My HT1R died in 3 months! can anyone help?
Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:05 pm
Long story cut short-
For a few months I was trying to decide on the HT-1 or the Marshall class 5 for late night playing down the hall from my sleeping wife. I decided on the HT1 an the lower wattage. My brother surprized me and gave me the HT1r as a gift. He didnt keep the receipt, The warranty card was in the box when it went to the trash.
3 months later the amp dies. Korg handles the servicing out here in the USA and they wont honor any warranty. I admit, no fault of theirs. Its $100. usd plus parts to fix.
So, now what to do? The ECC82 tube has some serious burn marks internally on one side of the tube, so I bought a pair of replacement tubes that are matched internally. I installed them but there is still no power to the output jack, headphones, or speaker. The output circuit is dead.
I sent a picture of the inside to an amp builder that my band had used in the past. He wont touch it, to much solid state. Below is some of his reply:
First off, there is a lot of solid state in this amp. A bunch of surface-mounted IC's and some transistors, making it something I would not approach for repair (I only do pure tube amps).
I see what appears to be a blown brown capacitor at the lower left corner of the circuit board, white material (or just glue) next to it.
I see a dislocated, possibly burned component near the middle of the board, next to the big IC in the center (to the left of it)
Otherwise, I do not see any internal fuses or other difficulties -
Surface mounted IC's are the worst, this also has surface mounted diodes and resistors. Certainly the way of efficiency and low cost, at the expense of being very hard for the regular person to repair.
I do not see any signs of distress in the power or output trans (they would have leaking wax if they burned out) - the output trans is big for the small output of the 12AU7 - it would be hard to damage it (a 12BY7 with the bias reset would give the amp 50% more power)
I can't help any more with this
Im down to a last resort. So Im here to see if anyone else may have an idea what to do. Here are the details leading up to the amps death...
One night it started popping about 15 minutes after I started playing. I turned it off and let it cool down. Turned it on again, and 15 minutes later it starts popping again. I unplugged the speaker cab, changed guitar cord, still pops. I plugged in headphones and it still pops out of the speaker. So I turned it off for the night. Next night, I pulled the back off to see if there was anything visual (there wasnt). I plugged in and started playing with the back still off. Instead of popping, I heard a hiss that lasted about 2 seconds and the volume went to a whisper. 10 seconds later the amp was dead. I pulled the tubes thinking the hiss was vacuum being released and saw the burnt side of the ECC82. I then bought the tubes that didnt resurrect the amp.
Now Im here, any ideas before I toss the amp in the trash? Getting it fixed is not worth it when a few dollars more gets a new one.
For a few months I was trying to decide on the HT-1 or the Marshall class 5 for late night playing down the hall from my sleeping wife. I decided on the HT1 an the lower wattage. My brother surprized me and gave me the HT1r as a gift. He didnt keep the receipt, The warranty card was in the box when it went to the trash.
3 months later the amp dies. Korg handles the servicing out here in the USA and they wont honor any warranty. I admit, no fault of theirs. Its $100. usd plus parts to fix.
So, now what to do? The ECC82 tube has some serious burn marks internally on one side of the tube, so I bought a pair of replacement tubes that are matched internally. I installed them but there is still no power to the output jack, headphones, or speaker. The output circuit is dead.
I sent a picture of the inside to an amp builder that my band had used in the past. He wont touch it, to much solid state. Below is some of his reply:
First off, there is a lot of solid state in this amp. A bunch of surface-mounted IC's and some transistors, making it something I would not approach for repair (I only do pure tube amps).
I see what appears to be a blown brown capacitor at the lower left corner of the circuit board, white material (or just glue) next to it.
I see a dislocated, possibly burned component near the middle of the board, next to the big IC in the center (to the left of it)
Otherwise, I do not see any internal fuses or other difficulties -
Surface mounted IC's are the worst, this also has surface mounted diodes and resistors. Certainly the way of efficiency and low cost, at the expense of being very hard for the regular person to repair.
I do not see any signs of distress in the power or output trans (they would have leaking wax if they burned out) - the output trans is big for the small output of the 12AU7 - it would be hard to damage it (a 12BY7 with the bias reset would give the amp 50% more power)
I can't help any more with this
Im down to a last resort. So Im here to see if anyone else may have an idea what to do. Here are the details leading up to the amps death...
One night it started popping about 15 minutes after I started playing. I turned it off and let it cool down. Turned it on again, and 15 minutes later it starts popping again. I unplugged the speaker cab, changed guitar cord, still pops. I plugged in headphones and it still pops out of the speaker. So I turned it off for the night. Next night, I pulled the back off to see if there was anything visual (there wasnt). I plugged in and started playing with the back still off. Instead of popping, I heard a hiss that lasted about 2 seconds and the volume went to a whisper. 10 seconds later the amp was dead. I pulled the tubes thinking the hiss was vacuum being released and saw the burnt side of the ECC82. I then bought the tubes that didnt resurrect the amp.
Now Im here, any ideas before I toss the amp in the trash? Getting it fixed is not worth it when a few dollars more gets a new one.