OT; leaking caps

[Bernardduur]

There is some brown "goo" on the PCB of my amp (bought a 1982 Peavey Mark IV bass amp) and all over some caps; are these caps leaking?

Is that bad for the amp / does it change the sound I should get from the amp? Should I replace them?
And how come some of the goo is on places no cap is in?

Thanks!

[MartyMart]

Maybe someone got desperate at a gig and took a "dump" in the amp !!!


( just kidding :wink: )


Could be "old" glue to hold them in place, does it sound "bad" like if they
were blown it wouldn't work .... right ??  !!

Marty.

[Bernardduur]

It sound fine, but I haven't heard one so I can't compare. On one part of the PCB it is a real mess.

It could be glue though.... it's everywhere

[DaveC]

Does anyone smoke around your amp? If so it could be tar/resin on the pcb.

[Bernardduur]

Nope

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Here is a test for the brave:
get a moist cotton bud, run it over the goo, then taste it.
If you CAN taste it, it is probably decayed electrolytic.. or cat piss.
Seriously, if it is lumpy it is probably hot glue.

[The Tone God]

Check the filter caps particularly around the positive end. Do you see any bulging or similar looking liquid coming out ? Then you may have had a cap burst.

My money is on glue.

Andrew

[Ripper]

leaky caps usually leave a very light oily sticky mess when they leak, somewhat like if someone spilt an oil.  Lots of the amps used a glue to around the caps.  It is still done today.  If a cap was leaking that bad to make such a noticable mess you would really hear it in the amp, as that cap would have failed completely.  You do need to be careful with leaky caps as some of the old ones do contain pcbs.

[Bernardduur]

Than I think it is glue...... Everything works normal.



<did not taste it though>

[Paul Marossy]

<did not taste it though>

I wonder if it tastes like chicken or beef...  :lol:

[Penguin]

<did not taste it though>

I wonder if it tastes like chicken or beef...  :lol:

everything tastes like chicken

we are in the matrix

so maybe they just screwed up what chicken taste like.

"babys taste like chicken. no its true  canibals say people taste just like chicken so there fore babys must taste like chicken..  go to california and put babies on spikes."   Eddie Izzard

[niftydog]

well, if you're not man enough to taste it, the smell of rotten eggs should give it away too. :wink:

[Paul Marossy]

This is starting to sound like "Fear Factor"  :lol:

[Bernardduur]

LOL

[Brett Clark]

DON'T taste it.  If it's oily or "crusty", it may be from the caps. If it's rubbery and tough, it's just hot glue - Peavey used lots of it at that time in an (often vain) attempt to anchor heavier components to the board and take stress off the solder joints. By the way, Peavey generally used very good quality components "back in the day" - cracked solder joints are far and away the most likely cause of any failure on that era of Peavey.

By the way, the built-in effects on 70's-early90's Peaveys are often very cool in an excessive, unsubtle sort of way. Their built in phase-shifter effects and some of the distortion circuits are very unique.