Aguilar DB750 and blown breakers??

Uh-oh! This is the first I've head of this!! I've had my Big Daddy Aggie for about 4 months now with no hint of any trouble, so you better believe I'll be monitoring this thread.

Please respond to this man... any of y'all out there who can relate to this...

 

I had it happen 3 times out 40 some odd shows on my last tour. It seemed to happen in the nicer venues (House of Blues Chicago, Paradise Rock Club Boston) which is odd. No problems other places with less built in power protection. Not a real problem. There was always an easy work around each time. I love mine. I got it after my Ampeg SVT 4 pro blew up at the beginning of the tour. I'm back doing local shows with it and no issues.

 

What happened to your SVT-4Pro? I just received mine, so that caught my attention!

 

I PMed my answer privately, but in case anyone else is interested, I've blown out the breakers at venues about three times. We then re-plugged in, concentrating on keeping the big power draws on separate circuits and then had no problems.

So, in all, not a big deal.

 

I was smelling burning plastic coming from the SVT4 for a couple of gigs and then I heard a loud pop on the fourth gig. I turned around and there was lots of dark smoke. I picked up my AG DB750 on tour after backlining a head for a couple of gigs. We played a show a week later in St. Louis where Ampeg is located and I dropped it off in person to get serviced. They have a flat rate of $105 to fix amps, so that's all it cost me to have the circuit board and poweramp replaced. Not bad for not being the original owner and no warranty. The street price for the repairs would have been well over $500. I'm not sure what caused it. The SVT was my touring rig and I hadn't played it in 4-5 months since it was in storage out of state.

 

I've never blown a breaker, but when I turn it on at home, the lights dim on the initial power draw.

 

Sounds like it's got a big toroid in there with no inrush limiter.....

I had to design an inrush limiter circuit for our amp because it has 2 big toroidal power transformers and it was popping breakers 50% of the time on turn-on. Inrush isn't all that predictable either. The amount of inrush current depends on where in the cycle you energize the amp. So if you energize it right at the 0 crossing of the AC cycle you'll get a lot more of it than you will if it's energized at the peak of the wave..... So sometimes, you won't blow a certain breaker and other times you will, depending on the moment of engagement....

This obviously becomes more of a problem if the circuit you're plugging into is already loaded down.

 

From now on, I'll try to time my throw of the switch with the crossing of the wave. Shouldn't be too difficult.

 

I have blown 1 breaker with my db750....played the same venue with the Aguilar Db680/Db728 and it didn't blow anything

 

As luck would have it, I got a call late yesterday afternoon from a guitar player friend to fill-in for their bassist... his wife went into labor! My friend called about half-an-hour after I had posted on this thread, so this breaker issue with the DB750 was hanging there in the back of my mind.

The venue is a small bar in the basement level of a high-rise condo complex in Waikiki. The stage is small, and that's mostly due to the fact that at one point, they built a DJ's booth... very half-assed... on the stage, but it's obvious they haven't done anything with this for quite some time... wires hanging around, extension cords and plugs all over the place... a fire code violation just waiting to be cited!

I was thinking about this thread at the moment I switched on my DB750, and wouldn't you know it... I noticed the crappy stage lights, as well as all the neon beer signs within close proximity of the stage, appear to dim when the Big Daddy Aggie came to life...

 

I had to resurrect this post. I was at a training class for work, away from home, this last week. It was close enough to drive, so I figured I'd bring my bass, and something to play it through. I don't have a practice amp, so I brought my DB750 and Schroeder. I got to the hotel on Monday, and loaded all my stuff in. At around 9PM, I turned it on, no problem, and proceeded to practice. It was very quiet, as quiet as the DB750 can go, I just wanted an amplifier or some sort. So the following night, around 7pm, I tried to turn it on, and all the lights go off in the room. Actually, the 'light' goes off in the room, all that was on was a lamp, and the alarm clock. But they were plugged in on the other side of the room, so I knew I tripped a breaker. It took 3 calls, a visit to the front desk, and an hour and a half to get my power back. I didn't try turning the amp on again, for the rest of the week.

 

Only once in a bar that had a VERY poor power grid. I shut that place down for a good 20 minutes. After that, I always power up before everyone else does. No problems since, but I have dimmed a few circuits!

 

I'm out on tour with mine right now and it has only blown the breaker once in 25 shows so far this tour. And that was at the House of Blues in Chicago. So it doesn't have to be a crummy venue, but you never know when it will happen.

 

True dat. 60 cycles=no problemo!