Amp keeps turning off! :(

[Ben Jamin]

Have mercy on a poor bassist with little-to-no electrical skills!

This is actually regarding my Dad's amp - he's recently invested in learning bass and bought a second hand 'White Horse' (old Gear4Music own-brand I think) combo amp which actually sounds quite nice for just a practice amp.

However, something's gone wrong and now upon hitting the 'on' switch, the red 'on' LED lights up for a second then fades, and nothing. Oddly when hitting the switch back to the 'off' position, the LED lights up again and stays lit for a few seconds longer before fading.

I've checked the fuses in the IEC cable and all is well there. Tried a couple of other suitable cables and the same thing happens, so it's an amp problem.

We've opened up the amp and everything looks okay? At least, nothing that screams 'BIG EXPLOSION' or any obvious loose connections.

Is it worth looking into fixing this for maybe just replacing it? It's a shame as it's a decent amp, plenty loud and sounds quite good and my Dad's quite fond of it!

Thanks in advance!
Ben

[hubrad]

My gut feeling is that it's probably not worth fixing unless it was a more up the range model.
Maybe you have a friend who is into such things, which would possibly keep the cost down..

[Dad3353]

[quote name='Ben Jamin' timestamp='1470145191' post='3103571']...upon hitting the 'on' switch, the red 'on' LED lights up for a second then fades, and nothing. Oddly when hitting the switch back to the 'off' position, the LED lights up again and stays lit for a few seconds longer before fading...
[/quote]

This looks like like a power switch fail. Try (or get someone competent to try...) shunting the switch to see if the amp lights up correctly. If it does, change the switch; if not, there's another problem somewhere else. Worth a try..?

[Happy Jack]

I wondered about some sort of overheating protection circuit.

[Ben Jamin]

Thanks for the replies guys, a couple of friends have suggested there might be an issue with the switch too, one of them is going to have a go at fixing it so fingers crossed!

[rogerstodge]

You can pick an ashdown perfect 10 up for next to nothing matey, great sound for a practise amp.

[PlungerModerno]

A combo like that is almost never economically repairable - bench costs at a repair place will be more than the replacement cost before it's opened up!

It could be a nice project for an amateur or ethusiast - just be aware it may be a hazard once altered (e.g. damage to other equipment or catching on fire), always a risk with electrical goods, but far more likely with one that the last person inside it wasn't a competent service / repair person. Not saying an amateur or enthusiast can't be competent - just that it's more likely they'll mess up than somebody that does it all the time & gets payed for it. Just make sure you unplug it after use and Put the right fuse in it! (A good idea generally.).