1984 Vox Venue 100 bass combo

[Jaythegreen]

Hi guys, bit of a techie question here.
I'm looking at picking up a Vox Venue 100 combo for a stupidly low price, according to the seller the amp powers on and works, but there is a strong background 'crackle', which gets louder/quieter depending what volume it's on. He's not entirely sure if this is just dust or something more sinister. It's been sat in his spare room for the past 20 years!
Just curious to anyone's idea to the cause and if it may be an easy fix or maybe worth taking it to a tech, even getting it in the first place. Few pics included for reference if it helps. All ideas welcome
Cheers fellow low enders!

 

[BassmanPaul]

Truthfully I wouldn't touch that amp with a ten foot pole. I wouldn't touch it with my eleven foot pole either.

The cases of the TO3 transistors are not at ground potential. There should be a cover over them to prevent anything coming in contact with them.That's missing.

I assume you're in the UK? The amp is set for European voltages.

Keep looking.

Edit to welcome you to Talk Bass.

 

[Jaythegreen]

Cheers for the reply buddy! Ive not had much experience with Vox bass stuff if I'm honest but saw the price and seemed a bit too good to be true, first thought was maybe it's a bad solder or something along those lines. Are the venue series really that bad? Not worth saving?

 

[BassmanPaul]

The vast majority of VOX SS amps were poor when compared with the JMI era amplifiers. When Thomas Organ screwed over Peter Jennings VOX started on a down hill slide. IMO they're still falling. My first amp was an AC50 with it's 18" Foundation cabinet. The cabinet didn't even have handles!!! I rebuilt the amp into a twin channel unit and it was much better then.