Troubleshooting amp issues

[vomitHatSteve]

So I've got a solid state amp. It's been reliable for a decade+ with no issues so far.

Last night, I borrowed the headliner's cab. I asked if I should use the 8 ohm or 4 ohm out; she said 8.

Soundcheck, etc. worked fine. During the first song, the amp started shutting down and powering back up. Over the next few songs, it kept happening. Inconsistently, it would happen throughout the song. It happened consistently if I engaged any kind of boost pedal (big muff, etc)

When we swapped in her head for mine, we stopped having the problem. My head didn't feel particularly hot to the touch.

Any ideas what caused this? Was it probably just an impedance mismatch?
Might it have been power? It was a punk house show, but I was the only one losing power, and everyone was daisy chained to the same outlet.
Could it be something dying in my amp? How would I investigate that?

[Lt. Bob]

man .... it could be any of those things .... what amp do you have?
In general SS amps don't freak out over impedance issues like tube amps do. For example you can run most SS amps into no-load and it won't hurt them but a tube amp'd likely complain by blowing up or at least blowing the fuse.

So I doubt it's a mismatch.

But you have no idea what she had in that cab or how it was wired.
It's even possible she had a speaker cable with a loose strand of wire that made a tiny tiny short while you used it.
I had that happen when I first tried out the amp greg built me ..... a single strand was barely touching and it wasn't enough to be a direct short but enough to make the amp put out zero power.
And then when ya'll swapped out her head, it could have flexed the cable at that spot enough to make the strand disconnect.

And even a headliner might be clueless about their own gear and I've seen some stupid stuff ..... maybe it was wired for 2 ohms which might heat a component in your amp to the stress point even though the entire amp doesn't get hot.

So really, you don't have any good way to know and you're gonna have to do some testing ....... use your regular cab and push it hard and if all is fine then it was just another electronic mystery mystery mystery mystery ....

But it is possible that something in your amp is right on the edge and for some reason that cab triggered it.
Sometimes components will get intermittent before they die completely.

So a host of possibilities ranging from it being her cab/cable to you having an amp problem on its way.

[vomitHatSteve]

man .... it could be any of those things .... what amp do you have?

Crate PowerBlock

Thanks for the input. Whelp. I guess I'll try it out this weekend and hope it stays a mysterymystermystery

[Lt. Bob]

man .... it could be any of those things .... what amp do you have?

Crate PowerBlock

Thanks for the input. Whelp. I guess I'll try it out this weekend and hope it stays a mysterymystermystery

Oh, I know that amp ..... they were 99 bucks when they first came out and with a gig bag too!
A pretty cool little amp

[vomitHatSteve]

Oh, I know that amp ..... they were 99 bucks when they first came out and with a gig bag too!
A pretty cool little amp

Yeah, it's a great little amp. I'd hate it if it broke.
They're still not much more expensive than that. Reverb has them around $170ish

[Lt. Bob]

Oh, I know that amp ..... they were 99 bucks when they first came out and with a gig bag too!
A pretty cool little amp

Yeah, it's a great little amp. I'd hate it if it broke.
They're still not much more expensive than that. Reverb has them around $170ish

well then replaceable at least but also maybe fixable.

Let us know how it goes

[rayc]

I had an SS amp die...Australian made thing...Jands Clubman. 80w switchable bass/lead. My 1st amp. I still have it. The problem was around the fuse, not actually the fuse, but the chassis had to be pulled to get to the fuse and there was NO ventilation in the head at all. Fuse section was replaced, it had burnt out, and ventilation added to the case, (a series of holes I drill in a grid form). Back up n running and not a blink since 85. It was into a four Ohm cab when it fritzed.

[vomitHatSteve]

I had an SS amp die...Australian made thing...Jands Clubman. 80w switchable bass/lead. My 1st amp. I still have it. The problem was around the fuse, not actually the fuse, but the chassis had to be pulled to get to the fuse and there was NO ventilation in the head at all. Fuse section was replaced, it had burnt out, and ventilation added to the case, (a series of holes I drill in a grid form). Back up n running and not a blink since 85. It was into a four Ohm cab when it fritzed.

My first bass amp managed to blow out all its transistors at one point. Very quickly exceeded its own replacement cost.