Stereo 2:Fifty blows fuses!

[Antti Loponen]

Here's the deal. I bought a second-hand Stereo 2:Fifty to extend my Line6 POD XT Live in the summer. For a cab, I chose an Engl 2x12 Vintage. I played the rig at home and everything was cool. So was the first band practice. After that, the amp just didn't turn on in the next practice. Apparently the fuse had blown so I just got a new one. It worked for the next practice, but after that, it was blown again.

I asked the local amp service place and he just adviced me to get new tubes. That's what I did, got two matched pairs of Sovtek 5881's but the problem didn't go away. Now I'm pretty clueless. I want to sell the amp just to switch to a F-30 combo, but I cannot sell an amp that blows fuses every day you play it.

The fuses blow always when I turn the amp on (or off), never during playing, and it happens always after a long break without using the amp. Also, I always have the amp on bypass when I turn it on and off. The fuses are T2A like they should be.

Am I doing harm to the amp by not having a speaker load on other channel of the amp? My cab is mono, so I cannot load both channels, and I don't need stereo effects anyway. I always keep the volume on 0 on the empty channel. I have a friend who had a 2:90 and he did the same thing but never had any problems. Also, I think I'd be doing more severe damage to the amp than just blowing fuses...

Any help appreciated.

 

[fdesalvo]

Eh, the unloaded channel should be ok and the signal is probably shorted to ground with no jack inserted. Maybe your rectifier diodes are bad?

 

[Boogiebabies]

This signal is not shunted to ground. You probably blew the rectifier diodes or the output transformer. I recently worked on one of these in my shop and the outputs are 100% not shorted. They require a load on both sides.
It uses very small OT's as well so hopefully it would not be very expensive if it came to this. You may have blown the bank of tubes that did not see a load as well.


Sorry.

 

[nocluejimbo]

Here's the deal. I bought a second-hand Stereo 2:Fifty to extend my Line6 POD XT Live in the summer. For a cab, I chose an Engl 2x12 Vintage. I played the rig at home and everything was cool. So was the first band practice. After that, the amp just didn't turn on in the next practice. Apparently the fuse had blown so I just got a new one. It worked for the next practice, but after that, it was blown again.

I asked the local amp service place and he just adviced me to get new tubes. That's what I did, got two matched pairs of Sovtek 5881's but the problem didn't go away. Now I'm pretty clueless. I want to sell the amp just to switch to a F-30 combo, but I cannot sell an amp that blows fuses every day you play it.

The fuses blow always when I turn the amp on (or off), never during playing, and it happens always after a long break without using the amp. Also, I always have the amp on bypass when I turn it on and off. The fuses are T2A like they should be.

Am I doing harm to the amp by not having a speaker load on other channel of the amp? My cab is mono, so I cannot load both channels, and I don't need stereo effects anyway. I always keep the volume on 0 on the empty channel. I have a friend who had a 2:90 and he did the same thing but never had any problems. Also, I think I'd be doing more severe damage to the amp than just blowing fuses...

Any help appreciated.

If your cab has more than one speaker, it takes no more that 15 minutes and another 1/4" jack to make it stereo. Your volume won't increase that much, and your amp will be properly loaded on both sides.

 

[Antti Loponen]

The guy I bought it from always used it just one side at a time and never had any problems...

 

[t0aj15]

This signal is not shunted to ground. They require a load on both sides.

Boogiebabies,
You really need to stop passing wrong (INCORRECT) info.

Boogie stereo amps CAN run mono, with NO load on one side as long as the volume is turned all the way down on the side with no load. Just READ THE MANUALS! (You can download them directly from the Boogie website)

BTW, Hotplates DO NOT harm the amp. I have one, and although they do affect the tone (which is why I seldom use it anymore) it does not create all the problems you claim. The problems you speak of are created by simple abuse, pushing the amp to hard, period!

 

[Antti Loponen]

This signal is not shunted to ground. They require a load on both sides.

Boogie stereo amps CAN run mono, with NO load on one side as long as the volume is turned all the way down on the side with no load.

This is what I did always.