Ashdown RM-500 EVO II - headphone switch weird noises when speaker plugged in (not broken!)

[basexperience]

Here's a weird little habit of my RM 500 I've just discovered. I haven't used the amp in over a year because it "stopped working" at a gig (I had a backup amp with me) - and I placed it aside after being unable to figure out what was wrong with it at home. Symptoms were the amp had no volume and just a quiet, distorted tone from the speaker cab (8 ohm Markbass traveler 2x10, good cab).

 

Left the amp aside for months and months, yesterday I looked at it again thinking I'd get it fixed and wanted to recreate the failure condition (which it did). Then I thought - is there anything I haven't looked at, like the back panel?

 

Headphone switch engaged. Turn it off, and the amp is absolutely fine. So: with the headphone mode engaged and no headphones plugged in, this amp will seem like it's broken. If there was no audio at all, I think I'd have checked the mute, then looked elsewhere, but it was the fact it actually sounded like it was "broken" (tiny highly distorted sound was made).

 

Silver lining, the amp works! I thought I'd share here - no doubt others have seen this and will have a good laugh 🙂 

[Lozz196]

I`ve put a sticker on mine that reads "if no sound check headphone switch on the back" as have been brought to a state of major panic at gigs when my RM has appeared to not be working due to this. 

[basexperience]

36 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I`ve put a sticker on mine that reads "if no sound check headphone switch on the back" as have been brought to a state of major panic at gigs when my RM has appeared to not be working due to this. 

Bloody excellent idea. Thanks mate. Literally exactly what I did at that gig before using the LWA500 as a backup.

Edited 4 hours ago by basexperience

[Reggaebass]

The switch on mine used to stick occasionally so I took it to ashdown and Dave removed it for me, I didn’t use it really , he did say that they wasn’t a great idea in the first place,

 

for headphone practice I use the Nux pro 

[basexperience]

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

The switch on mine used to stick occasionally so I took it to ashdown and Dave removed it for me, I didn’t use it really , he did say that they wasn’t a great idea in the first place,

 

for headphone practice I use the Nux pro 

I’ve got a spare Scarlett 2i2 I work on with headphones, but I’ve bought one of the really cheap little M-Vave blackbox FX units, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what it can do for £50.