Studio Series volume drop...I need a good amp tech!

[TPM]

Hello all. I have a problem that is driving me nuts. My Studio Series combo (it's like a Studio .22 basically), sounds great but occasionally there is this annoying volume drop that happens randomly...there will be a slight drop and then it will come back up again...sometimes if I turn the standby off and then on again the problem is corrected, but then it will happen again. Things I've tried but have not corrected the sitution:
1. Patch cable in effects loop.
2. New power tubes (JJ)
3. Tried out all preamp tubes, seem to work fine.

I've taken it to the Boogie store in Hollywood, those guys were cool, but they could not figure it out; the same goes for another great amp tech in my area. I have read that maybe the caps need changing; I'm not sure if they have ever been changed, but I'm open to anything.

I love this amp, I don't want to sell it, so...do any of you know of a great amp tech, a Boogie specialist maybe, that I can take this amp to? Thanks in advance.

Tom (very, very frustrated in Glendale, CA)

 

[fatboy135]

this is a very common issue on that kind of amps, send to your local boogie service, and good luck

 

[Boogiebabies]

Have you done an interior visual inspection?

 

[Mrmot]

are you using something in the loop of the amp?

I'm asking cause just yesterday i noticed a volume drop on my studio22, and it turned out that the boss ge-7 graphic eq that i'm using in the loop needs some contact spray

 

[DW]

...I've taken it to the Boogie store in Hollywood, those guys were cool, but they could not figure it out ...

John T. at the Hollywood store could not figure it out? That is very surprising.

 

[RR]

Hey Hi Tom:

Bummer, is it due to my head enclosure you bought off of me? I would feel guilty.

Gosh I don't what to say if MESA Boogie Hollywood stored did not solve the problem.

One suggestion, try cleaning the tube socket with "Blue Shower" or go to Radio Shack and get that aresol can cleaner for circuit boards and potentiometer, rotary switch and spray that on the tube sockets. Maybe the tubes are not making good contacts. But then again, it was already checked out at MESA Boogie in Hollywood so I'm stumped too. :?

 

[fatboy135]

i'm using in the loop needs some contact spray

that is maybe the best thing that you can do, even try to replace them

 

[TPM]

this is a very common issue on that kind of amps, send to your local boogie service, and good luck

Well, they checked it out at Mesa Boogie in Hollywood and couldn't find what was wrong...actually, they said they couldn't get it to do the volume problem. The guy (I think John) said they left it running for 3 hours and couldn't get it to do it. Thanks for the response.

 

[TPM]

Have you done an interior visual inspection?

Well, I don't really know too much about this stuff...I worked on my SF Vibrochamp, but that's all point-to-point and it was pretty easy to see stuff, pretty simple. But what the heck, maybe I'll take a peek. Thanks for writing.

 

[TPM]

Hey Hi Tom:

Bummer, is it due to my head enclosure you bought off of me? I would feel guilty.

Gosh I don't what to say if MESA Boogie Hollywood stored did not solve the problem.

One suggestion, try cleaning the tube socket with "Blue Shower" or go to Radio Shack and get that aresol can cleaner for circuit boards and potentiometer, rotary switch and spray that on the tube sockets. Maybe the tubes are not making good contacts. But then again, it was already checked out at MESA Boogie in Hollywood so I'm stumped too. :?

RR -

HA! No, it's not the head you sold me...I haven't even used that yet! I'm going to try what you're saying here, maybe it's something simple. If that doesn't work, I'm going to take it back to Mesa and try to get the **** thing to do the volume drop with those guys witnessing it so they can hear what I'm talking about! Thanks for the response.

 

[fatboy135]

esporadic failures are the worst to repair, you could have an amp working 10 hours and it could be perfect, and just you can switch on the amp on your home and fails in 10 minutes. If in boogie service the amp doesn´t fails so they couldn´t repair nothing because they don´t know what is failing.
Imagine that you have a flu, you go to the doctor and when you are on the doctor your fever is gone, the coughs disapears, well what can the doctor do??? he didn´t know what is happen you because the symptoms were gone.

 

[PeeMonkey]

i had that same problem, it was being caused by the effects loop. I had my RC-20XL plugged into it, but it wasn't powered up.

So once, I plugged in the power cord to the RC-20XL it returned back to normal, or if I removed the cords plugging into the fx loop.

**EDIT** oops I just read you checked patch cable in fx loop. hmm sorry cant help you then

 

[TPM]

i had that same problem, it was being caused by the effects loop. I had my RC-20XL plugged into it, but it wasn't powered up.

So once, I plugged in the power cord to the RC-20XL it returned back to normal, or if I removed the cords plugging into the fx loop.

**EDIT** oops I just read you checked patch cable in fx loop. hmm sorry cant help you then

Well, actually what you're talking about sounds different than what I did. I was told to just put some cleaner on a patch cable and plug it in and out of both the send and return to kind of "clean it out". Can you tell me exactly what you did so I can try it? Thanks.

 

[TPM]

esporadic failures are the worst to repair, you could have an amp working 10 hours and it could be perfect, and just you can switch on the amp on your home and fails in 10 minutes. If in boogie service the amp doesn´t fails so they couldn´t repair nothing because they don´t know what is failing.
Imagine that you have a flu, you go to the doctor and when you are on the doctor your fever is gone, the coughs disapears, well what can the doctor do??? he didn´t know what is happen you because the symptoms were gone.

Yeah, exactly. The guys at the Hollywood store were really helpful, they gave it a good once over and cleaned it up a bit, but they said they couldn't get it to do it...totally frustrating. What could I say to them--"Well, just keep it for another week and keep trying, it will happen"?

I think I'll just bring it by again...maybe they missed something. Thanks for the post.