goofy repair

[Andy Le Blanc]

So I pick up this repair at the music store, and this guy is a serious customer,.
He wants to pay me bench time because his amp smells funny, like sulfur.

"sure, OK", its a repair...

Its a little old SS fender thing, and sure enough, except for a loose tone pot,
there's nothing wrong with the thing.

but there are a couple hot resistors on the pcb that just happen to have a wire bundle sitting right on top ....

and it smells for all the world like sulfur.

[M Fowler]

What is making the smell Andy?

[selloutrr]

You should hang a pine tree air freshiner in the cab.

Any traces of burn marks?
I'd imagine you could scrub the board with alcohol or deoxit using a toothbrush and remove the odor. Following it up with a cloth to clean up any over spray. A flux cleaner would probably also work.

You may need to relocate or increase the size of the resistor if they are the cause of the smell.

[Andy Le Blanc]

Theres a couple 1 or 2 W dropping resistor that get hot, it's one of those
chronic fenderism's. hot resistors by design. Their in several current models.
R85 and R86, for example in a blues deluxe, they drop the bias V to make a
+/- 16v for the channel switching, reverb and effects loop. They pop up
in those early eighties rivera designed things in the power rail, in those
red knob things they get hot enough to discolor the pcb board

....hot resistors.

this amp had a wire bundle on top cooking the insulation just enough, stinky.
nothings wrong with the amp...

[Drumslinger]

that was an easy fix.

[Andy Le Blanc]

Must have bugged the crap out of that fellow, wtf is that smell.

If someone ever farted in his car, it would be all over.

[Structo]

Yeah but you can charge him a bundle for fixing the muffler bearing that was bad.

It really is sad when the bean counters are the ones designating the specs of parts because the savings add up over time.

But come on, the price difference between a 2w resistor and a 3w resistor is pennies.

One will turn brown and fail after a few years and the other will handle the current and last forever.

I know Leo was pretty frugal but I don't think he skimped too much on power ratings of components.

[LeeMo]

But , if you use the two watt he will be in the market for a replacement amp in two years. Just out of warranty!
Planned obselescence.

LeeMo

[Structo]

I suppose that is good marketing but as far as quality control goes, I miss people like Leo Fender who are a little more concerned about customer satisfaction.
And he still became a millionaire building them right.

[Teleguy61]

+1 Tom on Leo.
More importantly than being a millionaire, at least to me, he created a line of
amplifiers than are the starting point for every musical instrument amp made.
Still.
Will be probably forever.
Not bad Leo.

[Buschman]

Just tie wrap a doobie to it and maybe he will be all grins.