Disaster averted (and the wisdom of having access to backup gear)

JayGee

Played a blinder of a gig last night (well, we enjoyed it, the crowd enjoyed it, and the landlord enjoyed it anyway...).

But we nearly didn't as the bass player plugged in his Orange Terror Bass amp and nothing happened. Much frantic swapping of mains leads, power distribution boards, and mains sockets later still nothing.

So I nipped home (15 minutes down the road), grabbed my trusty Mesa 5:25, and (after a further panic involving speakon sockets) the bassist did the gig with my recently acquired Blackstar S1-104EL34 (which it turns out actually makes a Pretty Damned Fine bass amp - I thought it actually sounded better than the Orange in a slightly growly old-school manner....) plugged into his cab and me playing through the Mesa.

There's a lesson there I think. From now on and the little Mesa goes in the car for every gig from now on.... 

The chances of more than one of us (2 x guitars and the bass player) suffering amp failure on the same night seem fairly low, our monitors are actually beefy Peavey units designed to double as FOH (and will take a couple of mics straight into them if push comes to shove with the mixer), we've got a second much smaller pair of monitors for tight stage areas, we've got loads of leads, and the drummer carries a big bag of spares around with him already so that'll be us covered for anything less than a helicopter crashing into the venue I reckon...

jd0272

Yeah it's happened to us twice, all fine at soundcheck, then bang, crackle, pop.

Reminds me, must get the TSL fixed.

ICBM

JayGee said:

But we nearly didn't as the bass player plugged in his Orange Terror Bass amp and nothing happened. Much frantic swapping of mains leads, power distribution boards, and mains sockets later still nothing.

Before you take it in for repair, check the FX loop jacks - the return breaks the signal path and a spot of dirt or corrosion in it will cut the whole amp out - the only one I've had in for repair was down to this and nothing else.

jd0272 said:

Reminds me, must get the TSL replaced with something reliable.

Edited for accuracy.

JayGee

ICBM said:

JayGee said:

But we nearly didn't as the bass player plugged in his Orange Terror Bass amp and nothing happened. Much frantic swapping of mains leads, power distribution boards, and mains sockets later still nothing.

Before you take it in for repair, check the FX loop jacks - the return breaks the signal path and a spot of dirt or corrosion in it will cut the whole amp out - the only one I've had in for repair was down to this and nothing else.

Cheers for that - passed on for the owners attention, so easy to check that it's got to be worth a few minutes!

Danny1969

There's been a couple of fuses on the PCB on the one's I've had in for repair. Also I've seen a disc fuse break a leg too so OC

failed_astronaut

That's a great story and lesson learned regarding back ups.

However, "a helicopter crashing into the venue..." - you clearly don't play in Glasgow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Glasgow_helicopter_crash

I wasn't at the gig but it was bloody scary to hear about.

Roland

ICBM said:

Before you take it in for repair, check the FX loop jacks - the return breaks the signal path and a spot of dirt or corrosion in it will cut the whole amp out - the only one I've had in for repair was down to this ...

This happened to me on a BelAir.  The Carvin forum view was to use a patch cable rather than replace a board mounted socket. 

jd0272

ICBM;493827" said:

JayGee said:But we nearly didn't as the bass player plugged in his Orange Terror Bass amp and nothing happened. Much frantic swapping of mains leads, power distribution boards, and mains sockets later still nothing.



Before you take it in for repair, check the FX loop jacks - the return breaks the signal path and a spot of dirt or corrosion in it will cut the whole amp out - the only one I've had in for repair was down to this and nothing else.




jd0272 said:Reminds me, must get the TSL replaced with something reliable.





Edited for accuracy.

Well, there's the thing. It was golden, then it went. I took it to an amp tech, who had it for ages (more my fault than his), said he could find nothing wrong with it, and had gigged it. Despite when it 'went' for me mid gig it popped banged and stank.

So I took it back, and gigged it. 'Went' at the sound check. Fortunately gig was 5 mins from home so easily replaced amp. On paper such a versatile amp. Must get it attended to. And the wee Laney.

ICBM

jd0272 said:

Well, there's the thing. It was golden, then it went. I took it to an amp tech, who had it for ages (more my fault than his), said he could find nothing wrong with it, and had gigged it. Despite when it 'went' for me mid gig it popped banged and stank. 

So I took it back, and gigged it. 'Went' at the sound check.

Could be intermittent arcing of the main PCB - they are prone to this, in various places. And can stink when they do . And are expensive to fix properly.

jpfamps

The Orange Bass Terror has not proved reliable in use and has been discontinued.

The power amp (which was not designed in house at Orange), is the problem here.

The output devices are obsolete and attempts to find alternatives have not so far been successful.

ICBM

jpfamps said:

The Orange Bass Terror has not proved reliable in use and has been discontinued.

The power amp (which was not designed in house at Orange), is the problem here.

The output devices are obsolete and attempts to find alternatives have not so far been successful.

Ouch.

Say goodbye to resale value...

JayGee

Double ouch. That's not going to please Paul as A) He's only had the amp about 6 months, and it was bought second hand from a private seller with no documentation and hence no warranty. :-(

Oh well, back to the trusty Carlsboro Stingray Bass[1] for the moment then I imagine...

[1] Which I think actually sounds pretty good. Bit of an unwieldy beast compare with the Orange though...

ICBM

JayGee said:

Double ouch. That's not going to please Paul as A) He's only had the amp about 6 months, and it was bought second hand from a private seller with no documentation and hence no warranty. :-(

Given what jpfamps has said, if it turns out to be a simple fix I would get it done and then sell it immediately before the more serious fault occurs.

I will have to bear this in mind when accepting any for repair too - although to be fair, as yet I have only seen the one and it turned out to be a trivial fault. The risk is that it fails within 3 months (repair warranty period) and it's the output devices this time. While it wouldn't be covered, that can lead to customer relations problems...

jd0272

ICBM;496900" said:

jd0272 said:Well, there's the thing. It was golden, then it went. I took it to an amp tech, who had it for ages (more my fault than his), said he could find nothing wrong with it, and had gigged it. Despite when it 'went' for me mid gig it popped banged and stank. 



So I took it back, and gigged it. 'Went' at the sound check. :(Could be intermittent arcing of the main PCB - they are prone to this, in various places. And can stink when they do . And are expensive to fix properly.

I am now filled with an abundance of Not Joy....

Cabicular

failed_astronaut said:

That's a great story and lesson learned regarding back ups.

However, "a helicopter crashing into the venue..." - you clearly don't play in Glasgow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Glasgow_helicopter_crash

I wasn't at the gig but it was bloody scary to hear about.

I played the Clutha 3 weeks before that happened... as you say you can prepare for most things!