I saw a non-working Peavey Vypyr 75 (seriously with the
name?) at Guitar Center and couldn’t resist. These amps sell for $300 new and
$150-$200 used, so I thought $80 was worth the gamble.
The main reason I took a shot was that it didn’t turn on. If
something turns on, but doesn’t work, that can get pretty complicated,
especially in a modelling amp. But if something doesn’t turn on, the
possibilities are narrowed considerably.
And I was right—I quickly checked for anything obvious and
saw the fuse, so figured I’d check that first. I checked for continuity and there was none. I did not take an pictures, so here's a hastily made layout showing the location of the fuse. This diagram is pretty primitive, but there's not much to this amp, so if you can't find the fuse based on this, hie thee to an amp tech.
I quickly found the part I needed on ebay: 3-Amp 250-Volt fast
blow fuse with axial leads for about $5, free shipping.
The only minor pain was that this fuse has axial leads that
are soldered to the board. You can’t just pull it out and pop in a new one—you
have to remove the board, desolder the old one and solder the new one in. Well
designed amps—of which there are many—have a fuse holder that is accessible on
the back of the chassis, affording the owner the luxury of changing a fuse in a
half minute instead of a half hour.
However, since I sold the amp for $140 a couple of weeks
later, the time spent on this poorly designed beast was worth it. To be fair, I
played with the amp for a while and had a lot of fun with it. It's a fun toy, but Peavey needs to head back to the drawing board.
