Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Gear Acquisition Syndrome: A tendency to purchase more equipment than justified by usage and/or price.

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Indeterminacy
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Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by Indeterminacy »

Title says it.

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Re: Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by crochambeau »

That time?

Magic smoke from speakers, numerous instances (though thankfully nothing recent).

Power transformer BBQ in Gates Studioette.

Power transformer BBQ in EICO HF-81

DIP packages inserted in reverse, over-current instances of discrete parts, etc.

Torching the insides of my EL34s right before a live show sticks in mind, but the smelliest were definitely the transformer cookouts. The EICO event lingered for about three days.
When in doubt, add resistance.

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Re: Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by WhiteWarlock »

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slipped while making Sequential Pro One Modular...
searching for something... using cv input...accidentally hit ground trace???! on bottom of pcb with voltage... with power on...
& ~poof~ so fucking stupid...
fried/burnt/cracked/melted Cem3310 Cem3320 & final vca opamp...
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Re: Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by Indeterminacy »

crochambeau wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 3:30 pm That time?
Well, yeah.



Ampeg SVT bass amps are a thing of glory and awe sonically. 300 watts of aural bliss.
Just a stupid good bass amp. Tone and all the volume you could want in most any situation.
If you have the means I highly recommend it for all your noise needs.

Aligning them was an astonishing test of patience and chasing your tail even with the proper alignment documentation.
AND having the proper alignment documentation on hand was essential.
The first time retubed one, I did not, I fucked it up completely and it cost me.

I never would have thought my actions would cause a tube's plate to heat to a temperature that would melt the glass envelope.

But yeah that shit happened regularly from what I was told at the time. They would eat 6550's prodigiously if not properly aligned. Ampeg was owned by Magnavox wasn't it? Television style alignment shit. It was so long ago I can't remember exactly what I did or did not do but the power amp went into a runaway situation with the tubes glowing a " cherry red ", " smelled really bad " & "smoke was coming out of the top". The amp was fucked and the customer needed his amp.

No good for a young amp tech trying to make his bones. I apologized profusely.

And the only SVT I ever owned paid for my stupidity.
Last edited by Indeterminacy on Wed Jan 22, 2020 3:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by WhiteWarlock »

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can of coke got knocked over and spilled into Laney head during practice while playing...
right into the top vents... onto glowing hot tubes...
yeah that was some smoke...
& had to come up with backup rig for show... ugh... nightmare
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Re: Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by RUBBISH »

Here...sparks and smoke out of the p.a.
So loud it fucked up the video.
Not sure you get to see the smoke.
Admin can verify...this happened :D

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Re: Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by NoiseWiki »

RUBBISH wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:24 am Here...sparks and smoke out of the p.a.
So loud it fucked up the video.
Not sure you get to see the smoke.
Admin can verify...this happened :D

Dead audio fest 2009
Tis true.. the video camera I was shooting with had a small harddrive inside that would flake out when hit with certain frequencies.. I had bought it because of the tremendous capacity but it ended up being a terrible idea for shooting noise shows
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Re: Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by logorok »

LM324s are sissies!

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Re: Magic Smoke - That Time You Released It

Post by The Mysterious Creep »

Indeterminacy wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:58 am
crochambeau wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 3:30 pm That time?
Well, yeah.



Ampeg SVT bass amps are a thing of glory and awe sonically. 300 watts of aural bliss.
Just a stupid good bass amp. Tone and all the volume you could want in most any situation.
If you have the means I highly recommend it for all your noise needs.

Aligning them was an astonishing test of patience and chasing your tail even with the proper alignment documentation.
AND having the proper alignment documentation on hand was essential.
The first time retubed one, I did not, I fucked it up completely and it cost me.

I never would have thought my actions would cause a tube's plate to heat to a temperature that would melt the glass envelope.

But yeah that shit happened regularly from what I was told at the time. They would eat 6550's prodigiously if not properly aligned. Ampeg was owned by Magnavox wasn't it? Television style alignment shit. It was so long ago I can't remember exactly what I did or did not do but the power amp went into a runaway situation with the tubes glowing a " cherry red ", " smelled really bad " & "smoke was coming out of the top". The amp was fucked and the customer needed his amp.

No good for a young amp tech trying to make his bones. I apologized profusely.

And the only SVT I ever owned paid for my stupidity.
Besides the fact that the only way I could afford one would be for it to spontaneously materialize inside my house through some sort of quantum accident, this is probably the biggest reason I'll never have an SVT. Solid state amps may not sound as good, but they usually won't melt their own components because you didn't maintain them well enough. I'd fuck that up in a heartbeat.
Even if you took a few years and learned all the chords you'd still have a limited number of options. If you ignore the chords your options are infinite and you can master guitar playing in one day. - David Fair
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