Rectoverb a fallen off varistor

[marcus67']

Hello,

I'm new here and I come from Black Forest in Germany. So first I have to excuse me for my bad english! Sorry!! :wink:
I bother to write in an accurate diction and I hope you can understand, what I want to say.

I own a rectoverb combo series 1 and I have a few questions about this amp.
Someday I heared a rustling from inside the amp.....
After I have openend the amp chassis, I saw a little component part, which lies at the ground :

I brought the amp to an amptech, but he didn't knew where the varistor belongs to!!!! :evil:
He argued, that the varistor is not a genuine part of this amp.
I don't belief that.

Is somebody here, who has a few detailed pictures from the inner life of a rectoverb, that I can have a look, where the varistor belongs to?
I think it is not difficult to solder the varistor at it's place, when I know where it is.


Another question is, that I can only hear a tone when I turn the channel and the master pots over the 9 o' clock position. Beneath the 9 o' clock position there is no tone.
Is this normal?


Best regards,
marcus

 

[DV211]

Marcus,
Achtung!! Zee Condition ist kaput!! You should get out of zee woods and go to Berlin veir a qualified Mesa technician may be able to help. Zee amptech you were arguing mit seems to be a bit of a dumkoff! Communication to repair from this forum could be challenging though not impossible, yes your English needs some verk... alvedizane

 

[marcus67']

Zee Condition ist kaput!! You should get out of zee woods and go to Berlin veir a qualified Mesa technician may be able to help

Thank you very much for Youre answer!

What do You mean with " zee condition ist kaputt"? :?:

The varistor is for switshing from standby to power mode. In power mode the varistor has no function.
From the woods(Freiburg) to Berlin it is 1100 km....
Ich think with the help of some fotos I should be able to solder the varistor to it's place.

Best regards,
Marcus

 

[Blaklynx]

Hello Marcus,

Contact Mesa (email) and explain and show them your photo (foto). Also explain that you live too far away (1100km) for simple technical service. Mesa are very good and will reply to you, hopefully with answer and foto to fix yourself. If no satisfactory reply from Mesa, I will open my amp (series II) and take some fotos. Give Mesa a few days to email you before I open my amp!

While you wait, can you not check and find broken legs of varistor soldered on PCB? Should not be too difficult.

I will check this thread again for your post.

 

[marcus67']

Hello again,

The first I have done was to check if there are some broken legs. Nothing to see.
Then I phoned the german Mesa distribution Service. Some people have made good experiences with the german mesa boogie distribution, but I did not. They were only afraid if my amp would be an amercian model. My amp is a german model. You should know that the mesa amps in Germany are costing about the 2- 2,5 x of that what you have to pay for the same amp in the USA. So some musicians are importing Mesa amps from the USA. The german distribution does not support US imports in any way. So they asked again and again if it's an american amp. Once again, my amp is a german model!!!
After that, they only offered halfheartedly that I can ship my amp to the mesa service station and they said also that this will cost about 300 Euros = ca 408 US Dollars + shipping (about 80 Euros).
This is too much for my budget!
I don't beg these people for checking my amp!
Please don't misunderstand me. I love my Mesa amp, it's the best amp I have ever owned. Mesa is a very fine manufactor. But me and a lot of other musicians in Germany are sucked of the german mesa distribution because of their exorbitant rip-off.

best regards,
marcus

 

[fluff191]

Welcome to the Board man! The people here are very cool. And full of info.

 

[Rkorn]

You are experiencing the same as Portugal. Amps are very very expensive.
Take the amp appart. Find broken legs from that component, get them out, solder the component back again!

 

[marcus67']

Find broken legs from that component, get them out, solder the component back again!

This is exactly what I want to do.
First I have to know where this component has to be soldered back!

@fluff191: Thanx!

best regards,
Marcus

 

[Blaklynx]

Hello again,

The first I have done was to check if there are some broken legs. Nothing to see.
Then I phoned the german Mesa distribution Service. Some people have made good experiences with the german mesa boogie distribution, but I did not. They were only afraid if my amp would be an amercian model. My amp is a german model. You should know that the mesa amps in Germany are costing about the 2- 2,5 x of that what you have to pay for the same amp in the USA. So some musicians are importing Mesa amps from the USA. The german distribution does not support US imports in any way. So they asked again and again if it's an american amp. Once again, my amp is a german model!!!
After that, they only offered halfheartedly that I can ship my amp to the mesa service station and they said also that this will cost about 300 Euros = ca 408 US Dollars + shipping (about 80 Euros).
This is too much for my budget!
I don't beg these people for checking my amp!
Please don't misunderstand me. I love my Mesa amp, it's the best amp I have ever owned. Mesa is a very fine manufactor. But me and a lot of other musicians in Germany are sucked of the german mesa distribution because of their exorbitant rip-off.

best regards,
marcus

It is a ripoff. I agree.

Contact Mesa and let them know. Distributors and service agents should not be able to charge whatever they feel like. This is a bad reflection on Mesa and I think Mesa should know. 300Euros for what?!?!? Is that for new tubes, complete service and a speaker change? It's unacceptable if they only find the varistor is the problem and nothing else.

Let me know how you go with Mesa. As I mentioned before, I will take fotos of my amp if you have no luck.

 

[94Tremoverb]

Unfortunately, Mesa's pricing and customer service in the US/North America and in other parts of the world may as well be from different planets...

That looks to me like a varistor you would find on the power input socket or on the power switch - they're used as suppressors to stop incoming spikes on the power supply from getting into the amp, and are not strictly necessary, more just a bit of extra protection. But it also appears to say 125V on it - is this an American (120V) model you're running with a step-down transformer, or a European (220V) model? If it's a European model it would be much better to get a 250V-rated replacement - it's going to be quite difficult to solder that one back anyway since the legs have broken so short. (You can trim away some of the blue material to get a bit more length if you need to though.)

The other parts of the legs are probably wrapped tightly through the connections of whatever it was soldered to, so you won't actually see wires sticking out - look for signs of them in the solder. If you do fit it back or replace it, add a small amount of hot-melt glue to stop it vibrating - that's why it broke in the first place.

 

[marcus67']

That looks to me like a varistor you would find on the power input socket or on the power switch - they're used as suppressors to stop incoming spikes on the power supply from getting into the amp, and are not strictly necessary, more just a bit of extra protection.
.....- it's going to be quite difficult to solder that one back anyway since the legs have broken so short. (You can trim away some of the blue material to get a bit more length if you need to though.)

Yes it's a varistor. I've shown it a electronic technician and he said it should be a varistor. He also said the same things as you. It is not strictly important.
But you know what I'm feeling? There is a little blue component and I don't know where it belongs to...this circumstance makes me nervous.

Anyway, if I buy a genuine power switch or a power socket for a rectoverb the varistor would be included?
My amp is a model for the german/european market with 230v transformer.

kind regards,
marcus

 

[Jonberrier]

According to the schematic, this MOV goes between the brown wire coming off the power switch to the transformer and the white wire to the power transformer ( or voltage selector in your case). Its probably a hardwired component that is not mounted to a circuit board. The amp will operate normally without this varistor. It is just a little added protection from voltage spikes.