These amps are very rare in the US, and I'm assuming pretty rare where you are. That's a low price, and it reflects the condition of the amp. I think you paid a fair price for it, considering the work it needs and the condition it's in. You did not, however, pay a fair price for an amp that has problems. I agree with yossarian83 that you should talk to the seller about some money towards a repair. Unless the amp was sold "as is" or they told you it had issues, that's unacceptable.hittb87 wrote:This amp was sold to me for USD1010. Combo version with 2 x Celestion v30. Do you guys think it's worth it for me to keep and fix the issues? or send it back to the seller? The sound is fine with me. it's just that it crackles and pops at high volume - when the gain is higher than 3 o'clock, and the master volume is higher than 4 o'clock. Which probably only good for recording. too loud for live usage anyway.
You will have to put some money into repair bills to get it fixed. You have a few options:
1) Do the minimum amount of work necessary to get the amp running reliably for now (the key word being "now")
2) Go through the whole amp to fix any questionable work that could cause problems in the future (leave the modified circuit).
3) Bring the amp back to stock, reliable form.
Only you can decide what's best, based on how much money you want tied into the amp, how long you want to keep it, and how much money you are comfortable loosing on it if you sell it. I'm not familiar with the Malysian amp market, but if it were me here in the US I would spend a few hundred to bring the amp back to stock form. You can spend the minimum to just fix whatever is causing issues right now. But judging by the workmanship of those modifications, I would bet that the amp will have more problems after some more use, unless a good tech goes over the entire amp and repairs anything questionable.
You have most of the original caps there in the amp, so I would have the tech source the 1/2W and 1W tan colored carbon film resistors that are supposed to be in the amp so it's as close to factory as possible. That amp will be a tough sell later on with the questionable mods in it and a bunch of resistors that clearly don't belong in it.
Agreed.yossarian83 wrote:I say keep it and get it repaired but try get the seller to refund you at least some of the money you'll be out.
The presence pot on these is very sensitive to wire placement. I've had the same issue with my OR120 and moving a couple of PI wires fixed it promptly. I'm betting that monstrosity of a mod has something to do with it
One thing 5-8&10 forgot to mention, the board right around R3 has been completely toasted. Not a huge probably, but it might explain the red wire.
Yeah, there's some more going on there that I didn't mention. That section on the board looked to me like it was sealant or adhesive that was holding a cap in place, but could also be a burned section. The resistors bridging those electrolytics (R30 and R31) have been replaced and are likely under spec for the job. I would make those 1W.
There's a white wire going from the voltage selector to somewhere (who knows where). The OT wiring is in a bad place and sloppy and might be causing oscillations, and it looks like the secondary leads are in the wrong positions on the switch.
All of the non-stock soldering indicates that whoever did it wasn't very experienced. The joints look bad, and the insulation is melted on the wires that they soldered. This was someone who had trouble making proper solder joints and didn't know how to apply the correct amount of heat and flow the solder.
I hope he has a good tech near him. This amp deserves some much needed TLC to bring it back to its former glory. The 90's amps were very clean builds, and it's sad to see one that someone took apart and didn't really have the skills to wire properly. Reversible mods are fine. But those components should be on terminal strips or another more secure mounting method. It makes me wonder why so many resistors have been replaced too. I originally suspected the amp had seen water, based on the crud built up in the bottom corner of the chassis, the replaced speakers, and the staining on the grille. But I think this is just an amp that needs to be cleaned up and needs some TLC.
-Nick
