left my boogie at a friends place, now I've got problems with it

[PallarAndersVisa]

Man, i've been so cool about leaving my amps at my friends houses, letting people use them and what not. But this is the last f-ing straw.

I left my Mark IV combo at a friends place for a month or so. They have shows at this house and a band lives there, but they have their own gear so I didnt forsee them using my combo much, but I didnt really care if they did because the guitar player that lives there is really savvy about tube amps and taking care of them.

well,I go over there and get my amp back and there's a footprint on the top of it, 2 of the power tubes are like half pulled out and the sound is cutting in and out, most of the time it's like half-assed pumping any sound out. it used to open way the fuck up when the master was pushed to 1.5-2, now you can push it all the way to like 4 or 5 and it still sounds like theres a blanket over it. every now and then you'll hear it cut in to normal volume but quickly dies back down.

Im pretty bummed out about this, as my other amp started having random problems recently. Does anyone have any ideas what might be wrong with my Mark IV? All the tubes are glowing normally, none of them look any hotter or duller than the rest.

also, it emits a strange odor when its turn on now. like plastic getting really warm, but not really a burning.

FUCK!

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Ah, that smell may be a fried capacitor... Could be a transformer going. Those will both smell pretty rank. If it's not one of those, it could be that someone spilled beer in it. :dunno:

Take it to a tech. It MIGHT be nothing, but, it doesn't sound like a problem you can fix yourself (which, basically, is a tube problem).

That fucking sucks, dude.

[jdr94]

leave the Crate at a friends house. leave the Peavey at a friends house. never leave a mesa anywhere!!
i've lost friends over shit like this. i have alot of cool friends, but they're still broke ass MF's. now i just stop the situation from ever rising.

[Trussrod]

Let people buy their own equipment. People I know who were "borrowing" things 20 years ago are still doing the same thing today. Ask the friend to pay to fix it or replace it. Even if he doesn't it's still worth knowing how he reacts.

[Cygnus X1]

Check the EFX loop jacks.
Sounds odd, but sometimes true.
They can get dirty and exhibit the characteristics you're describing.

[Strat God]

Man, you gotta take your stuff every time or this always happens.

Years ago I left a ton of stuff where we were practicing- parents went away and the guy had a huge keg party and didn't tell me.
Most of my stuff was stolen and what was left was trashed. Keyboards, amps, mics....never again. I have a pic of the synth in a full tub somewhere.

[Spivonious]

A footprint on top of it? Dude, take it to a shop and make your friend pay any bills. It's at his house, it's understood that he'll take care of it.

[lerxstcat]

A footprint on top of it? Dude, take it to a shop and make your friend pay any bills. It's at his house, it's understood that he'll take care of it.

Unfortunately it's NOT understood, that's the problem. He can TRY to get him to pay, but if he counts on that the shop may end up owning his amp when nobody pays the repair bill.

Live and learn, not to leave stuff at others' houses. It disappears or gets fucked up and most of the time they don't know what happened, don't feel responsible, and will put it back onto you for not taking your amp with you.

[Grandturk]

I used to stand on my Marshall combos all the time - and that's 250 lbs plus.

[DrDestruction]

NEVER let your "buds" borrow your gear. They can buy it, but borrowing stuff like that is outta the question. It doesn't matter how long you've known said buds... they'll treat your stuff like it wasn't theirs (which it isn't) and will let all sorts of crap happen to it.

Not only that, but don't leave your gear with your family either, as THEY'LL be dumb-asses and let THEIR friends borrow it on your behalf. That's precisely what happened to me a number of years ago, too-

My pop (also a musician and total dolt of the highest order) let one of his dope-smokin' hippie idiot buds borrow a guitar I had been doing some maintenance on at his place (up until I had to go out of town for a job, that is). To make a long story short, hippie dolt borrows the guitar from my idiot pop... LOSES said guitar... and then he AND my idiot pop try to weasel out on getting it replaced.

I ended up taking hippie idiot's Corvette and backing it into a phone pole for "just compensation". LOL

[tomanyjacksons]

Foot in ass repayment plan!

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Foot in ass repayment plan!

Though it's not as good as money... Sometimes, it's the only option.

[loose Cannon]

Says alot about the mentality of the so called "mates" if they they don't know how to use a mesa properly then they shouldn't fuck around with it. But it probably sounds moreso like if a footprints on the top then some drunken idiots been on top of the amp lost balance , fell over backwards amps gone for a few tumbles forwards all this why it was turned on, thats my guess.

Lesson learnt assume nothing expect anything.

[PallarAndersVisa]

weird thing is, the Rhythm 1 channel works fine. you know, the "clean" channel. It sounds great as it should, but as soon as I turn on Rhythm 2 or Lead, the shit sounds fucked.

Taking it to the shop on monday...

[wilkinsi]

I don't own any amps but there's no way I'll trust any "friend" with my gear.