Brad's Guitar Garage

04/09/2026

Fryette PS-100 update.
The crazy floating voltage was caused by the previous tech being too lazy to pull the PCB or install the replaced parts carefully. The leads passed so far through the PCB that they touched the chassis. This set the chassis reference to the voltage on that lead, giving us the negative 340VDC or whatever it was on what should have been the ground ref. when the ground lift switch was engaged. I wish I had time to delve into it more deeply, but I'm kinda flying blind with no schematics.
The PCB in question took literally 45 seconds to disconnect and remove.
But for some reason, other techs seem to be literally allergic to removing PCBs.

04/09/2026

I've started seeing a lot of Fryette PS-100's for silly rookie errors like underrated filter caps (2 x 350V series caps to handle 730VDC for example. A 20% safety margin is recommended, bare minimum around 10%, so 2 x 400V would be just adequate) and power resistors melting the film and electrolytic caps hugging them, etc. And heatsinks the size of postage stamps with two honking big 100W chassis mounted resistors hanging off them.
All of those fundamental issues are disappointing from such a revered brand.
But this is a new one for me.
I was only alerted to most of the unit floating at -340VDC with reference to the chassis when my signal generator threw an error and shut off it's output as a safety precaution.
What in the name of f**kery is going on here!?
In this case, I suspect the problem lies with the dodgy work done by a previous tech as shown by that messy resistor and diode installation.
God forbid they take 30sec to remove the PCB!

28/08/2026

Enjoying another AI-content-free day at Brad's Guitar Garage.
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26/08/2026

First new vid in a while, champions.
Sorry for the delay, too much damned work to catch up on!
Link in comments if the thumbnail link doesn't work.

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23/08/2026

Back on board next week, legends. Sorry, I was looking at trees 'n' stuff.

23/08/2026

Might be a good time to remind our Canadian friends that thanks to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), we have no tariffs when shipping either way. We will continue to ship our amp components to Canada and keep shipping costs as low as possible to all countries not participating in this fu***ng stupid trade war. Oh, and their wh**ky is WAAAAY better, too! So get yourself a bottle if you're that way inclined, champions! 🏆

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13/08/2026

Off for a quick jaunt with the missus next week, champions. Closed tomorrow, open again on the 25th.

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12/08/2026

How much to fix a chip on my guitar?

11/08/2026

All shipping to EU paused until we figure out if it's even worth doing with the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) that I only just heard about today.
We ship everything in recycled and recyclable paper and cardboard packaging, and our products are all RoHS compliant, but as always, it seems to be more of a bureaucratic protection racket than an actual environmental initiative.
Probably going to need to study it for a week before I even know where we stand, none of our carriers seem to even know about it.
What a time to be alive, huh?

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07/08/2026

Damned rabbithole done got me again.
Experimenting with SSR's (Solid State Relays) to get this model's ridiculous noise floor under control and improve the gain structure.
Any competent tech will look at the schematic and express some combination of frowning and cursing at the design decisions made.
Despite this, due to the marketing and price-point, there are TONS of these things out there in the wild still. So it's worth cooking up a little daughter board to install in place of LDR1 and some of the input circuitry. Here you see me determining the optimum values & testing before committing to installing it properly and taking some notes.