17th March 2012
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#1 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter | can a guitar blow an amp?
i guess this might be a dumb question but i'm stumped. my band played 3 shows this week for sxsw at all different venues. first show no problem with amp. second show about 30 seconds into first song the guitar player's amp completely quit working, figured blown fuse, so we borrowed another amp. 30 seconds into the next song, that amp blew! different power source, same guitar, same cable. 3rd show, completely different amp, same guitar, different cable and amp blew 30 seconds into first song. the only common factor is the guitar but i have never heard of a guitar blowing an amp. the guitar was making a lot of noise but i figured it was the single coil pickups (cheap, no brand guitar fyi). we have played a number of shows and practices with the same guitar and no issues. any ideas? thanks in advance
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17th March 2012
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#2 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2010 Location: North Carolina
Posts: 638
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The guitar cannot blow an amp.
And unless he was running electrical through the guitar cable the most it could do is short the input...which would mute the audio but not blow the fuse.
What else is going on with the guitar? What stuff does he have in front of the amp?...i.e...pedals...boosters etc....
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17th March 2012
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#3 | | Gear Guru
Joined: May 2008 Location: Mountain View, CA
Posts: 12,259
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Depends on how much the guitar needs money.
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17th March 2012
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#4 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter |
Nothing in front of amp. No pedals at all, straight in. not even a tuner. It just baffles me?
3 amps, all different power, different cables, same gtr. also I looked in my amp that quit and the fuses are fine? Maybe he is electric  | |
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17th March 2012
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#5 | | Would-Be-Teaboy
Joined: Oct 2011 Location: Ireland
Posts: 878
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Umm, more questions before answers!
Do these amps work now, with other guitars?
Does his guitar still eat amplifiers?
Have ye checked the wiring of his guitar - pickups, jack etc.?
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Why don't you just knock it off with them negative waves? | |
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17th March 2012
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#6 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter |
No, amps are dead. I told him to not plug that guitar into an amp again till I check out the wiring.
Maybe guitar wiring? Like I said, this is the strangest thing as far as amps blowing I've ever seen. The only common factor is the guitar.
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17th March 2012
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#7 | | Lives for gear
Joined: May 2004 Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 3,067
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Dean Roddey  Depends on how much the guitar needs money. | This made me snarf coffee.
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17th March 2012
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#8 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2010 Location: North Carolina
Posts: 638
| Quote:
Originally Posted by crzmky No, amps are dead. I told him to not plug that guitar into an amp again till I check out the wiring.
Maybe guitar wiring? Like I said, this is the strangest thing as far as amps blowing I've ever seen. The only common factor is the guitar. | When you say the amps are dead - you are saying that nothing lights up? No tubes, led's etc...? If you have access to any of the 'dead' amps - can you smell anything - acidic like?
The possibility that the guitar blew up anything is zero. More likely his guitar quit because it's got funky wiring and shorted out.
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18th March 2012
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#9 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter |
When I say dead, nothing at all comes on either of the two amps we own, not sure if the third is working. It was borrowed. Amps don't work with ANY guitar now. Like I said they are dead!
All three were tube amps. Not about to plug that guitar in my showman to test it
Really the chances of three amps blowing in a row all with same guitar are almost impossible. I would not believe it myself, but I was there for all three. 25 years of playing gtr and working in recording studios and I'm stumped.
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18th March 2012
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#10 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Feb 2011 Location: Third Stone From Sun |
Was it an "active" guitar?
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18th March 2012
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#11 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter |
Don't think it's active. Not mine so I can't say for sure. But pretty sure it's not. It's a cheap $100 no name guitar.
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18th March 2012
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#12 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2010 Location: North Carolina
Posts: 638
| Quote:
Originally Posted by crzmky Really the chances of three amps blowing in a row all with same guitar are almost impossible. I would not believe it myself, but I was there for all three. 25 years of playing gtr and working in recording studios and I'm stumped. | Any of your competitors wanting to play a joke on you? Or perhaps you ticked off someone? That is more likely than the guitar or amps blowing. The odds of 3 amps going are so astronomically huge..because it was in 3 different venues with 3 different power sources.
Btw to test the guitar put a volt meter on the out put and see what if anything is outputting. Then switch the meter to ohms and measure the output.
You could also bring the guitar to a music store and plug in and see what happens.
My vote at this point is that someone either pranked the guitarist or deliberately sabotaged the amps each time.
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19th March 2012
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#13 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter |
Unless the guy who lent us his amp the first day was in on it, I doubt it was sabotage I'll send him to gtr center and let him try their amps out  | |
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19th March 2012
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#14 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jul 2010 Location: Texas
Posts: 935
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A guitar puts out such a low level current hard to imagine a mechanism that could do this or how. Straight guitar, simple cable, seems the worse anything would do is pop the fuse. Episode of outer limits??
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19th March 2012
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#15 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 2,092
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There's nothing you can do with a guitar to destroy an amp. Mine has an active circuit with 40 dB of gain, theoretically it can put out the full 9v the battery supplies and that hasn't hurt any of my old or new amps. A shorted circuit in the guitar doesn't supply any power to the amp input.
To destroy an amp you have to either short something inside the amp out or burn something out. I suppose it's possible that a bad PA (supplying AC voltage thru the microphone to the guitar), a guitar player with a hell of a pain tolerance (so he doesn't drop the guitar or step away from the microphone) could supply an AC voltage to the input of the amp and overload caps, but that's REALLY unlikely.
Bad power is more likely: something causing the power to brown out enough that the tubes stopped functioning properly...
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21st March 2012
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#16 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter |
3 different power sources. Hundreds of bands played the same venues last week? I'm going with outer limits answer, I know you say not possible, but I was there, and do know a little something about voltages and amps and basic electronics as I have a degree in it. Be it years ago, but I am no novice.
Just thought maybe someone here has experienced the same thing | |
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21st March 2012
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#17 | | Gear interested
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 16
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were they, by chance, all plugged into the same speaker cabinet?
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21st March 2012
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#18 | | Gear Head
Joined: Jan 2012 Location: head in the clouds
Posts: 64
| Quote:
Originally Posted by freshstartfresh were they, by chance, all plugged into the same speaker cabinet? | Good call!
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21st March 2012
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#19 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter |
Nope two different cabs and a combo amp:(
Really the only common factor is the guitar? It's weird | |
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21st March 2012
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#20 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2010 Location: North Carolina
Posts: 638
| Quote:
Originally Posted by crzmky Nope two different cabs and a combo amp:(
Really the only common factor is the guitar? It's weird | Did this really happen?
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21st March 2012
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#21 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Oct 2010 Location: Hugs n Kisses USA
Posts: 538
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Early21 Was it an "active" guitar? | Yeah, a 9v battery can blow an amp...  | |
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21st March 2012
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#22 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,656
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murphy's law at its finest
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21st March 2012
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#23 | | Gear addict
Joined: Sep 2005 Location: Jacksonville, FL |
There's more in common than just the guitar, your entire band and its electrical needs. Maybe your bass player was plugging into the same power source? What I mean is, maybe something was causing surge and the guitar amp was the weakest link.
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22nd March 2012
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#24 | | Gear nut
Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Austin TX
Posts: 88
Thread Starter |
One time sure, three times at three different venues? Don't think so.
Like I said, the guitar is the only common factor. I'm no novice at this stuff, many many tours and shows and this is a first for me?
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22nd March 2012
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#25 | | Gear addict
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 354
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Your guitar player's name's not Powder, is it?
(Sorry, it's been on Showtime lately.)
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23rd March 2012
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#26 | | Gear Guru
Joined: May 2008 Location: Mountain View, CA
Posts: 12,259
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I haven't seen that in a while. Good movie.
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22nd April 2012
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#27 | | Gear Head
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 60
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Even though its a whole different story I remember reading that the OT of old Marshall Major 200 watt heads could catch fire and tube sockets would melt if you struck the strings too hard when everything was turned up....
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