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ok... I wonder if anyone can give me suggestions as to why my guild superstar is zapping me through my guitar strings? It happens on and off, and at times is a bit painful.
Because you have a two prong plug and the "deathcap" is failing.YossarianDunbar22 said:ok... I wonder if anyone can give me suggestions as to why my guild superstar is zapping me through my guitar strings? It happens on and off, and at times is a bit painful.
Hi Yoss: from the schematic for your amp, the 'death cap' in the red circle. They were originally put in to shunt electrical interference to ground. In this case, the chassis represents ground and with a 2-wire power cord, not the ground in modern electrical panels. Over the years, exposure to voltage spikes on the incoming 120V AC power weakens the capacitor and causes it to fail. They can fail 'open' - no connection to the chassis - or they can fail 'short - creating a direct path for the 120V AC power to the chassis. Default is right; get a 3-wire power cord on your amp and remove the cap; at some point it will fail completely and you will be at risk of being shocked.Default said:Because you have a two prong plug and the "deathcap" is failing.
capnjuan said:Hi Yoss; the fix is about as technically simple as it gets but you or a friend needs to know how to solder.
Strain relief bushing needs 5/8" hole; gonna be bigger than hole in chassis now ... As a famous amp tech once said:Default said:Cable here.
Strain relief here. If you scratch around, you can probably find a longer cord. I would go 12' if I had it to do over.
Yo PhillySteve ... sent you a (the?) schematic labelled 'Superstar' (it's also labelled Thunderbird :? ) .... you may call it whatever you please ... shows one cap, but - as you point out - there could be another on the upper chassis.Default said:... I haven't had the pleasure of owning a Superstar, so I can't tell you where or if it has two deathcaps ...
Thanks Steve, I missed it before;Default said:... there's a .05 off the power switch in the lower chassis and a .01 of the standby in the upper chassis.
capnjuan said:Thanks Steve, I missed it before;Default said:... there's a .05 off the power switch in the lower chassis and a .01 of the standby in the upper chassis.
Some of this ... and some of that other stuff too! Cheers MoG!coastie99 said:... Stollyopia ? Puhaopia ? ...
Hi Rich: Wire? Ground wire?mxaniac said:... and I ran a wire between the upper and lower chassis as well.
According to the schematic, it looks like there are two switches; the schematic (do you want a copy? If yes, PM me with your email address) is labeled 'Superstar-Thunderbird' but, as we have learned from buying men's socks, no matter what they say, one size does not fit all ... long way of saying that there's no guarantee that the schematic we're looking at matches your amp.mxaniac said:I don't have a power switch on my lower chassis though so I'm a bit confused by references towards the lower chassis power switch.
Thanks ...