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Topic: Question Regarding a Peavey Artist VT Issue |
Don Mogle
From:
Round Rock, TX, USA
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Posted 27 Mar 2019 9:10 pm |
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Hi Everyone!
Here's an electronics question for any of you gurus out there--Brad Sarno, Ken Fox, Tim Marcus, Jack Stoner, Jim Schiff or anyone else with the knowledge and experience to answer the questions...
I have a deal pending on a Peavey Artist VT that has some obvious issues to be addressed such as a broken treble knob. Tolex looks good. The owner replaced the tunes three years ago with Mesa Boogie 6L6s. The chassis itself looks nice and clean. From the looks of it, I cant see a lot of hard road use. Looks like a great amp at a real bargain.
I played it tonight and the thing worked pretty well for awhile and then started to distort. Can faulty electronics blow-out an output tube if something is not right inside the amp?
I don't know if it's a blown speaker (1501--4 ohm BW) or something electronic on the inside. If you look inside past the screen on back of the BW 1501, there's this little black piece of material rolling around. It looks to be some kind of filter screen or something. Could this be a cause for any of the distortion problem? Just a thought...don't think this is the real issue though.
Here's my main question: can the electronics be bypassed in a way so you don't need the footswitch to activate the reverb or channel switching in the Artist VT? In other words, could the wiring be bypassed to act more like a Fender Twin with two channels (and reverb in both channels) obviating the need for a footswitch altogether? Here's a link to the wiring schematic for the Artist VT:
https://f01.justanswer.com/TdbyOzvN/Artist_VT_schematic.pdf
It didn't come with the footswitch and a new replacement is around $80+ on Ebay. I don't want to tie up a lot of money in this amp. I'd like to be able to not have to use a footswitch at all!
This looks to be an 1978 model so I'm sure some caps or resistors may be out of spec and need to be replaced. I understand this fact.
Any and all advice is great appreciated.
Thanks,
Don
Last edited by Don Mogle on 28 Mar 2019 4:15 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bill Terry
From:
Bastrop, TX
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Posted 28 Mar 2019 5:39 am
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| Quote: |
| If you look inside past the screen on back of the BW 1501, there's this little black piece of material rolling around. It looks to be some kind of filter screen or something. Could this be a cause for any of the distortion problem. |
That's definitely a potential cause of distortion. That foam filter disintegrates over time and turns into this 'goo' that gets in the voice coil gap. This causes a rub and a distorted sound. This is a well documented problem, there have been several posts about it, and how to clean it up. It's something you can do yourself.
I'm not sure about the footswitch, but those are mechanical switches, i.e. either open or closed, not momentary. Seems like you should be able to permanently make/break the appropriate connection permanently on the PCB? A good tech should be able to figure it out with the schematics. |
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ajm
From:
Los Angeles
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Posted 29 Mar 2019 8:53 am
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Something else to consider............
This amp is probably 30 years old.
I don't know how much of a "deal" you are getting, especially for an amp that doesn't work right and needs some repairs.
However, you may be drawn to this amp for some reason.
Or you may like to fix things up.
To each their own.
But even if it's working right, it realistically probably isn't worth a lot. |
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Tim Whitlock
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2019 9:12 am
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| ajm wrote: |
Something else to consider............
This amp is probably 30 years old.
I don't know how much of a "deal" you are getting, especially for an amp that doesn't work right and needs some repairs.
However, you may be drawn to this amp for some reason.
Or you may like to fix things up.
To each their own.
But even if it's working right, it realistically probably isn't worth a lot. |
I agree with ajm. I had one of these amps from my guitar playing days in the 80s. Pretty good all around amp but nothing remarkable. I used it for a while when I first started playing steel - it was decent. They come up on Craigslist pretty frequently. I might pay $200 tops for one in good working order. I don't think I'd even consider one that wasn't. |
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