Well for those of you still tuned in - I took the amp in to be serviced last night and I got a call saying it was fixed at about noon today!!!   

Looks like you were right mcinku. It took a tech probably 5 minutes to fix. He said he just needed to re-mount a relay. If the tech was there when I dropped it off, I would have just waited.

In all came to about $15, but I feel good knowing it's taken care of! Since the shop is about an hour away from me, I'm going to pick it up tomorrow night, but I just wanted to share the good news and thank you all again for your help and patience!

From everything I’m hearing this should be a pretty simple straight forward fix. I just don’t know enough about it and frankly I'm a bit nervous about tinkering in there, so I’m going to bring the amp to a tech tomorrow. Downside, he’s swamped, but he said he could get it done for me within a week.

I appreciate all your help and I’ll let you know what he says!

Thanks guys for all the advice and responses.


Yes - actually the PAB does work both with the foot switch and manually.


This might be a stupid question, but is DMM - digital multimeter? I don't have one, but I'll make a run to radio shack today. Is there a range on the multimeter that I need to look for 15, 17? It seems I need one to get to the next step of trouble sooting with Nik.

Nik is basically saying it should be stuck in clean mode not OD mode if any thing. And its most definitely in OD mode. The ratio and level knobs are active and they wouldn't be in clean mode. Nik said to look at a resistor and wire marked as b-6 (on the schematic) after the OD trimmer:
 
"In clean mode, this should be grounded. So basically, we will know if flipping the OD toggle switch to manual makes the thing to be grounded or not.  If the relay is faulty, ie not engaging, then this resistor is indeed is linked to the 0.05uf on board (from clean output) and thus, since this resistor is the input into OD, always be in OD mode."

I'm going to check this out, but also look for techs in the area. There's a good one about an hour away, but it seems to take forever for him to get to anything bc he's always swamped. I'm hoping I can help isolate the issue with the multimeter.

I checked the connections for the switches and the foot switch socket - all look solid and wired according to the schematic. I also checked the power lines to the relay and the seating of the relay itself - those all look good. Man this stinks!
I did notice that when I powered the amp off without going to standby first (per the test mcinku suggested) I did not hear a pop - maybe a bad relay? I'm running this by Nik too. Again thanks for any help you can give.

ic-racer, Thank you! Much appreciation for the great information and detailed pics!!
I'm really hoping its something straight forward like a loose solder connection at the switches. I'm going to crack 'er open and let you know what I see. Thanks again!

Thanks mcinku! Those are the things Nik is suggesting too. You sound more technical than me! But my thinking was the same - how could the OD channel be working and not the clean? You'd think both wouldn't work.

I did swap out the V1 tube for a fresh new one that I know works with the same result. Unfortunately I don't have the equipment to read the plate voltage. Nik also suggested a potential short in the foot switch connectors or an issue with the relay. From the outside the foot switch socket looks good, but I think I'll have to take a peak inside and see if anything obvious jumps out. But anything much beyond that and I don't think I'll be able to do much. I can follow a schematic and have made stomp boxes, etc. but I'm no amp tech by far.

Any thoughts on how to check the relay?

Yah - I just emailed him. I'll keep you guys posted even if it turns out it was just me doing something stupid. I'm hoping that its just a simple setting type thing. The amp seems to be built very solidly. I just can't imagine something broke when I handled it so carefully. We'll if something does need to be fixed, better early in its life and not when moving it to do a gig - I guess.

I also posted this in the General Support section, but I was hoping you guys might have some thoughts on this ...

I've had my Overtone for about a week. I bought a completely built unit with the head cabinet. Up until today it has been working wonderfully. Today I got a new speaker to use with it, so I carefully disconnected everything and gently moved the head so I could get at the cab. I switched the speaker and made sure my connections were all correct by testing the cab with another head first. I put my Overtone back in place and reconnected everything (speaker, power, effects loop and foot switch). I fire it up and -- No clean channel!

The Overdrive channel works and sounds great, but when I switch to the clean channel there is not a sound - its like the amp is in stand by. I tried turning the amp off and disconnecting the foot switch. Both switches on the back for boost and dirty channel are off. When I turn the amp on I get sound but its not the clean channel its the OD channel. When I flip the switch in the back to turn the OD channel on - dead silence again. Its like it thinks the OD channel is the first channel and when I tell it to go to the second, it has no where to go.

What gets me is that nothing has changed other than the speaker. The speaker works fine and I get this issue even with other cabinets / speakers. I mean I don't understand how this thing can survive a trip from Malaysia and work fine, but a trip to the couch and back breaks something?!?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Regards,

Rich

Hey Jake, thats not a bad idea! Although, the G-sharp that I'm strongly leaning towards will be something I'll need to tweak occasionally like a foot pedal. I'm thinking of using the G-switch foot pedal for it to turn the various effects on / off rather than switch presets as much. I'm trying to avoid midi.


Well, I don't have the G-sharp yet, but I do have a Glass Nexus made by Damage Control. I have that in the loop and it sounds stellar! For all the brooha about the effects loop, I have found that as long as the thing I am putting in it can handle rack levels, it sounds great.

Thanks guys for your feedback!

Hi Steve,
I think the difficulty here is the POD XT Pro's intended use is different than what this application warrants. That being said, I had a POD XT Live a few years back and you can definitely run these units as a pedal board (effects only - no amp or cab sims). The upside is you have a system with a built in fail over. If the amp dies, you can use the POD alone. To me the down side was that when all effects were bypassed, the tone still seemed colored.

I was looking at the ins / outs for the POD XT Pro and here are a few thoughts:

1. you could run the POD Pro in the effects loop - take the preamp out from the Overtone into the "Line Level Input" on the POD and then the "Unbalanced Analog Out" to the Power Amp in on the Overtone - make sure the POD is in "Live mode" to do this so you bypass the AIR II modeling

This will work well for modulations, delays, and reverbs, but Wahs, filters, and ODs might sound odd.

2. Use the POD in front of the amp- plug your "Unbalanced Analog Out" in "Live mode" into the input of the Overtone

Reverbs and delays will probably sound funky though - especially if you use the OD on the amp.

I personally think you will have the best success if you limit the use of the POD to one area of effects: only for modulations, delays and reverbs (option 1) OR only for wahs, OD, compression, filters (option 2).

Regarding the effects loop on the Overtone, here is my limited understanding. First, there are generally speaking two kinds of loops: series and parallel. The loop in the Overtone is a series loop. Meaning it doesn't split the signal keeping an unadulterated version inside the amp and another through the loop and then mix the two together. Rather, it sends the whole signal naked an unashamed out the preamp out. It then expects to see the whole strength it sent came back in through the power amp in.

This is important because your normal stomp boxes can take this level of signal but most rack gear can, and in fact it is designed to do so. Most pedals want to see the relatively weak signal that comes directly from a guitar. It is passive in that it doesn't doctor the signal in any way going out or coming in (for buffering or handling levels). Thus the talk about the "Dumblator". Which is a separate device that take care of this.

I hope all this helps!

Well, here's my thought process. I was looking for a nice rack unit to use in the "effects loop" of the Overtone. I am pretty set on the G-major or G-sharp. I didn't want to have the rack effect just sitting there so I was looking at those shallower 2 rack space cases on eBay that are tolex'd to look like little heads. I thought it would look nice and protect it.

But then I realized, its nearly the same dimensions as the Overtone head! I took measurements, and sure enough it seems like it would fit perfectly! Part of what makes me think this would work is that the units are 1 rack space high (1.75") and shallow (4.2" deep). The width is standard rack width 19" - 19 1/8". I do see one of the transformers hanging a bit low, but it looks like from the bottom of the head cabinet up I have 2 1/4" clearance which gives me 1/2 inch from the top of the rack.

My concerns were heat dissipation and just if this is a dumb idea in general. Here's a cheesy mock up of what I hoped it might look like ...

I just had to drop a note after reading all the comments. Thank you marin and zucker for your great clips!
I just received my Overtone and thought I had the ultimate speaker for it - an Alnico Tone Tubby. It has been doing wonders with all my Fenders and Class A amps. When I paired it with the Overtone, it took me a few days to dial it in. The Fender-y mild breakup tones are great - very tweed somehow. But the OD isn't that good. Don't get me wrong, sounds really good, but not (IMHO) as good as some of the tone's in the clips. Ultimately, its kind of turning this wonderful versatile amp into a one trick pony.

As for a new speaker, my money went on the G12-65. Sounds exactly like what I'm looking for (thanks marin). And to me, yes the high highs are rolled off, but the clean tone still sounds stellar! This amps seems very bright to me. With the Tone tubby, I have the treble and presence on 3 and its still jangley and bright.

I looked at the eminence website, but they need a speaker "wizard" like the Celestion site. Too many choices. But to my ears, the Hot Texas sounded great -well rounded. I wonder how it would sound with this amp. If not for the G12-65, that would be my second choice. Thanks again everyone for the info.

Wow! Thats great - and thanks for the fast reply!

I was wondering what type of footswitch would work with the Overtone? I ordered one and I am thinking this amp is going to be a real pedal killer. I'd like to access the boost and channel switching remotely. Does the Carvin footswitch match this input type?
Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

Rich