Help from any amp engineers - Trace E...

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Author Message terryc Senior Member Username: terryc Post Number: 1974 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2012 - 3:14 pm:    Okay people, maybe you can help..maybe not Haven't used my Trace Elliot BLX 80 amp for a while, anyway doing a bit of practicing and the sound enclosed appeared on power up. It increases when the output level control is turned up but not the input gain. I have too the amp out of the cabinet and sprayed switchcleaner and checked the speaker lead as well. Output stage gone?, shot smoothing caps?, power transisters gone? Any suggestions welcome Sound is very short as I can only upload 150Kb. Thanks amp sound trace elliot blx80.wav (127.1 k) terryc Senior Member Username: terryc Post Number: 1976 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Friday, September 07, 2012 - 2:41 am:    Any suggestions guys?? tomhug Member Username: tomhug Post Number: 84 Registered: 7-2008 Posted on Friday, September 07, 2012 - 9:28 am:    Hmm - deleting double post. See below. (Message edited by TomHug on September 07, 2012) tomhug Member Username: tomhug Post Number: 85 Registered: 7-2008 Posted on Friday, September 07, 2012 - 9:29 am:    I have a Trace Elliot AH500X. It had noise on startup and intermittently that may be similar to yours (hard to tell from the sound clip). Turned out to be thermal cracks in the capacitor solder. It wasn't an expensive repair as I recall, and has been fine ever since. terryc Senior Member Username: terryc Post Number: 1977 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Friday, September 07, 2012 - 12:04 pm:    Cheers Tomhug..will await a few more repsonses before I get the multimeter and soldering iron out bigredbass Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 1924 Registered: 9-2002 Posted on Friday, September 07, 2012 - 10:46 pm:    Back in the 80's when Trace were the big deal, I was always amazed that they could stick a black light fluorescent tube on the front of the things without BIG noise. Only Brits would do this . . . . IMHO, though, that input gain with the marked under/OK/over LED's was brilliant. J o e y terryc Senior Member Username: terryc Post Number: 1978 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Saturday, September 08, 2012 - 12:02 pm:    Okay when I switch the graphic out of the amp the noise disappears..I can live with that as it is only a practice amp in my spare room buit your suggestions are still welcome keith_h Senior Member Username: keith_h Post Number: 1794 Registered: 2-2005 Posted on Sunday, September 09, 2012 - 6:45 am:    Try cleaning all of the pots, switches and 1/4" connectors with something like Caig's DeOxit. Your Effects In/Out and Line In/Out have switch contacts on the 1/4" connectors that can oxidize. This oxidation can cause problems like you describe. Also having dirty pots in the Graphic EQ can cause similar noise problems. I would also reseat any connectors going between PC boards, controls, etc. Keith