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Post subject: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:34 pm
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I picked up a new strat a few months ago and also grabbed a mini twin practice amp to play around the house. I love this little amp.

Only after a few months, the sound started to break up and get soft, like the battery was going dead. The LED started to get low and slowly flicker. I left it as is and went out of town for a couple of weeks. When I returned I put in a new battery. The unit did not turn on.

I tried a power supply and the unit turned on but was not the same. The sound was crackly and had a terrible buzz.

I rigged up a 9v battery cap and a DC power plug. I was able to get the unit powered on with a battery by using the DC power jack. The sound was still crackly but the buzz was gone.

I feel like a component has gone bad on the board somewhere. Although I'm comfortable with a soldering iron I am no electrical engineer. Since The built in battery cap doesn't work, but the DC plug jack does, I've concluded that maybe the L1 resistor or the C21 capacitor on the headphone/power board has gone bad.

The amp was only $40 so I'm not really interested in sending it in somewhere. I'm also not interested in buying another unit since its only 3 months old. Shouldn't be going bad this fast.

Can anyone offer some guidance on a self repair or point to another forum that would be familiar and willing to assist? I could just go up to Radio Shack and start replacing components and probably fix it, but I'd rather not chase a wild goose.

Thanks

Joe


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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:37 pm
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Difficult to help you since there is no schematic !

Do you have one ? May be photo ?

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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:45 pm
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Tis-san wrote:
Difficult to help you since there is no schematic !

Do you have one ? May be photo ?


No schematics.
Was thinking maybe someone from Fender might chime in :mrgreen:


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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 4:46 am
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May be with pictures recto and verso of the pcb we can recovered the schematic. 8)

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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:26 am
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Those "amps" are throw-away toys. Do that and by a new one. Or, if you want a mini-amp that you can actually use, get one of these:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PigNose/

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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:58 am
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Warranty? If it's only a few months old.... :idea:

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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:06 am
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shimmilou wrote:
Warranty? If it's only a few months old.... :idea:


Some things just aren't worth the time and trouble to repair or replace them. This "amp" is one of them IMHO.

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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:25 am
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bluesky636 wrote:
Some things just aren't worth the time and trouble to repair or replace them. This "amp" is one of them IMHO.


+1

It's a paperweight now.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 4:36 pm
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bluesky636 wrote:
Those "amps" are throw-away toys. Do that and by a new one. Or, if you want a mini-amp that you can actually use, get one of these:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PigNose/


+1 my Pignose is from 1973 and still sounds fine. Really fun amp. and works great for recording.

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Post subject: Re: Mini Twin Repair
Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 4:48 pm
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63supro wrote:
bluesky636 wrote:
Those "amps" are throw-away toys. Do that and by a new one. Or, if you want a mini-amp that you can actually use, get one of these:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PigNose/


+1 my Pignose is from 1973 and still sounds fine. Really fun amp. and works great for recording.


I had one from around the same time. Wish I still had it. Could buy a new one I guess, but don't really have a need.

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