Trace head to sort out now but I think I'll start another post on that one.

Thanks again for your comments everyone!

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  • 4 months later...

I thought my amp was fixed but it started doing the same thing again. 

Anyway, I took Ashdown up on their offer to repair the amp and couriered it down to them at a cost of £7(interparcel uninsured).

I sent it to them a week gone Friday, it arrived with them the following Monday and was fixed and sent back to me by the Thursday of the same week!

And there was no charge for the repair or the courier cost to send it back to me. 😀

I can't fault Ashdown's customer service, and this was on an old amp, not even a brand new one...

If you are buying an Ashdown amp then you can rely on these guys to sort you out if anything ever goes wrong. 👍👍👍

 

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Well done to Ashdown. Another suggestion re Speakon plugs. Make sure, if you are assembling leads yourself, that you do not allow any stray cable filaments to short to the wrong terminal. It can happen, when you insert the stripped ends of the cables into the terminal recesses in the plug, that a single filament of copper will pass the wrong side of the plastic separator and cause a short. The terminals are close together and the space you have to work in on the plug is quite small, especially with the two pole ones.

As others suggest, make sure you use the real McCoy. Some of the copies do not mate well. I found this when I tried to use a speaker cable someone gave me which had no-name copies on it. It did not fit smoothly into a real Speakon socket or make good contact. Buy nice or buy twice, as the saying goes.

Edited by Dan Dare
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