My Mark III Died . . Any ideas?

[ToadMeister]

Hello. This evening I was playing my Mark III Simulclass at a moderate level (about 2 on the master volume) and all of a sudden it stuttered made a crackling sound and a yellow-orange arc came out the back and I lost all power. (The fuse is still intact)

I replaced the tubes about 6 weeks ago and have had no problems. This amp has been babied and has been well taken care of.

Does anyone have any ideas about what could have occurred. I am thinking power transformer. I thank you in advance for any and all opinions.

Sincerely,

ToadMeister

 

[jezzbro]

Could be powertubes. (even when they are just new)
Did you put your amp ever since?
If so how did the powertubes look? (red plates, lightning inside one of the tubes?)

 

[ToadMeister]

Tubes were a nice warm glow. Had no indication at all there was a problem. The only other thing that may be an issue is . . . I bought this amp about 12 yrs ago from the original owner. I played it very littlle and sold it to a friend of mine who parked it in a closet for the 12 yrs he had it in his possession (A drummer wanna-be guitar player).

Recently, I bought it back and I replaced the tubes, cleaned the pots fired her up and was fine for about 6-8 weeks. The rest is history as they say. Currently I am looking for a good tech here in the AZ desert.

Hope this sheds a little more light on the subject. Thanks, ToadMeister

 

[Octavarius]

Filter caps maybe?

The wear out faster when not being used in a long time and suddenly powered up regularly.

 

[Buddy]

Time to open that badboy up ! If it's been sitting unused for as long as you say , hell , there could be a fried mouse in there .
:shock:

 

[jezzbro]

Filter caps maybe?

The wear out faster when not being used in a long time and suddenly powered up regularly.

+1

Get it to a tech.

 

[tubeydude]

did you use mesa spec tubes?
If not, did you check the bias after replacement?

Did you smell a strong stinky "electronics" kinda plastic-y odor?

Get a good tech. Have them do a full check...screen grid resistors, tube sockets clean and re-tension, check all tubes for shorts, tranny check, rectifier diodes check, bias check.

Good luck,

Erik

 

[timv]

Where in AZ are you? I'm in mesa and would gladly check it out for you.

 

[ToadMeister]

Just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who responded to my post here on the Boogie Board. This is a great group of people and an awesome resource to learn about these little bundles of technology called Boogie. I especially want to thank timv for his generous offer to help in tracking down the problem with my amp.

Bless you all,

ToadMeister