Fender Champion 300 Problem, help?

[jamalpiper]

Hey, new around here... hope someone knows something about my amp's problem...

About two year ago or so my amp would do this thing where when you unplugged it would give a high pitched squeal which would only be remedied by turning the amp off or plugging back in.

This was only occasional...

I haven't used this amp in the last 4 months...

A week or two ago I tryed playing with it. I'm playing with a Fender MIM strat. The amp would distort on Lows and Highs on any pickup, but moreso on the single coils...

I didn't have time to run it through its paces then...


I tryed it again today and it was doing the same thing. So I hooked up a different speaker to the amp, it also would distort in the same way (but less noticeably). So it wasn't the speaker.

I turn it off and on again and it sounds great...

Except the volume doesn't work, I can turn it to 10 with no change. If i switch to the distortion channel, same thing with the volume though the gain works (and becomes unbearably loud at 4-5).

Anyone know whats going on with my amp? I don't think it's under warranty anymore. it's about 5 years old and I doubt that I have any receipts.

I'm adapt at soldering and switching out components, but I'm not familiar with working on amps at all. Anyone have any ideas what it is? What it could be?