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Have You Ever Blown an Amplifier or a Speaker?


Mr. Robot

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I have blown two in my time.

 

A new 30 Watt Jade amplifier. I blew the speaker within 2 weeks of buying it while jamming with my cousin. It was on about 9 at the time.

 

An old 100w Bass valve amp head, with my university band. Dont recall the brand. It was nasty and smoky. I think we cooked one of the valve sockets.

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Blew (crackling and smoking) out a tube, in my Fender Blues Junior about 2 years ago. Bad socket, apparently.

Had if fixed, under warranty, and haven't had any trouble since. I guess, I've been "lucky," as I've never blown

a speaker, even back in the '60's, when we (routinely) cranked it up to "11!" ;>)

 

CB

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8 years ago, the ancient reverb springs(coils?) in my '65 Univox 105w 4ch. reverb amp laid one on top of another.(amp behind me, below)

gypsy.jpg

It not only blew the amp head, it literally melted the insulation OFF of half the wiring inside my 30th. Anniversary Plain Top..........burned up a volume pot, a tone pot, and my 3-way switch.

It shocked me almost unconcious............but stunned as I was, I yanked the lead cable from the head, and then the wallplug.

It cost $150 to have my LP rewired, and new electronics installed (oddly though, it didn't damage the p'ups (Bill Lawerence "circuitboard" type).

The amp is in my attic, needing a complete rebuild, it blew 2 of the 4 6L6's & several of the 8 EL-84's, melted several sockets, and literally turned the reverb coils into bb sized pellets.

I won't give up on this amp, or sell it EVER, it was given to me by a dear friend, just weeks before he passed from Agent Orange Cancer.........(God Bless you Steve!)

 

I guess all this means..........yeah! i've blown 1.

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2 yrs. ago, I had a Fender Frontman 60w solid state combo short out while playing it.............

remembering what happened with the Univox, I yanked the lead cable from the guitar IMMEDIATELY.........

no damage to the guitar this time (My Flying-V) but the power chassis in the amp had several fried components.

 

The amp sat for almost 2 years, until I bought a Blackstar head that needed a speaker cab.......

I looked inside, & WOW the old Frontman had a 12" generic Jensen in it!

after completely removing the power chassis, installing a rear input jack, making a new grill cover frame (2 1/4" taller) and re-covering it with Vintage cloth from That Vintage Sound ...............this is the final product.

GarysCam104.jpg

 

I couldn't believe how great this head/cab match sounded............

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When I was a teen, I had a Fender Deluxe II and later on I also ended up with a silverface Deluxe. The Deluxe II had it's own overdrive section but the silverface Deluxe sounded fatter so I had the bright idea of using the speaker out from the Deluxe II and plugging it into the Deluxe so I could use the overdrive section of the Deluxe II and use the Deluxe for it's fatter tone. It sounded great for about a minute until the output transformer on the Deluxe II popped and smoked. Never occurred to me to try and swap the speakers... Lesson learned early on.

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A couple of speakers. I purchased a "house brand" (from Terminal Music in NYC) 15" solid state to play keyboards through. Picked up a "buzz" about 6 months after I got it. "Buzz" turned out to be a tear in the speaker. Replace it with a used Tremolux. The second was a 12" in a used "hand made" PA system (one 12" speaker per cabinet). Went to Lafayette electronics and purchased 2 JBL 12"s and replaced 'em both (16 screws 4 wires, 2 person job, maybe 1/2 hour).

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Lafayette electronics

 

Wow! I haven't thought about Lafayette Electronics in a long time! I remember going to the one on Rt. 1 in Lawrenceville when I was a kid and my father bought my brother and I a set of walkie talkies. Later, it became a Capital Lighting store and I worked there for several years.

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Wow! I haven't thought about Lafayette Electronics in a long time! I remember going to the one on Rt. 1 in Lawrenceville when I was a kid and my father bought my brother and I a set of walkie talkies. Later' date=' it became a Capital Lighting store and I worked there for several years.[/quote']

 

Syosset had a warehouse with a store and an outlet (scratch,dent,oneofakind).. Borrow a car or bum a ride with friends/parents.. The PA amp we used was a Lafayette clone of a Bogen, bought at Lafayette and assembled by idiots. (That's what the guitar player's brother, an electrician, called us).

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