Electrolytic Capacitors You find electrolytic capacitors in the power supply and decoupling of valves in Hifi and guitar amps. They are like a battery because they have a positive and negative terminal. In you amp power supply they can have values of 22 up to 200 or more uF ( uF= micro-farads). Electrolytic capacitors store energy, and often they are working at voltages of 500 volts DC ! When you switch off your amp , they […]
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Small Capacitors in Guitar Amps Your amp is filled with small capacitors as in the picture below. They come in many different colours so this is jut a sample In simple terms, is in the filter circuits ( tone shaping) or to pass the audio ( AC) signal to the next stage of the amp while blocking the DC voltages. Values are typically in the range 0.001 to 0.47 uF. In valve amps there are
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Wirewound Resistors In Your Amp Wire-wound resistors in your amp are used when a lot of power needs to be dissipated in your amp and usually these are around the output valves for bias resistors. As the name suggests the resistors are made from restitive wire that is wrapped around a piece of material to make a resistor. They are used especially in amps with an output of 40 watts or more. There is a
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Resistors in Your Amp This is a longer than usual article talking about the different type of resistors in your amp. Resistor technology has changed over the decades . What is common is that many types change their values over time. They usually go high in value and with certain types heat makes the problem worse. Some create noise. The overall result is that the values can change so much that the amp stops dead
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What makes a valve fail in your amp Let’s have a light look at valves. Ever wondered why if you buy a nice new valve ( tube) amp that the amp has 2 years warranty and if you check the small print on the warranty carefully, you will see the valve warranty is a lot shorter – perhaps only 90 days! Valves are very old electronics technology. They were invented in 1910 and have been
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Vox Amp Schematics Valve and Solid State -Updated 13th Nov 2023 This post used to link to Korg who had kindly gathered together the schmatics of a whole pile of Vox Amp schematics from about 1960 onwards. I posted this in 2019. Korg has now removed this page from their site. A good alternative reference is on the Vox Showrrom page Click here for the link Moat of the Vox AC XX models are there
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Fender Amp Serial Numbers There used to be a link on the Fender website for amp dating from the serial numbers. However Superior Music has done a really good summary and here is a link to their website. This will enable you to figure out the year your amp was made.Link ==> Superior Music – Fender Amp, Amplifier Serial Numbers. It is also worth looking up on the Fender website too. I only found this
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