Accutronics, Politics and Blood Pressure

[mac]

1. Accutronics 1BB3C1B, USA, not working...

2. Let's face it, Donald is right! I live in a s**thole country where it's impossible to get parts!

3. I'm about to turn green, and my latin-italian blood is boiling, and pressure is way higher than in the Marianas Trench!




24hs before:

Months ago I put the chassis of my Laney LC30 upside down on top of the cabinet and over a soft blanket to avoid heat, vibration, etc, because of #2.
Reverb disconnected because RCA cable is short.
But yesterday I found old long VCR-to-TV cables so I connected the tank.

Dead. 

Hit it a couple of times, maybe a magnet was stuck. Nada. 

Google "accutronics not working"
>> Check continuity.
Input 27 ohm, Output open.
>> Check connector wires, typical failure, easy to fix.
Connector wires Ok... Bad news, the coil is open... %&$#@*#$%$&$#

I put on my glasses, phones's flashlight on... "I can't see s**t, I need the Hubble!"
Using a magnifying glass and under direct sun light I saw that the wire between the coil and the solder point was broken.
Game over. 

At this point I began to feel a pain at the back of my neck, and my eyes began blinking randomly out of control...

Note:
Who was the genious who decided to use a microscopic wire in a coil which is going to sit a few cm away of a 12" speaker?!

Time to get my credit card.

https://www.mercadolibre.com.ar  --> search: accutronics
Just one hit! ONE!!!
Mismatched impedances... and USD 100 !!!
Ok.
https://amazon.com --> search: accutronics, mod, belton.
USD 17... cool, add to basket...
"Sorry, this item may not ship to your s**thole country"

There is no Spanish to English translation of my curses and screamings.
My eyes turned red as I was tearing my hair out...

"Mac, take a deep breath... ommm" (not ohm's law, the mantra thing)

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/reverb_tanks

Found a replacement for USD 17.
"We ship worldwide, including your far away s**thole country"

Wait... wtf!!?? shipment is more expensive than the tank!!!

And since I live in a s**thole country, I have to pay an import tax (or should I say tariff these days?) of 50%. And not the 50% of the tank's price, but 50% of both the tank and the shipment!!!

And it gets better.
In this s**thole country, when you import goods like clothes, phones or reverb tanks for your private use, you need a Fiscal Code Level 2 at AFIP (the IRS equivalent here), register your biometrics, and make some sexual favors to the Minister of Finance. If not, your package won't leave Customs.
You're mad because FB is watching you, or because you were taxed 30% on your FAANG portfolio dividend?! Psssss...

So paying USD 200 for a tank that cost USD 17 is out of the question. I refuse to pay that.


I had two options, buy it in the USA or EU next vacation, or trying to repair it myself.

As you can imagine I was really angry and frustrated by then.
I had to go to for a walk by the shore to cool down.

TRYING TO REPAIR THE COIL
Insert another coin. New Game.

Unfortunately the broken wire is the first inner turn, so it's impossible to unwind a turn and solder.
And the coil can't be extracted easily. There are no screws but copper rivets.
"Think, what would MacGyver use to remove the rivet?"
IIRC, he used a gun once to avoid a meltdown at nuclear plant, so I thought about something like a gun, a drilling machine.
I used a drill bit with a diameter a tiny bigger than the rivet head.  My drill has not variable speed, so I plugged it into a 220v to 110v transformer, and with extreme care drilled the rivet until the head was gone.
Removing the coil from there was easy.
The rivet is hollow, so I can pass a copper screw through to keep things together.

I needed the coil data which is at accutronics site.
1BB31CB
Zin=150 ohm, Rin=26 ohm, Nin=538 turns
Zout= 2250 ohm, Rout 200 ohm

Nout = sqrt(2250/150)*538 = 2083 turns

I'm not going to count over 2000 turns, it's better to calculate how many meters of wire do I need to get that number of turns.
And I'm going to use a thicker wire. Resistance will be lower than 200 ohm but the difference can be soldered to the RCA socket.

And glue ALL wires.


Still scratching my head, what happened?
Most likely the coil was damaged by vibration.
I have disconnected the tank before and never had problems. Laney LC30 schematic shows TL082s driving the tank. It seems unlikely that the opamp was damaged without the tank. Anyway, I have to check if the output opmap (+) input went badly to 15v and fried the coil.


Sorry, I'm p****d off.
It's not easy to be a DIYer down here.

mac 

[Kipper4]

I feel you mac.

We maybe in a similar shizehole ourselves soon.

Chin up......

[diffeq]

You don't have to count turns yourself. Every (well, almost every) household has these cheap electronic calculators. Solder a reed switch to "=" button contacts, put a small magnet on a shaft that holds the coil and press 0 + 1 on calculator. As magnet on the shaft rotates, it will "press" the reed switch, thus incrementing 1 to previous number on every turn.

It's unfortunate that you toil that much. Stay safe, don't put your health at risk. In my opinion, most of the DIY-related issues have affordable solutions.

[marcelomd]

Live in a shithole country: Check;
Sky-high exchange rates: Check;
Taxes + shipping cost way more than the item you want: Check;
6+ months delivery times when buying from China: Check check check;

At least you learn to be resourceful. Don't quit.

[mac]

At least you learn to be resourceful. Don't quit.

I have a Phd on Limited Resources I & II 

mac 

[digi2t]

And what if someone, say in Canada, buys one for you, and sends it to you as a gift?

[Rob Strand]

Freakin pain in the butt.

Connector wires Ok... Bad news, the coil is open... %&$#@*#$%$&$#
I put on my glasses, phones's flashlight on... "I can't see s**t, I need the Hubble!"

I'm getting there.

Insert another coin. New Game.

I'm sure you have a thicker skin now.

[mac]

And what if someone, say in Canada, buys one for you, and sends it to you as a gift?

This s**thole country requires that the canadian (edited)
- must justify the origin of the funds to buy a USD 17 (CAD 21.42) gift,
- a certified note from OECD.org stating that she/he does not have offshore accounts in the s**thole country for lithium mining activities in northern s**thole provinces, or soybean production,
- no criminal record in Canada.
Everything must be translated into Spanish and apostilled by the international court in the Hague.

Just kidding...

Gifts are considered commercial shipments. No difference at all.

mac 

[digi2t]

the canadian bastard

Be very careful my friend... now you're veering into my ex-wife's territory. Please find an alternate term of character assassination.


(Though you would be hard pressed... I think she owns them all. )


You know, just for shits and grins, I would be willing to give this a try. I mean @#$% it, it's only $20. PM me you address. 

This one, right?

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/reverb-tank-mod-8bb3c1b

[ElectricDruid]

I think this is the same all over the world. I've had a similar nightmare with Portuguese customs, trying to get a gizmotron into the country that a friend sent me from the USA  as a thank you for helping him out with something else he was working on.

Customs won't believe that I haven't paid for it and therefore don't have an invoice. I'd pay the bloody import duties if they'd just get on and charge me for it, but they insist on jumping through about a hundred pointless hoops first. Ultimately, I know what the game is: taking hostages. We've got your gizmotron, and if you ever want to see it alive again, you have to send us a ransom of X. I can cope with that. I wish they'd just GET THE **** ON WITH IT!!!

T.

[thermionix]

microscopic wire in a coil which is going to sit a few cm away of a 12" speaker?!

To be fair, the Accutronics tanks derive from the old Hammond units, which weren't originally intended to go into little Fender combo amps.

Bad news is, unless something has changed in the last few years, the Accutronics tanks sound like S**T anymore.  I don't know what happened, but it was shortly before they moved production to Korea, so we can't blame that.  The MOD brand tanks sound good, and come in most of the common Accutronics variations.

[mac]

You know, just for shits and grins, I would be willing to give this a try. I mean @#$% it, it's only $20. PM me you address. 

This one, right?

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/reverb-tank-mod-8bb3c1b

Very kind of you.
I really appreciate it.

I bought a MOD and sent it to a friend in Forida who is coming to my country soon. No international shipment, no biometrics registration, and no airport duty.

the canadian bastard

Edited.

Be very careful my friend... now you're veering into my ex-wife's territory. Please find an alternate term of character assassination.

(Though you would be hard pressed... I think she owns them all. )

Is she Latin?

mac 

[mac]

I heard about MOD tanks sunding better than Korean Accutronics. Mine is US made, 2 springs.

I bought a MOD, sent it to a friend in the US flying home in a few months. It's a replacement with 3 springs. I do not expect it to sound like the original.

I think this is the same all over the world. I've had a similar nightmare with Portuguese customs

What about sending small items from EU, China to US or Canada?
Just curious.

mac 

[mac]

I started to repair the coil,





The little $%!&@$%&,



mac

[thermionix]

The 3-spring tank will sound a bit different, some would think better.  It might sound fuller, maybe just seem like "more" reverb and you might keep your knob a little lower than with the original tank.

The last Accutronics tanks I ordered were maybe 2004 or 2005, so my info is a little dated to say the least.  I got a 2-spring (type 4) and a 3-spring (type 9).  They were both new from CE/AES, but the 3-spring had a late-90s date code on it, so NOS basically.  They were both US-made, but the 2-spring tank sounded awful, while the 3-spring was good.  So somewhere in the early 2000s they screwed something up.  Then they moved production to Korea, I think maybe Belton is making them (not at all sure about that).  I haven't tried the Korean-made tanks, just been using MODs since the bad Accutronics experience.

[mac]

This is what is printed in blue ink on one side,

10008    40   23##01

# = solid blue square

week 23, 2001 

mac 

[Rob Strand]

I heard about MOD tanks sunding better than Korean Accutronics.

It's a sad world when something like Accutronics reverb tanks start sounding bad.

[Rob Strand]

I started to repair the coil,

We know you can do it O great one.

Nice floor btw.

[mac]

Nice floor btw.

Thanks!
But it's a coffee table

You liked my table, you'll love my cell phone 

mac 

[mac]

Unwinding the coil,



I made a mistake.
When I calculated about 2000 turns I did not take into account that the input and output coils have different cores.
I did not count as I was unwinding. I was going to use a thicker wire, now I guess it will be better too use the same one.
BTW, unwinding was fast and easy.

mac