Guest Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 (edited) My i Amp 350 has developed a fault, i was using my new Aphex bass exciter ( great bit of kit by the way) when the amp developed a bit of distortion i changed the batteries in the pedal, bass and changed all cables. So having ruled out all the other things i tested the amp. It works if i plug my kit into the effects return but not if i plug into the passive or active inputs ( obviously i have no EQ ), the fault is also present on the headphone output using the normal inputs. The amp was not being driven hard on the input or output, any clues as to what the cause may be, and more importantly could the aphex xciter have caused the fault in any way or was it just coincidence? Edited April 22, 2008 by steve-norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wotnwhy Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 funny, i stopped using my iamp350 around a year ago because it developed the same problem! i don't have a bass xciter btw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichBowman Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 I had an iAMP 350 in combo format a while ago. I took it into be service by Panic Music just north of Cambridge and they mentioned that a fair amount of the tracks and components had dry solder joints. None were damaged and it didn't cost a great deal to fix, but i noticed a graet improvement in the sound quality after. Apparently, according to the chap who worked on it, this is fairly common in amps that are in small chassis as the heat builds up and this is bad for the solder. Also it's compounded by switching to lead free solder a few years ago. Either way, I reckon it's not that serious a problem - as long as you get it to some one (or are handy with the old soldering iron yourself!) Hope that helps, Cheers, Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 [quote name='RichBowman' post='183188' date='Apr 22 2008, 08:53 PM']I had an iAMP 350 in combo format a while ago. I took it into be service by Panic Music just north of Cambridge and they mentioned that a fair amount of the tracks and components had dry solder joints. None were damaged and it didn't cost a great deal to fix, but i noticed a graet improvement in the sound quality after. Apparently, according to the chap who worked on it, this is fairly common in amps that are in small chassis as the heat builds up and this is bad for the solder. Also it's compounded by switching to lead free solder a few years ago. Either way, I reckon it's not that serious a problem - as long as you get it to some one (or are handy with the old soldering iron yourself!) Hope that helps, Cheers, Rich[/quote] Well it's been nothing short of amazing in terms of sound quality until this so i may whip the input board out and check it over, the fault happened in a short space ( seconds) of time which made me wonder if some component had broken down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Had i look at the input board and one of the connections looked like i had a few dry joints so i have desoldered and removed the board. Hopefully when i find my helping hand magnifier tomorrow i will be able to see well enough to solder it back on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHA Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 [quote name='RichBowman' post='183188' date='Apr 22 2008, 08:53 PM']I had an iAMP 350 in combo format a while ago. I took it into be service by Panic Music just north of Cambridge and they mentioned that a fair amount of the tracks and components had dry solder joints. None were damaged and it didn't cost a great deal to fix, but i noticed a graet improvement in the sound quality after. Apparently, according to the chap who worked on it, this is fairly common in amps that are in small chassis as the heat builds up and this is bad for the solder. Also it's compounded by switching to lead free solder a few years ago. Either way, I reckon it's not that serious a problem - as long as you get it to some one (or are handy with the old soldering iron yourself!) Hope that helps, Cheers, Rich[/quote] Sounds like a good place to start. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 well it's cured! there was a bad joint on the ribbon cable which joins the input board to the preamp board, GRRRRRRRRRR i hate ribbon connectors with a passion fiddly little buggers, i used 4 separate wires in the end. There must be a special tool for stripping the bloody stuff And while i am in rant mode why can't manufacturers use headers rather than solder ribbon wires direct to the board, it's a royal pain and can lead to damage while investigating faults, ( don't ask how i know this ) Oh well happy days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichBowman Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 Yay! I love it when it's a nice and simple (relatively speaking, of course!) solution! Good work with the solder. I used to have a very old Peavey TNT combo that would only work if I took out the amp section and turned it upside down (until I worked out where the offending dry joint on one of the capacitors was...). Used to get some really strange looks doing gigs like that.... Congrats! Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 [quote name='steve-norris' post='183795' date='Apr 23 2008, 01:43 PM']well it's cured! there was a bad joint on the ribbon cable which joins the input board to the preamp board,[/quote] Just spotted this thread. Glad you got it sorted. I had very similar problems with my iAmp 350 which was caused by the op-amp in the pre-amp stage failing. My local amp tech replaced it with another op-amp, a masterful piece of work given that it's about the same size as a large ant! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Another postscript to this - my iAmp 350 stopped working again the other day, with the same symptoms. This time it turned out to be a dry joint in between the preamp and the effects return loop board, much to the relief of my amp tech who REALLY wasn't looking forward to replacing that op amp again. I'm glad to have it back again but somewhat bemused - I bought this as a backup for my supposedly unreliable 30 year old Burman valve head, which touch wood hasn't missed a beat since I got it, whereas the supposedly reliable solid-state iAmp has now failed twice for a variety of reasons. Hopefully this will be the end of it. In fairness, when it is working, it sounds fantastic. Steve, manufacturers solder ribbon cables straight onto boards because it's cheap and they can get away with it. Very poor IMHO, along with other dud techniques like soldering pots onto PCBs and sticking control knobs onto the end of pot shafts, no names but it begins with 'B' and ends with 'hringer' . Maybe you'd expect this sort of thing from the low end of the market, but EA are sold at a premium price as high-quality kit. Apologies to Dave H, who must be wondering what this twaddle is doing in his topic area. Maybe we could get one of the mods to move it into the Amps and Cabinets area? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBod Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 I emailed EA today with a question on my (secondhand) iamp500 - got a reply (very helpful, honest and detailed!) within about an hour - I was amazed. So anyone else with "issues"...worth a try? BB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 [quote name='BassBod' post='204369' date='May 22 2008, 03:55 PM']I emailed EA today with a question on my (secondhand) iamp500 - got a reply (very helpful, honest and detailed!) within about an hour - I was amazed. So anyone else with "issues"...worth a try? BB[/quote] Yes, the customer service from EA is second to none. They were most helpful when it came to fingering the op-amp as the source of my first problem. An email reply from the amp designer, within an hour - it doesn't get much better than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wotnwhy Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 same as, EA were extremely helpfull. and mines 2nd hand too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higgie Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 [quote name='wotnwhy' post='204500' date='May 22 2008, 07:14 PM']same as, EA were extremely helpfull. and mines 2nd hand too[/quote] +1. When I blew up my iAmp 600, Gary at EA was very helpful in sourcing the replacement parts, and even offered to speak with my local tech about how to fix it! Great guys, and great products...No complaints from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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