Genz Benz Streamliner going in to Protect mode on startup.

[Thunderpaws]

Hi everyone. Been ages since I visited our lovely forum. I hope everyone is doing well. 
 

I plugged my Genz Benz Streamliner 600 in at bandcamp on Thursday and it wouldn’t produce any noise. I had plugged into a beringer 810 as it’s the only cab there. No issues with the same cab previously so don’t think that’s an issue. The amp had been working fine at home only a few days previously.  
 

so, what should I be trying first to remedy it? New tubes? 

[Gareth Hughes]

Send a message to AgedHorse/Andy on here - he destitute amp. Great guy, super helpful.

[BassmanPaul]

I don't think Andy is destitute! LOL Maybe autocorrect spell checking got it wrong?

[Downunderwonder]

If you didn't try a different amp with the cable and cab then you are still at square one of trouble shooting. Test the amp with a good cable and cab before looking to fix the amp.

[Thunderpaws]

19 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

If you didn't try a different amp with the cable and cab then you are still at square one of trouble shooting. Test the amp with a good cable and cab before looking to fix the amp.

Thanks. Had done that already. 
 

Anyhow, I seem to have fixed it now. Took the amp cover off after reading a little more. Unseated the valves and reseated. Seems to be fine now and the issue has gone. 
 

I’ll re contact aged horse and let him know not to waste any time on it. 
 

Good to know a little fiddle can sort issues out. 

[BassmanPaul]

On 28/11/2021 at 14:07, Thunderpaws said:

 

Good to know a little fiddle can sort issues out. 

Only if you are very, very lucky and In this case I doubt that the valves have anything to do with the original problem!!

 

Besides, it being an American made unit them valves is Tubes.  

[Gareth Hughes]

On 28/11/2021 at 18:36, BassmanPaul said:

I don't think Andy is destitute! LOL Maybe autocorrect spell checking got it wrong?

 

Ha! I didn’t see that - he designed the amp! There, that worked!!!

[agedhorse]

Unlikely that the tubes/valves have anything to do with the amp going into protect, the tubes/valves have nothing to do with the protect circuit.

 

Most likely cause is an intermittent short in the speaker cable/connectors, a defect in the speaker/crossover like a damaged tweeter or a tweeter that was removed leaving the crossover filters in place, a poorly designed crossover, or serious power issues. The protection circuits are very comprehensive.

 

I rarely see bad stock tubes/valves in the Streamliners, the parts were selected for low noise, low microphonics, middle of the road balanced tone and long life. They are very robust in that circuit and my calculations along with experience now that the amps are over 10 years old are that 7,500 - 10,000 hours is a very reasonable expectation. I have seen amps come through the factory service program with a LOT of hours and 50-75% tube life remaining.

 

I generally recommend leaving stock tubes/valves alone in well engineered products, a lot of effort, evaluation criteria and math modeling/statistics go into the selection of parts used in products that have a long manufacturer's warranty... we (Genz Benz) typically warranted tubes/valves in our bass products for ~1 year and almost never had to replace any after the first 30 day infant mortality period (and even then it was rare). Mesa also warranties their tubes/valves longer than most companies at 6 months. The typical wattanty period for tubes is 30 - 90 days.