AIMS BLOWN

mrdobolina · Post by **mrdobolina** » 01 Sep 2010, 15:12

HI all,
I have an AIMS VTG 105 half combo. Years ago i was playing it and saw an orange glow on the wall behind it. I shut the amp off and smoke started flowing out of the back. I slid the head out and discovered someone had put tin foil over the fuse

I can't seem to find a schem for this. Should I be trying to repair this myself or just bite the bullet and get it fixed? 've done some research and it appears I "cherry plated" this thing. Tough to fix?
Two repair shops are quoting me about 3-400 hundred. It's a cool vintage amp...but for 400-500 I can get something new.

thanks

Dobo

n8b5150 · Post by **n8b5150** » 02 Sep 2010, 01:11

What did the shops say needed repaired? Give us some details on the amp and pics, including the chassis guts. Tube amps are simple enough to repair, and $300-400 repair quote means perhaps full retube/recap and/or transformer(s).

mrdobolina · Post by **mrdobolina** » 02 Sep 2010, 13:48

I'll try and get some pics up soon. But this is what one of the guys said.

Looks like the tubes lost their negative grid voltage, aka bias voltage and they cherry plated.
Tubes under that much stress short out and draw too much current and blow fuses.
Your fuse was really not a fuse, so the next weakest link in the system failed.