Friday, January 29, 2016

Useful Guitar Amplifier Repair Tips

By Richard Martin


To ensure that guitar amplifiers produce the desired tone, they should be maintained regularly by experienced and qualified technicians. Consistent maintenance enables your amplifier to have a long life and high resell value. Repairing and preventive maintenance will cost less than purchasing a new one. Some of the tips on guitar amplifier repair one can use are discussed below.

Filter caps need periodic replacement. Though they might not be working quite fine for a long time, they will be depleting on the low end and compromising tone solidity. When these caps are not replaced in time, they eventually fail at any moment which can be very embarrassing. Big caps are the most vulnerable and need replacement when they are not more than three years old. Similarly, small caps on the preamp section need to be checked to determine their state.

On the same, you should ensure that tube sockets are tightened occasionally since they loosen up after using the guitor amp for some time. This task must be carried out by a technician because there is high voltage on the tube sockets. However, if you must do it yourself, use a good screwdriver and tighten it carefully. When carrying out this task, check for any corrosion and apply cleaner on it to avoid more damage.

Scratchy pots should be cleaned thoroughly. Clean the access holes in all the potentiometers from inside the chassis and rotate them to clean up their tracks. Failure to this, you are forced to replace the pot entirely. You can use air blower to remove any dust, cobwebs or dodgy wires in the chassis.

All the bolts, nuts and screws appearing at the back panel, power transformers and mounts on the chassis should be tightened. When these bolts, nuts and screws are left loose, they make the amplifier vibrate intensely hence lowering the quality of tone produced by the instrument. This task can be achieved by using a toolkit with screwdrivers.

Resistors will wear out and some other times fail in older amplifiers. Therefore, there is a need to replace them occasionally. When they are not replaced the amplifier will start producing sizzling and hissing sounds. One particular resistor that requires to be replaced more often is the 100k ohms comp resistor in the preamp stages of vintage fender amps.

Also, large resistors on the power stage wear out frequently because of the high voltage and heat which they have to deal with. They also have to be checked regularly and replaced with new ones to avoid any anomalies. The replacement of the resistors should be done by experienced technician to avoid more damage.

Capacitors on the tone circuit and coupling should also be checked occasionally. This is because they can become faulty in the event of power surge. This exercise must be carried out by qualified technician to prevent further damage.




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