Walker Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Two of the GEQ sliders on my Ampeg Pro were banging and popping when I played certain notes. So I took the GEQ PCB out and noticed that the solder points on the two sliders were moving, therefore making and breaking contact. I carefully warmed them, sucked the old solder off and applied a good drop of fresh shiny solder. Works fine and is now solid as a rock. A couple of questions... 1. Were they what are called 'dry joints' 2. Did I do it correctly / should I have done anything else / differently? Thanks! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iiipopes Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Yes, and Yes. Great job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Yep - that sounds pretty much right to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 I had to do the same to my SVP (among others, including about 100 assorted pots and jacks on my A&H mixer). Board-mounted controls and connectors are really prone to this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Could have been a dry joint, though I tend to be a bit suspicious of such diagnoses unless the equipment is fairly new because, in my experience, dry joints tend to manifest themselves at the young end of a product's lifetime. But, I had a similar problem with a power resistor in my Ampeg combo. It's a large component and was only secured to the PCB by its soldered legs. The soldering was fine but years of vibration had resulted in the PCB track developing a small crack allowing the soldered lead to move about in the PCB hole, resulting in an intermittent connection. A b*gger to find, but very easy to fix by cleaning the PCB trace and soldering some tinned-copper wire across the hairline fracture. Of course, simply re-flowing such a joint would probably fix the fault but probably wouldn't be as robust a fix as it could be if there is underlying PCB damage. Might be worth bearing such things in mind when dealing with ageing amps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Normal Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Ampeg soldering is CRAP. I have a Korean SVT3pro. It actually sounds very nice indeed, very loud and SVT warm (I understand these can be a bit hit and miss for volume and tone). The first few months when I took it in the van to gigs it was constantly going wrong due to dry solder joints. It was in M J Still in Hove about 3 or 4 times getting them redone. Seems to have settled down now, hasn't gone wrong for about a year despite some bumpy van rides. I use the Markbass at the rehearsal studio now just to save moving it and tempting fate though, and just save the Ampeg for gigs. I'd buy a Markbass instead as they are light and punchy and reliable, but there's something extra about the Ampeg I just can't let go of.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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