Vox VT 40+ problem

[Fred Glave]

I just picked up a used Vox VT40+ for practice and very small venues. The other day I plugged my earbuds in to it to practice and when I was finished I removed the buds and now the amp will not produce any sound out of the speaker. The earbuds still work in the amp. I've tried unplugging it and resetting it to factory defaults, with no success.

[Jon Light]

Typically, the insertion of the headphone plug should push open the contact that makes the connection to the speaker. Pulling the plug, the contact should close back up. First thing I would do is vigorously in/out the plug a bunch of times. See if the contact reseats itself and maybe shakes off some oxidation. Next thing I would try (because I would feel comfortable doing it) is removing the chassis to get access to the headphone jack and physically do whatever was necessary -- cleaning it, scraping oxidation off the contacts, bending the lug to regain adequate contact ... find the problem and fix it.
I focus on this one thing because it is simple and not uncommon. Pretty much, this is all that I know. If the problem is not here, I'm over my head.

[Fred Glave]

I'll give it a shot!

[Jim Pollard]

I recall having had the same problem with the 50 watt version. Putting some DeoxIT on the tip of a cable plug and unplug/repluging multiple times did indeed eventually do the trick. Good luck.

[Fred Glave]

What is DeoxIT? It sounds like a deoxidation product, but what is the actual chemical?

[ajm]

Deoxit is a brand name.
It is made/marketed by Caig.
It is one of many contact cleaners out there.

You don't NEED that specific one.
Any contact cleaner will probably do.
Just make sure that it is marked "safe for plastics".

[Fred Glave]

Okay I finally found my CRC Quick Dry contact cleaner and gave a quick shot into the head phone jack. And it worked! I've got the amp back. What a weird problem! Thank you everyone for your valuable insight!