anyone lost an amp to loadshedding/power surge?

domhatch

i have a vox ac4tvh with its lil cab, as well as an albion tct35h and accompanying gls212. went to play the other day and zip. nothing. nada out of either of them. no buzz, crackle, or pop. tried different combinations of cables, guitars, on each amp, with the same result.

finally it dawned on me that perhaps both amps were hit by a power surge at some point during loadshedding, when the power either went out, or came back on. does that not happen? both amps, same symptoms... too weird.

thoughts, gurus?
dh|

ezietsman

Did you check if that plug's circuit breaker wasn't tripped for some reason? Or if it is a multiadaptor that its little circuit breaker button isn't in the 'break circuit' position?

Next thing to check is fuses on both. A power surge will likely only fry the power transformer, causing it to short circuit, which should trip the house's circuit breaker anyway. I'd be highly surprised if two amps that were switched off got fried at once.

domhatch

good on yer ez. the house's main circuit board shows everything's ok, but i'll shift to other plugs and check. only one is on a multiadaptor, and there are other devices working on that, that are working fine. i'll give each amp its own power source and go from there. (lucky devil that i am, there are plenty of outlets in my music room.)

and then fuses.

and then, amp tech.

and then, highly surprised ez. ?

ezietsman

Ja well, I hope not, for your sake. If the amps got fried in that way, there may be more things fried. Check Fuses ja.

Check power chords (Your amps have an earth connection right? As in the earth wire is connected to the amp, on the inside). You can check by checking for continuity (multimeter) between the sleeve on a guitar cable and the earth prong on the power cable.

Check that the heads are actually plugged into the cabs. Do the lights come on? Do the valves light up?

domhatch

hey ez, thanks for the help and advise. the fuses were fine on both. so the issue with the albion was - wait for it - a ballsed-up speaker cable. this i discovered by accident (or by fortune, depending on which side of the door you're on. i'm on the fortune side.)

the vox just need some persuasion, a little coaxing back into life. nothing wrong there either.

i'll be keeping a close eye on both of 'em, just in case

thanks again
dh|

ezietsman

domhatch wrote: hey ez, thanks for the help and advise. the fuses were fine on both. so the issue with the albion was - wait for it - a ballsed-up speaker cable. this i discovered by accident (or by fortune, depending on which side of the door you're on. i'm on the fortune side.)

the vox just need some persuasion, a little coaxing back into life. nothing wrong there either.

i'll be keeping a close eye on both of 'em, just in case

thanks again
dh|

You haven't played the Vox in a while is my guess? My HT5 and my 18 watter was 'dead' on power up (on separate occasions) and it both cases it was a dirty pot that just needed some vigourous turning.

You can count yourself lucky the Albion is still ok after running it with a botched speaker cable, that's how output transformers relinquish their magic smoke to the aether ?