Egnater Tourmaster 4100

[CJ]

wow, lots of bells and whistles on this thing,

looks like the flight deck of an Airbus A380,
or maybe the circuit breaker panel for a nuke plant in Sarasota,

4 channels, tubes and chips, chains and whips, 

like any  amp, you hear good things, you read bad things,

 

[CJ]

more stuff on the back,

interesting "power grid"  section, lets you pre program the power settings on each channel individually, wonder how they do that, i bet we can find out, 

effects loop with a series or parallel option, record out, and a bias control for the power tubes which even has technician test points for hooking up an ammeter so you can read the idle current, this can be good, or bad, depending on who is holding the screw driver,  a drunken musician trying to fix his amp is sometimes tempted by having access to such a control, especially if the amp dies before the third set and the club owner says no play, no pay,
i bet there is a warning i the manual but who reads those?

 

[CJ]

nice power trans, first toroid i have seen on a git amp,

hefty output, 18 ohms pri DCR and flat up to 60K,

pri inductance goes

5 Hz-240 Henries
10 Hz-186H
15 Hz-151 H
20Hz-126H
40Hz-82H

 

[CJ]

pretty impressive under the hood, kind of like a 72 Eldorado,

not very easy to change a couple of burned out 4.7 K grid stoppers,

 

[CJ]

see that "burned in" writing on the chassis?

see the burned resistors?

see any humor in this?  ;D

we noticed a red plate in a pair of 6L6outputs so there had to be a bias problem,

socket chips are nice to have,

 

[CJ]

here is the power board, lots of relays, not the most reliable component in the world,

at what point do guitar amps become too complicated and too hard to fix?
getting a Fender blackface amp to fix after one of these is like a walk in the park,

 

[CJ]

here is a chunk of the pwr supply,

betting that this B+ switching for different power ratings is causing the problems,

they are switching bias voltages to match the switched B+ voltages,

pretty clever, however, what happens if the bias voltage does not follow the B+ voltage?

having 460 on the plate and -32 on the grids is going to cause a meltdown of some type,

now we get to figure out which relay went bad and try to remove it some how,  ???

bias section is in upper right corner,

this relay matrix is controlled with the power grid switches,

i get it, power grid, tube grid, tube power,

maybe this concept could be applied to a mic pre to lower noise with gain,  8)

link to forum with more of the pdf schematic>

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t36027/

 

[jwhmca]

CJ, are you just trying to hurry up and get to 10,000 posts?

http://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=55202.0

 

[CJ]

i asked Ethan to reset my post counter so people would think i had a life, but he made some excuse like "the way the software is setup......"  so we learn to accept humility with each new post, 

 

[CJ]

this amp has the following B+ vs Bias voltages and Plate Current (single tube):

Low:  -23 Bias        275 Plate      I-p 37ma
Med: -37.5 Bias  366 Plate        I-p 28ma
Hi:      -53 Bias      480 Plate        I-p  30ma

problem seems to be old power tubes,  no problem with the eggbeater 4100, 

which is a blessing did you see the wiring harness? 

 

[PRR]

> did you see the wiring harness?

I thot my 1992/93/94 Chevy Truck's wiring was insane (the 2002 Honda has more wires but Honda did it smarter); but this beast is pretty crazy for a stage-amp.

With all that stuff, wouldn't a "tour" be more reliable with two or three simple amps than one do-all amp (where the do-all switching exceeds the basic guts)?

 

[okgb]

I think he went wrong with the power grid section , as cj points out
Marshall has an underestimated 4 channel JVM amp that has allot of sound ,  [ 3 modes / ch ] and the jvm newsgrp
has additional mods , you get a fender clean  and a bunch of Marshalls

 

[SouthboundSuarez]

Is it appropriate to comment on an old thread like this? I am new to these parts of the internet.

Yup! I can appreciate your commentary when it pertains to these amps. They certainly have a large plethora of interesting and useful tones, that dont take alot of fiddling to obtain your own special sound. But for reliabilty they might not go the distance and I certainly wouldnt want to tour with just one or two of them. These things are a bitch to work upon. The toroid transformers have had issues. Mercury jumped onto the aftermarket bandwagon right away with this one!
After being inside of a few of them ya kinda get used to all the wiring and it becomes not too big a deal, but yet I will sit and stare at the one on my bench right now then spend time putting it back together. It still is having a switching issue that I am unable to fix.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Is it appropriate to comment on an old thread like this? I am new to these parts of the internet.

Nothing wrong with it, as long as you know you're unearthing the thread.
BTW, welcome!

 

[CJ]

wow, i have been at this job for over 8 years! a new record!
that amp is still going, The Stuntmen,

 

[SouthboundSuarez]

Wow! Stuntmen, that's some loud totally punk rock noise going on in that video!
Eight years and going strong.
Eight weeks and still on the bench! I dunno why but it just keeps getting placed further onto the back burner.
Man, I have some very patient folks bringing stuff for me to fix.... I just have less and less motivation. I just can't get one of the channels to switch. In desperation I finally have just started changing parts. The button, the jumpers, the relay, the diodes, the bcd IC and all seem to be in check. Last I checked if I recall correctly,,,, I think I can actually make it switch to the missed channel by way of pressing two channel buttons in combination or some such of manipulation. I suppose that is some sort of progress. That's about where I left it at about six or seven weeks ago. It lays with it's guts splayed out . I just so uninterested in messing around on this one for what was only a minute.... Well, at least talking about it puts it back in my sights now!
I can't imagine working on the main panel of the Apollo space vehicle, an Airbus or a double decker pinball machine. Not enough coffee ro get that wired!
Loved reading your post here CJ and totally related to your humour and experience. I have been inside a few of these Egnaters. They are versatile amps that make some decent high gain tones.
I still prefer a Tweed or even a blackface over one of these!
But I am fairly chill and nothing too crazy like a thrillseeker and certainly ain't no Stuntman. I give a ,,,,, well ya know....

 

[SouthboundSuarez]

Nothing wrong with it, as long as you know you're unearthing the thread.
BTW, welcome!

Thanks man, for the warm welcome.
Abby Road is an awesome album too btw!
Yeah, it seems some folks will get so touchy about bringing back an old thread. I am unsure what the real etiquette is about such things and basically many of the latest greatest things happening in the cyber communities. All I know is that online occupies much too much of my time. I see folks like my nephew and I don't think I have it so bad.
It's DIY, the info is amazing but it don't mean a thing if ya just don't do it! Ya gotta do it and get your hands dirty. To steer this back on topic,,,
LOOK OUT FELLOWS!
I am diving back into this Egnater, if anyone wants an update, I will be back in the next day or two... Wish me luck!
SBS