Practice amp sound issues

[M-Bass-M]

Hi,

At home, I play through an old Trace Elliot Boxer 30 practice amp. I guess it must be at least 13 years old. However, on some occasions when I've been playing, the volume has all of a sudden progressively reduced to zero. If I then turn it off and back on again, then it seems to be ok.

This happens to both the basses that I own - a Status and a Stingray, both of which are active. So I was wondering if perhaps the active signal from either bass may be overloading the input circuits of the practice amp, causing it to temporarily cut out? I'm sure that turning up the volume on the bass increases the occurance of this fault.

So does anybody have a better view on what the likely diagnosis is?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[MoonBassAlpha]

Could be the power amp chip thermally shutting down. Most chips have some sort of thermal protection. Might be worth checking the chip is still in good thermal contact with the heatsink, or chassis, if thats what it uses as a heatsink (likely)

[M-Bass-M]

Thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at that and see if something's funny.

[Dad3353]

Sometimes amps collect dust and fluff, the heat dissipation suffers, and they overheat after a while. That's when the protection cuts in (if there is protection...). The treatment..? Open it up and give it a blast with compressed air (best done outdoors, and protect your eyes...). Storage with a slip-on cover could reduce the risk of fluff build-up, but a regular (annual..?) clean-up is good, too, as a preventive.
Hope this helps...