I'm a complete idiot. Help!

[PatrickL101]

I got some new 6l6's to put in my dc-5 earlier, I put them in but the black plastic bits in the middle of them broke off. I put the amp on and it looked fine. I took the amp off standby and the indicator light went, I heard a pop and smoke came out the back of the amp.
Can anyone tell me what this problem sounds like and how much i'll have to pay to fix it before I go to a tech (He's a bit of a drive away, want to make sure I know the problem to explain to him).
Any help would me much, much appreciated.

 

[kartoffel]

The pins on a 6l6 are octal meaning 8 pins in a circle so if you break the tab off that means you can rotate the tube in any way you want and put it in the socket in any of 8 rotations.

Translate above into better English there's a small key on that plastic prong in the middle of all the pins that only lets you plug it in the correct way. Just like a polarized plug can go in an outlet only one way.

Chances are you have the tube rotated in the wrong way so the prongs are in the wrong slots and got the wrong power but if your lucky the tube blew up and the power shut down before anything bad happened.

That's kind of what the 6l6 socket on your amp looks like with the pin in the middle it can only fit in one way.

 

[PatrickL101]

Thanks i'll check it all out now (Had to dash to work earlier).
I hope that is the problem and I haven't gone and buggered a transformer or anything.
The centre plastic piece is actually what snapped and that's still in there. Any idea how I can get it out?

Also this may mean that i'm highly unlucky but the tubes didn't blow. They're completely intact aside from the black plastic bits in the centre which I broke.

*Realises I should've got a tech to do this and check my amp out first time round *

 

[kartoffel]

Well if they did go in in the correct orientation the socket might have had a bad connection where the prongs that hold the tube in and the prongs coming out of the tube where not touching as good as they should be and could have made an arc. but putting new tubes in is not necessarily a tech job unless you have to bias and are uncomfortable with that in the case of mesa you don't have to worry if you get tubes in range. as for getting the plastic pieces out you might just pull the amp out of the chassis and use some pliers.

 

[MrMarkIII]

... as for getting the plastic pieces out you might just pull the amp out of the chassis and use some pliers.

Where do we send flowers?

 

[PatrickL101]

Ok I got the plastic pieces out and put the old tubes back in. The problem now is that when I turn the amp on I get nothing. There's no power running through it as far as I can see.
I'll call the tech now...

 

[PatrickL101]

.

 

[kartoffel]

Yea that's probably a good idea it's beyond my scope now. Maybe just ask to find out whats wrong you might even call Mesa for that. I don't even know what kind of diagnostics you could do right now.

 

[edward]

Have you checked the fuse? I had a power tube go bad on me once ...in an ugly way! I replaced the pair, powered up, and got zero ...now thinking "crap, I killed it!" Then checked the fuse: voila! It's a 3A slo-blo, IIRC. That may just save you a trip and a bill.

Edward

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Yeah, it blew the fuse!

If it were my amp, I would epoxy the alignment pin back onto the tube. Make absolutely sure that there is no glue on the outside of it or you won't be able to get it back in the socket.

I use 5 minute epoxy. Mix it up and then check it in a couple of minutes. When it is getting slightly tacky and hard to move the mixer around in it, that is when I apply it and stick the parts together. I also use a little Scotch tape or masking tape to hold it in place for about 20 minutes to make absolutely sure that it can't move and end up crooked.


It should be safe to try the new tubes in their proper place with a new fuse. Make absolutely sure you use the correct fuse! If you use a larger one, you can potentially blow the amp up or catch it on fire. It's real pretty to watch, but really sucks if it's your amp!

 

[billboogie]

Yeah, it blew the fuse!

If it were my amp, I would epoxy the alignment pin back onto the tube. Make absolutely sure that there is no glue on the outside of it or you won't be able to get it back in the socket.

I use 5 minute epoxy. Mix it up and then check it in a couple of minutes. When it is getting slightly tacky and hard to move the mixer around in it, that is when I apply it and stick the parts together. I also use a little Scotch tape or masking tape to hold it in place for about 20 minutes to make absolutely sure that it can't move and end up crooked.


It should be safe to try the new tubes in their proper place with a new fuse. Make absolutely sure you use the correct fuse! If you use a larger one, you can potentially blow the amp up or catch it on fire. It's real pretty to watch, but really sucks if it's your amp!

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :lol: :lol:

 

[PatrickL101]

Yeah it was the fuse. I panicked for a while there

I replaced the fuse and popped the old tubes back in and it worked fine (New ones were damaged, surprise surprise!)

While i'm at it does anyone have any powertube recommendations? There are JJ's in the preamp and I like the smoother character the amp has after the Groove Tubes that were in there (I may be chatting rubbish but the Groove Tubes sounded muddier). The new 6L6's were JJ's too but unfortunately I didn't get to hear them as they kinda blew up haha