Soldano blew both fuses last night...

[nickyboy]

Rehearsing last night...at a fair volume 5/6.
Slo100 and matching 4x12.
eventide delay thru the loop
ada flanger, rmc wah, mxr dist+ in line.
jackon rr1

Bout 20mins in to rehearsing..mid solo and then silence.
Did usual lead checking, unplugged all fx..nothing.
All power tubes looked fine..no crazy glowing etc.
Powered off, checked fuses..both had blown..one had shattered and I needed a needle nose plies to get it out.

One of the band members had a teeny little solid state Crate mini amp..so used that for the rest of the rehearsal - although I must've had a face like a smacked arse for the rest of the evening!!

Got home, wife and kids in bed - but I couldn't wait to troubleshoot..so changed the power tubes for an old set that work but are old...changed fuses (obviously!)..powered up - fine!
At least "fine" at super quiet levels..

I'd been using Harma 5881 small base power tubes..
The replacement tubes are sovtek 5881 big base tubes.

Any thought on this? I'd hate for it to happen mid gig.

[Tetsuo]

First things do you have a power conditioner? Even a Furman power strip one.

It could be some ugly power. It could be tubes and a bad bias...

[mantis]

Agreed, never ever play with dirty power. Always have a good quality Power conditioner. I use a APC H15 which is actually designed for Home Theater use but it works great for me.
I'd never ever plug directly into any outlet NO MAN!!!!!

I have heard from many guitarist that the Soldano's are unreliable anyway. Not sure if thats true as I never owned one but it's what I have been told from others that have.
But I chalk this one up to some bad power man.

[Vass]

Where in the circuit is the second fuse? And one exploded? That's a pretty huge spike! Did you notice any change in the brightness of the lights in the space? I wouldn't assume it was supply driven based on your description.

[nickyboy]

It just went silent but all the jewel light was on as normal ...power tubes all looked normal.
The only real difference was the fx ...I normally plug straight in to the amp with no fx. I'm wondering if the Eventide thru the loop might have had anything to do with it.

I've since put a quad of used but working sovtek 5881 tubes in...new fuses..and played for hours and not had a peep out of it...all fine.
I'm gonna order a new set of tubes just to be sure and see how it goes.

[nickyboy]

The destroyed fuse didn't look burnt...just smashed...
I'm still kinda puzzled.

[DonP]

You either have a bad power tube or not. The fuse blew and saved your amp - that's its job.

To find out the bad tube, pull out all tubes.
Turn amp off.
Turn standby off.
Put in one of the bad set and turn it on.
Let it warm up and turn on the standby.
After a few seconds turn off everything and check the fuse.
If it is not blown, repeat by adding in another tube.

If you add in all the tubes and still no blown fuse, see if it is functional again (play through it) with that set of tubes. If it is, then either it was a power spike, or the tubes are only failing at higher power levels. If you can play at 5/6 or higher again, get a power conditioner. If the fuse blows when playing loud again, get new tubes.

[DonP]

It just went silent but all the jewel light was on as normal ...power tubes all looked normal.

You blew the high voltage line. The heaters still worked. Jewel light is powered by the 6v heater line. A tube can light up and not function if the cathode or plate has shorted to the heater.

[nickyboy]

Thanks Don.
I appreciate the advice.
A new set of power tubes are on order.
Sovtek 5881.
What confused me is that the tubes all looked "normal" - but you mention that a tube can go bad and still light up...that's reassuring!

[mantis]

Thanks Don.
I appreciate the advice.
A new set of power tubes are on order.
Sovtek 5881.
What confused me is that the tubes all looked "normal" - but you mention that a tube can go bad and still light up...that's reassuring!

What Sovtek Tubes do the Solano head use? 5881/6L6WGC or 5881/6L6WRT's? And where did you order them from? I'd like to get new tubes and it seems like a forever ending journey as no one has them in stock and I'm now looking for a good place to get them online.

[nickyboy]

As far as I can tell having read the soldano website support page, it leaves the factory with sovtek 5881 power tubes.
I googled it and that seems to be the general consensus. They are inexpensive so I bought a matched set from karltone - a shop in North Wales (I'm in South Wales)UK. http://www.karltone.co.uk/
They should arrive today and I'm keen to get them installed and tested.
Ideally I'd get the biasing checked - but it's finding a tech, finding time etc...I will get it checked next pay day ;-)

[Texas Crude]

Hey, I had a fuse blow on my JVM recently too. I replaced it with another (1A slow blow) and it immediately blew again. When replacing the power tubes, I found one that rattled like a busted light bulb. Have you tried checking them that way?