Help with a Krank chadwick

[BowerR64]

Traded a friend for a Krank Chadwick i thought might be an easy fix but i cant figure it out.

Hes had this amp for a while a few summers ago he was playing and he said he tripped or jerked the cable and the tip of the jack broke off inside th einput jack. We poked around and never found the part. I suspect it fell out as he was taking it out of the chassis or it fell out and he didnt see it in his room. Anyway the amp hasnt worked right since. It powers up all the tubes glow but the clean channel has no sound the dirty channel has a faint sound. it has a low humm cleaned all the pots and the inputs tried a jumper in the effects loop, the effects loop has a switch to take the loop in and out of the circuit it pops pretty loud when switching in in and out. Replaced all the tubes nothing changed. I suspect when he jerked the input cable he pulled the cable from the output and maybe blew one of the taps for the output transformer but when i hook a guitar straight into the return it sounds ok.

When I met him some years ago on craigslist he had this amp and it sounded so good i went out and found one and bought one myself. So i have one that still works, his is a classic looking version has the front tolex panel, mine has the big holes in the front panel but they are the same 2 channel chadwick version 2.

I was hoping i could fix the one with the issues using my good one to test places to trouble shoot whats wrong?

Krank Chadwick Series Schematic

The schematic for the Krank Chadwick Series Tube Amplifier Krank Amps, Krank Chadwick Series, tube amp schematic

www.achadwick.com

 

[Tatzmann]

So you plug into the efxreturn and get reasonably good, loud sound?

And your guy yanked the cable which violated the input?

After this incident the amp wasn't right?

I take a wild guess and say the inputjack just might be kaputt?

Try re-soldering or re-placing it.

 

[BowerR64]

Sorry i was a little tired the other day.

This was a friends amp, he brought it to me and wanted me to look at it a few summers ago and said the jack tip broke off the cable he was using and wanted my help getting it out. He is a few years older then i am and didnt have the tools. We messed with it and we didnt find anything in the jack. He took it back home put the chassis back in the box and it never worked after that.

I tried talking him into replacing all the tubes a few times and he didnt want to spend the money on tubes so after trying a few things he brought it back this year and i i went over it again trying different things including replacing all the tubes from my working chadwick into his and nothing changed.

As far as i got was trying a jumper in the loop and i also found plugging my guitar directly into the return the sound sounded normal. Once i told him what i found he didnt seem interested in it after that and didnt want to even try locating a repair place here in KC. MO. to repair it. I offered him a trade for a Tube meister 18 amp i had so we traded i hoped i could maybe use my working amp back and forth to maybe trouble shoot his bad one.

I even took the main board out and looked at the top side to see if i could see any bad solder connections or any burn spots on the board or a bad socket it was a pita but the amp imo is worth getting running it sounds great.

When i said i suspected he tripped over the cable or maybe dropped his guitar or something to jerk the cable to break the tip off and i thought maybe when that happened it may of jerked the output jack from the back also putting it into a no load situation.

Another thing i tried was a different output, im not sure which output he used i tried the 16 and 8 ohm tap thinking maybe it burnt part of the output transformer but when i plugged the guitar into the return and it sounded normal it makes me think its in the preamp section

 

[BowerR64]

So you plug into the efxreturn and get reasonably good, loud sound?

And your guy yanked the cable which violated the input?

After this incident the amp wasn't right?

I take a wild guess and say the inputjack just might be kaputt?

Try re-soldering or re-placing it.

I may go ahead and try that, i looked really close at the input jack when i took the board out and it seems fine but it still could be broke inside i guess. Both of the little tabs lift up and seem fine when i push a jack in and the solder connections look good. Maybe ill just use some leads and try connecting them where the traces lead to.

What puzzles me is there is a faint sound on the dirty channel when its up pretty loud as if its getting some signal from somewhere. Im going to order a signal tracer and go back and forth with both amps

I believe this amp is a version of an 800 with a few little tweaks is what ive read

 

[danfrank]

KRANK... Worst amps ever! Build quality is dismal. The trailer trash of the amp world...
Lol...
I know that doesn't help you but it is very hard to diagnose what's wrong with an amp over the internet...
Good luck with it.

 

[BowerR64]

KRANK... Worst amps ever! Build quality is dismal. The trailer trash of the amp world...
Lol...
I know that doesn't help you but it is very hard to diagnose what's wrong with an amp over the internet...
Good luck with it.

I dont have the kind of money you guys have, i have to get the wana bee marshall amps like this one. When i got mine 10 years ago it was around $500. real 800s were still well over 3 times that now everything is WAY out of reach.

 

[PelliX]

I suspect when he jerked the input cable he pulled the cable from the output and maybe blew one of the taps for the output transformer but when i hook a guitar straight into the return it sounds ok.

Then it's not the output transformer - which is good.

Another thing i tried was a different output, im not sure which output he used i tried the 16 and 8 ohm tap thinking maybe it burnt part of the output transformer but when i plugged the guitar into the return and it sounded normal it makes me think its in the preamp section

Absolutely. Can you snap a gutshot so we can triangulate what might have gone wrong? I'd expect a dodgy jack connection like Tatz suggested or the board developed a crack. A picture might say a thousand words here. The good news is, it's probably not all too bad/hard to fix.

 

[PelliX]

KRANK... Worst amps ever! Build quality is dismal. The trailer trash of the amp world...
Lol...
I know that doesn't help you but it is very hard to diagnose what's wrong with an amp over the internet...
Good luck with it.

Aw, don't be Kranky...