Stupid Combo Amp Tricks, or "how to break your practice amp input jack"

[dan1952]

So today's project was trying to get my Acoustic B50c to not be so boomy in my music room. I've tried a few things (room position, there's plenty of soft surfaces in the room and the 80's era stereo system has no issues with boom...), so where I was today:

Lows and Low-Mids turned all the way down. Boomy. Fender Downtown Express, activate the EQ and cut the bass. Boomy (but sounding really thin). Move to the middle of the room. Put a variety of pillows over the speaker. So I'm thinking this amp and this room just don't get along.

Last (and stupid) idea: Decouple from the floor with one of the memory-foam pillows!! That should help, right? Nope, still boomy.

Until it fell over on it's face, with the instrument cable plugged in.

Well, it's not boomy now!

Yep, the input jack is toast. It's soldered directly to the board, and I can't see where it's broken, but it is. If I wiggle the cable I can get a few popping noises, and the line-in works fine. This is beyond my skills to fix with a soldering iron, and right on the range of not being worth paying someone else to fix it, especially considering I was about to give up on this amp completely.

Oh yeah, the cable. The fall managed to tear the sheath out of the strain relief, so that's a goner too. And yes, I used a new/known good cable for the testing.

I did the same thing with a foam cushion off a lawn chair, but the fall only broke the cable...

 

[Kaa]

If it makes you feel any better, I both destroyed an amp AND got electrocuted trying to "repair" a noisy input jack when I was in college.

Now, THIS is my type of episode. Go in with all the good intent, get punished for my efforts. Lol.

 

[jthisdell]

Once my bluegrass group set up on a very crowded stage. The guitarist was setting up some lights and he knocked the other members nice old Gibson banjo over and it fell right on its face. Slam, parts flying. He and I just looked at each other with horror, he picked up the banjo and the snark tuner took all of the blow and was destroyed but the banjo was unharmed. (Some may think that is an unfortunate ending but we were thrilled.)

 

[agedhorse]

Once my bluegrass group set up on a very crowded stage. The guitarist was setting up some lights and he knocked the other members nice old Gibson banjo over and it fell right on its face. Slam, parts flying. He and I just looked at each other with horror, he picked up the banjo and the snark tuner took all of the blow and was destroyed but the banjo was unharmed. (Some may think that is an unfortunate ending but we were thrilled.)

Best possible outcome (unless you are anti-banjo of course )

 

[MuseChaser]

I played a string quartet gig a few decades ago for a post-concert reception thrown for the donors to an orchestra I played violin in. The cellist in the quarter was a fine player with a very expensive instrument that he never hesitated to mention to anyone .. let's just say he wasn't exactly a people person.

Anyway, we took a short break to schmooze with the patrons. He left his cello propped up as always did...with the scroll resting on his chair and his endpin fully extended (and he had a VERY long endpin). Dumbest thing I've ever seen; even with the relatively light weight of a cello body, all of the weight was now pretty much being supported by the end block in a plane in which it was NOT designed to support, with the 26" endpin acting as a lever trying to crack it. I asked him why he didn't at least lay the cello on its side as most other cellists who are too lazy to put it back in the case do, and he said he worried about it falling over on the bridge. Well...yeah... but...still....

Anyway, to make an already too long story less long...due to his position in the quartet in an outside chair angled toward the audience portion of the room, his endpin extended out into an area where patrons had to watch out for it, and I had warned him it was unsafe when I saw him placing it there. Sure enough, a patron tripped over his end pin and trashed the cello. He was irate and began to berate the patron. I apologized to the patron on his behalf, then pulled him aside and patiently explained to him what an idiot he was. He eventually apologized to the patron, too.

We all do dumb stuff. I'd share some of my own idiocy, but I'd probably crash the server.

 

[nickpc]

Haven't addressed the root cause of the boom in the room, but I do have a combo amp that isn't triggering it. NAD here.

If I hadn't had the B50c I'd not have known about the boom. I have a decent plan of attack should it return (or if I fix the Acoustic myself), but without anything that currently triggers it I don't really have a way to address it. Which frees up time this coming weekend to just practice!