2014/12/17 18:26:43
ReubDot
I've owned my Carvin amp since '85, it's always worked fine.  One day while I was playing guitar, while at the same time my wife was vacuuming the carpet in the same room.  I heard a BB pellet go up the vacuum tube, and my amp within a few seconds went dead. There was no smell, no noise when it stopped amplifying.  The power light was still on, the power fuse and the speaker fuse were good. The tubes all were not glowing, the larger transformer was cold, but the smaller transformer was barely warm, with a faint hum.  No sign of any burn smell or visual damage could be seen on the circuit board.  I tested the speakers, they are both good.  All controls are DOA, and all tubes were changed last year. I only use my amp at home, and don't even turn the volume to (1) CAN ANYONE HELP-I can do my own repair if I knew what part to change.  I thought that someone out there might of had a similar problem, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
2014/12/17 18:59:37
cowboydan
Maybe just take the tubes out one by one and spray the sockets with contact spray and put them back in again. Maybe just a corroded connection.
2014/12/17 19:00:24
cowboydan
Otherwise your input tube went out.
 
2014/12/17 19:16:44
ReubDot
I don't know much about amps, I've been trying to find someone that could test the tubes for me.
Can one tube cause everything to stop working? Which tube is the input tube, the (3) small tubes, or the (4) large tubes?
2014/12/17 19:48:32
Paul P
 
Are there any solid-state circuits in your tube amp ?
 
If so, something might have gotten zapped by a static electricity discharge from the vacuum cleaning.
Did your wife touch you or your amp while cleaning ?  I once had so much static electricity building up on my vacuum cleaner's tube/hose that I wrapped it in wire and grounded it.
 
You sure that was a BB pellet and not a zap (or your circuits popping) ?
 
I doubt a vacuum tube (the ones in the amp) would be affected by a static electricity discharge, the parts are substantial metal.  A solid-state circuit board would have to be completely replaced, I imagine, and it might be hard to find one for an '85.
 
 
2014/12/17 20:31:10
ReubDot
Yeh, I was filling a pouch with BB's that week, right by my office chair I must have dropped one.  And being a new carpet, I guess it would have a lot of static.  My wife was on the other side of my desk, and I was sitting down.  When it stopped working, it first got lower in volume and distorted.  I turned it off, checked a few things on it, then turned it back on, then nothing.  Yeh, it's a circuit board with, ceramic capacitors, resisters, diodes, condensers, etc., on a printed circuit. 
2014/12/17 21:53:39
Paul P
 
Could be any number of things I suppose, maybe a capacitor dying.  That's a pretty old amp, at least 30 years old.  Electrolytic capacitors have a non-infinite lifespan and old amps usually have to have them replaced sooner or later.
 
The vacuum cleaner may have had nothing to do with, just an odd coincidence.
 
 
2014/12/18 03:29:07
ampfixer
You said that the tubes were not glowing. This means the filament supply voltage is missing. You have a problem in your power supply. It could be an internal fuse on the filament supply or something worse. This will have to be fixed by a tech.
 
There is a very remote chance that all the tubes have their filaments wired in series. If one tube has a bad filament it could shut down all the tubes in the string. 
 
Most likely scenario is that you had a shorted filament in one of the tubes and it blew the filament supply fuse.
2014/12/18 11:17:32
ReubDot
I also think it's a capacitor, I'm waiting for a tech from my area to get back to me.
He gets $80 an hour, I'm retired and only play as a hobby. $80 is the least it will cost,
it could cost me hundreds before I'm done. 
2014/12/18 11:25:32
ReubDot
Are the capacitors the large blue and round component with silver ends, with a wire on each end.
About 2" long, and around 3/4" in diameter?
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