are Tube MPs *supposed* to catch on fire?

R

Russtopher

New member
Obviously I know the correct answer is NO. Yesterday I plugged in my Tube MP Project Series, didn't have any mics or cables plugged into it, all gain/output knobs turned down to 0, etc. I only had it powered up, and then about a minute later I hear "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht". I looked at the box, saw an orange glow coming from the inside, and smoke pouring out of the top of the box. Needless to say, my basement den stunk for a while.

What the hell was that, the fake tube dying? I don't think I even have 10 hours of use with this box, most likely more like 8. Should I bother contacting ART or should I just write it off as $50 wasted on crap?
 
If you could see the tube glowing orange, it sounds like the heaters were getting too much voltage, which is a pretty severe problem. It probably toasted a voltage regulator along the way, which would have gotten really hot and could have given off the smoke, or caused something else to.

I would contact ART if the unit is under warranty.
 
I filled out the form on ART's site for warranty repair since it's been less than a year of ownership. We'll see what they say. Sadly, this is the second ART unit I've seen literally go up in smoke over the past few years, I was borrowing a friend's rackmount all-in-one ART unit a few years ago when that sucker died on me too.
 
Definitely contact ART, whether it is under warranty or not. That's the kind of problem they would want to know about, and I'd be really surprised if they didn't take care of you well.
 
I smoked two of them but discovered later that I plugged in the wrong power adapter. Wrong voltage, I guess. :rolleyes:

Yeah, sharp as a bowling ball......that's me. :cool:
 
Dogbreath said:
I smoked two of them but discovered later that I plugged in the wrong power adapter. Wrong voltage, I guess. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's why I label my power adapters. Just a little stick-on label with the name of the gear it powers. That has saved a *lot* of guess-work, and probably saved me from some burned up gear as well!
 
Dogbreath said:
I smoked two of them but discovered later that I plugged in the wrong power adapter. Wrong voltage, I guess. :rolleyes:

Yeah, sharp as a bowling ball......that's me. :cool:
Click to expand...

That was my first thought/worry as well :-) But I checked the power adapter, and it indeed was the correct one, I store them together in the same cabinet and the only other power adapter is for my FireBox and it's clearly labeled PRESONUS. So that wasn't it.

I'll update the thread if/when I hear back from ART.
 
Quick Followup

Just a quick note, I received an email from ART the same day I submitted the RMA form, apologizing for the problem and saying that DEFINITELY should not have happened. They gave me RMA info and I shipped it back, so we'll see what happens from here.
 
yeah...they'll hook you up with a new one...

if you smoke that...i'd suggest getting your electric looked at...because plenty of people use these without smoking them...
 
now THAT is what I call getting a colorful sound...

Now I'm no fan of most ART stuff, but I've never heard of them catching fire before :eek:
 
Dogbreath said:
I smoked two of them but discovered later that I plugged in the wrong power adapter. Wrong voltage, I guess. :rolleyes:

Yeah, sharp as a bowling ball......that's me. :cool:
Click to expand...

Yeah - I'd say this thread poster either got his wall-warts mixed up, or he received a defective wallwart, or he received a wallwart for the wrong voltage (such as the 100v version used for Japan, which fits into the U.S. 117v AC outlet), or something else. It's hard for be to believe that a correctly functioning Tube MP wallwart could deliver enough current to burn up a Tube MP preamp.
 
kid klash said:
Yeah - I'd say this thread poster either got his wall-warts mixed up, or he received a defective wallwart, or he received a wallwart for the wrong voltage (such as the 100v version used for Japan, which fits into the U.S. 117v AC outlet), or something else. It's hard for be to believe that a correctly functioning Tube MP wallwart could deliver enough current to burn up a Tube MP preamp.
Click to expand...

Like I mentioned earlier, only 2 wall warts in the cabinet I stored the ART in, and when I grabbed the wall wart to ship back, I confirmed it was the right one. The one for the FireBox was still wrapped up in far back of the cabinet since I've only used it once.

I plugged it into the surge protector (not a UPS, I know) that my PC is also plugged into, everything else on that strip has been working fine, and every other time I used the ART it powered up and worked OK.

In any event, we'll see what they say!
 
You do know what you did and why it stopped working right? Well everything electrical runs on smoke, once you let the smoke out its gonna stop working and you will have one heck of a time getting the smoke back into the thing. At least that is my findings.
 
Speaking of catching fire, my neighbor plugged into a Plexi at Salad Days Studio in Baltimore a week ago, and it blew up. Gross.
 
i got that beat

i blew up both a 5150 combo and a mesa-boogie triple rectifier in about 5 minutes once

i thought i was gonna get my ass kicked for sure for that one, but i somehow managed to get out of it
 
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