SWR Workingman 15 distorting?

[NunyaBidness]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster. Coming to my wits end on this SWR, hoping someone can help me out.

Bought a Workingman 15 at a pawn shop on a pretty killer deal, but I'm having issues getting a clean sound out of it. Try to passive bass on it the other day, both inputs, still having sort of fuzzy distortion problem in the background.

on a whim, I plugged the set of headphones into the headphone output, and defeated the speaker. Suddenly I had that clean shiny SWR tone that I remembered from previous amps. Cut the speakers back in, and it's feeding distortion to the headphones too, which makes me think this is a power section or preamp issue, not a blown speaker.

Anyone else ever have this issue? Maybe an idea on what to check first?

Thanks in advance folks

 

[Biggbass]

one more diagnosis you might try...disconnect the speaker and connect the amp to a different speaker cab.

 

[NunyaBidness]

one more diagnosis you might try...disconnect the speaker and connect the amp to a different speaker cab.

Dang it, why didn't I think of that. Will do!

 

[agedhorse]

If the speaker has a partially shorted voice coil, it can cause this symptom.

If the amp is defective, certain kinds of defects can also cause this problem.

A third cause is an intermittent switch within the headphone jack that switches the speaker off when the plug is inserted. This is why most manufacturers don't do it this way anymore.

Careful troubleshooting will help identify the cause oft he problem so you know what part of the combo might need repair.