RT2/50 help

[alcor]

I bought a RT2/50 a while back used from Ebay and it was working fine until I put some JJ E4L in it. I had a blown fuse about 5 minutes later and since it happenned during soudcheck, I changed it before the show. Lucky me, it blew again during the fist set but this time, it took the whole power amp out. Fortunately, I had another poweramp with me (Marshall 9100) so I could carry on (had to take a break but we survived!).

We had a couple of shows scheduled so I was using the Marshall poweramp for those since I didn't really have time to look at the problem. So now that we're going to have a some weeks off I checked it and it's not even powering on. I checked the fuses inside (to the best of my knowledge, and I'm somewhat limited in that area) and they all seem fine.

I tried to get it repaired at the local music store but they pointed out that it doesn't have a serial # so they can't do it (thanks Ebay!). And I'm afraid I have to change the PT. I can probably have a friend do it for me (hopefully) but can somebody please point me in the right direction, weather it's where I can get it fixed or where I can get the PT?

Sorry for the long post but I like the RM4 a lot better with the RT250 than the Marshall! And I live in Canada BTW .

 

[eyeball987]

Jeff H and Bruce E, along with most of the other amp builders, have been posting warnings about the newer EL34's out there. They are unreliable and prone to a very high failure rate.

I would replace all of the fuses and then pick up either some NOS 34's or avoid them altogether for now.

 

[fishtank]

The 250 mA fuses used in the stock RT2/50 are too low current rating for EL34's and they will blow from time to time even when the tubes are fine. This does not appear to be a problem with the 6L6's (AFAIK).

I believe Bruce Egnater and Hilly have recommended changing the fuse values to 400 mA for use with EL34's (I found some 315 mA ones at Radio Shack and have not had any issues for close to a year now - this is after I had several 250 mA fuses go on me with the same set of tubes).

 

[alcor]

I am aware by now that people seem to have problems with EL34 tubes. The thing is I already did change the fuses with 400mA and that's when the whole power amp went dead. It doesn't power on anymore so now I'm probably looking at a costly repair job, wherever I can get it done!