These sturdy old bass heads turn up in pawn shops and Craigslist from time to time. They soldier on for years, sometimes making music for decades. This unit came in for some minor repairs and a Million Mile Checkup. Let’s get to work!
This unit has LEDs for the power indicator and a clipping indicator, or something called “Compression.”
From the school of ‘crank it up and rip the knobs off’ we have a knob that has been ripped off.
Most of these Peavey heads usually consist of a preamp, mixer, and/or EQ assembly behind the front panel, and a rear panel that holds an amplifier and power supply. The transformer is bolted to the case in the middle.
We need to get to the circuit board, so all the knobs and nuts come off.
This unit was built in the era of the Plastic Potentiometer Shafts. Grrr…
A few screws keep the panel and circuit board flat.
More screws go into the magnetic parts holder. We are almost there.
Here, at last, is the circuit board.
Potentiometers that stand off the circuit board like this are sometimes called ‘spider’ pots.
These other controls are fine. The values 10K and 50K refer the resistance, and the letter ‘B’ implies that the taper is linear. An ‘A’ letter implies an audio taper control.
The Alps company made these in Brasil.
Here is the new replacement part, with a metal shaft! If this were my unit, I’d replace them all with metal shafts.
The plastic shaft broke off inside this knob. A few minutes with an Exacto knife is all it took to reclaim the knob and cut my thumb..
The new control is soldered into the circuit board. The factory workmanship on this assembly is pretty good.
Back together it goes.
With the knobs in place, you can’t tell that anyone has been here.
One last look as we reassemble the unit…
Thanks for reading all the way to the end!
CONTACT – David Latchaw EE
281-636-8626