power light/tremolo effect issues

[Courtney]

Hi all - I'm brand new to the forum, so please excuse any general idiocy.

Anyway, I'm having this issue with the power light flickering (like a power surge or something) and it seems to have an effect on the tremolo (the effect sounds weak as well as sounding like the surge IS part of the effect).

I lost the power cord in a move last year, and have tried different cords, thinking they had the wrong amp/voltage or something, but recently was told that really shouldn't have anything to do with it. All the speakers are working fine. The five pin connection on the piano is loose, but all the wires are solid.

Anyone have any ideas what I could try next?

[Ben Bove]

what model suitcase do you have, black grill with slider controls or silver grill with 3 concentric knobs

[Courtney]

black grill, slider controls

[Ben Bove]

well yes power cord shouldnt matter, those models even take a basic computer cable.  When you say the 5 pin connector is loose do you mean that it wobbles around on the preamp part (right angle end)?  And by power light flickering do you mean the red LED on the left of the namerail or the switch light on the very bottom of the suitcase near the plug?  try wiggling whatever is loose or hold it to one side and then another and see if it pops or anything.  

You talk about a surge, do you hear any loud "Pmmmf" tones when this happens?  (for lack of better onomatopoeia)  

And the vibrato, it surges in rhythm with the vibrato light?  I don't know if I follow you

[Courtney]

The five pin connector is actully no longer loose. the problem with that was the screw was loose that held the male end of the plug in place on the rhodes... anyway no longer an issue. the power light that pulses is the power light on the rhodes itself. when the vibrato is off the power LED does not pulse as much, but the vibrato intensity and speed knobs still cause the the power light to pulse in the same manner as the vibrato light would. If the vibrato is off the power LED light constantly blinks with the speed of the vibrato and vibrato light and if the speed is turned too low the power fades slowly in and out along with the sound of the rhodes and sometimes makes a cutting out humm if turned too low and sometimes sound just shuts off if speed is turned too low and you need to turn off the speaker amp and turn it back on. i've heard sometimes the grounding plug inside of the 5pin connector cable gets disconnected and this kind of thing can cause some of the problems I am experiencing. I just hope it isn't a bad preamp. thanks.

[Ben Bove]

well it certainly sounds like there's some sort of short... if the vibrato controls the power then there's a wire crossed there or something.  You might want to open up the preamp box and see if there are any loose wires or wires that are touching 2 contacts.  If you'd like take a pic or two of the preamp board and maybe we can get a closer look.  But definitely a preamp issue if the vibrato controls are affecting the piano.