Smoke and bad noises!

[gundog]

Well it wasn't just a tube problem as I hoped. Amp had a bad ground type of hum; all tubes very noisy. Changed the old RCA's with some old Peavey USA made 6l6's and tried a few different 12AX7s. Last check I saw smoke and hit the power immediately. Smoke appeared to be from the capacitor area (big yellow battery looking things) and the far right cap appears to have a bulge at the end that I don't think was there before. Sound like a bad cap? Any tips on how to check this? As you can tell I'm no elec. tech but I can run a meter.

 

[screamingdaisy]

Smoke.....I'd recommend you take it into a tech. No sense running the risk of more damage if you're going to have to take it to one for repair anyway.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Blown caps.

 

[gundog]

As the amp is about 30 yrs. old and has had no work ever done to it should I have all the caps replaced? Is this something I can trust any tech with or should I send it out to a mesa authorized repair shop. Will changing out old parts change the amp sound? Sorry for all the ?'s but this is all new to me.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Well it will get rid of the smoke.

Obviously, a fresh set of power supply caps and possible preamp filter supply caps will make you amp run the way it was designed. It should be greatly improved.

If you do not know a good tech and have done exhaustive research to find one in your area, I would use Mesa as a last resort for a simple cap job.

Good luck.