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.
1 comment:
Peavey did this, in my opinion, so those who don't know about these things would send their amps in to Peavey's repair shop, earning Peavey a profit for a super quick and easy fix. I have two Peavey 75s, one I blew the fuse on, the other I bought used with a blown fuse like you. Another way to fix this, instead of looking for leaded fuses, is to simply buy a panel mount fuse holder (I bought 5 for $5 on Amazon, the type on the back of many amps with the twist off cap). Desolder the two points on the board where the bad fuse is, throw bad fuse away. Drill a hole through the back of the chassis, sized so the panel mount will fit through and the washer + nut will hold it in place. Solder a length of wire to both points on the board where the old fuse was mounted. Solder those wires to the two terminals on the panel mount. Insert fuse. Doesn't matter which wire goes to which terminal on the panel mount (it's in series). Check for continuity. It's simpler than it sounds.
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