Had this Ampeg BA-108 amp for about three years and all of a sudden yesterday it started to sound really bad, as if I was playing in a tunnel. What seemed like very high treble setting. Checked everything and settings weren't changed. I started playing with the treble setting and nothing I did changed the tone. Whether up or down tone did not change. 1) How often do these pots go bad, and 2) does it sound like a bad treble pot? thanks
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Ampeg BA-108
- Thread starter JMLegs
- Start date
I would first ascertain as to whether your bass has a battery (active e.q.) built in. If so, and the battery dies, so does the bulk of the signal to your amp. You will still have a signal from bass to amp, albeit weak and tinny-sounding, and steer you into believing your amp is bad. There are a few other threads in the A&C forum about amps-going-bad, which turned out to be dead or dying 9-volt batteries in the bass.
Cheers,
Kevin
Cheers,
Kevin
Curses...foiled again! 
It was worth a shot, though. At his point it may be worth looking at other simple causes, e.g., instrument cable. Else, the amp itself. If it were mine, I'd throw it on a bench, disengage the amp from the casing and start "Ohming" thing out. I'd proffer the bad sound as a dirty pot, but that may/would yield scratchy noises when rotated, as opposed to the in-a-tunnel sound you have now.
It was worth a shot, though. At his point it may be worth looking at other simple causes, e.g., instrument cable. Else, the amp itself. If it were mine, I'd throw it on a bench, disengage the amp from the casing and start "Ohming" thing out. I'd proffer the bad sound as a dirty pot, but that may/would yield scratchy noises when rotated, as opposed to the in-a-tunnel sound you have now.
You know, it might be, but I'd be concerned that it might be something else. Unfortunately, with an amp that only costs $100 new, to take it to a tech would probably cost you more than it's worth, and I just don't know enough about amp teching to tell you for sure. I can, however, tell you, that I have one I got new in 2011 and it still works great. So while it's not unheard of for a pot to go bad, I wouldn't call it commonplace, either.
If you have any soldering skills, reflowing the pot connections to the printed circuit board can correct a problem like this. But there are other possibilities that could be causing the issue.
I agree with Jimmy, unfortunately, the amp will cost more to have repaired than it's worth.
I agree with Jimmy, unfortunately, the amp will cost more to have repaired than it's worth.
Does this also occur if you use headphones instead of the speaker?
Does this also affect the sound coming from your MP3 player through the AUX input?
This might help in narrowing down what part of the signal path is being affected.
Does this also affect the sound coming from your MP3 player through the AUX input?
This might help in narrowing down what part of the signal path is being affected.
The aux input is uneffected. They figure whatever you plug into it can control the volume and tone by itself.
