boon Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Hey guys. Am one of the lucky owners of a colonial and have been enjoying it to bits in the last few weeks but today, something happened. Setup the amp at church, put the amp on, left it on standby, letting it heat up while i setup the rest of my rig. I may have went back to turn it on to punch mode after it was heated up. Few minutes on, i hear some crackle from the speaker and I go back to find out that the amps now off and it's producing a burning smell. Looked at the tubes and they look fine. Is my output transformer/s stuffed? I dare not turn it on or test it out at the moment as I fear I'll make things worse. I'm down under in australia so I'm gonna contact the shop which i bought it from but if heritage amps are closed, I'm not sure how they're gonna repair it. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brentrocks Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 sorry to hear about your trouble...i'm not an electronic kind of guy, but there are guys here that will probably be able to steer you in the right direction Welcome to the HOC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steiner Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 You made the first capitol mistake in ampdom; you let the smoke out. Check the speaker impedance and verify it matches the setting on the amp. If you're off by more than a factor of two, it's the output tranny. Check the fuse, If it's blown, there's something internal that is probably (from the sound of it) going to require an amp tech. The good news is a good tech should have you up and going in about an hour. You shouldn't need assistance from Tennessee. Welcome to the HOC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boon Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 You made the first capitol mistake in ampdom; you let the smoke out. Check the speaker impedance and verify it matches the setting on the amp. If you're off by more than a factor of two, it's the output tranny. Check the fuse, If it's blown, there's something internal that is probably (from the sound of it) going to require an amp tech. The good news is a good tech should have you up and going in about an hour. You shouldn't need assistance from Tennessee. Welcome to the HOC! speaker impedance should have been fine. Been using the cabinet for the past few weeks without any problems. THe thing is if it's the output trannie, it's gonna be hard to replace/repair ir right? boon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steiner Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 It takes hours to burn out the tranny. The decay rate is normally exponential. Output trannys are common items, I don't know much about Heritage but I'd bet Mercury Magnetics makes a good replacement. Have you checked the fuse? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnut1 Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 I doubt it's the OT. Modern OTs are very sturdy so unless you didn't plug a resistive load in or the load is way off what the OT is looking for that shouldn't be a problem. It could be as simple as a resistor burned up or a capacitor blew. There really isn't any good to speculating since the amp will have to be opened to tell. Unless you have experience with high voltage electronics please don't open it just take it to the tech. These things have enough voltage to stop your heart. Good luck and let us know what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitArtMan Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 It takes hours to burn out the tranny. The decay rate is normally exponential. Output trannys are common items, I don't know much about Heritage but I'd bet Mercury Magnetics makes a good replacement. Have you checked the fuse? Not so. Plug your vintage Marshall or Vox in without a load, let her rip and let me know how long before the OT smokes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitArtMan Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 More likely a tube went postal and took some hostages (caps and/or resistors) with it. You can't always tell if a tube is bad just by looking at it. If you feel comfortable doing it, open the amp up and look for scorched parts. I wouldn't be suprised if you see some scorching around the tube sockets. If you need it repaired I'd contact Jay Wolfe of Wolfe guitars. He was a dealer back when Heitrage amps was Holland amps and knows the guys prety well. He should be able to hook you up with parts or maybe even know how to contact them for service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steiner Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Not so. Plug your vintage Marshall or Vox in without a load, let her rip and let me know how long before the OT smokes. That will do it in a heartbeat! He said he had speakers attached. Generally that will prolong the death. When a power tube goes you still get sound but it's a considerable change and the output volume drops quickly (~1min.). I'm thinking Heritage amps are relatively new (<5yrs). Although possible, it doesn't likely that an internal component fried - unless there is a bigger problem. I'm with wingnut1 on the resolution - take it to a tech and let us know the outcome. Best 'O luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoslate Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 Not to belabor the obvious, but I'm not clear on whether boon was using an extension cab. If so, was he using a speaker cord to connect, rather than a guitar cord? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boon Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 Not to belabor the obvious, but I'm not clear on whether boon was using an extension cab. If so, was he using a speaker cord to connect, rather than a guitar cord? The extension cabinet was plugged in with a mono to mono jack cable. Also it's with a tech now and he said one of the tubes were shorted but then there's something else as well which he's still looking at. boon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boon Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 Finally got the amp back and running. Seems there were cold solder joints which had caused the bias to go crazy. Everything fixed, resoldered and sounds as sweet as before > Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars_hall Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Excellent. Glad to see all is well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul P Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Finally got the amp back and running. Seems there were cold solder joints which had caused the bias to go crazy. Everything fixed, resoldered and sounds as sweet as before > Cold solder joints in a high-end boutique amp ? Somehow that seems unlikely, but who knows. I just found out they've closed down, their website no longer exists. Too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steiner Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Finally got the amp back and running. Seems there were cold solder joints which had caused the bias to go crazy. Everything fixed, resoldered and sounds as sweet as before > Hi Boon- Glad to see you're up and running. What's the tube compliment in the Colonial? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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