Blown fuses in Wurlitzer 200A's, one cause of distortion.

[Tonewheel]

Greetings,

I am new to the forum, but have been over at the organ forum for a fair while (B3 and Leslie topics for me). This seems like a really nice, helpful group.

Just bought a very good Wurlitzer 200A a few days ago, and when it was delivered, one of the speaker wires was loose, which I fixed. But another managed to loosen, and after the solder job, the onboard speakers were completely distorted at all volumes. But the Line Out signal was clean. The problem was a blown fuse on the board. Whoever designed the layout was one sadistic electronics guy. There are two tiny glass fuses sandwiched in there, each metal tip wound with copper wire, each end of which is soldered into the board. The fuse filament is hard to see. You have to raise the board and ensure you have identified the fuse solder points to get it out. I am not good at electronics.

So I removed it, slipped the copper wire "spring" off each end, and went shopping. You may wish to note the specs: 301-1AG 1 1/2 Amp, 32 V. Good luck finding a tiny 1.5. So I got the usual longer version, and made certain it was 1.5 Amps. The auto parts desk guy said 2 Amps would be fine, but why take a chance with sensitive electronics? (I found the 1.5's at an electric repair shop).

I also bought a spring-loaded fuse holder, because I never want to go through the time-consuming process again. Problem was that the wire gauge was too thick to fit through the board holes. So I used a trick I learned from an old electronics repair man. I used  a wire cutter to crush the glass of the fuse, then cleaned out the remnants. I placed some solder inside the metal ends, tinned the fuse holder wire ends, soldered them in the two metal ends, and replaced the copper windings. This way I was able to poke the end of the copper windings into the board and re-solder them in. It all worked. Not pretty, but it's safe and convenient.

Now I am going to say that I would agree that this may be shoddy workmanship because it is not pretty. But I'm not the one who designed the layout of that board. And I am bit nervous about the elegant looking Bourns multifuse ptc resettable fuses that can be soldered into the old fuse spot. Just switch the piano off, wait a bit, turn it on and it's reset. But if there is a problem causing it, I think you want the fuse to blow quickly without delay. And you surely want to find the cause of the blown fuse as soon as possible, In my case, I think it was turning on the amp with no load because the speaker wire was loose. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I would like to be wrong because these resettables are about 50 cents at Mouser Canada (Bourns makes them)!

Thanks for any advice and opinions.

Dave