Trace Velocette Arrived - with Problems.

[daddyo]

My plaid covered Velocette arrived from an eBay conquest. First off, all the wood screws that held the chassis into the cabinet were stripped and loose. Put it together as best as I could, plugged it in - and it sound horrible. The sound went from a weak signal to a strong signal and back, but the strong signal didn't sound very good - very metallic with a weird echo like a delay set up all wrong. I checked my cables, all were good. Then I noticed one of the power tibes was cherry plating:eek: . So I put it on standby, played my Traynor amp for 10 minutes for ear relief, plugged back into the Velocette, took it off standby, and now the cherry tube was no longer cherry. So I played it and it was no longer cutting in and out but still sounded fairly crummy - like a dimed solid state amp. - but very loud. So I then turn it up all the way to see if I could drive the power tube cherry again. No, even after about 10 minutes. Then my wife shut me down.

I realized this may be a project amp but I was hoping it might of showed me its true tone before crapping out.

Any suggestions? I will try and get a discount as the seller said it had no issues.

[mr coffee]

and once they plate the tubes are toast. Pop in another set of el84's.
the amps are are loaded with 1/4 watt resistors and they fry at the outset. At least the OT hasn't blown..yet

[ChickenLover]

IIRC those amps had PCB mounted power tube sockets that were plastic. The ones in my Gibson GA15 (same amp) were slightly melted. I had the sockets replaced under warranty, Gibson provided ceramic sockets to the tech. So I would inspect those sockets, especially if you had one go cherry.

And I would try the toothpick trick for the stripped screw holes (just break off a toothpick or two the right length and shove em in the hole).

[daddyo]

Well, I wanted to build an amp project and was looking at the $1200 Allens so I guess restoring and improving this Velocette as well as learning about tube circuits is my project.

[Swarty]

Were you expecting a basket case? If not, return it.

[WaltC]

Many of the Velocette's developed a problem with their output transformers and there was a combined Trace Elliot and Gibson warranty program to replace them. Any good quality 2 EL-84 OT will work, though you may need to carefully translate the color coding of the wires on the primaries and secondaries because the UK trannies and USA trannies don't use the same color scheme.

I've also worked on two Velocettes that had problems with the stock Celestion V-10 speakers. Both had damaged voice coils and one was frozen solid. But.... both would play and sounded similar to what you describe. To test this, with the amp off, gently move the speaker cone in and out (works best from the front, but you'd have to take the speaker out to do that <G>) and feel/listen for rub and make sure you can get the cone to move.

It's a PC - board amp, but pretty simple and fairly easy to work on and the sound is worth it in the end.

Keep us posted...

[daddyo]

Many of the Velocette's developed a problem with their output transformers and there was a combined Trace Elliot and Gibson warranty program to replace them. Any good quality 2 EL-84 OT will work, though you may need to carefully translate the color coding of the wires on the primaries and secondaries because the UK trannies and USA trannies don't use the same color scheme.

I've also worked on two Velocettes that had problems with the stock Celestion V-10 speakers. Both had damaged voice coils and one was frozen solid. But.... both would play and sounded similar to what you describe. To test this, with the amp off, gently move the speaker cone in and out (works best from the front, but you'd have to take the speaker out to do that <G>) and feel/listen for rub and make sure you can get the cone to move.

It's a PC - board amp, but pretty simple and fairly easy to work on and the sound is worth it in the end.

Keep us posted...

My philosophy, too. I will ask for a discount and consider it a project. If I send it back, I'll be out the shipping.

[daddyo]

Well, now it works fine and sounds not bad though the speaker buzzes and is probably fried. The amp was cold in the back of the UPS truck and it was below feezing here. Would this have mad a difference?