Tales from the amplifier dungeons in the Swedish woods

[BJF]

Hi,

As noted on another thread one might think Sweden is small and on a scale of coincidences both Ola and Himmelstrutz and myself all at one time worked in the dungeons of EBS. Myself I never worked for Big Benny but I guess I am still at their list of applicants.

Maybe there are some fun stories to tell?

I can think of some hehehe......

An invitation to fun stories of amplifier repairs

Have fun
BJ

[Donner]

Hahahah!!!

Well this could be big fun !!!

Sounds like someone needs to have a talk with EBS about thier selection process

[Himmelstrutz]

Once a HUGE electrolytic capacitor - for the power supply in one of their early rack power amps that I don't remember the name of, mounted wrong (shifted polarity) - BLEW up in my face because I missed to use the Variac. Most of that electrolytic juice went into my eyes, most in the right one. St. Eriks Eye Clinic in Stockholm was step 2 and I was sure blindness was step 3. But no, I can still see a bit.

[Donner]

....ah not so funny, very sorry to hear that CJ , but very interesting....

how long ago did this happen and is that part of the reason for the Sunglasses ??

[Himmelstrutz]

What I can remember it was in the summer of 97, but has nothing to do with the glasses. The glasses is used because I look so much better in them than without. Also because I got them from a dear friend on my 30's birthday; he told me they were the real ones, he bought them from Elvis and the brown paper that hangs on them is the "?kthetsbevis" (authentic proof). Of course I believe him.

Don't think I remember so much more from the EBS time, maybe because of the electrolytic explosion.

[BJF]

HI,

I am most sorry to hear about that Himmelstrutz. Yes I have repaired such poweramps and those E-lytics are quite hefty-yikes!

Actually, that's the kind of amps, you'd put on safetyhelmet and hide behind a desk and flip the powerswitch with the longest broomstick you can find.....and wait for it to explode.
That has happened just like that though I believe the amplifier was of another make and in another dungeon.

It is possible I was told about the explosion at the time, don't remember, but I started working for them summer of 2000 I think.

However

One of my first asignments was to fix two poweramps that had been sitting a long time and many had looked at them making all kinds of tests and changed the power trannies several times............
Ok so if I'd fix those I'd get the job or well I guess I could have said no, but.......

Anyway since all kinds of tests had allready been done and those had some hefty power as they were and one side lay flat on the variac so there was no use in powering them up.

Circuit showed that they could be powered up without blowing fuses if powertrannies were removed and problem could then be traced to a multilayer ceramic cap that filtered a bias system but that had changed sides and made resistans at about 400 Ohms, and I found it through comparitive resistans measurements no power applied.
Later I learnt from my local submarine engineer that this type of cap was rejected by the defense from possible breakthrough behaviour, while that was ofcourse not public information when those amps were made.

You bet I was very careful and only ran full power when I knew it could be done- actually those amps suggested different faultfinding methods.

One of the more fun moments was shouting:' Not enough distortion-Think Lemmy!' to the technical director after having tried the first prototype of their Multi drive. It got to be a really tasty distortion overdrive though also for guitar a day or so later.

The technical director is a fun guy and we'd chat a bit now and then and then he asked me what transistors I was using in Baby Blue OD.............No I don't tell people what parts I use but I told the Baby Blue was made for a specific function and one you could see also on a scope and I described how that would look
The next day technical director asked me to look at a new transistor rack mount amplifier and showed me the scope picture asking if I mean like that...........which of course was the case.

But it was fun and many laughters.


Ah, you got a pair of authetic Elvis shades,cool.

Funny I got a pair of sunglasses too when turning 30, but those were in the style of the saddest of them all.

Have fun
BJ

[Himmelstrutz]

Yes, the technical director is a cool guy. And in my opinion very all around when it comes to technical knowledge (all kind of electronics, electronics simulation, cad, artwork etc). And I don't think I've seen anyone smoking as many cigarettes as he did. But this was in a time when you didn't get yelled at when you fired up a cigarette