That one time a busted capacitor took me 6 hours to find

Got this old tube amp from a friend, said it just hummed and had no sound. I figured it was a simple filter cap job, maybe an hour tops. Spent the first 4 hours checking every single capacitor and resistor on the board, all tested fine. Finally, on a total hunch, I pulled the main power transformer and found a tiny, cracked solder joint on one of the primary leads, hidden under the mounting bracket. That stupid joint was the whole problem. Anyone else ever have a simple fix hide in the dumbest spot like that?

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3 Comments

lisa56mo ago

My last car repair took three days to find a loose ground wire.

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grant.sam6mo ago

Classic. Always the last place you look.

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kim7336mo ago

That "last place you look" line used to bug me. I thought it was just a silly thing people said. Then I spent two hours looking for my keys in my own house, only to find them in the freezer. I had put them down while putting away groceries. It's annoyingly true.

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