jazzyvee Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 Hi guys I've recently started getting a problem with my PJB briefcase combo. It intermittently switches off with the indicator light turning from green to red. I've narrowed it down to the fan not coming on when it should. Previously when I'd been practicing on it for a while I could hear the fan cutting in and out to keep the thing cool. Now the fan hardly cuts in or out and at the point the sound cuts out the fan is not running so i'm pretty sure overheating is the problem area. Anyone had the same problem. I plan to take it to the shop I got it from but if anyone has any experience of this and has a simple solution then please chip in. I'm not averse to taking it apart if you know there is something simple inside to reset or check. It's out of warranty by a good few years so not a problem. I did email PJB and got a reply that the UK distributor was going to contact me but that never happened and subsequent emails to them have not been responded to. Jazzyvee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umph Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 (edited) [quote name='jazzyvee' post='938659' date='Aug 28 2010, 10:39 AM']Hi guys I've recently started getting a problem with my PJB briefcase combo. It intermittently switches off with the indicator light turning from green to red. I've narrowed it down to the fan not coming on when it should. Previously when I'd been practicing on it for a while I could hear the fan cutting in and out to keep the thing cool. Now the fan hardly cuts in or out and at the point the sound cuts out the fan is not running so i'm pretty sure overheating is the problem area. Anyone had the same problem. I plan to take it to the shop I got it from but if anyone has any experience of this and has a simple solution then please chip in. I'm not averse to taking it apart if you know there is something simple inside to reset or check. It's out of warranty by a good few years so not a problem. I did email PJB and got a reply that the UK distributor was going to contact me but that never happened and subsequent emails to them have not been responded to. Jazzyvee[/quote] open it up give it a good hoover, give all the connections for the fan + fan power supply a good clean if its still intermitent you hopefully won't have a problem with the fan power supply if you do i'd recomend taking it to a tech rather than trying to do that yourself edit; another simple fix if you don't mind the noise is just sticking a fan on it to keep it cool Edited August 28, 2010 by umph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldslapper Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Bought a used one here, took delivery last week. Sounds great, but every time I turn it off, it "farts". When I turn it back on it's fine and sounds great even "maxed out". And gigged it Saturday night and my usually fussy guitarists loved the sound. Contacted previous owner and Phil Jones, but had no replies. Anyone other briefcase owners had the same noise? Also I've taken the front grill off today to give it a bit of a clean as it looked a bit grubby, and noticed there's dried mud on the speakers....any ideas of how best to clean that off?? Thanks, John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Mays Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 I know this is an old thread but I've had issues with my PJB briefcase amp for the past two years. Of course it's probably 5 years old at this point but for the amount of money paid I feel like I should get a little more reliability. All of my issues have happened at gigs so i'm really bummed out and nervous about how my night is going to go and have resorted to carrying a small cheap peavey and Direct Box just so I have a back up if my Phil Jones briefcase does crap out again. The first thing I'll mention is that my Phil Jones farted a lot in the beginning just before it started losing it's reliability. I could live with that but then it started just losing volume in the middle of a song randomly. Not all the way but enough that I noticed and thought I must be losing my hearing. The line out still sent a signal to the board so I was irritated but at least the soundman still had sound and the crowd was none the wiser. This happened two or three gigs in a row at about the halfway point in the gig and finally the rest of my bandmates noticed it and that's when I called Phil Jones. I left a message and to my surprise Phil Jones himself called me back in less than an hour. He had me reseat a few ribbon cables in it and thought that might solve the problem and it seemed to for awhile. Then my amp started randomly farting and the sound went totally away in the middle of gigs to where I thought I blew a speaker, but then the next day it would be okay. I still had sound going out the di to the board so again I survived. But, finally, a few nights ago at a big gig, halfway through the first song my Phil Jones went out totally, no sound through speakers or to the DI. So the sound man plugged me straight into the board, and I had a miserable night with my giant paperweight not providing any service whatsoever. The next day I called the local repair shop and scheduled to bring it in on Monday. Behold, i plugged it up, and it worked perfectly again, line out and all. knowing that my repair shop really wouldn't be able to do anything if it wasn't broken, i took it apart myself again, totally, reseated all the ribbon connectors i could, visually checked for any obvious bad caps etc, saw nothing, everything looked pristine. So i put it back together and now i'm contemplating whether i should sell it or not. I love the sound, but i don't trust it anymore. I will add that i never had to turn it up volume wise past the 12 o'clock position, and i was about 50/50 on use of the compressor, which also was usually set around 12 o'clock, so i don't feel like i abused it. I have a Hartke 3500 head and a GK RB-2 series head both which are at least 20 years old it seems, and they still work fine, but i did love the little briefcase! And i don't have a speaker cab for the other heads other than my hartke 2-10xl which is just too heavy, and too much for my band. If anyone has any other knowledge of these issues please speak up. Phil did tell me that an older series had some issues with ribbon cables that were inferior but my model was not in that known series so i shouldn't be having that problem. And i'm not even sure that reseating the ribbon cables had any effect as in the last case (and the worse) the amp started working the next day all by itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chienmortbb Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 Firstly price is no indication of quality/ reliability. O the fan issue many fans/cooling systems detect fan rotation so if the fan stops it may shut down. Where are you based? Post a picture of the fan and I will see if a good replacement is easily available, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabag Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 On 16/04/2019 at 03:54, Ben Mays said: So i put it back together and now i'm contemplating whether i should sell it or not. I love the sound, but i don't trust it anymore. But neither will the next guy , if you sell it without finding the answer. Thats assuming you tell any buyer of the problem. You will of course lost a fair bit selling it with an intermittent fault 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Mays Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 Yeah good point. I just picked my PJB back up from The Amp Shop in Ashville NC. The owner checked it out thoroughly, ran it for hours under load, beat it, banged it, did everything he could but amp would not replicate the issues ive been having. He said the fan kicked in at exact temp it should and all the later mods for this amp were in place. So no idea of what the problem is. And this was my second amp repair shop. The first said the same. Will give it another shot this weekend! While my amp was in the shop i picked up a new tc electronic BQ500 and thought i was in the clear.. then two days later, top of first set in first song the amp fried itself! Smoke and sparks out the righthand side. Since it was new i sent it back, and the subsequent two i received had issues with the onboard compressor so i ended up returning 2 more times to Sweetwater. I also picked up a used gk cabinet to use my rb700 head and same thing happened, cabinet crapped out same place in set list. Then i got a new cab and the rb700 fried a transistor! So after 5 gigs in a row, losing bass first set, first song, I think the Gods of Thunder are trying to tell me something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanOwens Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 On 29/05/2019 at 01:07, Ben Mays said: So after 5 gigs in a row, losing bass first set, first song, I think the Gods of Thunder are trying to tell me something. Your experiences are our collective worst nightmare. Equipment failing on a gig is so stressful. Hopefully you're soaking up all the bad juju and we'll all be fine this weekend!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Maybe you could try not storing your bass gear in the shower ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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