Promethean P5110 repairs?

[Bostonbass]

Hello all. Just joined BC after much time lurking. Excuse me if this has been covered elsewhere. I have searched.

I recently bought a P5110 combo at a reasonable price...too reasonable it seems, as the amp started cutting out after one gig. It will run fine for a couple of hours, and then die for 24 to 36 hours before it will fire up again. It's been to a very capable engineer who has ruled out the obvious problems like overheating, and said:

[i]" I think the problem is down to the PWM signal disappearing in the power amp circuit which I think is down to a failing IC. There are lots of surface mount components in that part if the circuit which makes it impossible to find without a schematic (and still incredibly hard with one!). My guess is it would be beyond economic repair to find the fault and ibanez would probably just swap the circuit board."[/i]

I know there are plenty of bad news stories on the boards, but wonder if anyone has ever had a successful repair of a Class D amp with a fault like this done, and if so, where.

The cabinet is currently being used as an alternative extension to my GK150E combo, so not a [i]total [/i]write-off.

[Mr. Foxen]

If he can figure which board, might be a really generic board.

[Bostonbass]

Good point, and thanks..I think that if this were an option, he would have pursued it. He is reluctant to work without the schematics though, and Ibanez have not replied to any of his requests. I don't know if it would be economic even if possible. I might be better off holding on to the speaker and hope that something turns up by way of a replacement amp.

[Musky]

[quote name='Bostonbass' timestamp='1383501068' post='2265127']
Good point, and thanks..I think that if this were an option, he would have pursued it. He is reluctant to work without the schematics though, and Ibanez have not replied to any of his requests. I don't know if it would be economic even if possible. I might be better off holding on to the speaker and hope that something turns up by way of a replacement amp.
[/quote]
He'd be better off sending the request to Beta Aivin (Elder Audio). They designed and built the Promethean for Ibanez, as well as the various clones.

The power sections of the Promethean and the clones are the same.

[Bostonbass]

Very useful info Musky. I'll pass it on, but as he says it would still be incredibly hard to find the fault and repair even with the schematic, I don't hold out too much hope. Finding a new circuit board...who knows?

[Ghost_Bass]

Yep, have the tech contact Beta Aivin and see if he can source a replacement board. I believe that replacing the board won't be too much more expensive than spending a lot of time finding and replacing the faulty part.

[Bostonbass]

I've sent a message to Beta Aivin, and will see how we get on. Thanks everyone for your advice. In the meantime I've connected a GK MB200 to the cabinet and it sounds, dare I say it, better than the Promethean head. So I think I'll definitely be hanging on to the cabinet for now, even if I can't get a fix on the original amp. (The GK MB200 also fits neatly into the Promethean case, which is a bonus.)