Thermionic Culture Vulture Repair in Melbourne

[RustyO]

I just received a Thermionic Culture Vulture, unfortunately it appears that the right channel is borked. Been lusting after one of these for years, finally get my dirty little mitts on one, and ummm... welcome to the world of pro audio.

As far as I can tell, the right channel Output Level appears to have no effect on signal / right channel output is very low... Dialling identical settings, provides drastically different results. Have tried multiple configurations, cables, A/B'ing both channels, etc. Both tubes appear to be glowing when viewed through the top of the unit, though quite dim.

Note that it has been recently shipped, so something may have come astray.

Sent an email to Thermionic Culture and they suggested that it has a faulty O/P pot (makes sense obviously)

So does anyone in Melbourne have any experience tinkering with these / knows anyone who does?

Thanks in advance.

[Sammas]

I would try quickly swapping the tubes between the left and right channels to see if the issues switch sides. If they do, you know it is rather tube related.

[RustyO]

Presume thats quite a simple thing to do? Never done anything like that.

[Sammas]

Presume thats quite a simple thing to do? Never done anything like that.

Bah! That wouldn't stop me...

Swapping valves is pretty straight forward, but I am not familiar enough with Culture Vulture to provide anymore encouragement...

[Gian]

Rusty, where are you located?

[rick]

Shit... rusty i didnt even plug it in , i just reposted the box as i got it i didnt even open it up

get it fixed and send me the bill .. its unlikely to be anything serious probaly something shaken off inside in transport

[Barney Loveland]

Ross Giles for tube gear if you don't want to ship it.

[RustyO]

Finally heard back from Awave... "If the unit is our of warranty, contact Rob Squire at Pro Harmonic"

Guess I'll chase Rob up and see what he has to say.

Shit... rusty i didnt even plug it in , i just reposted the box as i got it i didnt even open it up

get it fixed and send me the bill .. its unlikely to be anything serious probaly something shaken off inside in transport

I'm hoping it is just something simple... I didn't want to make a big song and dance about it given the, um, circumstances.

Ross Giles for tube gear if you don't want to ship it.

Thanks for that Barney, I'll chase Ross up as well and see what he has to say.

Might prefer to deal locally in Melbourne rather then shipping her to SA and back.

[Gian]

There are about 10 tubes in this unit. Pull them out of their sockets one at a time and re-seat each one (one at a time)
Then test the unit.

If that doesnt fix it, then...

there are about 5 tubes on each side
swap only one tube on one side for its counterpart on the other side
test after each swap is made. If the problem moves from one side to the other, then the tube on the new problem side needs replacing.
If problem remains after tube swap is done, then progress to the next tube, do this for each pair (of 5).

Remember to turn off the unit in between tube swaps, and keep only one hand inside the unit when doing the swapping.
High voltages can kill.

[RustyO]

Rick, this little fellow wasn't part of the deal... do I now owe a pack of Iced Vo-Vo's? Or is he gratis?

There are about 10 tubes in this unit. Pull them out of their sockets one at a time and re-seat each one (one at a time)

Thanks for that info Gian, much appreciated.

I just plucked up the courage and switched the tubes between channels. No dice. Exact same behaviour as before.

Couldn't see anything obvious to my untrained eye, no obvious bad solders, loose connections that kind of jazz.

I'll ping Ross in the morning and see what he can tell me.

High voltages can kill.

Thats the part that scares me...

[Gian]

It's good you did that. Now you know it's worth shipping it.

[rick]

You can keep the bug
My treat

Just let me know how this works out

Keep me in the loop