Anyone good with tube amp troubleshooting?

schenkadere

schenkadere

Obey my dog!
Apr 24, 2005
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NY
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I have an all tube Carvin XV112 '89 or '90...mint...babied, not abused. It all of a sudden stopped working. It powers on...the lights go on...it hums slightly as if it's getting power, but the tubes never warm up or golw. It has 3 preamp tubes and 4 power amp tubes and none of them warm or glow. There is absolutely no sound to the speaker.

It worked fine yesterday...there have been no intermittent problems

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
Mine went down on me twice but differently than your problem. I just took mine to a guy up here in Clifton Park at Parkway music. They were cheap repairs but I would have never figured it out because I know nothing about electronics. Wireing a house or even car issues is one thing but not electronic equipment. Its easy enough to take the unit out and check for something that came unconnected but from there I know nothing about testing the circuits. My tubes did light when I had problems. Im wondering if you could have a transformer problem ? Which I understand is not cheap. Sorry for your problems, I hope it is just a minor repair. I was getting close to giving up on my Carvin but its been good now for quite awhile and as I said both repairs were minor.
 
J-Dubya 777 said:
Did you check your fuses (if there are any)?

Could be a transformer too....
Click to expand...

Yeah...the fuses seem fine...it lights up like it's going to work...must be a transformer...I'm so bummed. I don't have the extra cash at the moment. I'll just wait and have it retubed at the same time. I've recently been toying with the idea of selling it...I'm so damn fickle. The thing is mint and I could probably get a good buck for it. Unfortunately Carvin is selling the X100B reissue stuff so damn cheap...600 bucks for a new head, but no single 12" combo available, only the 2X12.
 
One of the times my Carvin went down, turned out to be a power tube problem. That was still a different scenerio than Schenks, I had sound it was just terrible, yet all the tubes lit up fine. I did take it to have it retubed because I wanted to have the tubes... I forget the term... biased ? But it turned out the X100B doesnt have any plate adjustments, it was really something I could have just done myself so I spent an extra 30 some odd dollars. The amp was fine after that until one other little electrical component went bad and I forget what that was called already too, it was a $32 repair, not bad at all. So I guess what Im saying Schenk is that its quite possible that your XV112 can simply be retubed by yourself if it doesnt have these adjustable plate whatever it is, which I think is the case with most older amps. This would save you some on the retube and could possibly fix the problem at the same time... or not. Have you posted this on the Carvin forum ?
 
Kenneth R. said:
This is correct. It's like removing a bulb out of a chain of christmas lights.
Click to expand...

But if the light stays plugged in and burns out, the chain still stays lit, right? This is different? I didn't realize one bad tube would take your entire amp down. Never happened to me before.

New matched set of JJ's coming from Eurotubes...I'll try this first...better than taking it to some "tech" to rip me off.
 
razoredge said:
One of the times my Carvin went down, turned out to be a power tube problem. That was still a different scenerio than Schenks, I had sound it was just terrible, yet all the tubes lit up fine. I did take it to have it retubed because I wanted to have the tubes... I forget the term... biased ? But it turned out the X100B doesnt have any plate adjustments, it was really something I could have just done myself so I spent an extra 30 some odd dollars. The amp was fine after that until one other little electrical component went bad and I forget what that was called already too, it was a $32 repair, not bad at all. So I guess what Im saying Schenk is that its quite possible that your XV112 can simply be retubed by yourself if it doesnt have these adjustable plate whatever it is, which I think is the case with most older amps. This would save you some on the retube and could possibly fix the problem at the same time... or not. Have you posted this on the Carvin forum ?
Click to expand...

Yup...I'm doing it myself. You're correct...the X amps are fixed bias.

The Carvin forum has been less than helpful this time...not one response to the post.
 
schenkadere said:
But if the light stays plugged in and burns out, the chain still stays lit, right? This is different? I didn't realize one bad tube would take your entire amp down. Never happened to me before.

New matched set of JJ's coming from Eurotubes...I'll try this first...better than taking it to some "tech" to rip me off.
Click to expand...

If the light stays plugged in and burns out, the chain still stays lit...? That would seem odd to me.
 
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