Preamp and volume is being bypassed?

PrimusPanda · #1 01-20-2013, 12:28 AM

I play through a Hartke LH1000 and the 410 hydride cab. One day at practice I was setting everything up and when I turned it on, I about blasted everyone out of the room. I found this strange considering the volume was set to 2. Along with that I noticed my tone was a bit off. After some investigation I realized my volume and preamp were doing nothing. Everything set to zero and I was still blasting away at great volume. Turns out everything is running directly from my bass, volume and tone. I can't get the tone I once had since I can no longer dial anything in and setting the volume is a huge pain because I have to adjust it solely on my bass and even the slightest adjustment causes a huge shift in volume. Everything is setup the way it has been for a year, everything is hooked up correctly, but for some reason it is bypassing everything on the amp and hasn't changed since. Has anyone ever had anything like this happen or would anyone have a reasonable explanations was to why this is happening? I wasn't able to find anything similar to this issue but hopefully the solution isn't too costly and will be a quick, easy fix.

megafiddle · #2 01-20-2013, 12:35 AM

The ground or common connection to the volume has likely been lost. Can probably be
simply resoldered.

PrimusPanda · #3 01-20-2013, 12:42 AM

Alright, I'll check that out. Thanks. Until then, is it bad if I continue to use it before it can be resoldered?

megafiddle · #4 01-22-2013, 03:56 PM

I would worry about the bad connection being or becoming intermittant, especially from
vibration. You could have some very big transient noise pulses occuring at full volume
if the connection decides to "make" again.

Downunderwonder · #5 01-22-2013, 04:20 PM

It sounds like more wrong than failed amp attenuator if you lost all the tone control as well. Mind you it could be hard to tell with the bass turned down to accomodate the amp running full bore. The tone will be pretty anaemic before it hits the preamp.

I don't think running it like that is too wise either.

RickenBoogie · #6 01-22-2013, 04:34 PM

I would not use it until it's been repaired. Find a good, qualified amp tech, and take it in. Further use could make the repair bill go up.

PrimusPanda · #7 02-02-2013, 05:34 PM

Alright, well I checked it out and I found the preamp is working fine. For some reason it just seems to be the master volume. Opened it up and couldn't really see anything out f the ordinary so I didn't touch anything. After recently checking it again, (just came back home) all sounded fine minus the fact the volume wasn't working. I haven't been using the amp other than to try and find the problem. I would like to try and fix it myself if possible but I have a feeling that's not going to be the case. I like Hartke's stuff, but so far I have had multiple problems with this head and it's starting to get annoying. Being a college kid, I don't have the money to keep fixing or the same amp or buy a new one. Not trying to rant, just frustrated.