HWBossHoss
2004-01-11 22:50:51 UTC
Please read and see if you can help me out...and there is a very important note
at the end of this post that might shed some light on this problem(?).
Crate amps may not be the most respected things around, but some of them
actually have a VERY good clean tone! However, I am having a problem with a
used Crate amp I have.
I recently bought a used Crate GX-212 combo amplifier for practice purposes,
and I have been very pleased with it. I took it to band practice for the first
time last night, and the sound started to shut off and on. I looked at the amp
while it was doing this and the power indicator light NEVER flickered, so I
don't think it was a power problem. The sound would just cut completely off
like there was a bad speaker connection, and then it would come back on again.
NOTE: Whenever the sound would cut out, I could hear some VERY brief static
immediately before the sound died.
I tried to see a pattern to the problem, but it would just happen randomly.
For the record, the amp volume was turned up to around 2 or 3. I checked the
speaker connections and the reverb tank connections, and they were solid. I
switched guitar cables AND guitars, and the amp still had the same problem. I
did NOT have the amp footswitch connected and I did NOT have any effects
connected to the amp, either through the effects loop or between the amp and my
guitar...the ONLY thing connected the the amp was my guitar.
I opened up the amp just to see if there might be any obvious problems, but
everything looked good. All wiring was securely connected and there was no
corrosion visible on any contacts; in fact, the amp was pretty clean inside.
I have just been playing the amp again, trying to get the problem to happen,
but it isn't happening (yet). But I really don't know if I can trust this amp
any more!!! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME BY SUGGESTING SOME POSSIBLE CAUSES OF
THIS PROBLEM? I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT.
IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE: I am wondering if maybe my Crate amp might be OK and that
the AC line voltage where I was playing might have been at fault. My band
practices in an old mobile home that has no power of its own. The power we
need is supplied by running extension cords from the main house out to the
mobile home. For some reason, my singer plugged my power strip/surge protector
into an extension cord that was on a different circuit from the extension cord
that I usually use. My power strip had three things plugged into it: my Crate
amp, my DigiTech GNX1 pedalboard, and a small space heater. Well, the space
heater must have been pulling too much voltage, because my DigiTech pedalboard
would go CRAZY. It would NOT stay on. When I turned the DigiTech on, it would
just power up, shut down, then power up again and shut down again in an endless
cycle. When we moved the space heater to another extension cord, the problem
stopped, but that's when the Crate amp started to have the problem I described
above. Could I have been the victim of weak AC line voltage? Could that have
been the cause of my Crate amp's behavior? I'm NOT an electrical expert, so I
freely admit that I don't know what I'm talking about. But I am very desperate
to find out why my Crate amp was doing what it was doing, and it did occur to
me that maybe I just wasn't getting enough juice from my extension cord that
night.
**PLEASE HELP**
at the end of this post that might shed some light on this problem(?).
Crate amps may not be the most respected things around, but some of them
actually have a VERY good clean tone! However, I am having a problem with a
used Crate amp I have.
I recently bought a used Crate GX-212 combo amplifier for practice purposes,
and I have been very pleased with it. I took it to band practice for the first
time last night, and the sound started to shut off and on. I looked at the amp
while it was doing this and the power indicator light NEVER flickered, so I
don't think it was a power problem. The sound would just cut completely off
like there was a bad speaker connection, and then it would come back on again.
NOTE: Whenever the sound would cut out, I could hear some VERY brief static
immediately before the sound died.
I tried to see a pattern to the problem, but it would just happen randomly.
For the record, the amp volume was turned up to around 2 or 3. I checked the
speaker connections and the reverb tank connections, and they were solid. I
switched guitar cables AND guitars, and the amp still had the same problem. I
did NOT have the amp footswitch connected and I did NOT have any effects
connected to the amp, either through the effects loop or between the amp and my
guitar...the ONLY thing connected the the amp was my guitar.
I opened up the amp just to see if there might be any obvious problems, but
everything looked good. All wiring was securely connected and there was no
corrosion visible on any contacts; in fact, the amp was pretty clean inside.
I have just been playing the amp again, trying to get the problem to happen,
but it isn't happening (yet). But I really don't know if I can trust this amp
any more!!! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME BY SUGGESTING SOME POSSIBLE CAUSES OF
THIS PROBLEM? I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT.
IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE: I am wondering if maybe my Crate amp might be OK and that
the AC line voltage where I was playing might have been at fault. My band
practices in an old mobile home that has no power of its own. The power we
need is supplied by running extension cords from the main house out to the
mobile home. For some reason, my singer plugged my power strip/surge protector
into an extension cord that was on a different circuit from the extension cord
that I usually use. My power strip had three things plugged into it: my Crate
amp, my DigiTech GNX1 pedalboard, and a small space heater. Well, the space
heater must have been pulling too much voltage, because my DigiTech pedalboard
would go CRAZY. It would NOT stay on. When I turned the DigiTech on, it would
just power up, shut down, then power up again and shut down again in an endless
cycle. When we moved the space heater to another extension cord, the problem
stopped, but that's when the Crate amp started to have the problem I described
above. Could I have been the victim of weak AC line voltage? Could that have
been the cause of my Crate amp's behavior? I'm NOT an electrical expert, so I
freely admit that I don't know what I'm talking about. But I am very desperate
to find out why my Crate amp was doing what it was doing, and it did occur to
me that maybe I just wasn't getting enough juice from my extension cord that
night.
**PLEASE HELP**