My little Vox practice amp was broken for a while. It still ‘worked’ but the power amp was blown. At full volume it was almost loud enough to be acceptable for playing in the living room. To top that, it also snapped, crackled, and popped. The suspect in breaking the amp is pictured below, trying to eat some Ernie Balls:
I used to keep the amp in a guitar stand for the neighbors sake. The boy liked to knock it off the stand face-first when practicing the triple-jump off the top.
I put off fixing it for a long time because it was still mostly functional. One of my 2008 resolve-annoyances projects was to take care of it. We took it to Just Audio, on Bel Aire Road in Baltimore. They have a $25 estimate fee, which went towards the labor for the repair. Not bad!
The labor bill almost totaled the little thing, but the price was fair. To fix it, Just Audio had to put in a new 20W power amp and four smaller J-FET amplifiers. Less than $20 in parts, but most of the functional amplifiers that the little thing uses.
It’s great to have back! I forgot it was as capable as it is.
