Need to identify version and get manual for used Crack + Speedball

[manicmidget]

Hi, I just purchased a broken Crack w/ Speedball to repair it myself, and the seller didn't have the manual as he had purchased it pre-built. It's also unclear which version(s) the Crack and Speedball are. Hoping someone from Bottlehead can contact me to help. Thanks very much!

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Can you post some photos of what you got?

 

[manicmidget]

Thanks for replying! Please let me know if you need more photos.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

That's a Crack 1.1.

On the 5 lug strip mounted by the 9 pin socket, the outer pair of terminals should measure around 75V DC with the amp running, the inner pair of terminals should be around 175V DC with the amp running, and the middle terminal sits at 0V.

On the 5 lug strip mounted to the octal socket, the outer terminals should be 0V, the inner pair of terminals will be roughly 100V, and the middle terminal 0V.

This is about all of the information that you would get out of the manuals.  You're also missing the fuse holder, but the fuse looks to be installed at least.

 

[manicmidget]

Thanks very much, that's good to know.

However, I'd still like a copy of the manual if possible -- I'm fairly new to the hobby but I'm already hooked on mods & DIY and I'm trying to learn how the circuitry works and such. Is there someone I could ask?

(And is there some way I can get a replacement fuse holder?)

 

[Paul Birkeland]

You can contact replacementparts(at)bottlehead(dot)com about purchasing a replacement manual and a new fuse holder.

 

[manicmidget]

Thanks very much!

 

[charnich]

Did you get this amp sorted out? Looking at the pics I'm not seeing solder on the resistors on the speedball circuit boards. If I were you I'd re-solder ever joint on the amp.

 

[manicmidget]

On the 5 lug strip mounted by the 9 pin socket, the outer pair of terminals should measure around 75V DC with the amp running, the inner pair of terminals should be around 175V DC with the amp running, and the middle terminal sits at 0V.

On the 5 lug strip mounted to the octal socket, the outer terminals should be 0V, the inner pair of terminals will be roughly 100V, and the middle terminal 0V.

Hi, I realize it's been almost exactly 1.5 years since I posted this -- life seriously got in the way.

I did the readings, and the 9-pin socket lug strip is actually quite wonky -- I'm getting ~0V on the outer pair, one of the inner pair reads ~110V and the other ~0V, and there's nothing soldered to the centre pin.

For the 8-pin socket lug strip, I'm sort of getting the values you learned for the 9-pin, i.e., ~75V outer pair, ~195V inner pair, and ~0V centre pin.

(I'm assuming the volume potentiometer doesn't matter here, but it was at the lowest position.)

I'd really appreciate any (more) help you could provide. Thanks in advance!

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Can you post a photo of the underside of your amp?

 

[manicmidget]

Thanks for the super quick reply! I tried to do my best with camera angles. Please let me know if you need more photos.

 

[manicmidget]

Did you get this amp sorted out? Looking at the pics I'm not seeing solder on the resistors on the speedball circuit boards. If I were you I'd re-solder ever joint on the amp.

Hi, sorry for taking so incredibly long to respond. The resistors are indeed soldered, just on the underside.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

one of the inner pair reads ~110V and the other ~0V, and there's nothing soldered to the centre pin.

The inner terminals on the 5 lug terminal strip are attached with a piece of wire.  They can't have different voltage readings between the two like that unless that piece of wire is broken or poorly soldered.

I see a lot of untrimmed leads on the C4S boards.

It's incredibly common with weird issues like this to find that one of the black wires going to the headphone jack isn't captured by solder.

 

[manicmidget]

First off, I'm sure you already know, but it looks like I got the sockets mixed up.

There's a wire between the inner pair for the 9-pin lug strip, but not for the 8-pin (the one with the mismatched voltage) -- see photos. I assume they should both have their inner pair connected?

Continued thanks!

 

[manicmidget]

Is it possible the tube is burned out?

 

[Paul Birkeland]

With the amp flipped over and the 9 pin socket closest to you, those front terminals are numbered 1-5, then the terminal strip behind it is numbered 6-10.

Can you provide DC voltages for terminals 1-10?

The 6080 is most likely OK.

 

[manicmidget]

Rounded to the nearest 1V:

1 - 79V
2 - 193V
3 - 0V
4 - 193V
5 - 76V

6 - 0V
7 - 111V
8 - 0V
9 - 0V
10 - 0V

 

[Paul Birkeland]

There's a pretty messy bit of soldering on terminal 9 in your photos, and that certainly won't help.

 

[manicmidget]

Yeah, unfortunately I bought this used/pre-assembled so the solder work is not as nice as I'd like. I'll resolder that joint and get back to you, thanks again. (I'm still hoping I don't have to redo everything...)

 

[manicmidget]

It wasn't the solder joint! Perhaps one of the components it's connected to is burned out?