Dual Roadster head got wet!!!

[fullreleaseblake]

Well, I got to my practice facility to pick up all of my bands equipment for a show that evening, and my drummer told me to go look inside and that I probably wasn't going to be happy with what I saw. I walked in to see my Dual Roadster head sitting on the floor with his fan blowing it off :shock: Needless to say, we had a water leak, and the only thing that got wet was my head. I had the cover on it, but with the vent grate they put on top of the amp, once the cover fully saturated, it probably leaked through the vent onto the electronics chassis. I let the fan blow on it for the entire time that I was loading up, then when I got to the club we were playing at, I sat the head upside down on my cab to see if any water would come out of the chassis where the tubes are seated. After about 10 mins, I check to make sure nothing was coming out of the chassis, turned it rightside up, and powered it on with my fingures crossed. The power light came on, and when I walked over to the footswitch to toggle throught the channels, I head a pop, pop, crackle, crackle, and the power light on the head went out, with that burnt electrical smell. I checked and the fuse near the power cord had blown. Luckly I never got rid of my Line6 SpiderValve head, and my wife was able to bring it to the club we were playing at. Now, I haven't powered that head up (the Line6) since I got it back from Line6 for warrenty work about 8 months ago. Thank god it worked.
Tonight I'm going to go home and remove the chassis from the head case and inspect the electronics to see if anything has burnt up (I'm crossing my fingers in the hopes that the fuse blowing was the most damage sustained). Has anyone delt with this kind of issue before, and is there any advise that could be offered if you have? The storage facility owner said he would cover any damages seeing as he was working on the roof last week, and left a couple of screws out (which is what casued the leak to begin with).

 

[Old BF Shred]

Sounds like a bummer....hopefully the fuse saved any really serious damage, but at this point you really should take it to a tech to get it checked out.

In the future, always allow minimum several days drying time for electronic equipment. 2 weeks would be preferred (really).
Always try to drain as much water/moisture as you can first of all....fans, hair dryers...whatever you got. Then let it set to dry on its own.

A trick you can try is to use instant (ie "Minute") rice (lots) in a trash bag and put the amp in with it, preferably without the cabinet/shell/case (bare chassis). This will accelerate the drying process significantly. You may need to swap out the rice if it becomes too saturated with moisture, and it will take several boxes of rice (cover the amp fully in the stuff if possible) but it does help the process.
The rice trick is great for small electronic devices (cell phones. stomp boxes, etc) but the principal is the same for any electronics.

Other than that, time will dry it out, not much else.

Good luck with that!

 

[Sixstringpsycho]

This story makes me wanna cry....my advice would be do to a sweep for a mesa tech in your area. You have an expensive piece of high voltage equipment that got wet and shorted out, i would call a tech ASAP and get it there simply for the professional diagnosis. that way it can be repaired and no future issues will arrive hopefully. GL brother sorry about your misfortune, if it were me i would seek help because water and electronics mixing scares me.

 

[derekjason]

dude that BLOWS!!!!!!! hope its not too serious man.

 

[Spewnz]

yea definitely take it to a tech. at least the guy was nice enough to take responsibility and thank Jebus you had a backup head. I feel your pain hope it works out for you

 

[fullreleaseblake]

Thanks for the replys. I baby the hell out of this thing, and for something like this to happen is a punch in the gut.

I'm going to take out the bare chassis tonight to see if there's any moisture visably present, take a hair dryer to it on low for a little while, then if there's no visible electrical damage to the circuit board, let it sit for a few days, change the power fuse, power it up and see if the fuse won't blow. Also make sure there's no burning smell, then basically leave it on for a few hours (on standby), occasionally taking it off of standby and playing through it to see if everything sounds as it should. If everything works out, then I'll just have to keep the Line6 head on me at all times for a while in case something happens later on.

The nearest certified Mesa tech shop is in Dallas. If something doesn't look right visually, or looks ok, but doesn't smell right upon power up, then it's going straight there. I'm hoping that the power block just had some dampness to it when I powered it up, and that's what I smelled when it blew the fuse next to the power cord. Won't know that until I crack her open tonight.

Mesa's not going to void my warrenty by me just taking out the bare chassis to visuall inspect it are they? That's another one of my concerns. If I have to send it in, I won't be telling them there was a little water leak on it (that'll be for them to determine as far as warrenty work goes), but I don't want them getting pissed that I took out the chassis to inspect it.

 

[Old BF Shred]

Mesa's not going to void my warrenty by me just taking out the bare chassis to visuall inspect it are they? That's another one of my concerns. If I have to send it in, I won't be telling them there was a little water leak on it (that'll be for them to determine as far as warrenty work goes), but I don't want them getting pissed that I took out the chassis to inspect it.

Do it carefully and don't cause more damage in the process and they won't care.
Sometimes they prefer you remove the chassis to make it easier to ship; they don't need the cab if it is not the problem.

Unless you find something very obvious, do not turn it on without additional drying time; if water got into the transformer it is going to take a lot longer to dry. The rice trick won't hurt either, but it will still take a while to dry.
You never know with water; it goes where it wants and where we don't want!!! Ouch! :roll:

No Mesa techs in Houston? Wow... whodda thunk? A big enough city for a Mesa service shop, you'd think.....
Again, good luck! :wink: