Accessing Damages to an Amp Head.

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ShanPeyton

ShanPeyton

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I ah, got this friend, and uh, he may have spilled a glass of A&W Root Beer in is workspace, and um, he told me he thinks some got down inside his venting holes on top of his GK Bass Head. He, uh, doesn't have the, um internet yea, he doesn't have the internet, so he, asked me to post this up for him to get some suggestions on how to go about accessing the damage or cleaning the ,um, soiled amp head.

There wasn't a lot. It wasn't a "direct hit" it was more just alot of splatter, or, so he told me anyway.

Anyone got any tips or suggests for me. . . to pass on to him that is of course.
 
Unless he knows what he is doing with electronics, I would not advise him to open up the amp to check it out. There are power capacitors that hold a charge and can kill!

Tell him to use a hair dryer pointed into those vent holes for a short while to dry any residue out - if it was just a splatter, it probalby already is dried out.
Then plug the amp into a power strip with a circuit breaker. Turn the amp on. Leave it on for a while and see if it starts smoking (burning away the root beer residue or ruined copmonents) or worse.
 
well, if it was water I'd agree but root beer might be conductive even when it dries out. He really needs to clean it off any circuit board traces with some kind of contact cleaner before powering it up IF any got in there. So at the least he should pop the top and look in there just to see ...... just don't go shoving your hands in there..

First ..... was it running when he spilled the root beer?
If it was not on then it's not damaged. Root beer isn't gonna immediately eat away components or dissolve traces or anything so if it wasn't powered up then there's no damage to assess.

IF it was on then my question would be did it continue to operate normally?
If so then again there's no damage.

I'd pop that sucker open and check to see if there's any residue on anything and clean the crap outta any I saw with DeOxit but any contact cleaner or even alcohol will work.

Those big can shaped things in there? Don't stick your tongue or any other part of your body on them.
If there's no residue other than on the chassis then do nothing ..... close it back up and you're fine.

IF there's root beer on circuits then IF you can easily get to them without getting near the big caps carefully clean it off.
If it's close enough to the caps where you don't think you can avoid touching them you'll need to drain them with a resistor and wire.
There's plenty of tutorials on how to do it ...... it's not hard and the dangers, while they exist, tend to be overstated in this nanny sort of world. You definitely don't want to get bit ..... believe me ..... it hurts and will also probably make you jerk your hand back so hard you'll bang it into something or even your face! :D

But I find it unlikely that any competent person could electrocute hisself simply by opening up the cab to see if any rootbeer got in.
 
But I find it unlikely that any competent person could electrocute hisself simply by opening up the cab to see if any rootbeer got in.

Is a clown who spilled root beer into the top of an amp really classified 'competent'? :spank:
 
At least it didn't happen at a gig. Now you know to put your drink far away from bass amps.
 
Bass player to the drummer: "Isn't it cool how my glass jumps around when I hit the low E string?" :thumbs up:
 
I'm with the LT, just opening it up and using a rag to clean the board and any components is safe. Just don't go pushing or pulling anything in there. It's hard to electrocute yourself unless you start disconnecting things. But, do be careful and don't touch anything if you're not comfortable.
 
Thanks guys. Sorry i didn't reply sooner but i pretty much read Lt. Bobs reply and went and checked on this asap. This amp was in fact off when the root beer spilt (yes it was root beer, i am not kidding sometimes in life one just wants a glass of root beer) I didn't however turn it on after the initial spill. I did open it up and have look and i think the vent holes were designed with liquid spills in mind. Small ones obviously. There was two small but noticeable pools of congealed syrup on the bottom of the amp and there is no sign of dried soda syrup anywhere on the circuit boards or all that lego looking stuff that makes up the amp.

Crisis Averted. Thanks everyone.
 
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