Ampeg SVP CL maintainance - dangerous?

[Jazzjames]

Hello basschatters,

I recently acquired a lovely SVP CL preamp. The DI post/pre switch is somewhat dodgy and I want to have a look inside and give it some contact cleaner/check for dry solder joints.

Is there any death dealing voltage waiting to bite me inside? When it's disconnected obviously...

Thanks,

James

[Beer of the Bass]

As a high voltage preamp, it may well retain some charge on the filter capacitors (and other connected parts of the circuit) which could certainly give you a nasty jolt. Some modern gear uses bleeder resistors which discharge the caps when turned off, but even if it has one you'd still want to check it each time you work on it. I'd recommend reading up on how to drain them and check that they're drained.

[6v6]

Potentially yes, it's a tube design so will have capacitors inside which may stay charged at high voltage for a while, even after it's unplugged.

Personally I wouldn't open it up without a multimeter to carefully measure the residual voltage in the power supply before putting my hands inside.