EBS HD350 distortion problem finally fixed

[gimmeagig]

I have had a HD350 for a few years now.It was supposed to replace my Eden WT550. I loved how easy it was to get a good sound out of this amp. Except there was this intermittent distortion. It was way in the background and you could mostly hear it at the tail end of notes that I let ring out.This slight distortion that became more audible as the main note faded and then the distortion would stop like an off switch.
Very annoying. Especially when I just played by myself.
I cleaned the pots, nothing. EBS suggested to take off the knobs and tighten the nuts for the pots. I thought that was it, but eventually the amp started doing that thing again. EBS also suggested to take off all the nuts and remove the cirquit board. Then I should sand the inside of the front panel to ensure good grounding.....What a hassle.! I ended up not doing that and stopped using the amp.Today I pulled it out one more time and it was still having the problem. But it really does sound better that my WT 550.So I opened it up and even though I know very little about electronics, I think I finally found the problem.
The blue power light is soldered to a circuit board that also has the DI output on it. The two wires were going through that circuit board and stuck out about 1/4" on the other side. These two wires were bent towards each other and were almost touching.I thought that wasn't how it should be and clipped them and ...no more distortion. Maybe there was some kind of arc between the two wires that was causing the problem. Can someone here confirm that?
Anyway, I have played through the amp a few hours now and everything seems fine. Amazing, something so simple...
I saw that other users had similar problems with their HD350 amps, so I hope that this might help someone.

 

[reasonbass]

How is the EBS volume-wise comepare to your Eden?

 

[BassmanPaul]

A LED has something like two volts across it. It's highly unlikely that the leads would arc. What is more likely is that, in removing the board and refitting it, you cleared up a poor connection or contact. no matter what the issue was you put it right. Hopefully the amp will now work properly.

 

[gimmeagig]

Then I don't know what it could have been. The wires were really close together and as soon as I physically bent them apart the distortion stopped. After that I just clipped off the protruding wires on the other side of the circuit board. So that's the only thing I did this time around.Oh yeah and I sprayed the pots one more time but that was after the distortion was already gone.
I did not ever take out the main preamp board with all the pot's attached. That kind of procedure is too scary for me. I probably worded it wrong in my original post.
I left the amp on all night and this morning I played through it and still, it sounds clear and clean. No distortion at this point.
As far as how loud it is, the Eden 550 is really loud. I have never pushed it to it's limit. I had my EBS converted to 2 ohms ( because I have two 4 ohm Avatar 112 cabs) and it gets louder than I ever care to set it. Most of my gigs are smaller venues and I only hook up one Avatar 112 cabinet. Even with just that, in a latin jazz / funk setting, waaay more power than I need for both amps.