Cube 80XL - Internal Fuse?

[Lee Baucum]

Last night, we played at a backyard birthday party. They had a nice, new covered patio, next to the pool, were we were to set up. The guests had a big covered patio next to the back entrance to the home.

As we were setting up, our bass player (he also provides the p.a.) started setting up the p.a. and running power cables to both sides of the "bandstand". I plugged in my power strip to the cable he ran over to my side. Plugged in to the power strip were: reverb pedal, delay pedal, Peterson tuner, Cube 80XL amp.

All was well. Everything working fine.

Our guitar player set up his Fender tube amp, along with his pedal board, which has about 6 or 8 pedals. Everything working fine.

There was a pretty brisk wind blowing out of the north, so I decided to hike back out to where I was parked (large property) and get my jacket.

When I returned, there was an issue. The guitar player's Fender amp wasn't working. His pedal board was all lit up; but, the amp wasn't working.

I looked at my amp. Same thing. The amp wasn't working; but, the two f/x pedals and tuner were all lit up.

The guitar player pulled the fuse in his Fender amp and could see that it was blown. He replaced the fuse and all was well again.

I unplugged my Cube and carried it over to the power source, at one corner of the covered patio where we were set up, plugged it in. Nothing. Dead.

Thankfully, I always carry another Cube 80XL on the floor of the back seat of my car, as a backup for whichever amp I'm using.

I was happy to see that it was working fine and used it for the event. No further electrical problems for any of us.



So....do any of you know if there is some sort of internal fuse on the Cube 80XL? There isn't anything on the outside.

This is (was) a pretty inexpensive amp and I don't know if it is worth repairing.

[Mike Auman]

According to the schematic, there are two fuses for AC, and three more for DC. All are MRT type, which are usually soldered onto the PCB (it is possible, but not likely, that they're in sockets and can be pulled by hand.) If you're not handy with a soldering iron, you'll probably want a tech to find and replace the one(s) blown, with the same value. They're the size of a small capacitor, and look something like this. They don't look any different when they're blown.

[Lee Baucum]

To Mike, in North Texas

Thanks!

From Lee, in South Texas

[Lee Baucum]

Well, I got a pleasant surprise from the amp tech at our local music store, Melhart Music Center. I had dropped off my amp with him a little over a week ago. A few days later, he called me to let me know that the amp was repaired and ready for pickup. I picked it up this past Saturday afternoon. All is well and it is working just fine.

He said the fuses were blown; however, they didn't blow quickly enough to prevent damage to a couple of other modules in the amp. He ascertained which modules needed replacing and checked out a dead Cube amp that he had at the shop. Thankfully, the modules he needed were the same components that were in the amp he had in storage at the shop. He did tell me that those modules are still readily available from some electronics parts house here in Texas.

He charged me a whopping $85 for his labor and nothing for the parts. I'm happy!

[Larry Dering]

Sweet deal on repairs. Glad you got it going.