Help, my Vox has died :(

HHMMMM pretty hard to diagnose without you having at least some basic electronics knowledge. If there is nothing that lights up on the panel(power on indicator) then the tube is probably fine. Most likely a bad diode possibly caused by a bad capacitor in the power section. Could also be a wire came loose or broke off from vibration.

I totally understand not wanting to just throw it out. I got into electronics because there are lots of things that get throwed away and are actually really easy to fix with a few dollar parts.

Dave

Hi my name is Hec and I am a retired electrical engineer, so not an electronics engineer. however the electricity that we take for granted ? and the statement can kill! should read will kill, I have lost a friend of 63 to a simple lack of concentration on something less complicated than an amplifier two other friends badly injured doing there job all very skilled people, so please be very careful giving out advice or carrying out DIY work on electrical appliances. I am not in anyway trying to put people down just please be careful in what you do, another reader has already mentioned there is capacitors that need discharging properly before even thinking about working on amplifiers, so be careful please

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When I got the guitar bug I knew that a few things were inevitable, one was that I would want to start building pedals, and two was that pedal building would lead to modifying and eventually building an amp.

So I started by collecting tools and building small projects to aid me in my future efforts. One of those small projects was making a capacitor discharge tool. It’s a cheap and easy-to-do thing that can literally save your life.

This is nothing more than an old pen, a recycled test lead from a long-dead multimeter, an alligator clip, and a $1.00 resistor.

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I had an amp I loved and it kept blowing out. I paid to have it fixed a few times and it always died. A friend’s Dad knew what he was doing (not just replacing the burned out parts) and repaired a faulty rectifier (a fancy name for a few of 25 cent diodes) and it never blew out again. But it did take some experience.

Thanks to everyone who replied with very helpful comments. The Justin community is great!

As a follow up on my original post, here’s what I decided to do:

I’ve removed the amp from the cabinet. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the connections to the power supply or the switch. I didn’t want to start playing around with the circuits as I really don’t know what I’m doing.

So I decided to convert the cabinet to a simple 1x12” speaker cabinet and I’ve bought an Orange Micro dark amp to pair with it. I think that this is a good solution for using the original nice 12” speaker. I’m also putting Vox grill cloth on the front and eventually new dark red tolex (when I have time).

I really liked the Vox amp even though it’s not worth much money. So for the amp itself, I have decided to wait until next year when a friend of mine is coming to stay. He’s quite a well known latin music producer and makes a lot of his own electronic equipment for his studio. He is fairly sure he will be able to fix it.

If he is able to fix it then I am going to make a cabinet to put it in. I’m hopeless at electronics but I’m sure I can build a cabinet without too many problems. I like working with wood. Then I will put tolex on to match the speaker cabinet and probably some of the Vox grill cloth on the vents to make it match the cabinet.

It will be a fun project!!

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Good temporary solution! I have something similar. I keep a guitar in a couple places in the house and don’t want to cart around the One Pedal to Rule Them All, re-cable, etc.
So, I bought a gutted Fender all-in-one amp which now makes it just a 12 inch speaker and cabinet without a faceplate. I also bought a 5W Mojo Diamond to plug into it. This combination is great for sitting behind me in my office chair so I can grab a guitar when I have a few moments during my workday.

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