Egnater Tweaker 15 shorted PT

DJH83004

First job of the day, Tweaker 15 PT with shorted primary, not exactly a high degree of electrical separation me thinks :-)

  

ICBM

I had a Tweaker 40 in the shop a few weeks ago the same, and I've heard of a lot more too… seems like a common problem.

Was that all it was and fixable? The one I had was much worse than that.

kjdowd

Just got hold of a tweaker 40 at a very good price. Mine has the updated PT (and a fan) but I figure that given the price I got it at it will still represent a good deal even if I have to get a new PT put in. Was that the fix on the one you saw @ICBM? ;

DJH83004

@ICBM to be honest it came in blowing mains fuses, and this is as far as I've got, just started to try and source a replacement, I think MM do a drop in one - but any help on finding one in the UK appreciated. 

velvetsky01

yep I had a tweaker 40 PT go on me too! very common issue with them - we replaced this with a MM one. I am amazed andertons now stock them

not_the_dj

My Tweaker 40 also blew it's PT. 

Really put me off the brand as it was a pain getting it fixed (in the end GuitarGuitar took one out of an unsold combo they had and sold that to me for my tech to fit).

kjdowd

@not_the_dj @velvetsky01 - do you remember the make of the PT that blew? I'm told that mine has the updated one in it (and it has certainly got a fan which is part of the 'official' fix) but I'm wondering whether I just get an MM one to avoid any potential issues. Mine has an Elite transformer.

I'm loving the sounds I can get out of it, so keen to make it reliable!

ICBM

kjdowd said:

Just got hold of a tweaker 40 at a very good price. Mine has the updated PT (and a fan) but I figure that given the price I got it at it will still represent a good deal even if I have to get a new PT put in. Was that the fix on the one you saw @ICBM? ;

I don't know, the owner didn't like the size of the repair estimate and took it away. He'd bought it as "not working" on Ebay - what the seller didn't tell him was that it was not only not working, it had already been thoroughly investigated and the seller knew exactly what the problem was…

I don't like valve amps with fans, they should be unnecessary in a properly-designed and spec'ed amp. (Apart from some rack-mounts and others with very enclosed casings.)

DJH83004 said:

@ICBM to be honest it came in blowing mains fuses, and this is as far as I've got

I just wondered if literally the cause of the problem was those exposed joints touching each other. It wasn't on the one I looked at, someone had already cut it open further than that.

DJH83004

@ICBM no the joints weren't actually shorting, it is the windings that are shorted, the photo was just to illustrate the poor quality of the transformer in general. Just been checking the prices of the MM drop-in PTs, I hope the customer is sitting down..... :-)

velvetsky01

kjdowd said:

@not_the_dj @velvetsky01 - do you remember the make of the PT that blew? I'm told that mine has the updated one in it (and it has certainly got a fan which is part of the 'official' fix) but I'm wondering whether I just get an MM one to avoid any potential issues. Mine has an Elite transformer.

I'm loving the sounds I can get out of it, so keen to make it reliable!

oh no sorry I don't - it was just the original one

I replaced it with the MM one and then sold it on

ICBM

DJH83004 said:

Just been checking the prices of the MM drop-in PTs, I hope the customer is sitting down..... :-)

My one should have been, he ran away!

kjdowd

ICBM said:

DJH83004 said:

Just been checking the prices of the MM drop-in PTs, I hope the customer is sitting down..... :-)

My one should have been, he ran away!

The MM transformer isn't *that* much money when you consider the purchase price of the amp (especially if you get a decent deal). However, I suppose the counter argument is that they should have put proper components in in the first place and sold it for a slightly higher price!

jpfamps

That transformer is poor. I would be surprised if it actually meets the regs. 

Most mains transformers are wound on a dual chamber bobbin these days. It's much harder to get a concentrically wound PT to meet the necessary approvals.

DJH83004

Would you believe, totally by chance I have had another one in today from a local rehearsal room, with exactly the same fault!

ICBM

lol

No more unbelievable than having two Blues Juniors in the shop last week, or two Marshall DSLs, or fifty-five Ashdown bass amps.

OK one of those might be *slight* exaggeration…

DJH83004

Yep, fair point, not so unusual when amps have a generic problem. To be honest I had never seen one in the flesh before, then I get two in together, still haven't a clue what they sound like mind :-) 

ICBM

DJH83004 said:

Yep, fair point, not so unusual when amps have a generic problem. To be honest I had never seen one in the flesh before, then I get two in together, still haven't a clue what they sound like mind :-) 

The weird thing is that repair work goes like this. I remember the week in the shop when we had three Guild guitars with broken headstocks in at the same time. I'm not sure I've seen another three, all told…

Apart from Gibson headstocks - there's pretty much always at least one of those in.

The Tweakers sound great, when they're working. A seriously versatile amp for such a relatively simple circuit, and really good-sounding too.

martinw

ICBM said:

DJH83004 said:

Yep, fair point, not so unusual when amps have a generic problem. To be honest I had never seen one in the flesh before, then I get two in together, still haven't a clue what they sound like mind :-) 

The weird thing is that repair work goes like this. I remember the week in the shop when we had three Guild guitars with broken headstocks in at the same time. I'm not sure I've seen another three, all told…

I've had a few of those. I once had 2 solid state AC30s in for repair at the same time, then I'll go years without seeing one.

I once had 2 Marshall Superbasses in at once. Not that unusual maybe, but what are the chances of both of them being owned and used by bass players?

jpfamps

Had 5 Ampeg Gemini in at the same time once. Although to me fair they were from the same customer.

olafgarten

ICBM;1062670" said:

lol

No more unbelievable than having two Blues Juniors in the shop last week, or two Marshall DSLs, or fifty-five Ashdown bass amps.

















OK one of those might be *slight* exaggeration…

I see, it's very rare to have more than one Marshall DSL at one time...

ThePrettyDamned

I really liked the tweaked I tried but was put off by reliability reports.

Such a shame. If they built it right, for the sounds on offer they could charge a bit more I reckon.