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Flextone II - Got my wires crossed...


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Can anyone tell me the expected multimeter readings from the wires to the two speakers?

 

I just bought a Flextone II at a pawnshop for very little money due to a dramatic noise problem.

 

You plug it in, push the power button and it goes POP! POPPOPPOPPOPWHIIINE very, very loudly.  The volume knob setting doesn't matter.  It can be all the way down to zero and it still happens.

 

I took it home and took it apart.  No bulging caps or anything else obvious.

 

I reassembled it and tried it with different speaker wire combinations.  Here's what I found.

 

No speakers connected, listening through headphones = No problems.  Everything works.

Either speaker, either black wire and the red wire = that speaker works fine.

Either speaker, either black wire and the white wire = that speaker works fine.

Both speakers, each with a black wire and either the red or the white wire = Problem's back.

 

Am I right in assuming it's likely some sort of short between two of the wires?

 

Can anyone tell me what readings I should expect from a multimeter on the various wire combinations?  I'd like to test things before I just start replacing wires.

 

And of course, if anyone has any ideas about what else might be causing this, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

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No, it wasn't wires crossed or shorted.

 

I took it apart, and cleaned the electronics with compressed air and distilled water.  The wires showed no damage.

 

I also did some work to the case, like vacuuming out the sawdust and spiderwebs, and reinstalling the roller wheels that someone had (poorly) added.  Epoxy to fix the two broken knobs, touch up paint, blah blah blah.

 

I reassembled everything, and now both speakers work.  There are no problems at all.  This is the single best $40 + tax amp I've ever come across.

 

Anyone have any idea what it could have been?  Just cleaning things should not have made this much of a difference.

 

Not that I'm complaining.

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probably a loose connection somewhere or a cold solder joint.  You probably put it right during the cleaning but it may resurface.  In the mean time, enjoy! It's still a great amp!  I actually wish I had one of those for my HD500 and soon Helix...

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Thanks.  Let me think about that one. 

 

A cold solder joint results in too FEW electronic connections.  All that noise makes me think that there was at least one too MANY, as in a short.  One audio path jumps over to another and they start echoing feedback back and forth, louder and louder.

 

Plus, with robots doing the soldering these days, how often do you get cold solder joints anymore?

 

Not that my theory is much better.  I was thinking that some of the dirt on the motherboard got electrostatically charged, and current was able to use it as a pathway.  Essentially a wire made of dirt.  So I cleaned it and there you go.

 

That's an explanation, but I don't know how good it is.  Anyone have a better one?

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