beta lead died on stage :o

[zrkzgl]

Hi everyone.
I've got a Beta Lead, I've had for almost a decade with no problems. I was playing a show and it just stopped producing sound. Dude in the audience said the volume was decreasing gradually and finally the amp went silent. I checked the fuse and the fuse is good. It powers up, lights come on, but it produces no sound whatsoever, not even a hiss or buzz. Don't have any idea how to diagnose or fix the problem, but I LOVE this amp and don't want to loose it!!! Any ideas?? Thanks!

[loudthud]

First check the speaker by plugging it into another amp. Did that work? If not, find a working speaker to plug into the Beta. Did that fix it?

Second, plug your guitar into the Power Amp In on the back of the amp. You should hear a low volume clean signal. That will tell you that the power amp is ok. If that works plug a spare guitar cord from the Preamp Out to the Power Amp In. Now try the amp normally from the front. Did that fix it?

[zrkzgl]

Thanks so much! Man, I feel like such a jackass for not checking it out first, but the cabs are completely DEAD! Amp works fine, plugged it into another cab. Crazy, though, I've never heard of a cab going SILENT. I mean, I've blown speakers before, but sound still comes through. I've got two mini cabs with two 8's each. I link em together in parallel so it's 100W @8ohms. Figured that would work fine, since that's what the amp is rated at, but wtf? That beta lead KILLED my cabs. Is that normal?

[loudthud]

Amps and speakers are both rated in Watts, but they mean different things. The Beta is rated at 100 Watts into 4 ohms, but that is a clean undistorted signal. When the amp is overdriven, it can produce 200 Watts into a 4 ohm resistive load. At 8 ohms the Beta can probably make about 70 Watts clean or 140 Watts distorted.

A speaker that can handle 100 clean Watts, will most likely burn out when subjected to 200 Watts of a distorted guitar signal. There are circumstances where the same 100 Watt speaker may fail when only seeing 100 clean Watts if it is installed in the wrong type of speaker enclosure for which it was not designed. The ratings that the manufacturer puts on a speaker assumes it will be installed in a proper enclosure and driven by a clean signal. To be on the safe side, the rating of the speakers should be at least twice that of the amplifier it will be connected to for a distorted guitar.