blown fuses?

[JoeDissolvo]

Ive been playing with my Ampeg B2-re head now for almost 3 years. Last night, for the first time ever, i plugged it in and flipped the switch, and my fuse blew.

Is it common to blow fuses? Anyone else ever blown any at really bad times? (mine was right before a show.)

Im still in a little bit of shock.

[JustDavid]

Sometimes a fuse can get jarred such that the glass shell will break & it will very quickly blow. Hope that's what happened.

I'd replace the fuse with one of THE INDICATED RATING. If #2 blows I'd try again with another cab & speaker cable (even a guitar cab would do for this; no sound would be sent). If #3 blows, into the shop it goes.

[BassmanPaul]

Originally Posted by JustDavid

Sometimes a fuse can get jarred such that the glass shell will break & it will very quickly blow. Hope that's what happened.

I'd replace the fuse with one of THE INDICATED RATING. If #2 blows I'd try again with another cab & speaker cable (even a guitar cab would do for this; no sound would be sent). If #3 blows, into the shop it goes.

Before you do this disconnect your speaker cable. If the fuse blows again it's tech time.

Paul

[stiles72]

It can happen with any electrical gear. I always keep some spares in my bag of goodies just in case...

[JoeDissolvo]

it wasnt a glass fuse. It looked ceramic, and when i took it out, it had a scorch mark on the side. I replaced it with a fuse with an identical rating, but glass. It worked fine last night after that, and I noticed that it even ran a bit cooler.

Just kinda blew my mind. (no pun intended.) Ive almost never heard of a bass head blowing a fuse. Now a guitar amp, ive heard of those going all the time.

[knigel]

The only thing worse than blowing a fuse right before a show is blowing one right in the middle of a show in the middle of a song--like me! And guess where the fuse is? In the guts, completely inaccessible from the outside!

I recovered though...now worries. That's what direct boxes are for.

Dudes, so you know how they say bring a back up amp?

[Jerrold Tiers]

it's not common, but it happens.

Fuses get a stress from the surge of current when the amp is turned on and everything charges up. We always chosen/rated fuses to stand that surge 100,000 times (and still blow when that is required), but there are bad fuses just like bad other components...

[johnk_10]

Originally Posted by JoeDissolvo

...................I replaced it with a fuse with an identical rating, but glass. It worked fine last night after that, and I noticed that it even ran a bit cooler. ...........

replacing a fuse will not make any amp run cooler, so something else had to be attributed to that.