weird bass sounds

[Porteroliver]

so, I just got a crate bt100 bass amp. it's used. and it was working fine... and then it fell over. now when i plug in, and turn it on, it makes an awful loud static punchey clickey sound, and neither of the volume knobs make a difference. and it also does that with headphones. I have found that hitting it sometimes helps, and I get a clean tone, but then, the master volume doesn't do anything, and a single nudge can send it right back. any ideas on what to do?

 

[B-string]

Could have dislodged a connector inside the amp unit, but nothing I recommend untrained persons poke around at.

 

[Steve Dallman]

There are likely ribbon connectors and one may have come loose. Usually reseating all ribbon connectors will clear this up.

It is possible a solder joint on a jack might have broke. I recently worked on a 2X12 Crate guitar amp of the same vintage and the jack for the effects loop (Switching TRS jack) had to be resoldered.

For this I had to take off all the knobs, remove all pot nuts and screws holding the board in. I removed a couple ribbon cables to allow pulling the circuit board out. I soldered the jack terminals, and put it back together. It took me all of 20 minutes.

But I've done amp repairs since 1980.

 

[BassmanPaul]

In two word: Tech Time! Sorry. If you go poking around inside you could well end up with a much more serious problem.