My Mark III constantly blows fuses!!! HELP?

[eschill388]

Please tell me whats wrong with the little guy. I can play for a good 30 seconds to a minute before my Mark III blows the fuse. Any words of wisdom or thoughts on how to fix it?

 

[Barry]

Please tell me whats wrong with the little guy. I can play for a good 30 seconds to a minute before my Mark III blows the fuse. Any words of wisdom or thoughts on how to fix it?

That sounds like a tube problem . Thats usually what causes fuses to blow .

 

[LHanson]

Could also be power supply caps. If the amp is over 15 years old, it might need them anyway.

 

[eschill388]

thanks for the help guys. last time i looked im pretty sure all my tubes were working. ill take a closer look this time.

 

[eschill388]

i just checked it out...
theyre all glowing red but only one of the EL34s has that blue glow to it. is the other tube bad?
the tone has definitely dropped too. my clean channel sounds really muddy and like its dieing... literally. it sounds yucky.

 

[eschill388]

Could also be power supply caps. If the amp is over 15 years old, it might need them anyway.

Where are those located?

 

[welshboogie]

If one of the tubes is running a lot hotter than the others (and i mean nearly smoking!!!!) you could have a bad connection on a resistor on valve sockets which is grounding out, any decent amp tech should be able to sort.

 

[LHanson]

Could also be power supply caps. If the amp is over 15 years old, it might need them anyway.

Where are those located?

They are the big (probably blue) electrolytic capacitors inside the chassis. When they go bad, you will get more hum, and sometimes a "ghost note" thing where an off-key note will come out with the note you play. It's the 60 hz modulating the note you play. When they get really bad, they blow fuses.

EDIT: unless you know what you are doing, get a pro to replace them. They can hold a charge that, if you get bit, could be dangerous.

 

[stokes]

" just checked it out...
theyre all glowing red but only one of the EL34s has that blue glow to it. is the other tube bad?
the tone has definitely dropped too. my clean channel sounds really muddy and like its dieing... literally. it sounds yucky."

Are you saying the plates are glowing red?The plates are the big grey structure in the tube.If these are glowing red,they are drawing too much current,could be bad tubes or tubes are biased too hot,but that is most likely blowing the fuse.Get the amp checked by someone who knows what they are doing,there are other things in the amp that could be causing the problem.