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New Amp, Volume Cutting In and Out

PotsdamBass8

PotsdamBass8

Supporting Member
Jan 23, 2005
2,994
3,024
Long Island, NY
#1
So I just recently got a brand new Fender Bassman 500. It's been awesome at weekly practice for the past 5-6 weeks. However just this last Thursday, it started dropping out a little bit...and then it came back in and seemed much louder than before. This was while playing a song so it was hard to tell for sure, but the other band members seemed to agree that that's what happened. Figuring it was a cable or pedal, I plugged directly in. Then the sound cut out completely for like 20 seconds, nothing. We stopped playing, I unplugged and plugged back in to the amp and it was fine. I figured it was the input, so I used the second input and it was fine for the rest of the night. The next day we had a show, so to be safe I plugged into the second input. I also bought all new cables just to be sure. Sure enough, it cut out a few times during sound check. It was fine for the show though. So I am going to see if I can get it to happen again, and I know that the preamp out/power amp in is a possible place to look, any other things that I should look at? I want to see if it's a simple fix before I bring it back to GC and not have an amp for an extended period of time while it gets (hopefully) fixed. BTW, no lights came on at any point that would imply that it was a protect circuit. The amp looked like everything was fine except the signal was just cutting out.

Thanks!
 
#5
I have a Carvin I purchased new around 1993. Fast forward until a few months ago, and my amp suddenly started intermittently cutting in/out, sometimes the volume dropped 40 db or so without cutting out. I swapped cords, same problem. I swapped speakon's, same problem. I plugged/unplugged a 1/4" cable into the f/x loop, same problem. I returned (at my expense - fairly old amp) the amp to a person I trust, and he cleaned it and sent it back because he could find no problem. A month ago, it happened again, with a different amp. Turned out that my battery compartment (25 years old) allowed the 9-volt battery to slide ever so slightly, but enough to nearly or sometimes break contact with the pre-amp power wires. (It is not a plug-the-wire type compartment.) $26 dollars later, part and labor, my guitar is good as... well, as good as a 25-year old guitar can be. And both amps were miraculously healed in the process.

Don't overlook the small stuff. First time in 25 years this bass has given me a single problem, but it happened.
 
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#6
ezstep said:
I have a Carvin I purchased new around 1993. Fast forward until a few months ago, and my amp suddenly started intermittently cutting in/out, sometimes the volume dropped 40 db or so without cutting out. I swapped cords, same problem. I swapped speakon's, same problem. I plugged/unplugged a 1/4" cable into the f/x loop, same problem. I returned (at my expense - fairly old amp) the amp to a person I trust, and he cleaned it and sent it back because he could find no problem. A month ago, it happened again, with a different amp. Turned out that my battery compartment (25 years old) allowed the 9-volt battery to slide ever so slightly, but enough to nearly or sometimes break contact with the pre-amp power wires. (It is not a plug-the-wire type compartment.) $26 dollars later, part and labor, my guitar is good as... well, as good as a 25-year old guitar can be. And both amps were miraculously healed in the process.

Don't overlook the small stuff. First time in 25 years this bass has given me a single problem, but it happened.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I’m looking toward the bass too. I just recently swapped the electronics out with an emg geezer passive PJ set. But considering they’re solderless, I replaced every component, and they’ve been fine for this whole time, I’m pretty sure it’s not that. Especially because unplugging and plugging in from the input jack fixed it that one time. For now I’m going to focus on the amp since that’s where more signs are pointing.
 
#7
Update! I brought it to GC, they confirmed that it was past the return date and couldn't do anything. They recommended a Fender certified repair shop not too far away so I brought it there. They ran it through the tests and were able to get it to do the same thing, cut out. They said that Fender listed that issue as a "do not repair", so they sent the amp back and Fender will send a replacement. So evidently it is a known issue, and to Fender's credit, they are replacing the entire thing rather than a fix. So kudos to them for taking it seriously and making it an easy process. I'm not sure what the actual issue was, but I think they said it was in the power amp section.
 
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#11
Basscasey said:
Good to hear a company doing the right thing. Also...screw GC.
Click to expand...

I know GC gets a bad rep, but I don't think they did anything wrong in this case. It was outside of their generous return period. They could have taken the return and given me credit and taken care of the warranty repair themselves, but honestly that would be above and beyond. And now that I know how good the reputation is of the repair place (Davidson Electronics), I'm glad I brought it there rather than have GC take care of it.
 

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