Hot Rod Deville + spilled Coca-Cola = HELP!

[greenmeansjoe]

I'm a fucking dummy.

A couple of weeks ago, I accidentally left a Coke on my amp overnight. The Coke was in one of those fast food paper cups. There wasn't much Coke left in it, but there was a lot of melted ice.

Long story short, the cup didn't hold up too well. That shit leaked right down into my amp. I didn't discover all the gunk till tonight, though. At first, it was hard to tell how bad the situation was. I turned on the amp and it did fine for about five minutes, after which it started to make this sort of fuzzy, hissy noise. It was pretty bad. It even did it when we pulled the guitar chord out.

My bandmate and I took off the back panel and pulled out the hardware. As we were doing this, a bunch of water came pouring out of what we suspected to be the rectifier. I cleaned up all the visible Coke syrup (the water and syrup had separated). I don't think any syrup actually got in the rectifier ... or transformer. It's the black box beneath the tone knobs. All the other electronics appeared to have dodged the bullet. It was just that water. Dear God.

So what should I do? We left the guts of the amp unscrewed from the body and tilted 'em so that we could get as much of the water to drain out as possible.

Am I gonna need a new rectifier? Will it be ok if it just dries out?

I'm worried about rust.

What to do, what to do?

Joe
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[covert]

At this point, I'd take it to your local tech. You could wait till you're sure it's dried out, and try it, but you risk greater damage and even fire.
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"when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

[BrianK]

Here's a tip - maybe not relevant to you, as the Coke has already dried in your amp (and possibly begun corroding things). But - a tech once told me what to do IF "The Pepsi Syndrome" happens to a console or other electronics:

A bad spill of soda onto your precious mixer or synth....

TURN OFF THE POWER. Immediately go to 7-11 and buy several gallons of "distilled water" - this water is fairly pure and free of a lot of the things in tap water. Literally DUMP IT over the part that got soaked. Hopefully, you'll wash out or dilute much of the syrup and sugar and stuff. Wherever the soda went, your water will likely go too. Then, immediatley pull that module or amp apart and hair dryer it - to prevent rusting from the water.

You will ALWAYS need to do a fine internal cleaning of any circuits that get Pepsi'd, but this should stop the worst of it with little damage, except to your carpet.
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Relax and float downstream...

[jx]

Kind of a similar thing happened to me. i left my hardware sequencer next to a window that was open ajar, and a massive rainstorm hit in the 5 mins i was out of the studio. Cue me, unawares, coming back, turning the thing on and looking down at the LCD screen- it had a line of water like a fishtank running across the top of the screen.

i immediately turned it off, and let it dry out over a few days. it's never given me any trouble. weird huh?

[Luke]

First thing to do if there is a spill into your equipment, unplug the unit immediately, this will prevent corrosion from starting.You can blow it out with compressed air to speed the process of drying out. When it has totally dried you can try it , it may work fine. Don't ever pour water purposely into your equipment. If you want to clean it be very careful, this can be very dangerous, capacitors store potentially lethal voltage. The safest thing to do is unplug let it dry out completely, if it not working properly, unplug it and take it to a tech.
Good Luck,
Luke
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Use what you have, after all, it's all you've got.LV

[greenmeansjoe]

The amp is unplugged and the electronics are drying out right now. So we've got that base covered. I'm not sure exactly how much Coke gunk actually got into the rectifier. It looked like most of the gunk leaked straight down into the bottom of the amp. My main concern right now is the water from the melted ice. It was pooled up in the rectifier for at least two weeks. My guess is that the rectifier -- or transformer, or whatever the fuck it is -- is probably gonna have to be replaced. But I do want to let it dry out and give it one more shot before I plunk down a bunch of dough for a new one, y'know?

I'm just sort of freaking out. I know, rationally, that it's something that can be fixed, but there's also that little voice in my head saying "you've ruined your amp forever, dummy. That's $800 down the drain."

Ugh.

Joe
_________________
http://imacuckoo.blogspot.com
http://www.thekingandcaroline.com

[Luke]

The damage may already be done from the first time you tried it, but it won't hurt to let it dry out for a few more days then try it again.
Good Luck,
Luke
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Use what you have, after all, it's all you've got.LV

[johnny7]

Damn!
We used to use coke to free up frozen pistons in motorcycles...

[antilog]

[greenmeansjoe]

[greenmeansjoe]

Just a quick update:

My amp is ok. We fired it back up last night. After it warmed up good we got some weird buzzing and break-up, but after about 10 minutes everything sounded fine.

I think there was just a little water left in there somewhere. The heat evaporated it, though, and after that it was ok.

Joe
_________________
http://imacuckoo.blogspot.com
http://www.thekingandcaroline.com

[NaturalAsDessert]

whew! The Golden Amp lives!!!
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you are i am they are live

[greenmeansjoe]