# NAD: Crate Vintage Club 50 212



## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I picked up another amp tonight... Damn GAS...

Its a black Tolex Crate VC5212 combo. It sounds great so far, and weighs as much as a small bus. But I'm having some issues switching between channels. The previous owner said both channels worked fine, but I am getting nothing out of the Clean (A) channel. with the selector in or out, the amp continues to play through the B channel. I don't have a footswitch for it, but I plugged in a guitar cable to the jack for it and jumpered the tip and sleeve with a piece of wire and alligator clips, but there was no effect. Any ideas?


----------



## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

I assume this is using the front panel switch. On some amps I've worked with, the footswitch only worked when the front panel switch was in a specific spot, like "Channel 1" or "Footswitch". All other settings would override the footswitch. 

If nothing to do with any of that, it sounds 'internal'. Could be something as simple as a cooked transistor or a loose/broken wire.


----------



## Mr Yerp (Feb 24, 2006)

I have a white 1x15 VC 50, and have had others. All of this series suffer from poor jack quality. If you like it enough, get a tech to go over it. One of my favourite dirty channels of any amp I've owned. The foot switch jacks on these always seem to be problematic. I still miss my 50 watt head and 4x10 cab. Good luck.


----------



## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

High/Deaf said:


> I assume this is using the front panel switch. On some amps I've worked with, the footswitch only worked when the front panel switch was in a specific spot, like "Channel 1" or "Footswitch". All other settings would override the footswitch.
> 
> If nothing to do with any of that, it sounds 'internal'. Could be something as simple as a cooked transistor or a loose/broken wire.


I'm noting to stop an Canadian Tire today and pick up some CRC Electronics cleaner and see if I can get the jacks cleaned up. Hopefully I can get to L&M tomorrow for a footswitch before they close. They're calling for a snow storm here tomorrow.

I'll likely replace the jacks with quality parts anyways. I'm capable of doing that myself.


----------



## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I've found the issue! The push button switch is loose on its pins, so I'm guessing bad solder joints. The terminals on the footswitch jack were bent out, and thus not contacting the 1/4 inch plug. I bent them back in and got onto the clean channel. Tonal heaven!


----------



## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Here's a little video clip of me running through the volume range on both channels.


----------



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

cboutilier said:


> Here's a little video clip of me running through the volume range on both channels.


Thanks for info and the demo. 
There is a Vintage Club 20 (1 x 12") available locally for $250.00.
It is reportedly in "mint" condition.

Cheers

Dave


----------



## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

greco said:


> Thanks for info and the demo.
> There is a Vintage Club 20 (1 x 12") available locally for $250.00.
> It is reportedly in "mint" condition.
> 
> ...


That's what I payed for mine. The 8 new Groove Tubes in it pretty well payed for it at L&M prices


----------



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

cboutilier said:


> That's what I payed for mine. The 8 new Groove Tubes in it pretty well payed for it at L&M prices


Thanks... I appreciate your response.


----------



## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

greco said:


> Thanks... I appreciate your response.


To put it in perspective, I payed 200 for my 5w Valve Jr halfstack less than a year ago. You can't beat the dollar/watt ratio on these amps. Sure the 1/4 inch jacks suck, but the these amps have 1000 dollars worth of tone inside them.


----------



## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I took the board out my 5212 this afternoon to take a look at the solder joints, and what a mess it was. 


There was cold solder joints on almost every pin of V1, the input jack, foot switch jack, and FX jack. I could see where the tech I was told about tried fixing the Channel Select PBS, what an effing mess! Looks like it was soldered by a poorly trained monkey.


----------

