Plucking a low 'E' string fritzes out a BF Fender?

[speedtaco]

I have a '65 Vibrolux that recently started making a nasty loud buzz when I turn the standby off after it is warmed up.

It happened after I was trying to dial the amp in by plucking/picking hard on my low E sting. The amp was cranked up pretty loud, but not full up. Maybe around 7. It started to crakle a bit, and progressivly got worse until it sounded like nothing but static/crackle when I plucked. Strangely, I think I did the same thing to my '66 Super Reverb. It quit working after I tried the same thing. Coincidence?
I had read that SRV used to tweak his amps by hitting the low E string repeatedly, and was trying it myself.

Anyone heard of this? Any ideas what it might be? My bass knob was turned up around 8. Could all of that bass have messed something up?

I recently had it retubed by an excellent amp repairman, so I'm assuming it's not the tubes.

Any advice would be appreciated. Now my two favorite amps are down. Ugh.
Thanks

 

[trailrun100s]

Maybe by having the bass up while the volume was up, you blew the speaker with all of that bottom end by hitting the low E...Have you tried it with turning the bass down?

 

[aflynt]

I've had this happen before and more times than not it was just the shorting input or speaker jacks not being tight enough. You just take a piers and bend the curved part of the jack tip out so that the shorting prong is further away from the hot prong when the cord is plugged in.

-Aaron

 

[RussB]

It's a Vibrolux, with a weak power supply and a small output tranny...turn the bass down. Does the amp have new power supply capacitors? It should.



Are you blowing the speakers?

 

[6AM]

Could be a lot of stuff. Speaker, caps, etc. My guess is that it's a bad solder joint.

 

[speedtaco]

I appreciate the input guys. The speakers are not blown, it's something mechanical.
I will check the speaker jacks, and solder joints.
Strange that it did it on two amps though.

 

[aflynt]

I appreciate the input guys. The speakers are not blown, it's something mechanical.
I will check the speaker jacks, and solder joints.
Strange that it did it on two amps though.

Check the input jacks too. I actually had two amps suffer from this same issue right around the same time. It's pretty common since those jacks wear out more and more each time you plug them in.

-Aaron

 

[zenas]

Not uncomman to find a bad solder joint in BF amps when recapping and servicing them.
Loose or dirty tube socket.
Voice coil rub.
These amps have been serviced right?

 

[speedtaco]

Just wanted to follow up. Thanks for all the input ya'll, I appreciate it. Turns out that it was an input jack solder that had to be resoldered on the Vibrolux. I'll follow up with the Super Reverb results when it's fixed.

 

[trailrun100s]

Just wanted to follow up. Thanks for all the input ya'll, I appreciate it. Turns out that it was an input jack solder that had to be resoldered on the Vibrolux. I'll follow up with the Super Reverb results when it's fixed.

Cool man! It's nice when it's something simple like that...