Repair Egnater 4100 Tourmaster 6L6 100 watt tube guitar amp by D-lab

[@BoltOnRon]

I had one of those and the transformer of mine shorted too. Fortunately mine still had a month of warranty left so the cost was covered under warranty and when I got it back it sounded even better than new. Best sounding amp of all the amps I have ever owned

[@SmoothSentiment]

Great troubleshooting lesson. Look for the obvious and 4 out of 5 times the answer will jump out you. Thanks D-lab Electronics for the great video.

[@Wizardofgosz]

I've got a friend with that same amp. He was quite proud of it. Especially that torroidal power transformer. He brought it into the studio to make a record and we used it for clean tones, but our JCM800s had much better dirty tones. Bruce Egnater designed that to have dirty channels that sounded british, and clean channels that sounded american. Well to my ear, he got it half right.

[@johncunningham5435]

Excellent example of a fast diagnostic approach to troubleshooting within minutes.

[@MuscleDad420]

Howdy Terry, Bruce Egnater farmed out amps to be made in China under his company's name, using his designs, and distributed exclusively by Guitar Center stores years back. They had issues with defective power transformers in a variety of their amp line early on that would be routinely replaced free of charge if the amp was under warranty. I wouldn't trash all PCB-based amps. As I'm sure you know, if the design is sound then you only need to worry about solder joints, especially if it's an amp that is sold in Europe and has to meet ROHS standards (lead free solder). Subscribed to your vids as it's always nice to learn a thing or two from hobbyists and professionals alike here on KZbin. Cheers!

[@d-labelectronics]

+MuscleDad420 kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYKskqCmhbZ4n5I Transformer has been replaced successfully.

[@MuscleDad420]

+Terry Dayton good news! can't wait to watch. Maybe with some coffee after I wrap up billm mods and bad fil cap replacements on this blues jr on the bench. :)

[@trimembracion]

Great video. what kind of fuses does it use?

[@countzero5150]

I really wanted one of these. I was even about to buy one but it turned out it's reverb wasn't working, a quick search of troubleshooting it led me down a rabbit hole of issues with the egnater amps. A real bummer, I love everything about the 4100 but I can't bring myself to roll the dice on one

[@KevinSmith-jp3vn]

Where did you get a replacement transformer ?

[@simonkormendy849]

There's a few reasons why PCBs were invented, firstly they reduce/eliminate wiring errors, secondly they reduce manufacturing costs, they don't really do much for serviceability.

[@brandondaily4167]

"I will not recommend repairing it to the customer." Hmmm, not sure it's great advice to trash a $1,500 amp, then go spend another $2,000+ on a new hand wired amp, rather than replacing a $300 power transformer. There are plenty of Tourmasters performing nicely with replacement transformers. The vast majority of amps on the market now are PCB based. They work fine, I've toured with 'em for 20 years. Hand wired is great but unnecessary.

[@d-labelectronics]

+Brandon Daily kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYKskqCmhbZ4n5I The new transformer has arrived. Transplant was successful. Thanks for sticking with me. The repair was worth it.

[@brandondaily4167]

+Terry Dayton Thanks for the update, glad to hear it worked out!

[@sa230e]

Where do you find a variac with an ammeter like that one? All the ones I've seen only had a voltmeter. Did you mod it?

[@d-labelectronics]

That was a hand built unit. I made it back in 1984 sitting outside of my apartment, drinking a Miller light!

[@howardrose8481]

“Bit the farm”. May I quote you?

[@stphinkle]

That tube amp also had another unusual board, one that contained integrated circuits.

[@kd5ozy]

Rewind that toroid. Is the primary on the outside winding?

[@d-labelectronics]

+James skippinhopper It appears that the Primary is OK. The secondary's look shorted

[@simonkormendy849]

The question is, what caused the short-circuit in the HT secondary of that power transformer in the first place?, something caused it, and, if you just replaced the power transformer with a $300 new one, there's a chance that the HT secondary winding of the new transformer might end-up developing a short-circuit, so, the first thing I would do is find out what caused the short-circuit in the old power transformer, fix the cause, and then replace the old power transformer with a new one, PCBs are a pain to service cause you either have to completely remove it, or you're forever flipping it over to gain access to the solder-joints, this takes time to do, which increases the cost of the repair, with Fender style eyelet boards, and Turret boards, you simply de-solder the faulty component and solder-in a new one.

[@bmwm3cs]

What would they use a toroidal transformer?

[@d-labelectronics]

+bmwm3cs No idea, maybe because it looks cool?

[@d-labelectronics]

+sporadic -Z Good idea, I will contact them and see if they are willing to help out

[@dhpbear2]

No fewer than *28( PC-mounted pots - Oh, joy!

[@Scribaux]

Thank you Terry for the variac tip! One question, isn t it "risky" to test the transformer with variac without no load on the secondary ( i mean risky for the transformer) ? Or are the small amount of current and voltage sent by the variac so small (but enough to control if the transformer worked, if it had worked) that it would not damage the pt?

[@d-labelectronics]

+Scribaux Amps Hello, Thanks for the question. No problem running a power transformer on a variac with no load. If the transformer was OK, then you would have to be careful of the secondary voltage level. I mainly use a variac to search out shorts. After it clears, I remove it. The nice thing about a variac is protection of circuits/fuses/etc when troubleshooting.

[@Scribaux]

+Terry Dayton ok, thanks for the answer, Terry

[@stphinkle]

The power reciptacle on that one looks like the same one that is used on desktop computers.

[@HandelOp6No5]

Don't throw that amp out. Mercury Magnetics has the replacement transformer for $313.00 in 2020.

[@johnmiller9219]

your an electronic wizard my friend

[@creightonha8725]

I like that shirt d-lab. Phat!

[@3MonkeysGarage]

Not much to do with your video, But Egnater in general. It's a shame his name gets such a bad rap. The guy was a genius when it comes to amps. I was working on an idea several years ago for a swappable preamp section. Slide in like old atari cartridges. Pre amp, tube whatever. with their own controls. You have one big output section and slide in whatever tone you want. Was really getting into the final plans, then discovered this guy had already done it. Blew the winds out of my sails pretty fast. All that said, I generally lean against pcb builds, some are much worse than others. Marshall being on the lower end of likeability with their stacking. Peavey classic 30 and that mess of a Fender Bassbreaker tied for the worst. But I don't see anything particularly terrible about Egnaters in this sense. However, have not played on one, so maybe they sound horrible or something. But, with a bit of humor, how they sound is generally the easiest thing to change. Buying the stack of parts to make one, that is the tough part.

[@RobertKohut]

Nice!

[@camccarron]

Egnater amps all have power tranny problems . A friend of mine had his replaced twice ! GARBAGE !

[@d-labelectronics]

+Chris McCarron Not good, I just ordered this one at $225.00!