Why Unqualified Repairs Are Often Dangerous

[Spectre Gunner]

I don't even think aged horse should look at that amp. There is a sticker on it that says not FIELD serviceable.

The "Qualified Electrician" read the sticker and heeded the warning. So he brought it indoors.

 

[Tommy Sparks]

You have slow blow fuses and you have fast blow fuses and this it is a no blow fuse.
Back in high school, a friend of mine did the cigarette foil trick on a motorcycle fuse and you can guess what happened.

 

[pie_man_25]

Amateurs. A small mouse corpse works so much better as a fuse replacement. The soft abdomen usually doesn’t even deform the contacts

My sister just moved into a place. Sisterly tribe kitchen "smelled kinda funny."

So they tore down the whole kitchen, cleaned, sanitized, repainted, and sorted out some wonky stuff from a few decades of being a rental unit. My dad sent me a picture and told me not to tell my sister - but I guess a rat of all things managed to get into the house, get into the back of the stove, and short out the power cord.

I'll spare you guys the photo.

 

[JimmyM]

You said “spooge.”

 

[mmon77]

You said “spooge.”

It's a technical term.

 

[VeryTallBassist]

Having a good local amp shop is unappreciated by a lot of people. I'm fortunate enough to be 10 minutes from the Fuchs shop. They are the only local people I trust with my repairs and service.

 

[db59]

the only time I fixed an amp was when............plugged in, turned on....pedals are working...changing cables.....no sound.......ah yes, the 'ol volume knob , FIXED

 

[micguy]

Sol if you don't use them as fuses, what are you supposed to do with all the remainders from potentiometer shafts that you cut shorter? Throw them in a landfill? That's environmentally insensitive!

 

[coreyfyfe]

C'mon everybody knows on a blown fuse you're supposed to use tinfoil from a gum wrapper, or a pack of smokes, or that burrito you wrapped in tinfoil to take to the gig.

Reminded me of this

 

[rtslinger]

As always thanks for your wisdom and warnings. I have always taken my amps to certified repair shop
Triple S they are great started in Belleville in 1976 now in Bloomfield if any of you in NJ are looking to get your rig repaired.
RTS

 

[darkwasthenight]

You have slow blow fuses and you have fast blow fuses and this it is a no blow fuse.
Back in high school, a friend of mine did the cigarette foil trick on a motorcycle fuse and you can guess what happened.

I was working at a music festival many years back and the buggy I was given for transport was having some issues. We opened it up to check and found a distinctively-coloured cigarette foil fuse which happened to match the cigarette brand the rental guy was smoking - I told the office to send it back and get us something that was less likely to set on fire.

Same festival a year later and we get an ominously familiar buggy: no prizes for guessing what I found in the fuse box.

 

[40Hz]

He shorted out the fuse with a metal rod? Wow! Muy macho!

And here I thought the putting a penny in the fuse box trick went out of vogue with my great grandfather’s generation …after the first hundred or so houses burned down.

 

[Gervais Cote]

View attachment 5405553 This came into the shop today, customer first claimed that it was working fine then suddenly stopped working, and of course trying to claim the flat rate service program coverage said that nobody tried to repair it.

Obviously this wasn't the case and it came out that "maybe" he and his "highly qualified" electronics buddy from the local repair shop might have "looked at it" but didn't touch anything other than installing a new tube.

Clearly this wasn't the case, there's a metal rod where the fuse is supposed to be, the jack nuts are missing and the fan wires were cut. There was also "magic cure-all spray" spooge all over the inside of amp (including on the power amp module), which may have been the root cause of the failure.

First of all, this is extremely dangerous because depending on the failure mode, it's possible for the bulk supply caps to explode, which can launch electrolyte onto a person's face and into their eyes (a trip to the ER for sure).

Second, this would have likely been a $100 flat rate repair had they not messed with it. Now, it's in the $450-$500 territory.

This is a good way to learn from somebody else's expensive mistake (or lapse of good judgement), and why I stopped supporting non-factory service except at Fender authorized service centers. I see this stuff more and more these days.

The fuse rating might be a tad high indeed. Very dangerous !

 

[2thAche]

That looks like a cut piece of galvanized nail! Wow.

 

[Gervais Cote]

This is why I'm concerned buying anything used now. I got burned on a GK combo that someone messed with and now I can't use an extension cab with it.

A used bass : can be safe and rather easy to repair and set up when many aftermarket parts are available for the make and model you choose.

Used amp, combo and other electronics : you never know !

 

[Gervais Cote]

That looks like a cut piece of galvanized nail! Wow.

Well that’s good news, it won’t rust over time and keep its conductivity at its maximum !

 

[eddododo]

I don’t see the problem, they just replaced the fuse with something more robust that wouldn’t blow all the time!

I don’t know why manufacturers don’t just do that in the first place; the whole thing reeks of planned obsolescence, I don’t understand why we keep using fuses when we know they blow as soon as there’s some minor defect with a high voltage system

 

[Gervais Cote]

the only time I fixed an amp was when............plugged in, turned on....pedals are working...changing cables.....no sound.......ah yes, the 'ol volume knob , FIXED

Same here but it’s more often with the mute switch on the amp !

 

[JimChjones]

Obviously this wasn't the case and it came out that "maybe" he and his "highly qualified" electronics buddy from the local repair shop might have "looked at it" but didn't touch anything other than installing a new tube.

I think there's often an element of self-deception involved too. Maybe if I don't admit to having done something f****wit stupid it won't have happened. I've seen it with kids who've managed to trash their new motorcycle's engine. Its amazing what people can apparently genuinely convince themselves of. Particularly awkward when you're dealing with the father of the kid who didn't keep the oil tank of his two stroke motorcycle topped up.

 

[CryingBass]

She’s a Bricked House!