Is this fixable?

[exbest182]

Well.. I was stoked... now I'm sad.. so I picked up what I thought was an easily fixable dual rectifier last night... even had some friends who were supposed to have looked at it before... turns out they were thinking about something else... I opened up the dual rec this morning and saw this... it's right above the 3rd channel, there was a sticky note from whoever looked at it, that just said "fried"... not good words i'd like to hear.

here's a pic.. this appears all to be wrong with it... is this fixable? or a bust?

Also, if not.. what would a new PCB board cost? and with a serial number in the 41k range, is there any chance this thing is still under warranty? and how would I approach Mesa with this problem? It seems like that it may be still covered... that's a pretty late serial I believe... since I don't have any warranty info on it, would they still repair it?

 

[domct203]

Considering your investment so far, IMO just send it to Mesa. I'm sure even after repairs you will still come out ahead.

That is some extensive damage for sure and is most likely not covered by warrenty even if there is still one.

Dom

 

[BigAl]

Well, think about it this way. Even if it costs you say... $500 to fix, you still got a Dual Recto for $600. **** good deal if you ask me .

 

[exbest182]

Well, think about it this way. Even if it costs you say... $500 to fix, you still got a Dual Recto for $600. **** good deal if you ask me .

This is true.. I'm hoping I can talk Mesa into fixing it... I'm trying to get ahold of the guy I got it from to see if he ever registered the warranty/if it's even covered.... I've sent several amps to them, so I'm hoping that maybe they could cut me some slack.... I was hoping for the easy fix, and got the not so easy... on top of it, I just bought a Stiletto 3 days ago, so gear funds are kind of tapped, but it's still a good deal either way.... if i don't fix it now, i can fix it later.... but i'll probably fix it now, i already got my shipping label printing off.. just waiting for my RA from Mesa tomorrow... lol

 

[shytfayse]

Wow! Did somebody remove the missing caps or did they blow off the board? The components could be replaced and the burned traces could be fixed, but, because we are dealing with hundreds of volts, I would be concerned with arcing over because of carbon build-up on the scorched pcb. I have heard that if you scrape ALL the burned portion of the board up and treat it with some magical compound (which name eludes me) it may be workable. Even if Mesa doesn't warranty it I would take it to an authoried Mesa repair guy, probably more local, and see if he could rectify the rectifier. Almost has to be cheaper than shipping it. - Pat.

 

[58boogie]

email that pic to Mesa, they can tell you what's what.

 

[shytfayse]

+1. The internet is wonderful.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Did Mesa get back with you?
It's not as bad as it looks. I've seen much worse!
I once bought a 2 channel Dual Rec that one of the guys here had loaned to a friend. The guy ended up plugging the speaker cabinet into the Loop footswitch jack. The entire footswitch power supply and all board traces associated with that and the 6.3 volt filament supply (the thing that makes the tubes glow) was toast!
4 hours and a lot of bad words later (maybe a 6 pack too), it was back up and running just like new! Not pretty to look at if you peaked inside, but.......
Like BigAl said, it's still a great deal, even if it does need a visit to the mother land!

 

[exbest182]

It's already at Mesa... I talked to Rich and tried to describe the damage as best as I could and he said it sounded reliable and only quoted me 150-250 to fix.. unless there is some unforeseen issue.

Hopefully I'll hear back from them with good news.. kind of excited to get it back, but I can wait it out I just got a brand new stiletto day before yesterday!

 

[exbest182]

woot! total repair cost w/ shipping $245... stoked, so i got a new dual rec. for under $500 (new tubes were needed as well)

 

[bendo]

Now, it's a smoking deal! On what was formerly a smoked amp.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Did they just replace the whole board?
Sounds like a SMOKIN' deal to me too!!! :mrgreen:

 

[exbest182]

Did they just replace the whole board?
Sounds like a SMOKIN' deal to me too!!! :mrgreen:

Na, they just repaired it... majority of it was labor cost... parts came out of $13 dollars.. lol

 

[A_Ryder]

woot! total repair cost w/ shipping $245... stoked, so i got a new dual rec. for under $500 (new tubes were needed as well)

Wow - BIG KUDOS to Mesa Engineering. Most makers wouldn't even talk to you if that happened. Makes me wanna hug my computer screen ... but my wife will start asking questions ...

That always looked fixable to me, just missing caps and no signs of rocket launcher marks or cap disintegration burns so they look deliberately taken off (I'd wanna see the other side of the board). Possibly an aborted "customisation" or "repair"?

Na, they just repaired it... majority of it was labor cost... parts came out of $13 dollars.. lol

Yeah but as a tech you'd wonder "why did those caps blow" and you would want to check and test pretty well every point in the amp for correct voltages and proper operation to make sure there isn't something else limping along on one leg that cooked the caps. That's worth $245 and nobody better than Mesa to do that.

Maybe original user ran it with no speaker - a big no no with tube amps - (yikes - I've done that but got away with it).
Maybe a tube fried but they had the wrong type of "slo-blo-fuse" (ie too slow to blo so something else cooked)?
Plugged wrong thing into wrong place? etc etc

Nah I'd be happy spending $245 with Mesa even if the part was $1. You are way ahead.

Enjoy.

 

[exbest182]

yea, Rich at Mesa said the tech left some notes on what he thought had happened, but rich couldn't make sense out of them so he was going to get him to clarify and send them with the amp... seemed like he had a good idea though... I only paid $100 for the amp.. it was missing all tubes, preamp tube casings, and a power cable... they were able to fix it, give me the tube casings.. i purchased the new tubes (dougs tube set) and then send for repair... grand total of $491... that's with shipping to mesa both ways... was def. a good find...

 

[TremoJem]

There is a Santa Claus.

I do, I do, I do believe in miracles.

I am happy for you Brother.

 

[A_Ryder]

yea, Rich at Mesa said the tech left some notes on what he thought had happened, but rich couldn't make sense out of them so he was going to get him to clarify and send them with the amp... seemed like he had a good idea though... I only paid $100 for the amp.. it was missing all tubes, preamp tube casings, and a power cable... they were able to fix it, give me the tube casings.. i purchased the new tubes (dougs tube set) and then send for repair... grand total of $491... that's with shipping to mesa both ways... was def. a good find...

Sweeeeeet !

 

[GuitarGuy503]

yea, Rich at Mesa said the tech left some notes on what he thought had happened, but rich couldn't make sense out of them so he was going to get him to clarify and send them with the amp... seemed like he had a good idea though... I only paid $100 for the amp.. it was missing all tubes, preamp tube casings, and a power cable... they were able to fix it, give me the tube casings.. i purchased the new tubes (dougs tube set) and then send for repair... grand total of $491... that's with shipping to mesa both ways... was def. a good find...

I'm jealous...... :mrgreen:

 

[exbest182]

So I finally got the DR back today.... reading the notes.. trying to find the cause of the fried spot... the only thing on the notes I can see are "make sure 1/4 ext. jacks do not see ground" - that's all i can see on the notes as to the cause of the burnt spot... either way, it's back... finally... $253.40 for repairs... about to plug it in and see how she sounds....

 

[YellowJacket]

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

No update yet. My guess is that he is STILL Playing it!