Reverb Down! Help!!
Moderator: Shoshanah Marohn
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Thomas Webb
- Posts: 20
- Joined: 1 Dec 2009 10:42 am
- Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Reverb Down! Help!!
Hi guys I have a Fender Steel King I bought in essentially new condition recently and it was working fine and suddenly the reverb stopped working. I don't have a whole lot of experience with this stuff but I took the tank out and examined the springs and solder joints and checked to make sure the RCA plugs were in tight on both ends and everything looked fine. any advice?
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Dave Grafe
- Posts: 4457
- Joined: 29 Oct 2004 12:01 am
- Location: Hudson River Valley NY
- Contact:
Looks won't tell you much here. Most common is failure of the plastic molded RCA connectors, next most common is internal failure of the tank's transducer coils, either at the input or output. Third most common is a loose connection between one of the leads and tne amp itself. Very rarely there will be a failure of an internal component within the amp itself.
With the tank unplugged and the amp turned on, touch the center pin of the return (tank output) RCA jack with your finger. If this produces a nasty hum or squeel then that jack and wire are good. If you hear nothing you have a problem with this end of the circuit, wire or jack. To check the send (tank input) jack and wire, connect its RCA plug to an audio test box (Qbox or similar) or other RCA audio input. Strum the guitar with the VP and reverb controls both up and you should hear the sound from your test speaker. If there is no signal present the problem is with this end of the circuit, either the drive circuit, the wire or the jack itself. In either case wiggle wire near the RCA conncetor to see if you can force an intermittant failure or function. IF so you can chop the wire back an inch or so and solder a new RCA connector to it.
If both jacks and their associated wires test good, and while you still have the tank out, use an ohm-meter to check for transducer coil continuity at the input and output jacks. A good coil will read a resitance somewhere between 10 and 10,000 ohms, while a bad coil will read as an open circuit, i.e. no ohm reading or infinity.
If either is bad you will want to look for a replacement or repair of the tank itself. If both ends read appropriately the tank is good.
If none of this leads anywhere come back and tells us all about it and we will go from there.
With the tank unplugged and the amp turned on, touch the center pin of the return (tank output) RCA jack with your finger. If this produces a nasty hum or squeel then that jack and wire are good. If you hear nothing you have a problem with this end of the circuit, wire or jack. To check the send (tank input) jack and wire, connect its RCA plug to an audio test box (Qbox or similar) or other RCA audio input. Strum the guitar with the VP and reverb controls both up and you should hear the sound from your test speaker. If there is no signal present the problem is with this end of the circuit, either the drive circuit, the wire or the jack itself. In either case wiggle wire near the RCA conncetor to see if you can force an intermittant failure or function. IF so you can chop the wire back an inch or so and solder a new RCA connector to it.
If both jacks and their associated wires test good, and while you still have the tank out, use an ohm-meter to check for transducer coil continuity at the input and output jacks. A good coil will read a resitance somewhere between 10 and 10,000 ohms, while a bad coil will read as an open circuit, i.e. no ohm reading or infinity.
If either is bad you will want to look for a replacement or repair of the tank itself. If both ends read appropriately the tank is good.
If none of this leads anywhere come back and tells us all about it and we will go from there.