Need a little help... need a little bit more.

[duesentrieb]

He plays it smoking hot, Peter

Glad its fixed dude !

 

[stinkfist]

Hi, I just found this thread today. I have had some of the same problems with my Herbert as well. I decided to check the CAPS and found that one of them has electrolytic seeping out of it. I now need to replace this. Do you guys know of a step by step way for a newb? I have read the posts but some of it doesn't make much sense to me at the moment.

Should I replace all 3 of the CAPs when only one of them is bad. I'm afraid that the others will go bad as well. Or should I not worry about it and just replace the bad one?

This is all I have below from a poster named Nick and his name is Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert on the forums. Do you cut the leads as close to the caps as possible? There doesn't look to be much room left after you cut them to twist the new leads on. I'm confused about that part...

Here is the link to the below comments from Nick.

If you remember my thread, that's what I did. You can get them from Parts Express if you want to do it yourself. A tech could do it no problem. If you want to do it yourself it's not really hard but you MUST be careful, they pack a punch if you ground yourself out. If your not an ace at soldering don't try to de-solder them from the board, instead cut the leads and twist the new cap leads around the old leads then run some solder over them(MAKE A NOTE OF POLARITY). It would be a good idea to get some silicon caulking(type II(2) ONLY!!!) to put under the caps to give them some cushion from vibration. If you can't get new quick ties in there don't worry, they're not entirely needed, but if you want or are worried, run a healthy bead of silicon across the top of the two caps. Take a look at my old thread, unless the caps look swollen or have electrolyte seeping out they probably aren't bad, also if they are bad it would be more hummy than normal, although they may have been on their way out when you got the head. I'll put a link to my old thread after I get done writing this.

My CAPS look identical to the pictures here with the electrolytic seeping out of it. Any help with this would be great. I have been banging my head and changing out tubes and nothing worked and now I think I know why.

 

[nbarts]

Do you cut the leads as close to the caps as possible?

Yes. There is a plastic white "something" holding the cap, you don't even have to cut it. Just slide the old one out of the loop, move it around a little bit first before sliding to get it disconnected from the silicon under it & then slide. Be very careful & take your time while doing this, don't fuck up other components around. After this just clean the old silicon, add some new & slide a new cap into the loop. It should already be tight there, so you can just concentrate on twisting the leads & soldiering. You are going to need a slim little pireplier. Just replace the one that is bad.
And last but not least, be careful, don't kill yourself.

 

[stinkfist]

Do you cut the leads as close to the caps as possible?

Yes. There is a plastic white "something" holding the cap, you don't even have to cut it. Just slide the old one out of the loop, move it around a little bit first before sliding to get it disconnected from the silicon under it & then slide. Be very careful & take your time while doing this, don't fuck up other components around. After this just clean the old silicon, add some new & slide a new cap into the loop. It should already be tight there, so you can just concentrate on twisting the leads & soldiering. You are going to need a slim little pireplier. Just replace the one that is bad.
And last but not least, be careful, don't kill yourself.

Thanks! By plastic white "something" do you mean the plastic tie that is holding down the CAP? So what is the best way to do this without killing myself ? I'm assuming you don't have the amp plugged in while doing this correct? How would you kill yourself if the amp wasn’t connected to an electrical source? Right now I just have the amp sitting out of its shell on a table\workbench. I was planning on just doing it on that.

Thanks for you help and time!

 

[stinkfist]

Do you cut the leads as close to the caps as possible?

Yes. There is a plastic white "something" holding the cap, you don't even have to cut it. Just slide the old one out of the loop, move it around a little bit first before sliding to get it disconnected from the silicon under it & then slide. Be very careful & take your time while doing this, don't fuck up other components around. After this just clean the old silicon, add some new & slide a new cap into the loop. It should already be tight there, so you can just concentrate on twisting the leads & soldiering. You are going to need a slim little pireplier. Just replace the one that is bad.
And last but not least, be careful, don't kill yourself.

Thanks! By plastic white "something" do you mean the plastic tie that is holding down the CAP? So what is the best way to do this without killing myself ? I'm assuming you don't have the amp plugged in while doing this correct? How would you kill yourself if the amp wasn’t connected to an electrical source? Right now I just have the amp sitting out of its shell on a table\workbench. I was planning on just doing it on that.

Thanks for you help and time!

What type of Solder do you use? There are different types I just want to get the right one.

Thanks!

 

[duesentrieb]

Doesn't matter. Just make it hot enough so you won't get a bad, "cold" solder connection.

 

[stinkfist]

Doesn't matter. Just make it hot enough so you won't get a bad, "cold" solder connection.

Will do!

Thanks for your help Duesentrieb.

It's going to be nice to get this bad boy back up and running.

 

[bbp]

How would you kill yourself if the amp wasn’t connected to an electrical source?

A capacitor stores a charge. As these are 500V/22uF ones it's a pretty big one at that. The tricky part is that this charge can remain in there for a very long time. You can discharge some of it by turning the amp on without having the mains connected but it's not certain you'll get rid of all of it that way.

 

[stinkfist]

How would you kill yourself if the amp wasn’t connected to an electrical source?

A capacitor stores a charge. As these are 500V/22uF ones it's a pretty big one at that. The tricky part is that this charge can remain in there for a very long time. You can discharge some of it by turning the amp on without having the mains connected but it's not certain you'll get rid of all of it that way.

Thanks any other ways to protect yourself in this situation?

 

[nbarts]

By plastic white "something" do you mean the plastic tie that is holding down the CAP?

Yes.

Thanks any other ways to protect yourself in this situation?

You don't even have to touch the existing cap, you can just pull it out holding it with an insulated plier. It will most likely damage the cap, but you are going to throw it away anyway.

 

[stinkfist]

You don't even have to touch the existing cap, you can just pull it out holding it with an insulated plier. It will most likely damage the cap, but you are going to throw it away anyway.

Ok forgive me but I'm just trying to get it right... Here is what I'm getting so far...

1. Cut the 2 leads on the existing cap.
2. Either cut the plastic tie or slide the cap out from under the tie.
3. Clean the silicone, add new silicone in its place.
4. Place the new cap where the old cap was and twist the 2 leads together.
5. Solder the 2 leads together.

Now when you mean pull the cap out using insulated pliers to you mean grabbing the cap itself with the pliers so you don't touch it?

So cut the leads with the pliers....don't touch the cap(with hands) use the insulated pliers to remove the cap.


Thank you so much for your help. I just ordered 3 new ruby caps which are what are in my herbert at the moment. I think this will be easy to do. I have done the research so I think it will be a snap. I can't wait to here the herbert sounding great again.

 

[nbarts]

Now when you mean pull the cap out using insulated pliers to you mean grabbing the cap itself with the pliers so you don't touch it?

That's right.

Before you get tho old one out make sure you remember the polarity; you don't want to install the new one backwards.

 

[stinkfist]

Now when you mean pull the cap out using insulated pliers to you mean grabbing the cap itself with the pliers so you don't touch it?

That's right.

Before you get tho old one out make sure you remember the polarity; you don't want to install the new one backwards.

Right thanks for your help I will do this this weekend I hope weeeeeeeeee!

 

[Anonymous]

Damn! I could never do all that without ruining the board!

I would send it back to Germany and know it would be done perfectly.

 

[stinkfist]

Damn! I could never do all that without ruining the board!

I would send it back to Germany and know it would be done perfectly.

Honestly it doesn't look that hard. Plus I dont have the coin to ship it and then the time to wait. I bet your talking 3-4 weeks if your lucky.

 

[diezel&gas]

i was watching for some videos on youtube as i am a newbie on these things..
wow! that's a little dangerous touching a charge cap..

question:... could you get shocked touching anywhere on the cap or just if you touch one of the poles?
how to discharge it on the amp before to touch it in a safe mode?

this is a simple guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCSNWi3UHf4

 

[bbp]

Only touching the case should be safe. However, if you happen to touch a lead while the other is still connected your body will most likely serve as ground, discharging the capacitor through your body. That's the tricky bit.

 

[stinkfist]

OK... Here is an update.

I replaced the bad cap, I think everything went well for the most part. The only problem I ran into is that once I turned the amp on I blew one of the 3 fuses located on the board. Its the one near the edge of the side of the amp if your looking at it from the inside. Its one of the 3x500mAT fuses its on the outside. I found it because when i was biasing the amp tubes 1 and 6 didnt give me any readings, no voltage at all and when i looked the fuse was blown. Do you know why this might have happened? was it because of the new cap? Could it be that the fuse was just old? Can I just replace it and see what happens? What kind of a fuse should I replace it with?

thanks

 

[Peter Diezel]

The fuse was broken before.

Please check Your power tubes.

 

[stinkfist]

The fuse was broken before.

Please check Your power tubes.

Hi Peter, before I replaced the cap the fuse was fine. After I replaced the cap and then tested the amp by turning it on i heard a pop and that was the fuse blowing. I'm not sure why but what should I do just replace the fuse? I'm not sure if replacing the cap would blow the fuse would it?

The other 4 tubes 2-5 3-4 are all fine and the other 2 fuses are fine as well. I think it was just F3 the one closest to the edge of the amp case.

Thanks for your help!