Tuesday LR - Breaking new stuff

Lunch today was fried rice made with a bunch of leftovers in the fridge. You can make it with anything, and as long as you have an incredibly hot pan it'll taste good.

Breaking stuff
This Saturday I mishandled the Gallien-Kruger bass amp I bought last week and broke the plastic input jack. Figuring this to be an easy fix I got straight into it and took the amp apart. Compared to the repairs I’ve carried out after having mishandled my point-to-point guitar amp it was a nightmare. De-soldering sucks at the best of times, but on tiny PCB solders it REALLY sucks. Here's a shot of the PCB as mounted in the amp. It had some strange oily gunk in it (you can see a puddle type stain in the photo), which reminded me of the Legacy that Philby bought a while back...



The jacks in the GK are an unusual size and my local electronics parts shop doesn’t have anything to fit, so I opened up my Peavey’s and an EHX pedal, both of which have plastic jacks but different sized ones. I need the amp for a gig this weekend so had to resort to cannibalising the amp and used one of the effects loop jacks to replace the input one. Upon testing the amp I found that the output was virtually non-existent. I spent about 6 hours trying different stuff to get it working, all to no avail. Then, before making a call to my trusted amp tech I thought I’d do a quick internet search, and it turned up a very quick albeit bodgy fix for a similar problem – run a patch lead from the effects send to the return. It sounded too easy, but lo and behold it worked. So there’s a problem somewhere in the FX loop circuit – I probably inadvertently burnt out a component or two whilst de-soldering the jack, but I can live with that.
Got anything you’ve broken then done a dodgy repair on?

While I’m in whinge mode, how about this for a fuse location - next to the mains plug and through all the HV wires. What’s wrong with having it accessible without having to open the amp up!?!?



Acoustic Guitars
I’ve found myself playing a lot more acoustic guitar in the last couple of weeks and, being a gear nerd, want to get a better one. Local manufacturer Maton will most likely get my money, but a lot of the Larivee and Taylor offerings very attractive. There are so many models offered by these companies that it makes choosing an overdrive pedal seem easy!
What’s your go-to acoustic guitar style? Dreadnought? Jumbo? One of those smaller ones? And what is your acoustic guitar?
I’m a dreadnought guy. This is my all solid mahogany, Chinese Guild. It plays and sounds good, but the ultra glossy finish on it feels very cheap and plasticy which takes some of the joy out of playing it.

Lunch De-soldering sucks at the best of times, but on tiny PCB solders it REALLY sucks. Here's a shot of the PCB as mounted in the amp. It had some strange oily gunk in it

Nothing wrong with PCB. It works just as good as point to point. Don't believe others who tell you otherwise.
I don't see the strange oily stuff, but I bet it is resin. If you want to clean it up a bit. Use a toothbrush and 100%-99% isoproply alcohol. I can't buy that stuff in California. Had it shipped to me.

Manufactures will use very tight specs to keep costs down. The chassis is not cheap.

Getting the right quality tools for the job should make things easier to desolder and solder back together again.
I know, I have been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

Fuse location is a safety thing, I think. I thought the same thing a while ago and was told the common practice was to put it inside on the board. It might have to do with the Law and regulations, I don't know.



My solder gun broke and in the process I damaged the PCB. Here is a pic of my handy work to fix it.

As meowmix said, nothing "wrong" with PCB's, but I agree they are a nightmare to work on. De soldering those tiny points sucks and I always feel like I'm going to burn something else out. Glad to hear you got the GK up and running again.
Haven't had any dodgy repairs lately, last year in preparation to sell my Bandmaster I opened it up try and repair the trem circuit which never worked for me. Turned out to be a loose wire on one of the pins of the preamp tube, the previous owner also soldered in a cap to one of the grounds from the circuit (treble bleed?) changed that back to stock. The amp never sounded better.

Nice looking Guild! I'm hoping to pick up a locally made (Westerly, RI) Guild at some point, most likely a d-25 since they appear most often. I prefer a 000 body type though, currently my only acoustic is a cheapy Epiphone PR6E, I've had it for about 16 years now.

-Dave

No lunch yet but it will be leftover chili. I never get tired of it!

Welcome to PCB repair Jamie. Newer PCB's are not intended to repair. I had a similar problem to yours with my Custom 15. My problem was the B+ circuit ( filament Voltage ) and the fuse would blow for no real reason. The fuse was mounted on the PCB and a pain to replace and most certainly not during a gig. I found that the fuse clips had heated and lost tension due to what I believe was poor metal. I believe that the PCB's in Fender amps are probably sourced in Asia but I could be wrong. The PCB had also been damaged by the heat so I hand wired in a circuit, drilled a hole in the back panel and mounted an external GM type automotive fuse. Now a quick change and it has never failed since the repair. One thing to keep in mind is that you probably cannot see the bottom side of your PCB and there could be an open tracing on the bottom side. Most repair shops don't repair these PCB's but just replace them. If the PCB's are from a common item they are usually repaired in Service centers that do that and resold as refurbished. You are lucky that you can still use it this weekend but I wouldn't be comfortable until I had a complete repair. Good luck on your first gig as the bass player!!

As for acoustics, I use them very little and only when recording. I really like my Adamas for recording. --Darwin

Last edited by darwinohm on Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

Acoustic Guitars

What’s your go-to acoustic guitar style? Dreadnought? Jumbo? One of those smaller ones? And what is your acoustic guitar?

I prefer smaller bodied acoustic guitars. I'm a big fan of Collings and Larrivee acoustics! My main acoustic is a Collings 001-mhsb



I also have a Larrivee parlor model but I don't have a photo of it.

As meowmix said, nothing "wrong" with PCB's, but I agree they are a nightmare to work on. De soldering those tiny points sucks and I always feel like I'm going to burn something else out. Glad to hear you got the GK up and running again.
Haven't had any dodgy repairs lately, last year in preparation to sell my Bandmaster I opened it up try and repair the trem circuit which never worked for me. Turned out to be a loose wire on one of the pins of the preamp tube, the previous owner also soldered in a cap to one of the grounds from the circuit (treble bleed?) changed that back to stock. The amp never sounded better.

Nice looking Guild! I'm hoping to pick up a locally made (Westerly, RI) Guild at some point, most likely a d-25 since they appear most often. I prefer a 000 body type though, currently my only acoustic is a cheapy Epiphone PR6E, I've had it for about 16 years now.

-Dave

I had an original all mahogany D-25 from the early '70s (flat back). It is one of those guitars that "got away". I needed the money and I wasn't playing much and sold it around '77. Great guitar and always regretted selling it. The D-25 went through many changes over the years, but if you can locate the flat-backed all mahogany version grab it.

Currently have a Westerly D-55 that is a phenomenal guitar IMO. It may be a bit heavy for some, but the sound projection and string to string balance is awesome.

I always thought Guilds are under-appreciated.

Jamie,

It occurs to me that the FX loop socket you cannibalised to replace the input one with, might have a "normalling" switch in it, to keep the signal flowing through the insert point when there's no jack in the socket.
The input jack may well not have this fitted, so putting that in to replace the cannibalised one might well give the result you got.

What I'm saying is that you may well not have damaged any circuitry, and if you get the right part to replace the socket with, it may just all go back to good-as-new.
Don't cook up any more track until you have that replacement jack put back in.

The only acoustic in the gun-cupboard at present is a Schertler / Pagelli electro, sort of Picasso shaped 13-fretter. I'm really enjoying it, acoustically it's well-balanced and has nice fullness in the trebles, and there's a lot of useable electro sounds; the "real" sound is pretty decent, and there are some great valve-crunch expressive hairy things to be enjoyed through the DRRI... my wifelet steered me towards it, because she liked its offcentre curves. Am I lucky, or what? She now takes an interest in the looks of my guitars, and advised me (strongly) to revise the colour spec of my current G&L custom order (and she was right)!

I have met some very nice Guilds, but never lived with one. A best-of-the-bunch J-45 is very nice to have, perhaps my favourite mass-production acoustic.
But that little Collings looks wonderful!!

Hey Jamie,
great stuff , I worked out a long time ago some jobs I do myself and others I pay someone. Cleaning the gutters I pay someone and my musical gear is too valuable forme to mess with . As others have said PCB is fine but I like hand wired, espescially in guitar amps .
I used to be a dreadnought man with leaning towards jumbos. but that all changed when I got my Santa Cruz 00 shape .Small shape is so comfortable sitting around writing songs on the couch . There is a shop in Melbourne that sells Santa Cruz .
IMO Santa Cruz is one of the worlds great companies , not just guitar companies . Almost as good as G&L ))
Anthony

i like small acoustics. can't stand dreadnoughts. my favorites are northwood 00 80 series and walker acoustics. the walkers are steel strings with classical body and classical neck dimensions. much more comfortable. i have a taylor gs mini that sounds fantastic as well.

Meow - I have no problems with PCB from a tone or quality perspective, just working on the damn things!

Dave - I didn't know that Guild's were made in RI, do they do a factory tour?

Darwin - It's for that reason that I think fuses should be accessible. If this one went at a gig it would take ages to check and replace.

Sprinter - That is a gorgeous guitar.

Eddie - A friend of mine has an old all-mahogany D25, its' one of the best guitars I've ever played.

Nick - I'll look at the jack next time I open the amp up and will get a replacement part from GK. Never heard of Schertler either, I'll have a look at them.

Anthony - That shop with the Santa Cruz's is a good one, its' where I got the Guild from. It's one of the best places I've been to to "try and not buy"

Louis - Mini acoustics got really popular here around the time that ukuleles did. The ones I've played have been pretty good

Meow - I have no problems with PCB from a tone or quality perspective, just working on the damn things!

Dave - I didn't know that Guild's were made in RI, do they do a factory tour?

Darwin - It's for that reason that I think fuses should be accessible. If this one went at a gig it would take ages to check and replace.

Sprinter - That is a gorgeous guitar.

Eddie - A friend of mine has an old all-mahogany D25, its' one of the best guitars I've ever played.

Nick - I'll look at the jack next time I open the amp up and will get a replacement part from GK. Never heard of Schertler either, I'll have a look at them.

Anthony - That shop with the Santa Cruz's is a good one, its' where I got the Guild from. It's one of the best places I've been to to "try and not buy"

Louis - Mini acoustics got really popular here around the time that ukuleles did. The ones I've played have been pretty good

After Fender acquired Guild in 1995 they moved production to Corona, Ca in 2001. Production in Corona was short-lived, however, as Fender acquired the assets of Washington-based Tacoma Guitar Company in 2004, and moved all American Guild acoustic production to Tacoma, Washington and discontinued production of US-made Guild electric guitars completely.
In 2008, Fender again moved Guild when they acquired Kaman Music Corporation and its small production facility in New Hartford, Connecticut, where hand production of all US-made Guilds resumed in a manner consistent with other high-end, boutique guitar builders.

Sauve Eddie, great info on Guild. I have always liked them and knew that they are currently built at the Hamer factory but didn't know what had happened in between. Fender has really snuffed out some good products including Hamer. -- Darwin

Meow - I have no problems with PCB from a tone or quality perspective, just working on the damn things!

With the proliferation of computers. Everything has become smaller. Get the right tools for the job.

Solder pump combined with a solder iron work wonders when used together ( right tools category ) . Thats what I have on hand for pedal building hiccups.

I'm a slope shoulder fan. I like the sound of Gibson acoustics. I have never found mine uncomfortable to play and it has some major presence. I have to get some new strings on mine.

Sorry to hear about the amp, Jamie. I keep my hands out of anything that plugs in, to protect me and the equipment.

Here's my acoustic:



It's a plywood instrument built in the Czech Republic, most likely in the early 2000s. I bought it used in 2007 or 2008.

My only acoustic guitar is an Ovation Balladeer I bought new in 1986. It gets zero playing time since G&Ls started showing up in the house, but I will never get rid of it. At some point I may pull the trigger on an archtop if the right one shows up. That is the only thing that would probably get me back to the acoustic six-string with any real interest.

Ken

my Cavalier shortly after I got it , the treble control quit working , I soldered the connection back ..... I won't touch a amp , I did take my 1971 Kustom amp to the shop a couple weeks ago to get a new cord with ground terminal and he found a bad pot (or maybe cap ? something was leaking) ... I dropped the Kustom off and picked up my Fender Super Reverb


I have a Ovation Acoustic/electric too that I bought used in 1993 , same as Ken , it doesn't see much play time since the G & L's started showing up but I'll never sell it

Dave - I didn't know that Guild's were made in RI, do they do a factory tour?

Eddie hit the nail on the head, never got to take the factory tour. On the bright side nice old Guilds pop up on CL all the time around here and luthiers from the factory are still around too. When some idiot broke the headstock off (almost) my Epiphone it was such a nasty break that I thought it may not be repairable, a guy from the Guild factory did such a nice job you can barely tell it happened. Finish crack is there but you can't feel it, and only charged me $50

I have a hard enough time soldering jacks inside the old Fender amps let alone trying my hand at a PCB style amp. The right tools do make all of the difference. I sort of fried an older portable GK bass amp with the all aluminum cabinet. I learned not to mess around inside the amp with a screwdriver when the amp is on.

I have an older Guild D-25C made in Rhode Island, for my acoustic guitar duties. I also recently acquired a Martin D-15. I like mahogany guitars.

My first and only Guild, an 80's Guild Ashbory Bass, was made in Westerly.

As meowmix said, nothing "wrong" with PCB's, but I agree they are a nightmare to work on. De soldering those tiny points sucks and I always feel like I'm going to burn something else out. Glad to hear you got the GK up and running again.
Haven't had any dodgy repairs lately, last year in preparation to sell my Bandmaster I opened it up try and repair the trem circuit which never worked for me. Turned out to be a loose wire on one of the pins of the preamp tube, the previous owner also soldered in a cap to one of the grounds from the circuit (treble bleed?) changed that back to stock. The amp never sounded better.

Nice looking Guild! I'm hoping to pick up a locally made (Westerly, RI) Guild at some point, most likely a d-25 since they appear most often. I prefer a 000 body type though, currently my only acoustic is a cheapy Epiphone PR6E, I've had it for about 16 years now.

-Dave

If I had the cash, I'd grab this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1971-GU ... 1e81210934

Just like my old one.