Serious problem with my bass head...

[-=Squid=-]

Musikman, this one's for you.

Ok, so I had a gig last night (Shameless plug: www.americainminor.com) and about halfway through the first song, my amp just cuts out. Like the trooper I am, I keep playing while one of my guys runs back and tries to figgure it out. Well, looks like the fuse blew. He, not knowing that they were two different fuses and one was not a replacement, switches them.

The light flickers, and of course, it immediately blows. I use another bands amp and finish out the set.

We had my amp (500 watt hartke) and my guitarists (350 watt crate) plugged into one strip. It was not supposed to be in the same strip, dunno why it was. Anyways... I dunno if that would have anything to do with it.

Today I pull out the manual and it says that one is for 115 volt (the 10 amp fuse) and one is for 230 volt (6.2 amp fuse), and I am running 115 volt, so I get 10 amp fuses and put one it. It immediately blows. Come to find out what was in the amp already was 12 amp and 6 amp fuses, not what the manual says. I am also unsure if I need both fuses, or just the one which correspondes to the voltage I have my amp set to.

I am going to get some 12 and 6 amp fuses tomorrow morning, but because I am worried about it (I have 5 more shows this month and NEED this amp) I want to know if maybe my power amp could be fried, or if more than likely it is just my fuses.. Also, are both fuses required or not?

Sorry for the lengthiness of this post, but if you could help I would be much obliged. If you have any idea on the above questions, or why this would happen at all, please let me know.

Thanks.

[InfinatyBPS]

I can't help you out with ur bass issue, but I listened to your music, and I like the music alot, the only thing I don't like is that emo sounding vocalist. I have nothing against emo or any poppunk bands, I like blink, dashboard confessional and all the various alternative/emo stuff and everything, but ummm... growling and some death metalish guitar and drumming and then some dashboard confessional sounding, whiney, singing voice dosen't really go too well. It sounds like someone is messing around with a mixing board and playing emo on one side and mixing metal with it. I think you guys would be great if you can get your vocalist to take some singing lessons or try to find a different style of singing. Just my suggestion because his voice sounds just like every other emo band's vocalist, its not good to be to alike with everyone else you know? If your trying to incorperate some emotional singing with your growling/screaming, I reccomend checking out some Opeth songs, they do a great job of doing just that. I think that that is a big problem with alot of local metal bands getting big, they either just growl or try to do punk/emo vocalists in their metal songs, and metal heads don't like emo usually(I'm weird) But keep up the good work and good luck with your bass.

PS: Sorry if this isn't composed very well, I smoked too much crack last night.

[Muzikman]

First, confirm that your amp is infact set to 110/120v. It should already be, but just double check.

Second, you do not "need" both fuses unless you should ever want to run your amp off of a 220/230v power.

Now, I am not sure of your exact model, so I can not tell you what fuse rating you will want to use. The fact that you plugged the thing into a strip plug would not cause you to blow a fuse, but, I would suggest never plugging amps into a strip plug. Effects processors would be ok, but I always suggest an amp be plugged directly into a wall outlet using a good extention cord (something designed for power tools). I would try and replace the fuse(s) with the correct rating ones and try it again. If it blows, then you very well might have a bad power supply. I have seen it many times before so it wouldn't supprise me. A new PS should not cost too much and most music shops can replace it. Also, it's not a bad idea to carry extra fuses. I would put them in an envelope and duct tape it to the amp some place where they will not get broke.

[-=Squid=-]

First, confirm that your amp is infact set to 110/120v. It should already be, but just double check.

Second, you do not "need" both fuses unless you should ever want to run your amp off of a 220/230v power.

Now, I am not sure of your exact model, so I can not tell you what fuse rating you will want to use. The fact that you plugged the thing into a strip plug would not cause you to blow a fuse, but, I would suggest never plugging amps into a strip plug. Effects processors would be ok, but I always suggest an amp be plugged directly into a wall outlet using a good extention cord (something designed for power tools). I would try and replace the fuse(s) with the correct rating ones and try it again. If it blows, then you very well might have a bad power supply. I have seen it many times before so it wouldn't supprise me. A new PS should not cost too much and most music shops can replace it. Also, it's not a bad idea to carry extra fuses. I would put them in an envelope and duct tape it to the amp some place where they will not get broke.

Well... After dealing with those people at Hartke for about an hour I finally got a number for a place within a couple hours that can fix it.

They were very helpful, and I got it mailed it yesterday afternoon. It's in transit and they will have it today. They said they can have it back up and running before our next show... so within the week.

I also just ordered a new rack. So let's all be happy.