Death of a DC-5

[reberly]

So I was playing around a little bit the other day and I noticed my amp was sounding... weird. And very quiet. I run a Boss eq pedal in my fx loop to boost the gain of the output stage and that's my only effect. Usually when you click the box on and off you notice a huge difference in sound but the other day it wasn't doing that, they sounded almost exactly the same. The volume was very low that day but I attributed it to my hearing loss lol. Anyway, I flipped her on Standby and biked uptown to buy smokes, I was gone maybe 5-6 minutes. I got home and noticed the power lamp on my amp was out. Fuse was blown so I replaced it and flipped her back on. Light goes on... then out again. Another fuse. What's going on? Are my power tubes shot or something worse? Help.

 

[shanike]

yes, blown fuse is one of the most common results of shot powertube. replace the tubes and the fuse - that will most probably do it. you know it's worth it

 

[Boogiebabies]

Biked ? Do you mean Schwinn?

I would have hopped on my Ducati 999 and wheelied it all the way there and back with a custard donut.

I would check the fuse too.

 

[phyrexia]

I'm sure you meant "powertubes" instead of "fuse" BB.

 

[shanike]

I'm sure you meant "powertubes" instead of "fuse" BB.

ok, so it's the other way around..

 

[edward]

By coincidence, my DC5 made wacko noises just before the fuse blew. I then looked underneath and all looked ok. Fire it up again (with some trepidation) and was fine ...for a minute, then it blew again. I looked closely at the power tubes and sure enough, there was a fine crack in the glass of one of them (new tubes from Mesa, BTW). Brought them back under warranty and that was, indeed, the problem.

FWIW, I eventually went to Svetlana "Winged C" (or the SED version I've heard are great) 6L6s and they sound great! I keep the Boogie ones as backup.

Edward

 

[reberly]

So I ordered a full custom set of new tubes from Doug. I replaced the power tubes and it's still blowing fuses... is it possible that preamp tubes could be causing the problem? I haven't installed the new preamps yet but I have them. I really don't have the time or money to take this thing to an amp tech and wait a month (that's what I'm being quoted on turnaround time).

I'm considering blowing my entire rainy day fund on a new RK II, Engl Powerball or Framus Cobra. I don't know what to do, I just want to play!

 

[disassembled]

sell your amp to me

You probably need a tech to look at it. If you're in the Augusta, GA area i could look at it for ya but i would have to charge a few bucks as I don't have any tools with me and i would have to buy some.

You probably need about $2 worth of parts i am guessing as long as you didn't see plumes of smoke pour from the chassis.


Greg

 

[reberly]

I'm starting to realize that even if I do get it fixed, it's never going to be able to cut through considering our other guitar player has one of those 400w Fender MH heads through a full stack... I would consider selling it actually as long as I cover what I paid for it plus the new tubes and shipping from Ohio.