I (used) to have a water-damaged Dual Recto.

I Finished up band practice last Monday and left as usual. I come back Wednesday only to find a new leak in our practice room sprung RIGHT OVER my recto... :twisted:

I disconnected everything and left the amp dry out until yesterday, fired it up, and all power tubes were glowing a intense bright blue, got some serious crackling, and before I was able to put the amp on stand by, the fuse blew and I smelt a burning smell.

It gets better... I got done re-tubing it last month as well, less than 3 hours on the tubes. And the building management tells me there is nothing they can do... I almost beat the guy with the amp head :twisted:

I have 2 years left on my warranty with Mesa but is this even covered by them?(I left the manual with the paperwork at the studio)
I'm so fired up over this I **** near destroyed my drum kit during a gig with my other band last night.

omg if that happened to me i would cry
to be honest i dont know if the warranty covers it, but good luck with replacing it

We have the same problem in our rehearsal place.
That's why I bought another cab and bring it back home every day... it's a pain carrying the amp, but worth it!
Best of luck with warranty.
Try retubing the amp again with new fuse... maybe that ought to do it!!!

I know its too late but it might have fared better if you opened it up and blew it out completely then let it dry for a while-perhaps over a heating vent. Of course it may not have helped either......... : > ( Bob

It is too late now, but - for future reference! - what you should have done was to strip the amp down - chassis out - and wash the whole thing thoroughly with clean water inside and out, literally put it in the shower and hose it, then dry it *really* thoroughly (with warm dry air, like a hairdryer) and then leave it to air off naturally for a couple of days before re-assembling... then it would have been fine.

The problem is that water that has passed through the structure of a building is loaded with mineral salts that are electrically conductive, and since these didn't get washed out, something shorted when you powered up.

If you're really lucky, doing this now and replacing the fuse *might* get it going again. It's worth a try before you send it in for repair, since it can't get any worse than it is now.

Thanks for the replies guys, I wish I would've posted first before I tried anything but you live and learn. Never thought this is how my first problem with the amp would arise.

I wasn't too keen on opening it at first but I'll take a look at it so I can get an idea of what components got damaged.

It most likely will have to go out for repair but at least I don't have any gigs with my main band anytime soon.

Bad luck man. After the rehearsals I always put the covers in the head and cab, its kind a boring but you never know...
Good luck!

i just remembered that this is almost exactly what happened to me a few years ago, except the leak dripped directly onto my pedalboard. i unplugged everything, thoroughly blow-dried the entire pedalboard and all the pedals inside and out, and left everything to dry for about a week. 3 years later, the pedalboard and every pedal that was on it still works perfectly.

boss4 said:

After the rehearsals I always put the covers in the head and cab, its kind a boring but you never know...

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that's actually a really good idea... tedious every time, but worth it when **** happens, and your amp's not ruined. i think im gonna start doing this.

they don't have contents insurance or anything at the studios? i've rehearsed at a few different places over the years and have just never left my gear there. i dont like letting it out of my sight haha

Nope, no insurance... But if I have to pay out of pocket, I'm going to track down the building owner and see what he is going to do to rectify the situation (pun intended), we practice in the old Zenith TV building here in Chicago.

I pulled out the chassis today and inspected it, no stains or any damage that I could see on the boards or the bottom of the amp housing, grabbed some pics:









I talked to Mike at Mesa and he said it sounded like multiple power tube failure at once. He advised me to replace the power tubes and fuse first and see if the fuse blows again before I think about having the amp serviced...

Does the resistors look ok to you guys in the last 2 pics? (that's the board that the power tubes are connected to)

I forgot to add that I spoke to the night manager today (I spoke to the daytime manager last time) and he said he checked the room around 8:00 PM that night before I showed up at 10:00 AM the next day and said the equipment was ok (due to another band on the same floor reporting a leak, so he checked all the rooms out on the floor), so the leaking may have started during the early morning hours before I got there.

We previously had a tiny leak spring last winter in the center of the room and they took care of it within the same day. (it's a fairly large room) I did however put the cover on the head before I left that night, so the amp wasn't really drenched per say, but I found a little water between the 3rd/4th power tubes and soaked that up A.S.A.P with a paper towel before I moved the head.

JCDenton6 said:

I talked to Mike at Mesa and he said it sounded like multiple power tube failure at once.

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With all due respect to Mike at Mesa... no. Power tubes don't just fail all at once - the chances of more than one going out at the same time for no reason other than bad tubes are so small as to be irrelevant. The chances of it happening by itself just after water got in your amp... close to zero.

He advised me to replace the power tubes and fuse first and see if the fuse blows again before I think about having the amp serviced...

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If all the power tubes failed at the same time, something has *caused* them to do so, and replacing the tubes and the fuse is just likely to cost you a new set of power tubes because the cause will still be there.

In fact, there is a good chance that some or all of the power tubes are not even damaged. Something is shorting in the amp causing an excess current draw which blew the fuse. This might also run them very hot, but if they just glowed blue and then the fuse blew quickly - not blue, then red, then the fuse blew after quite a while - they could well be perfectly OK.

It *is* also possible that *one* power tube has failed. This would blow the fuse, and might make all the tubes appear to run hot until it did if it also fed high B+ voltage into the bias supply.

Does the resistors look ok to you guys in the last 2 pics? (that's the board that the power tubes are connected to)

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Actually the trace leading to the left-hand screen resistor that you can see looks black - it might just be a photo artifact, but if not then that tube has drawn a massive screen current which could certainly blow the fuse.

The problem is that any mineral deposit or other problem will be on the other side of that board because it will have got in via the tube sockets.


What to do, if you don't fancy the washing method - first pull all the power and rectifier tubes (*not* the preamp tubes), keeping a note of which sockets they were in. Power the amp up, both power and standby switches as normal. If the fuse blows, major trouble requiring a tech repair. If not, now re-fit one of the rectifier tubes (doesn't matter which) and repeat - if the fuse blows, the tube is bad. If not, repeat with the other tube. If the fuse holds with both rectifier tubes in, fit one of the power tubes and repeat. Then *remove this one* and fit another, and so on. When the fuse blows, you've just fitted the bad tube. If you identify one of the power tubes as bad, you may need to check its socket for a blown screen resistor (it may not look blown).

Major thanks 94Tremoverb, I think something (resistors) on the other side of the board may have been shot because of the water like you said. I'm gonna try to get that board out of there so I could have a look at it before I test the tubes out. I still have my old set of power tubes in case it may be a blown one.

Ok, found the culprit:

Noticed a white spot where the water dried around 2 resistors in between the 3rd/4th PT sockets. The rest of the board was spotless. They didn't appear to be discolored/burnt/split but could be the faults. Cleaned/dried the area over 4 times. Now to let it dry for a long while and will begin the tube test Thursday. I'll report back soon.

Thanks again!

Update:

Got the amp working again, no problems so far. Found the bad tube. The leaking water weakened the vacuum of the tube causing it to draw more current before it redplated on me and blew another fuse.

Now to get another set of power tubes and I'm set.

nice!!! thats why this board rules.
oh yeah, you can now change the title of this thread to "I used to have a water damaged dual recto!!"

Good for you! Next time better safe then sorry!

+100
The Boogie Board rules :!:

Thanks so much for the troubleshooting guys, very much appreciated!
Kudos to 94Tremoverb for his outstanding knowledge!

So glad it was an easy fix man. It just made my day a little bit brighter to hear of one's misfortune turning out ok. Rock on and make sure to cover that bad boy up! Might I suggest one of these:
http://www.studioslips.com/slipcover.php?ManID=1&CabID=897

I have two double padded covers for my cabs, and they are GREAT! The water resistant nylon works well and comes in handy when having to load in/out in the rain!

-AJH

Thanks for the link, I'm already buying those now, much more pleasant to the wallet than road cases.