Hello Basspeople, I found this forum and thread whilst scouting about for information about the TE GP7 combo, and noticed with interest that @Stuart Watson had been here only a year ago - so I'm living in hope
Our trusty GP7 combo has just started misbehaving after more than 20years. The amp part has had a varied career, out of the original combo box into a flight case and used with other cabs, then back in the 4x10 cab as a combo again...
Handed over to me by the original purchaser (who I was in a band with) it's been in the family so to speak ever since its birth in the 80's. It has had a quieter life in the last ten or so, just some studio use, but now with a rare live gig looming
naturally it has decided to malfunction so I am scouting about for technical info before diving in with a soldering iron.
The symptom seems now to be mainly that it is breaking up / distorting at low signal levels. Higher levels are better but it seems a bit unstable - and untrustworthy obviously. It can still produce plenty of power - albeit not scientifically scrutinised at this point.
The problem seems at first glance to be in the power amp since permutations of the pre gain and master volume on the pre-amp do not affect the behaviour. I mean for example low master gain and high pre-gain setting is not more prone to causing
it than the other way around - it seems to be just the general level coming out of the preamp that is the factor. Turning down the master gain whilst someone is playing at an even level will cause the distortion to come in more noticeably
as the knob reaches the low end.
It's a 1983 production GP7, 4x10 combo, model 1004. (150W into 8ohms / 300W into 4ohms I believe.) The power amp main board is marked "MPB2 issue 2"
I've just started casting about today, but so far I've not found much detail about this early model. A source of correct schematic for this model would be helpful, and any technical insights, pointers, etc. most welcome
- I'm not so familiar with this type of amp (more familiar with valve amp circuitry..).
Cheers