Tourmaster 4212 with dead power transformer - options?? UKs

[avivcohen]

Hi, so I have to admit this has been a long and tiring road up until this forum post that I should have posted a while ago.

I have tried multiple times to resolve this issue and am still stuck and need a few questions answered, this forum seems to be where most of the 'problem' amp owners come to get the answers.

I bought my Tourmaster 4212 around 2009-early 2010 new from my local music shop which was PMT located in Southend, Essex, UK. They sold me the only demo unit in the country at the time, they actually didn't end up stocking Egnater amps.. The amp sounded amazing and i used it only in the studio for a couple of years with almost no problems, except tubes dying etc. but eventually as most of the earlier models did, the output transformers died. I took it back to PMT and because they couldn't replace it as they didn't have any in stock, they where happy to pay to get it repaired. I waited about 3 months only to find out from the repair shop that Egnater wouldn't, at that time, send the output transformer to the repair shop, the chaps in the repair shop told me they wouldn't ship to UK.

I tried to get PMT to give me my money back as they effectively sold me an amp that couldn't be repaired and they couldnt replace, they led me on a wild goose chase and then i eventually gave up.

This happened all in the middle of my university studies so i just left it. Now i'm trying to deal with this problem again, but reading through the posts in this forum, people aren't having the best of luck. I did email Egnater at the time and didnt get any replies.

I now don't really know what to do - my options are to purchase the mercury magnetics output transformer (which is quite expensive?) or keep hassling Egnater ( is this worth doing? i have no patience any more)

Has anyone here, ideally in the UK, had any experience dealing with Mercury Magnetic's output transformer in the Tourmaster? How is their service, do they ship to the UK? etc.

I'd love some help as currently, the tourmaster is just staring at the back of my head in the studio..

Thanks in advanced,
Aviv

 

[digi2t]

Option 1:

Contact a local amp shop, and ask them to order a new transformer from Egnater for you. Even if you can do the replacement job yourself, Egnater won't ship it unless it's to a repair shop. This is because of certain liability issues that their lawyer are all touchy feely about. I had the same issue with mine, and had to jump through all the hoops to get a new transformer.

Option 2:

Gasoline, and a match. This is the route I should have taken initially. After all the time, energy, and money I put into this pig, I picked up an old Acoustic G100T from EBay for $300. It absolutely creams the Tourmaster any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. I still use the Tourmaster. Fitted with a set of Ruby's in the pre, long plate JJ for the contour, 12AT7 for the PI, and a quad of 7581A's, it's as good as it's ever going to get. The Acoustic still gets the nod for the heavy lifting though.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

I would get the mercury and then enjoy the amp for many years. The weak point was the transformers.

 

[digi2t]

I would get the mercury and then enjoy the amp for many years. The weak point was the transformers.

Sorry, but there's more wrong with those amps than just the x-fo. True, the initial batch of x-fo's that the Chinese factory put into these were under spec'd, and even Bruce admitted, the fiasco cost the company a ton of money. TM owners that experienced failures in the beginning (under warranty) were covered, but for the poor shmoes that were out of warranty, or second/third/whatever owners, you were on your own. The upgraded x-fo's are available from Egnater though, as well as Mercury's own version.

After I installed the upgraded Egnater x-fo, I immediately started suffering from blown fuse syndrome. Specifically, after the amp had been sitting for more than 24 hours, the fuse would blow on power up. Part of the problem is that the updated x-fo is much beefier, about 50% (if not more) bigger than the original. Once the caps had drained, combined with the beefier x-fo winding, the in rush current was now so great, that the poor fuse couldn't handle it, and blew. Once you replace the fuse, the initial application of power (before the fuse blew) has charged the caps, and the replacement fuse has an easier time of things, and the amp fires up fine. It would run fine for hours, and would even start back up without a problem if it was turned on/off within a few hours. But, after 24 hours, the now completely empty caps, along with bigger x-fo windings, would fry the poor fuse, and the fuse swap dance would begin again.

In the end, the addition of a thermistor to the mains power was the only solution. This would initially squelch the huge in rush current, gradually allowing the caps to charge up, balancing out the demand between caps and x-fo, and what the fuse can initially provide. Would this be required with the Mercury x-fo? I don't know, but then again, when the TM's with the new x-fo's came out, what other mods were done in-house to support these x-fo's? Who the hell knows.

As a further precaution, I removed the power section board, and completely recapped it with higher quality, and higher voltage caps. The original Chinese caps looked shady to me, and at this point, in for a penny, in for a pound.

Another problem with these amps is the piss poor soldering quality of all the boards. I've lost track of how many solder joints I've had to reflow to date. The worst culprits are the board that carry all the pots. My assumption is that these were assembled without the aid of a jig to align the pots perfectly before installation into the chassis. Without the pots being aligned, this leads to solder cracks right where the pots are soldered to the board due to stress when the pots are tightened on installation. I've had those boards out numerous times, reverb not working, contour not working, volume not working, gain not working, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, and in the end, the only solution was to install the board on the outside of the chassis, tighten all the nuts, and then reflow/add solder. Then reinstall the board back into the amp. Not a joyous task, by any measure.

The main tube boards are subject to stress every time you swap tubes. This is the nature of the beast with PCB mounted sockets, so reflowing/adding solder here is a must as well. Even if you don't roll tubes that much, the vibration of a cab can be torturous enough, with the PCB acting as "drum skin", making life difficult for the solder joints. This applies to the auxiliary board that carries all the effects loop/power grid/speaker out paraphernalia as well.

Sorry if I'm coming across as the Grinch who stole Christmas, but no matter how much lipstick you put on the pig.... it's still a pig. Like I said, my TM is running great.... right now.... but it sits on a shelf, not on a cab, in a studio, and that's where it will sit until it's sale, or death, whichever comes first. While it's working, it sounds fantastic, but I would not even imagine gigging with it... ever. I don't trust it to survive being moved, bumped, or even looked at sideways, just for the fact that there's is just too much going on in these amps to lend themselves to any sort of long term reliability. Enjoyment right now, when it's functional, yes. Years of enjoyment? Highly doubtful.

You want years of enjoyment? Something you can bequeath to the kids? Then find yourself an old Traynor YBA-anything, any point-to-point wired amp, or any amp actually built (completely) in Europe or USA in decent shape, and rock out. For me, the Tourmaster is akin to the cow that jumped over the moon. Yes, that cow did get over the moon, but ultimately, we all know what happened to the poor critter... it burned up on re-entry.