Welcome to Solid State Guitar Amp Forum | DIY Guitar Amplifiers. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 07:57:01 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Recent Posts

 

Vox Pathfinder 10 LED mod has rendered it useless

Started by Diamondj421, September 12, 2018, 04:47:47 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Diamondj421

I run a small studio and have built many pieces of recording gear successfully. Figures my first amp mod and I botch something. I read about a mod that would increase my amps headroom by removing two LEDs. So I used a soldering pump to remove the two LEDs in my Vox Pathfinder 10 (V9106), plugged it in AND... nothing. It still powers on but that's as far as it goes. Has anyone else had experience with this mod?

Enzo

Just my first impression, but I suspect it is not the mod itself so much as the work you did.  I don't mean to sound snippy.  But look VERY closely where you did this.  Any chance a bit of solder is touching two places at once?  Any chance in removing a part, you managed too damage a copper trace on the board, opening a circuit?

As a technician, I know that when I do some work on an amp and a NEW problem arises, it is almost certain I did something to the amp.  The things I mentioned, or a lost some hardware under the board, or I forgot to trim a wire, etc etc etc.

Helps if you post a schematic.

Diamondj421

I hear you on that one. I'm fairly certain that nothing was damaged while removing the LEDs themselves. While removing the entire board, on the other hand, I could have moved something a way it didn't want to move so I'm looking into that now. Here's the schematic. If I were to replace the LEDs to see if that was the issue, how do I go about finding which lead goes where aka which is the anode and which is the cathode? Probably should've paid better attention to that. Thanks in advance for your help.

Enzo

The only LEDs I see are LED1 and LED2 which are simply clipping diodes and they only are in the circuit on one channel.  In any case removing them could in no way cause loss of sound.

Those two are side by side, one pointing each way, so it doesn't matter how they go in, one faces one way and the other the opposite.

If you look at a LED close, you will see one side of it has a flat area.  That end corresponds to the line on a diode - the cathode.