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Well THAT'S not a good first impression...

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clearerphish

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So I got a Blackheart Little Giant for Xmas.  :headbang:

Bring it to the office today, hook it up to an 8 ohm cabinet to the 8 ohm jack (this ain't rocket science), power it on in 3 watt mode

A nice sizzle and smoke erupted from the unit. Smelled like creamed corn that was burned.  ???

Now obviously it'll get sent back to wherever my GF bought it and covered under some sort of warranty, but damn! I didn't even get to plug in!  :sad:
 
Well, it would have been rawk! if I could have hit one nice power chord before the amp went...like in Back to the Future. Dunno what it was, but the good news is she got it from Musicians Friend so I'll have no issues with the exchange.
 
Good to hear. I was going for the straight exchange anyways. I've heard they're fine amps. It was just crazy. Probably something on the board that came loose in shipping. I would imagine they'd power them up before leaving the assembly line, and this was pretty immediate upon powerup.
 
If the speaker cable was not fully plugged in... it would over-ride the safety.

But if the blow up sparky light show and fireworks were immediate - I suspect something came loose during shipment and made its new home in the B+ (high voltage) section of the amp - which really... is all through the amp at various points.  One screw... or nut... between the board and chassis... big trouble in little China.
 
I honestly wasn't looking at the head, and didn't see any sparks, but there was a multi-leveled hiss (not from the speaker) and smoke enmanated from the rear of the unit, and vented through the other 3-4 open outputs. I yanked the power cable and considered it a total loss. I'm fairly sure of my connections, and I'm not a total n00b with these. If it came loose during shipping it's surprising. The thing was suspended in the middle of the carton with foam corners. I didn't read the manual but the thing really couldn't be more self-explanatory. The 8 ohm cabinet's impedance was factory stamped on the cabinet right near the input.
 
Impedance mismatch wouldn't cause an issue like that, or at least, not quickly, unless it was fired up into an open circuit (ie plug not all the way into a jack), but even that would take some time - in terms of several to many minutes.  Thats why I was thinking something simply came free - vibration will do that.
 
What happened was, you let the magic smoke out.  Once the magic smoke is out it's useless.  Gotta keep that stuff in there.
 
They are good little units. But I haven't plugged mine in since I got my ultra champ from ceriatone.
 
shanejw said:
What happened was, you let the magic smoke out.  Once the magic smoke is out it's useless.  Gotta keep that stuff in there.
Click to expand...
yep, once the smoke gets out it is hard to put back in! just try it.
 
Dan025 said:
shanejw said:
What happened was, you let the magic smoke out.  Once the magic smoke is out it's useless.  Gotta keep that stuff in there.
Click to expand...
yep, once the smoke gets out it is hard to put back in! just try it.
Click to expand...

LOL! Well I got my replacement Little Giant, did a tube upgrade and am running it through a Marshall 4x12 cab I just bought.

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWWWWWWWWW this little effer straight RIPS. My bandmates were fawning all over it last night.

Completely happy with my Christmas gift, and musicians friend.

Now I wonder if I can find someone to add a spring reverb tank to this...
 
I didn't practice with it because that was the first time I fired it up with the new tubes and I want to break them in gently in my practice room instead of overdriving them right out of the gate, but I had the LG up to "5" on the volume knob in 3 watt mode and it was loud enough through the 412 cab (8 ohm) at that volume to practice with my 4-piece prog band, and we get pretty loud (I wear earplugs most practices).

I LOVE THIS AMP.
I LOVE THIS CABINET.
I LOVE LAMP.
 
Strange to see something like that.  Blackheart is usually more solid than that, despite the fact that they are made by crate (who's reliability dropped since they sold from St Luis Music to Loud Industries).
 
Gahh I'm wanting one. Stupid luggage regulations... I'd have to get one here in Budapest for like 3x the price.
 
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