Damn, I'm a damn clumsy fool

TheMarlin

I'm heavy handed.  i break things all the time (though usually have a light touch with guitar gear...) 

The fuse just went in my 5E3.  Took the fuse out in haste, the retaining spring shoots off into the abyss. 

Anyone know now where I get those little springs from? New fuse can't make contact until I find it.  Amp is useless without it....dammit!

Sometimes its the silliest things.....

sweepy

Maplins ?

ICBM

It's got to be in the room somewhere…

The problem will be finding the exact right size otherwise - there are approximately four million known fuseholder designs, and they're all different in subtly clever ways which make none of the parts compatible with any other.

The next problem is that you also probably have a blown power valve or rectifier.

TheMarlin

Valves are all new.  I bought the amp here, but it's was a pig. Beautifully wired on top, but wiring made no sense on the back. Noisy as hell. 

I had the amp completely rebuilt by Barry Vyse. Sounds staggeringly good now.  However, likely a legacy from the previous owner, but wrong value fuse was in play. 0.5a instead of 2a.  So hoping valves are all still good.  Have spares anyway....

ICBM

0.5A might be OK for a 5E3 at 240V I think - certainly 1A would be. 2A is too big, that's the original value for 110V.

Valves being brand new makes it more likely that one is faulty, rather than less... but hard to tell with a possibly marginal fuse value.

TheMarlin

They've had a good 12 hours on them. That's about it. Three of those running at full pelt. 
It blew on startup from cold the following day.  Light came on, then faded away. 

ICBM

That does sound more hopefully like just blowing on the startup surge.

Find that spring .

Maynehead

wrap a paperclip around a pencil?

TheMarlin

I've made a temporary spring, chopped up the spring from a ballpoint.... will have to do until I find the damn thing...

Chris_J

Spring from a biro to get you by? 

Voxman

Chris_J said:

Spring from a biro to get you by? 

Beat me to it!

blobb

Kit-kat wrapper.

TheMarlin

If I can't find the spring, I'll likely just fit a whole new fuse jack. http://www.rattleanddrum.com/fender-fuse-holder-and-caps-pack-of-2.html

RiftAmps

ICBM said:

0.5A might be OK for a 5E3 at 240V I think - certainly 1A would be. 2A is too big, that's the original value for 110V.

Valves being brand new makes it more likely that one is faulty, rather than less... but hard to tell with a possibly marginal fuse value.

Yup, 2A offers little-to-no protection on a 240v 5E3. I've seen shorted valves take out Screen filters before the 2A fuse has popped. I use 0.8A in my builds.

ICBM

RiftAmps said:

Yup, 2A offers little-to-no protection on a 240v 5E3. I've seen shorted valves take out Screen filters before the 2A fuse has popped. I use 0.8A in my builds.

I would fit a HT fuse as well - all valve amps, especially those with resistors for the screen supply instead of chokes, should have them really.

Marshall doing so on the JTM45 when Fender didn't on the 5F6-A is one of the only times Marshall got something right that Fender got wrong...

TheMarlin

HT?

BigMonka

Get a magnet on a string and walk round the room dangling it to try and find the spring! (assuming it's ferrous of course)

TheMarlin

Did that.  Wil have to get forensic! Magnifying glass time
 

RiftAmps

TheMarlin said:

HT?

A separate fuse in the HT (B+) rail, usually fast blow and rated at twice the HT current or the nearest standard value to that

TheMarlin

I'll mention that to Barry at Vyse

TheMarlin

Mains transformer shorted.  Glad I didn't shove a 2a fuse in there. May have been worse damage.