Orange Tiny Terror combo repair

Fully assembled

This amp came in with a loud annoying hum that would increase with the preamp gain pot.

I started by swapping out the preamp tubes, as it certainly could have been one of them that was causing the hum, but no. The source of the hum was deeper.

Amp chassis removed from cabinet

Tiny Terror inside gut shot

Upon inspection, it was clear that the electrolytic filter capacitors were the root of the problem.

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but two of the capacitors were swollen, I could feel that the tops of them were domed instead of flat as they should be.

slightly domed capacitor

capacitor on the right has a domed top and feels kind of wiggly.

removing the PCB board from modern amps is half of the challenge

underside of the Tiny Terror PCB

Aha! The "wiggly" capacitor I noticed earlier has failed spectacularly. The positive lead totally corroded from within due to leaking electrolyte.

This capacitor destroyed itself.

After removing all the high voltage capacitors, cleaning the circuit board of excess glue, and leaked electrolyte, I installed higher quality parts, and gave it a go.

new electrolytic capacitors installed

working great now!

The capacitor swap did the trick! I also checked for any broken or suspicious solder joints while I had the PCB out, but they looked OK.

This one is back in the hands of the customer, and ready to rock!