This head was soldiering away in the studio when the output signal became distorted. Can the Unbrokenstring Crew un-distort the output and keep it from happening again?
Stock photo credit: Ashdown Engineering
Name, rank and serial number, please.
The oscilloscope shows the waveform presented across an eight ohm resistive load. A sinewave is applied to the input jack. We should have a sinewave here. But we don’t. This gives us something to work on!
Oops! As soon as we touch the chassis, the output waveform changes!
Since we’re on a roll, let’s touch it again! This is what we should have seen all along. I think we know where to look.
You might be surprised to know that the big metal heat sink I was touching has a high voltage on it. So here I am safely draining the high voltage before I touch it and get shocked. Like in the previous picture.
I wish the heat sink was as well-supported as the rest of the circuit boards.
This whole assembly is attached to the circuit board on the bottom. Out it comes!
Can you see the problem? Me neither.
Close examination reveals cracked solder joints.
The correct repair for a cracked solder joint is to remove everything and replace the joint with fresh tin/lead solder.
This is a good solder joint, if I do say so myself.
Further examination reveals more cracked solder joints. Guess what we’re going to do to these?
This little yellow grabber tool is handy to install screws in tight recesses.
Time to crank it up!
Thanks for reading all the way to the end!
CONTACT – David Latchaw EE
281-636-8626