Tweaker blowing mains fuse

[dylan2000]

hi all,

i had a power tube die in my tweaker 15 (6V6 got a short between pins 2 and 7) and since then it keeps blowing mains fuses no matter what i try. even with the power tubes removed and the amp in standby, it still blows the mains fuse as soon as i turn it on. power transformer? screen grid resistor?

it's still under warranty but i really want to avoid sending it back to the store cause it'll take weeks or months to get it back. i got it from an online store in germany.

is there anything else i can test or check by myself before i give up and send it back?

 

[shimmilou]

Hi dylan2000

If it still blows the fuse with all tubes removed and in standby, that indicates a bad power supply (power trans, rectifier, filter caps), maybe because of the faulty tube.

Pins 2 and 7 are the heater for a 6V6, so maybe the 6.3 volt section of the power trans is the problem.

To be sure, pull all tubes including preamp and PI, to further isolate the supply. It sounds like a power supply problem to me.

 

[dylan2000]

alright, thanks for the reply. i removed all of the tubes, 3 pre- and 2 power, and also removed the fast-blo HT fuse. mains fuse still blows.

i also pulled the chassis and didn't see any burned resistors anywhere near the power tube sockets. i'm clearly no expert but i should be able to spot a cremated resistor and i couldn't. and the two fuses on the PCB are fine.

am i screwed?

 

[shimmilou]

Seems that it might be a power trans problem.

 

[dylan2000]

dammit. back to the store it goes then. thanks for the help.

 

[shimmilou]

Well, the same thing just happened to my 40 this morning/last night, except all of my tubes are good.

Initiated a claim, waiting for an RA to send in for repair. Man, I hope this doesn't take long! The tone was pretty darned nice, I am missing it already.

With mine, I played it last night for a couple of hours, shut it off, and this morning.....nothing. Looking back, it appears that the fuse blew when I shut it off last night and I didn't know it until I tried to power it up today. I thought that I heard an extra "click" sound when I shut off last night. I remembered thinking that it sounded like a relay click that I hadn't noticed before. I base this on the fact that when I pulled the tubes, replaced the fuse, and powered up, the lights in the room dimmed and the fuse blew. The lights didn't dim when I tried to turn it on this morning, so it seems that the fuse was already blown.

I still have my trusty BJr to use until....

 

[dylan2000]

holy sh… i'm so sorry man. i was going to order a rebel 20 to tide me over till i got my tweaker back but everywhere i look, i just keep seeing these stories about these amps dying.

i'm definitely not getting a rebel now, i don't like this back-of-the-mind feeling of always wondering if and when your amp is going to blow up and how badly.

there are enough inexpensive low-wattage tube amps around these days that there's no reason to deprive yourself of great tone. and a dead amp doesn't sound nearly as good as a working one.

 

[bbrodie]

I've had my Rebel 20 for getting close to two years with zero problems. I've gigged and rehearsed the snot out of this amps and it's been nothing but rock solid. I have a friend who has a hand wired Marshall 18 watter that blows trannies quite a bit. He's replaced three in a year and a half. It can happen to ant amp manufacturer.

 

[merlot]

Here is a fix that worked with my Tourmaster. It would blow the fuse every once in a while. The in-rush current spike is pretty intense on this amp. Every time I turned the amp on was probably like hitting the transformer with a hammer. There's a component called an NTC (Negative Temperature Coefficient) thermistor that varies resistance with temperature. It's simple to wire into your amp's mains circuit. It looks like a large ceramic capacitor about the size of a quarter. Wire it in series between the mains and the transformer and it stops the current spike at power up. As the NTC heats up, the resistance drops and everything works normally and the transformer didn't get punched in the gut. I have not blown a fuse since installing the NTC. I used a 1ohm 20 amp NTC. If anyone's interested, I can share more info.
Here's a link, too.
http://www.ametherm.com/inrush-current/ ... ntion.html

 

[bruce egnater]

Did this get handled???

alex@egnateramps.com
nate@egnateramps.com

 

[shimmilou]

Got mine back last week, new power transformer and so far it's working well.

 

[shimmilou]

Imagine this, it happened yet again! Same effing thing, looks like power transformer again.

 

[Buckeyedog]

Imagine this, it happened yet again! Same effing thing, looks like power transformer again.

That sucks man.

 

[mke35]

Imagine this, it happened yet again! Same effing thing, looks like power transformer again.

This happened to my Tweaker 40 head yesterday. Do you still have the amp and is it working?
I have owned my for 3 months and curious how Egnater assisted you. I'm waiting to hear back from them. Thx

 

[shimmilou]

Head. And no, it's not working, that's why I said that it happened again.

The first time this happened, the power transformer was replaced under warranty. This is the second time and the symptoms are the same as the first, fuse blows with tubes removed. Looks like another power transformer.

 

[mke35]

Is Egnater going to repair it again for you?

 

[shimmilou]

We'll see. The first time, it took a while to get the RA number, took a while for me to package and ship, and took another while for the shop to get the transformer from Egnater.

 

[docdmartin]

Hi,
My Tweaker 40 combo power (3.15A) blows immediately after replacement. From reading this post I am thinking its probably the power transformer. I have submitted some service requests to Egnater website and sent an email to Nate (Barret) at Egnater. Both with no response (yet). So, my question is this for those of you whom have had some experience from Egnater's 'customer service', which from reading some of these post seems to take some time. Its been about a week since I've submitted the initial request and I am wondering if it is even worth the headache of dealing with this ... Does anyone out there have some good experience(s) from Egnater's customer service? Is it worth the wait or am I going to be without an amp for some time and possibly deal with a frustrating experience? I live near Phoenix and there are some exceptional amp service people around here. I don't really want to fork out the money but I would like my amp in working condition and I really don't like dealing with poor customer service when I spent the money on the amp already. My amp is less then a year old and I haven't really used it that much ... mostly in my home studio. I have another amp I typically gig with, but was hoping to convert this one to a gigging amp now that I have some experience with the tone ... which I really like.

Also, I found this rather peculiar website offering 'upgrades' to Egnater's output and power transformers ...

http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/c ... gnater.htm

Does anyone have any experience with them? It seems strange that if these transformers perform better why they don't come in the amp stock. They seem a little expensive compared to what I have seen and I just wonder if they are worth it.

Thanks for the time and responses. I will definitely be appreciating the feedback.

Cheers,
Dan

 

[shimmilou]

Egnater refused to authorize a repair for mine the second time that it blew. If I had it to do over again, I'd say skip the poor customer service and worthless warranty and put in a MM trans. The list of available transformers for Egnater amps from MM has grown immensely, and rather quickly, so there must be a huge demand for them. Just browse this forum, too many transformer problems across the entire line of amps. I won't even look at the Egnater display when I go to any music stores now, and frankly, I feel like knocking over the displays.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

Hi,
My Tweaker 40 combo power (3.15A) blows immediately after replacement. From reading this post I am thinking its probably the power transformer. I have submitted some service requests to Egnater website and sent an email to Nate (Barret) at Egnater. Both with no response (yet). So, my question is this for those of you whom have had some experience from Egnater's 'customer service', which from reading some of these post seems to take some time. Its been about a week since I've submitted the initial request and I am wondering if it is even worth the headache of dealing with this ... Does anyone out there have some good experience(s) from Egnater's customer service? Is it worth the wait or am I going to be without an amp for some time and possibly deal with a frustrating experience? I live near Phoenix and there are some exceptional amp service people around here. I don't really want to fork out the money but I would like my amp in working condition and I really don't like dealing with poor customer service when I spent the money on the amp already. My amp is less then a year old and I haven't really used it that much ... mostly in my home studio. I have another amp I typically gig with, but was hoping to convert this one to a gigging amp now that I have some experience with the tone ... which I really like.

Also, I found this rather peculiar website offering 'upgrades' to Egnater's output and power transformers ...

http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/c ... gnater.htm

Does anyone have any experience with them? It seems strange that if these transformers perform better why they don't come in the amp stock. They seem a little expensive compared to what I have seen and I just wonder if they are worth it.

Thanks for the time and responses. I will definitely be appreciating the feedback.

Cheers,
Dan

Very expensive but mercury sounds great. I've loved them in everything I've used them in. They are ultimate boutique quality.

They aren't stock because the amp would cost $600 more lmao.

The whole point of this egnater line is to build cheaply in china so more people can afford the amps.