Diezel Combo with weird volume fluctuations (solved, cable)

  • Thread starter Thread starter BaumSquad
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BaumSquad

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I bought a Diezel Combo at Guitar Center in Los Angeles last December. Sweet amp. I gotta say the little combo is perfect for taking around and still having amazing tone. Anyway, recently it started acting funny. The volume would fluctuate, especially on "middle" volume levels. Basically if you have it below 10 oclock on master (noonish on everything else) it will be VERY quiet. Then as you get it up to 11 o'clock or higher, it will variably jump from the super quiet gated sound to super freakin' loud.

You can hear it hear in mode 1 clean. Especially with held notes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEQQYJq11nE

Here's another example with mode 3. Specically you can hear it on the held notes in the second half.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8hVWg1SUv0

It really sounds in those videos like it's the camera mic gating the volume, but that is exactly as it sounds in person.

Of course I figured that from being played at Guitar Center floor for who knows how long, it probably just made the tubes wear out, so I swapped them out a few weeks back (power and pres) and biased it (didn't need resetting as it sat perfect). Sadly it still does the exact same thing. I was luckily able to limp by by just keeping my amp in the "loud as shit" mode, and as long as I played loud enough it wouldn't gate it down to next to nothing.

Oh, and note that it does the same thing on both channels, all modes, and both volume masters.

Potential other weirdness is that the "Master 2" volume knob is quite a bit louder than the "Master 1" volume on the same setting. Not sure if this is by design (I use master 2 as my solo push volume anyway) but it is almost as if Master 1 at noon is the same level as Master 2 at about 9 or 10. Not sure if that could be related.

Probably just needs some Diezel TLC. :)
 
Nope. I didn't have a setup available to me to use another speaker, I may give that a shot as well. But I'll probably just get it in to Terry to check out. I have an extended warranty through Guitar Center, but it's through some generic repair house, so I'd rather get it to the masters. :)
 
Well I have it a try and hooked it up to my friends speaker set. And wouldn't you know, the issue seems to have subsided! So I'm not sure if that points to a loose connection or what. I don't have the best setup to ship it off to Terry (sold without original box), so it would be great to fix this myself if it's a simple solder junction. Would that seem to be a likely culprit at this point, or is it likely a greater issue with the speaker itself? I know it's hard to judge without having it, but it will be a risky endeavor shipping it out, so if there's something simpler for me to check, I would prefer to do that.

Thanks so much! I wouldn't have thought of checking the speaker with the effects that were shown, so it's a great mention to check EVERYthing. :)

-Paul
 
Sorry for bumping my old topic, but I wanted to make a note here for anyone that may find a similar occurrence in their amp.

The issue appears to be a bad 1/4" male connector going to the speaker. On one instance where I unplugged the speaker connector in testing, I was unable to get it to reseat properly. I removed the connector and inspected it, and found that the center tip connector on the connector was pushed off center by a small amount. I was able to get it tightened down, and all amp functions worked properly! It appears it was just a weak connection at that junction.

No idea how that came to be when that speaker wire was never unplugged prior to the issue coming up, but good to see it is a rather simple thing to fix for now, and I will resolder on a new connector in the near future.

Thanks for the help!! Glad I didn't have to resort to shipping the whole amp off to be looked at!

-Paul
 
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