Accidentally plugged in one amp output into another amp output. How bad did I screw up?

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TheSleep

TheSleep

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I bought a solid-state Randall RG100ES recently and when I went to go test it in the midst of all the wires I didn't realize that I had the speaker cable plugged into the other amps output, a tubed Peavey Triple XXX. I only had the RG100ES turned on while I was testing it and realized I wasn't getting any sound of the speaker. I did notice a very slight buzzing kind of sound every time I hit a note almost as if the sound was coming from the Triple XXX which was off. When I looked in the back I realized I had made a dire mistake. I had the speaker output of the RG100ES going into the speaker output of the Triple XXX! I went to test the Triple XXX and it seems like there is less gain than there was before and on the ultra channel I am now getting volume/gain drops. Did I completely fry the Triple XXX or possibly even both amps?
 
How high did you have the volume? The secondary of the xxx output transformer is what took the load.
 
I think you’re fine. The secondary is gauged in wire size to take some current. Your saving grace was having the XXX completely off.

No harm to anything on either amp. You should be good to go with no issues or concerns.
 
If you fired them up and they still work your good.
If you haven’t fired them up you’ll never know.
90% chance your good. It happens.
 
TheSleep said:
I bought a solid-state Randall RG100ES recently and when I went to go test it in the midst of all the wires I didn't realize that I had the speaker cable plugged into the other amps output, a tubed Peavey Triple XXX. I only had the RG100ES turned on while I was testing it and realized I wasn't getting any sound of the speaker. I did notice a very slight buzzing kind of sound every time I hit a note almost as if the sound was coming from the Triple XXX which was off. When I looked in the back I realized I had made a dire mistake. I had the speaker output of the RG100ES going into the speaker output of the Triple XXX! I went to test the Triple XXX and it seems like there is less gain than there was before and on the ultra channel I am now getting volume/gain drops. Did I completely fry the Triple XXX or possibly even both amps?
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So, if you connect two amps output together, does that mean that, for a few seconds, you've got the two amps scissoring?!?!? lol
Just kidding... they should be fine.
 
Semi related: How long it would take to fry an OT running no load?
 
If the problem persists with the triple X unfortunately you may have to take it to a tech if changing out some tubes doesn’t sort it out. There may be a preamp tube or two that are dedicated to the channel that is dropping. If the other channels seem fine your OT is probably OK.
 
Yeah I think there’s some unrelated tube issues here. When was the last time the XXX was turned on? Did you last move it when tubes were still hot?
 
You can expect a bunch of these about 9 months from now:




OIP.jpg
 
acceptance said:
Semi related: How long it would take to fry an OT running no load?
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Depends on a few things. Was the amp up loud and how long were you playing it before you realized there was no load?
An amp just sitting there turned on with no load would probably be fine for quite a long time if you weren’t trying to play through it.
 
The Randall being SS, correct me if I'm wrong but I think it can handle no load far better than a tube amp?
 
acceptance said:
Semi related: How long it would take to fry an OT running no load?
Click to expand...
This would depend on a lot of factors, and while there is *total* failure of the OT, there's also just, undue wear and tear on the component as well. While you may not fry your OT running no load, you can still wear it and get it that much closer to eventual failure.

Under most circumstances that bedroom and basement guitar players would be under, a few seconds would not really be much to worry about

Abruptly shutting the amp off such that the filter caps discharge with no load on the OT would probably also be bad

Minutes+ would probably be bad
 
Racerxrated said:
The Randall being SS, correct me if I'm wrong but I think it can handle no load far better than a tube amp?
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Correct, as well as impedence mismatch (not even really a thing...usually theyll just have a minimum resistance)

What coulda gotten fucked here was the XXX seeing the output of the Randall as a load, lol. But it was off...id bet its fine
 
midnightlaundry said:
How high did you have the volume? The secondary of the xxx output transformer is what took the load.
Click to expand...

I cranked the volume all the way up when I realized there was no sound coming out of the speaker to see if I would get a signal at a high volume and that's when I started hearing the sound coming out of the XXX.

Chubbs said:
If you fired them up and they still work your good.
If you haven’t fired them up you’ll never know.
90% chance your good. It happens.
Click to expand...

Yea I've tested both amps at this point. The Randall unfortunately has a whole story of its own. I bought that amp off of Reverb and the seller did a shit job packing it and it was basically shipped inside a cardboard box. Needless to say it got pretty fucked up in transit so I can't say for sure whether or not this event also had any negative effects on it. I took that amp to get serviced by a tech and he didn't mention anything about the output transformers or anything like that.

The XXX kinda sat around for a bit until I got thinking about it recently and when I went to go test it that's when I noticed that the crunch channel didn't seem to have as much gain as it once did and the ultra channel was experiencing volume/gain drops. If I play chugs on the ultra channel you can hear the volume dip and lose gain as well.

skoora said:
If the problem persists with the triple X unfortunately you may have to take it to a tech if changing out some tubes doesn’t sort it out. There may be a preamp tube or two that are dedicated to the channel that is dropping. If the other channels seem fine your OT is probably OK.
Click to expand...

Yea it seems like only the ultra channel is experiencing the volume drop. The crunch channel from what I remember had more gain as well. I'm wondering if maybe a set of new tubes/preamp tubes will fix the issue if the OT is ok.

Aynirar27 said:
Depends on a few things. Was the amp up loud and how long were you playing it before you realized there was no load?
An amp just sitting there turned on with no load would probably be fine for quite a long time if you weren’t trying to play through it.
Click to expand...
PaintChipsAreVegan said:
This would depend on a lot of factors, and while there is *total* failure of the OT, there's also just, undue wear and tear on the component as well. While you may not fry your OT running no load, you can still wear it and get it that much closer to eventual failure.

Under most circumstances that bedroom and basement guitar players would be under, a few seconds would not really be much to worry about

Abruptly shutting the amp off such that the filter caps discharge with no load on the OT would probably also be bad

Minutes+ would probably be bad
Click to expand...

I cranked the volume all the way up but I'd say the Randall was only on for about a minute or so until I realized what I had done. The XXX was off the entire time, but looks like it may have been enough to damage the tubes at the very least. I'll try messing around with it some more and see if I get some different results. Do you guys think I should get a new set of tubes or have the amp serviced by a tech at this point?
 
TheSleep said:
I cranked the volume all the way up when I realized there was no sound coming out of the speaker to see if I would get a signal at a high volume and that's when I started hearing the sound coming out of the XXX.



Yea I've tested both amps at this point. The Randall unfortunately has a whole story of its own. I bought that amp off of Reverb and the seller did a shit job packing it and it was basically shipped inside a cardboard box. Needless to say it got pretty fucked up in transit so I can't say for sure whether or not this event also had any negative effects on it. I took that amp to get serviced by a tech and he didn't mention anything about the output transformers or anything like that.

The XXX kinda sat around for a bit until I got thinking about it recently and when I went to go test it that's when I noticed that the crunch channel didn't seem to have as much gain as it once did and the ultra channel was experiencing volume/gain drops. If I play chugs on the ultra channel you can hear the volume dip and lose gain as well.



Yea it seems like only the ultra channel is experiencing the volume drop. The crunch channel from what I remember had more gain as well. I'm wondering if maybe a set of new tubes/preamp tubes will fix the issue if the OT is ok.




I cranked the volume all the way up but I'd say the Randall was only on for about a minute or so until I realized what I had done. The XXX was off the entire time, but looks like it may have been enough to damage the tubes at the very least. I'll try messing around with it some more and see if I get some different results. Do you guys think I should get a new set of tubes or have the amp serviced by a tech at this point?
Click to expand...
If you have another tube amp just pull some preamp tubes from that and use them to troubleshoot. Search for a tube layout on the XXX that hopefully breaks down what tube/s is/are responsible for crunch and ultra. A pre tube is two useable halves in one bottle. They may have gain stages for ultra split across more than one tube.

If you can’t find a tube layout, don’t sweat it. You won’t hurt anything if you just wanna swap one tube at a time, test the amp, and then try the next slot. Rinse repeat.
 
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