Here's a little troubleshooting tip. This applies to any control that you may find has stopped working too.
The reverb on my Tourmaster stopped working a while back, and after countless hours of troubleshooting, and futile part swapping, it ended up that it's the pot. Particularly, where/how the pots are soldered.
The pots are all board mounted, and then the entire assembly is loaded into the unit, and the nuts put on. This is OK, if everything is jigged up super straight (I mean NASA straight!), because once everything is tightened, there shouldn't be any stress on the solder joints. But... this isn't the case.
I've had several pots stop working on my Tourmaster, involving hours of disassembly/reassembly. The solder joints are always problematic, probably because of poor alignment when the boards were assembled. There's something to be said for pigtailed pots, which I firmly believe in myself.
Anyway, back to the reverb...
Quick test; Pop off the pot knob off, and loosen the nut that secures the pot to the faceplate. The nut should be loose enough that if you grip the pot shaft, and gently push/pull on it, you should have some wiggle. Turn on the amp, have a guitar plugged in, turn up the volume, and crank the reverb to maximum. Ensure that the reverb is ON (LED ON). Strum the strings on the guitar, and quickly wiggle the pot as mentioned above.
If you hear the reverb cutting in and out as you wiggle the pot, look no further, the problem is cracked solder joints. If not, the problem is elsewhere.
Hope this helps.
The reverb on my Tourmaster stopped working a while back, and after countless hours of troubleshooting, and futile part swapping, it ended up that it's the pot. Particularly, where/how the pots are soldered.
The pots are all board mounted, and then the entire assembly is loaded into the unit, and the nuts put on. This is OK, if everything is jigged up super straight (I mean NASA straight!), because once everything is tightened, there shouldn't be any stress on the solder joints. But... this isn't the case.
I've had several pots stop working on my Tourmaster, involving hours of disassembly/reassembly. The solder joints are always problematic, probably because of poor alignment when the boards were assembled. There's something to be said for pigtailed pots, which I firmly believe in myself.
Anyway, back to the reverb...
Quick test; Pop off the pot knob off, and loosen the nut that secures the pot to the faceplate. The nut should be loose enough that if you grip the pot shaft, and gently push/pull on it, you should have some wiggle. Turn on the amp, have a guitar plugged in, turn up the volume, and crank the reverb to maximum. Ensure that the reverb is ON (LED ON). Strum the strings on the guitar, and quickly wiggle the pot as mentioned above.
If you hear the reverb cutting in and out as you wiggle the pot, look no further, the problem is cracked solder joints. If not, the problem is elsewhere.
Hope this helps.
