Damaged Quicksand

[oguinn]

Today in a little bit of a huff I tried knocking a dowel into a piece of wood with a hammer on the table my combo quicksand/quickie is sitting on. At first there was what sounded like a skipping CD sort of pattern, and now it won’t play anything out of the right channel and only clicks, about 2 per second, out of the left channel.

I did the chopstick test but came up empty. Any suggestions on what to look at? It’s not a hugely complex build, I guess, but it seems like there’s a problem with the opamp?

[Paul Birkeland]

You can pull the amp out of the socket and replace it.

[oguinn]

I did do that with no change, should have mentioned that

[Paul Birkeland]

Are the batteries well seated? Dead? 

There could just be a loose connection.

[oguinn]

They seemed well-seated. I’ll check the battery wiring tomorrow. I don’t think they’re dead; the timing would be a huge coincidence given that it seemed like a response to the vibrations from hammering.

I assume there’s very little likelihood the amp itself died from the vibration or ringing from the Quickie’s tubes or anything, right?

[Paul Birkeland]

It's most likely that a dodgy connection rattled loose.

[oguinn]

Just pulled the board out and resoldered everything, then ran new wire to many parts of the amp. Seems to be working.

Question: do you guys have any spare boards for this or the Quickie running around? I lifted some of the pads off when reheating the board and was able to use adjacent holes for those, but subsequent repairs (should they be necessary) are going to be really difficult.

[Paul Birkeland]

I can look around, I might have some spare boards, or we may have simply sold them out.

[oguinn]

Yeah let me know. I’ve retired this combo quicksand and quickie from shop duty until I can get it into a less vibration-prone spot, but it’d be nice to have some backups just in case.

[Doc B.]

I see a few chips and sockets in a box in the warehouse, but there are no more boards.

[oguinn]

Ah well. Shoulda kept that second pair of each instead of selling them. Thanks Doc