My dad gave me a 20-something year old Fender Bassman. I really want to get it to work because I play blues, bassmans are some of the best sounding amps ever. The on light comes on, but no sound. I have some experience with electronics, but have completely been lost st this point. I replaced a couple burnt out resistors, and was told maybe the transistors need replacement. Everything looks in ok condition, so i cant figure it out. I figured this would be a good place to go for advice.
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I need help fixing a bassman
- Thread starter Fultron
- Start date
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A model number would help in looking up a schematic. Have you measured the resistance across the output transistors' leads? That would be the first place to look besides the obvious blown fuses inside. If you have shorted output transistors, chances are likely there are other things shorted out and simply replacing the transistors will yield shorted transistors again the first time you power it on.
If output transistors have shorted, they tend to take out the power supply fuses almost as soon as you switch on the amp. saying that, that is not always the case with very high power amplifiers with multiple transistors. You cannot make assumptions based on look and this might end up being a long, tedious fault find task.
I would start with a signal generator plugged in to the input and I would check how far through the circuit the signal gets using an oscilloscope.
I would start with a signal generator plugged in to the input and I would check how far through the circuit the signal gets using an oscilloscope.
